Castello’s Used Briar vs Any Old Estate Briar

[Sgetz]

I know squat about pipe making, much less the wood they are made from.

But I drink and cellar a lot of wine.
A ten year old bottle of 2 buck chuck will still taste like 2 buck chuck.
It will NEVER taste the same as a bottle of 10 year old Ch Mouton Rothschild

It’s not just the age of the briar - it’s the provenance ie the terroir, age of the burl, ageing and storage, the cutting and curing/preparation of the block,
Then finally the actual shaping and drilling of the stummel and making and fitting of the stem.

If the 10yo estate has gone through the same rigorous processes, then you should get a pipe of similar quality.

I have old estates that are every bit the equal of my Castellos

But a pipe is the container not the wine. Making your analogy somewhat inaccurate

 

[OzPiper]

But a pipe is the container not the wine. Making your analogy somewhat inaccurate

The wine bottle is inert. So when we age a bottle of wine, we are ageing the contents, not the vessel.

The OP was asking about the effect of ageing briar used in Castellos vs generic estate pipes.

So I think the analogy is valid

 

[Sigmund]

Im not going to say that the repeated chants of 10 year aged briar are not meaningful.
My guess is if they felt that 5 was enough they would use it....(maybe)

I would say that its an important distinction "FOR THEM".
That does not mean it translates into a smoking experience.

It does translate into a very useful marketing tool. Its just one piece of data that illustrates their concern for quality.

If you want to stay in business its best to be good at what you do. If you want to charge a premium marketing never hurts. Im not slamming anyone, its just the truth of doing business.

Their claims get us writing threads about their pipes. That is just plain good business!

 

[bersekero]

Their claims is one thing but they indeed make great and stunning smoking machines so they have all the package.
I do believe their pipes are not overpriced. They are artisan pipes after all.
Overpriced pipes are the dunhills. As much as I love dunhills I could never justify paying what they are asking for a NIB factory pipe. That's why I only buy estates.

 

[Briarcutter]

Aging briar is a good start. What a pipe maker does with that "aged" briar is what counts.

 

[briarblues]

Castello was always a workshop, not a factory. I doubt it processes briar today, if it ever did. Large companies like Butz Choquin or Chacom in Saint Claude, Fatelli Rossi, or Savinelli in Italy must have had sectors dedicated to processing briar. But most artisans buy the briar ready, and Castello may leave it sitting for 10 years. Another thing to keep in mind is that drying depends on the climate where it's being dried. I suppose the briar is processed in Andalusia, where there are places that have more than 300 days of sunshine a year, and it will dry faster. From all accounts, you should take into account the entire briar processing, like the distillation of whisky. Everything that makes a whisky better or worse happens before it's bottled. Once bottled, it won't improve with age.

The first time I visited Castello, Franco explained that they have a single briar source for purchasing all the briar. Who that was, he did not say. I don't believe Castello "processes" briar in the sense of harvest, mill, cut, and house. If I understood Franco, Castello buys the briar from one mill, and then stores it at the Castello workshop.

Here is something to ponder ..... lets do some math. Castello makes about 3000 pipes per year. If the ratio of blocks that go from block to completed pipes is 3 blocks begun and 2 reach completion, and a 10 year supply of blocks on hand ...... Castello has about 40,000 blocks on hand, waiting to be "worked" over the next 10 years.

 

[Briar Lee]

This brand new but now smoked six times $58 Muxaing is already a thermonuclear weapon grade good smoker.



An estate pipe from Spain made in China smokes Castello or Marxman grade, in my limited experience with them.

How Dey Do Dat, for $58 ?

 

[Sgetz]

The wine bottle is inert. So when we age a bottle of wine, we are ageing the contents, not the vessel.

The OP was asking about the effect of ageing briar used in Castellos vs generic estate pipes.

So I think the analogy is valid

And yet so many of us have experienced great smoking from a cheap pipe

 

[Alejo R.]

The first time I visited Castello, Franco explained that they have a single briar source for purchasing all the briar. Who that was, he did not say. I don't believe Castello "processes" briar in the sense of harvest, mill, cut, and house. If I understood Franco, Castello buys the briar from one mill, and then stores it at the Castello workshop.

Here is something to ponder ..... lets do some math. Castello makes about 3000 pipes per year. If the ratio of blocks that go from block to completed pipes is 3 blocks begun and 2 reach completion, and a 10 year supply of blocks on hand ...... Castello has about 40,000 blocks on hand, waiting to be "worked" over the next 10 years.

