Best English / Balkan blends for aging

[Zamora]

Germain's Special Latakia Flake ages very well. I had some over 5 years old and it was banging - if I had the patience and restraint, I'd let my current stash age that long.

Thanks for the suggestion, I don't see people talk about the main Germain's line very much. I guess Esoterica overshadows it

 

[dburrows]

Quiet night is very forceful (I love it). Even if it faded a little I think it would be quite flavorful.

The problem with the faded latakia is that the orientals behind it start to show up and the blends were blended with latakia, not those various oriental components. They can become an amalgamation. What I find is that the more latakia, the less well it ages for this reason.

I have had experience with 10 year old QN and it wasn't great. I had a 12 or 13 year old tin of daVinci, which I love fresh, that was absolutely atrocious.

Meanwhile, blends like Squadron Leader seem to age exceptionally well and it does not have a lot of latakia.
Obviously, YMMV but it's something to keep in mind.

Edit to add that if you prefer strong latakia, you want it fresh. There is a sweet spot for melding flavors of 3-5 years where you still get your strong latakia. It seems, to me, that at about 5-7 years the decline begins.

 

[MidTNPiper]

Interesting, appreciate your point of view. Maybe the QN I had just peaked…may (or may not) rethink my strategy here. Crappy thing about english is I like them, and want to cellar them deep to avoid price increases of the future…but …they wont hold up.

I intentionally picked QN to go deep on because, in my mind, these’s no way gaslight would do well…right?

 

[hoipolloiglasgow]

Interesting, appreciate your point of view. Maybe the QN I had just peaked…may (or may not) rethink my strategy here. Crappy thing about english is I like them, and want to cellar them deep to avoid price increases of the future…but …they wont hold up.

I intentionally picked QN to go deep on because, in my mind, these’s no way gaslight would do well…right?

I completely understand as I bought a bunch of English blends for cellaring. I’ve had other Pease blends crap out on me before. Ive had a 2012 Nightcap turn to dirt. My 2015 Quiet Nights however is superb. The new stuff is great, but really there’s no comparison. The age thing is totally worth it and of course cellaring your favorites just to have in the future is nice, but it doesn’t always work out so well. I think Gaslight would do well as it’s high on Latakia and has some reds in it, but really it’s hard to say.

 

[dburrows]

Interesting, appreciate your point of view. Maybe the QN I had just peaked…may (or may not) rethink my strategy here. Crappy thing about english is I like them, and want to cellar them deep to avoid price increases of the future…but …they wont hold up.

I intentionally picked QN to go deep on because, in my mind, these’s no way gaslight would do well…right?

I've had 8 year old Gaslight that's done just fine. Maybe because of the plug? I don't know for sure. I was expecting more of a similar experience to other latakia heavy englishes, but was pleasantly surprised.

 

[jaingorenard]

I've smoked a few Latakia blends over 60 years old, and plenty over 25 years old. Does the Latakia taste the same as fresh? Of course not. In general, the blends become much more homogenous and the sweetness of the Virginia and orientals come to dominate (though you can still smell the Latakia in the tin and taste it in the smoke, even with blends that were low in Latakia to begin with).

Some were better than others, but all have been a basically good experience.

I don't think I've regretted aging anything, but I do think a general rule is low-quality leaf or blends are unlikely to age well. I also have a feeling that lighter blends with less depth don't age as well, whatever the leaf in them.