Dunhill Ye Olde Signe

The lightly floral Virginias have a bit of hay and grass along with some tart and tangy citrus, a little tangy dark fruit, wood, bread, and earth. The latter notes underscore the experience. There is a tea-like quality as well. The rich fermented sweetness maintains itself from start to finish as do the aforementioned aspects, though this is not complex in flavor. The strength, taste, and nicotine levels are medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, though I do recommend a moderate puffing cadence because this thin cut ribbon will burn a little fast if you’re not paying attention. Has a few small rough edges. You may want to hydrate it a little as the tobacco is dry. Burns fairly cool and completely clean with a very consistent flavor. Requires few relights. Leaves virtually no dampness the bowl, and easily burns to ash. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste, and the room note is a tad stronger. Though it does have a little punch, it can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

My definition of the term "good friend" has expanded. Is a good friend someone who is always there for you and you for him? Sure. Is a good friend someone who helps you bury the bodies? Yep! Is a good friend someone who pays an exhorbitant amount of money for a long out of production pipe tobacco, calmly and unexpectedly gives you half and expects nothing in return? Oh, yeah!

Deep dark ribbon cut - somewhere between a ribbon and a shag - of straight virginia leaf with a tin nose of a hayfield crossed with tealeaf field, but much milder and with an underlying current of earthiness. Using a careful load that I reserve for shags, this took the match easily, mostly because it was fairly dry. But not too dry. Initials puffs were of the most exquisite virginia tobacco I've ever smoked. In short order it calmed down and became... the most exquisite virginia tobacco I've ever smoked. In other words, the initial lightup, while incredibly sublime, was no match for this blend once it got itself into the groove. The closest I can come to comparing it to another blend, flavor-wise, is to think of it as an aged tin of Sam Gawith's Full Virginia Shag (which doesn't exist to my knowledge, but FVF smokers will understand my analogy). It has that same heady roastiness of mild sweetness and full flavor with the hay/grass stuff toned way down. More of a lightly toasted wheat bread flavor. It's best feature was that no matter how hard I puffed, I could not get this to lose its cool. It stayed mellow and rich throughout each bowl (I smoked 4 and am saving the rest for special occasions, but I had trouble stopping at 4!) and throughly unperturbed. In fact, this one seemed to prefer moderate puffing over sipping - a little extra cooking in the bowl was to its liking, and to mine. This is the kind of tobacco that if I had access to as much as I wanted, I would smoke no other VA. Nothing else comes close enough. I consider myself hugely fortunate to be able to have smoked it.

Another definition of good friend... someone who, even though supremely motivated to obtain it, does not exhibit excessive greed and ask for the empty tin after having been awarded half its contents. 🙂 And I expect my good friend will find a way for me to repay him down the road, which I will be most pleased to do!

Why Dunhill ever stopped producing this blend I couldn’t begin to tell you. This is a fabled blend from decades past. The tobacco you hear old timers lamenting over at the pipe shop, talking about tobacco they can’t get anymore, wishing they still had just one more tin of YOS! I was in the right place at the right time, to put it mildly, and was able to acquire several tins from a vendor. I had never tried it before and I didn’t care, I just knew it was an old and prized blend. I wasn’t disappointed when I popped a tin when I got home. Sweet, dark and musky. Sparkly sugar crystals adorned the top of the tobacco as I removed the paper insert. The charring light only teased the senses. After it settled in, the flavor exploded! Nutty, dates, raisins, earthy are only some of the descriptions I can impart. I shared a tin with the brethren at a pipe show recently, it was the hit of the evening to be sure. I hope dunhill puts this one on their “reintroduce” list.

I know I've said this before, but when jakob positively reviews a tobacco, I "get me some," because our tastes are similar. I must say, it took awhile before I was able to run down a couple of tins of Ye Olde Signe, but the hunt was worth it.

I popped the tin to discover the leaf was as shag cut as any I've ever seen. Is there such a thing as Angel Hair cut? Well, that's the way I'll describe this leaf because it is truly "heavenly!"

The tin bouquet was almost identical to taking a whiff of a Lipton's tea bag. The dark and finely shredded leaf does not pack easily as the strands are long. I could have chopped it up in my one speed food processor which I use to make long cut blends managable, but didn't want to chance this stuff burning too fast since it was quite dry out of the tin.

Once lit, my palate received wave after wave of good, stout, straight Virginia flavor. I also got plastered by the Nicotine level. There is no real sweetness in Ye Olde Signe, just a goode olde fashionede smoke.

Oh sweet heaven this is good stuff!!

Ye Olde Signe went out of production in the early eighties, so I have heard. I was lucky to get some sealed tins from 1965 rather cheap. YOS is a dark fine-cut pure VA blended BY Alfred Dunhill, and the quality of the leaf is beyond anything Murray could have done. It does not smell of much in the tin, just plain well stoved VA. Upon lighting, a sweet, soft and velvet like smoke emerges and tingles the taste buds. This product screams QUALITY!

It has this odd sweet & sour quality when lit - not sour as in McClelland; more like Rattray's Dark Fragrant. There is plenty of nicotine and it will never bite. Because of the shag cut, I will advise a bit harder packing than what you normally would do with a ribbon cut tobacco.

The only thing I can compare this to, would be MacGreenock's Dunbar or an unflavoured version on St. Bruno. A shame this went out

Thoroughly recommended. Jakob Kiilerich, Denmark.

Very good tobacco, but you can find better ones within the Dunhill repertoire.

The presentation is outstanding, though. Smoking this tobacco takes you back to Shakesperian days.

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An excellent blend. When aged, it may be within the same quality excellence as Gawith's Full Virginia Flake. This blend is for the experienced smoker. It is so delicious in the morning, and is equally a good source of energy. This could be Dunhill at its best, at least, Virginia based blends wise. Very highly recommended.

Ye Olde Signe is BACK!

Dunhill is bring YOS and others back this year. I got a sample of it this week at IPCPR, and from what I can read here, it doesn't look like Dunhill has fudged with it much, if at all.

There is a fullness of flavor that I just haven't seen with other Virginias. Perhaps I have, but if so, they were not at noteworthy as this Dunhill. Dark red strands pack well, and was very easy to light up. The sweet and zesty baccy is a pleasure.

Would love to see this great tobacco in production again.

Dunhill stopped making this is , I believe , 1984 . Murry's did not pick up the blend for re-issue and so it was gone forever . I had maybe half a dozen cans and so was able to smoke it for a while longer . What I love about this tobacco was the almost shag cut . This was a true , straight Virginia that delivered a deep and mellow taste . It had the tendency to smoke a little hot so one need to smoke slowly . I am sort of glad there has never been a re-issue of this blend because they would have blown it like was done with 3 year matured . It is , at best , a fragrant memory.

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