Well, that's more or less what I deduced from various sources. That most producers, and I might even risk almost all of them, buy briar ready to make pipes. I disagree that only two out of three blocks will make it into a finished product. Although the possibility of making some of the defective Sea Rocks is there, with luck, five out of 10 will end up as finished pipes.

 

[bersekero]

And yet so many of us have experienced great smoking from a cheap pipe

Sure, but still the problem might be that one has to buy many cheap pipes until finding the one that’s really worth it. Maybe if they had bought just one branded one from the beginning, the cost would have been the same and they would have saved themselves the trouble of research and multiple purchases. The golden rule of the market — you get what you pay for — does indeed have many exceptions, but in general it holds true.

 

[Alejo R.]

Sure, but still the problem might be that one has to buy many cheap pipes until finding the one that’s really worth it. Maybe if they had bought just one branded one from the beginning, the cost would have been the same and they would have saved themselves the trouble of research and multiple purchases. The golden rule of the market — you get what you pay for — does indeed have many exceptions, but in general it holds true.

No, actually, no. There are many inexpensive pipe brands that have mastered the pipemaking process for decades, many decades. They may not be pretty or collectible, but you can rest assured that they will be good smoking instruments. Based on my taste and my way of smoking (because this is something we tend to overlook, our particular way of smoking is better with certain pipes), I can trust that Lorenzo Tagliabue pipes, in any of his different brands, will be good smokers. The same goes for Savinelli, which has been making pipes for 77 years. It's like a Fiat or a Volkswagen; you know that in the end, you're going to get a lot of miles out of them for your dollar, even if they're ugly as sin.

 

[bersekero]

Thank you for your reply. I'd really like to know some brands which make cheap but great pipes.

 

[Briarcutter]

.There are many inexpensive pipe brands that have mastered the pipemaking process for decades, many decades.......but you can rest assured that they will be good smoking instruments

I'd have to call you on this statement. Longetivity will not necessaraly make you a master craftsman. It may make you a master of your particular product but not a master in the overall world of pipe making or any product. Dr. Grabow makes great Dr. Grabow pipes but I wouldn't compare them to Castellos in workmanship or smoking quality. There is so much subjectiveness in pipe smoking qualities and thoughts of what a quality pipe are that it's hard to make statements like yours. What you may think is a great smoking high quality pipe may to others be sup par. In my opinion, Castellos makes a better pipe than Dunhill, smokes better, better attention to detail. Many would disagree I'm sure but I will give Dunhill the ups on classic shaping.

 

[anotherbob]

I think the ten year is thing is basically bs. As in what ever process they use to select the briar they use and what treatment it gets the ten year bit of it is just some part of that minus the over all context of that process. It's the selling point for the process, the thing that people will debate online about for example. Hell it might be a completely incidental to the process. Maybe they just have such a stock of briar it takes ten years to use a piece for a pipe. But that's the detail they know is expressible to the general public.

 

[Waning Embers]

I'd really like to know some brands which make cheap but great pipes.

Define cheap.

 

[Alejo R.]

I'd have to call you on this statement. Longetivity will not necessaraly make you a master craftsman. It may make you a master of your particular product but not a master in the overall world of pipe making or any product. Dr. Grabow makes great Dr. Grabow pipes but I wouldn't compare them to Castellos in workmanship or smoking quality. There is so much subjectiveness in pipe smoking qualities and thoughts of what a quality pipe are that it's hard to make statements like yours. What you may think is a great smoking high quality pipe may to others be sup par. In my opinion, Castellos makes a better pipe than Dunhill, smokes better, better attention to detail. Many would disagree I'm sure but I will give Dunhill the ups on classic shaping.

I've said two things, and both are related to what I was answering. The first is that there are brands that have mastered the pipe-making process for decades. This isn't the same as saying that all brands that have been around for decades have mastered the pipe-making process. If it was understood that way, it wasn't the intention. The second is that there are cheap brands that make good smokers for my taste and my way of smoking. In both cases, I was responding to Berserkero's assertion that you have to buy a lot of cheap pipes to find one that's worth it. I maintain that there are relatively cheap brands that make pipes that smoke very well; you just have to do a little research.

 

[bersekero]

Define cheap.

There's economical around $100 and cheap less than $100.

 

[Waning Embers]

There's economical around $100 and cheap less than $100.

That helps.

Genod
Rossi
Brigham
Ropp

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Thank you for your reply. I'd really like to know some brands which make cheap but great pipes.

Apart from the vulcanite material on the Ropp and Genods I have come to realize these are great value pipes,

 

[Briarcutter]

I maintain that there are relatively cheap brands that make pipes that smoke very well; you just have to do a little research.

Cobs for example! But back to briar, I have had inexpensive briar pipes that smoked very well. Radice,s for example.