Great Expectations for an 11-Year Old Tobacco

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

admin

Smoking a Pipe Right Now
Staff member
Nov 16, 2008
8,764
4,932
St. Petersburg, FL
pipesmagazine.com
Bill Roberts has been taking us on a vintage tobacco "cellar-diving" tour lately with some amazing results. Not all results are guaranteed though, and sometimes your expectations may get the best of you. Check out this spectacularly written account of the last few weeks spent with an 11-year old Virginia tobacco tested in three different pipes. You may be nodding knowingly at the end.

Fribourg & Treyer Blackjack Review

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,632
44,863
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
Thanks for the excellent article. I appreciate Bill's common sense approach to whole aging, cellaring thing, and he's spot on.

In my book, aging doesn't improve blends. Blends undergo changes over time. Whether that change constitutes an improvement is up to the individual smoker to decide. I've just opened up a 17 year old tin of a very well regarded Virginia, and it's like smoking a flame thrower. As a rule, Virginias don't bite me. I'm aerating it over a month to see if it mellows out and if it doesn't, into the trash it goes.

Blends that were released before their tobacco was ready may seem to "improve" quite a bit over a few months to a few years. Some tobaccos don't show much change at all. And after a while, like wines, blends peak and decline.

It's been my experience that it's a rare blend that's better at 30 years. And while I've smoked quite a few very aged blends, 90% of them were past it, well past it. The other 10% were good and of those, 10% were fantastic.

That's the risk and reward of cellaring and aging. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it's a draw.
 

OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,761
30,615
71
Sydney, Australia
I have only been back smoking a pipe for 3-4 years, so I have not had the opportunity to lay down a cellar of tobacco for aging.

Thus my limited experiences with aged blends are samples gifted by generous mates and the few tins I've bought on the secondary market "because I really want to try an aged tin"

My experiences with aging stem from over 50 years of drinking and collecting wine.
It is a fallacy that bottles become great with age. The majority don't.
What happens is wine change with age.
They reach a peak then undergo decline.
The maturation-peak-decline curves varies with factors such as grape variety, winemaking practice, size of bottles, bottle closures, and most importantly, cellaring conditions.

Some wines are indeed at their most attractive when young and fresh.
A few venerable bottles astound at 50, 70 or even 100years of age.

There have been numerous bottles of which I have thought rather sadly "would have been better some years ago"

I often open bottles of aged wine (50+ yo) for friends.
While I was happy with the condition of the majority of those bottles, there have been negative comments.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, taste and expectations.

So too with tobacco, I'd imagine.
 

captpat

Lifer
Dec 16, 2014
2,265
12,140
North Carolina
My limited experience with aged tobacco is consistent with @sablebrush52 thoughts above. Recently I opened a 12 year old tin of FVF, the seal was still good, though showing some rust degradation, a light plume was distributed over the flakes. It smoked okay, nothing special. I wouldn't purchase another 12 yo tin if it came up for sale. OTOH earlier this year I opened a 6 yo tin of Dark Twist, that stuff was sublime; causing an immediate order for a bunch of it.

I cellar primarily as a means of future proofing my hobby, and I can live with either of these results.
 

romeowood

Lifer
Jan 1, 2011
1,942
155
The Interwebs
That's the risk and reward of cellaring and aging. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it's a draw.
Jesse always manages to summarize my entire article in one sentence ;)
Glad to see this does resonate with some of y'all out there, and hope it offers some perspective to those newer to the hobby. One thing to always remember--the chase is worth it!
 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I remember the first time I smoked Black Jack, it was actually named Negro Head. I guess they got a lot of heat and the put a sticker that said Black Jack on the remaining Negro Head tins. I am a huge fan of F&T blends but Black Jack was never one of them. I got that one tin and never re ordered it. I have no recollection as to why I didn't like it.