Cornell & Diehl Old Grove

(2.67)
Sitting between City Park Avenue and Bayou Metairie lies the Old Grove, home to ancient, moss covered oaks and many more of New Orleans' oldest trees. Worthy of any cellar, this Cellar Series blend, a complex, ribbon-cut mixture, combines bright and red Virginias, dark burley, Katerini Turkish, black cavendish, and granulated perique together with a subtle pomegranate topping to create a blend that will age as gracefully as the old grove itself.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Series Cellar Series
Blended By Cornell & Diehl
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Black Cavendish, Burley, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring Pomegranate
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 2 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Mild
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Medium to Strong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.67 / 4
2

3

3

1

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 17, 2020 Medium Medium to Strong Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
The red Virginia offers tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, bread, wood, vegetation and light sugar as a team player for the top spot. The mildly smoky, woody, earthy, buttery sweet and sour, herbal, vegetative, moderately spicy and floral Katerini shares the lead with the red Va. The tart and tangy citrusy, grassy, sugary, lightly floral and spicy, slightly acidic bright Virginia just manages to play a supporting role. The dark burley offers nuts, earth, wood, and very light molasses in a secondary position. The spicy, raisiny, earthy, woody, plumy, figgy granulated perique is a step above being a condiment, thought its impact varies here and there. At times it equals the burley in terms of effect. I barely notice the sugary black cavendish, which mainly helps tame some of the rough edges. The pomegranate topping sublimates the tobaccos quite a bit, though it doesn’t drown them out. The strength and nic-hit are medium. The taste is a step past that mark. There’s no chance of bite or harshness, though a few small rough notes are present. Burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with a mostly consistent sweet and sour, spicy, floral, nutty, savory flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste, and slightly stronger room note. Leaves little dampness the the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. It’s not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three and a half stars out of four.

-JimInks
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 08, 2018 Mild to Medium Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Cornell & Diehl - Old Grove (Cellar Series).

Old Grove has a coarse presentation and is made from a higher proportion of brown pieces to black. The tin-note's strongly aromatic and the moisture's good.

I didn't exactly panegyrize or enjoy the first few puffs, but in short time I found myself enjoying it! The pomegranate's much stronger at the beginning, after a quarter it's still a more than notable addition but nowhere near as heady. This may deter a few folks, should they not like pomegranate, but I find the supporting tobacco taste exemplary: I get a notable flavour from the Perique, vanilla-sweetness from the black Cav', fruity-sweet Virginias, a touch of nutty Burley, and the Katerini gives a wonderful buttery flavour. The burn from Old G's of a medium temperature, perfectly consistent, and manufactures a bite-free smoke.

Nicotine: mild to medium. Room-note: not the best.

Old Grove? A blend I thought I'd hate, but surprisingly it gets four stars:

Highly recommended.
Pipe Used: Altinok Meerschaum
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: New
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 25, 2017 Mild Mild Mild Tolerable
I seem to be on a run of buying tobacco collections where the seller has included three or four recently opened tins, which is okay with me as I get to try them right away. The most recent had four open tins and this blend, C&D Old Grove, was one of them and the first that I tried. I was impressed with the ingredients list but somewhat confused by the pomegranate topping, as I had never seen or heard of it's use in tobacco blending. The blend made a nice visual presentation in the tin and the fruity topping was relatively strong. That was the end of anything that could be labeled as strong about this blend. The smoking aroma and taste were disappointingly tepid and very middle of the road all the way down the bowl. My conclusion: Old Grove is a weak pipe blend and it's weakness limits how much one can enjoy it. C&D are famous for their stiff back-boned blends and this one joins at least two others with the same weakish and top of the bell shaped curve strengths: Rocking Chair and Crooked Lane. As to the discussion on the label predicting a positive outcome for ten to fifteen years of cellaring, my tin of Rocking Chair was twelve years old when I opened and reviewed it and it wasn't any better or stronger than newer tins that had been reviewed already. In fact, it has been my experience that aging of pipe blends yields a softer smoke than when they are younger. Next I tried to use Old Grove in blending but that didn't produce anything better. All in all, a blend with some possibilities but rather limited scope and I give it a limited recommendation with two stars.
Pipe Used: Michael Parks billiard (2006 NASPC pipe)
PurchasedFrom: another pipe smoker
Age When Smoked: current
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 18, 2016 Mild Strong Mild Pleasant to Tolerable
I love a lot of what C&D turns out, but I’m having a hard time figuring this blend out. When I read the description of this blend on smokingpipes.com, it sounded really enticing – but it didn’t say anything anywhere about being an aromatic – though the “subtle pomegranate topping” should have tipped me off . . .

“Subtle pomegranate topping”? I know what a pomegranate is – and I drink a lot of Pom juice – but my Pom juice doesn’t really smell the way this stuff does when you open the tin. Don’t get me wrong – I love the tin note – a lively, zesty, sweet, tangy, almost indescribable fruitiness that is unlike any other tobacco I’ve encountered. But you know right away it’s an aro once you light up.

The “subtle pomegranate topping” keeps me from distinguishing the Virginias from the Burley or the Turkish to the Cavendish or even the Perique – the topping just over-powers everything. (It also tends to burn a little hot because of the topping). And the topping doesn’t really taste the way of the tin note. The closest thing that came to my mind – and this is not to discourage anyone from trying Old Grove – but it tasted more like a urinal cake smells.

The other thing that had me scratching my head was, “Why would you make a heavily topped aro part of your ‘Cellar Series’”? Is this aromatic going to be the exception to the rule, one that actually improves with age? Perhaps the blender knows something that I don’t, so, I’ll have to try this blend again in 5 years to see if it actually improves with age (it is part of their “Cellar Series” after all).

Edit: After several more attempts with Old Grove, I emptied the remaining tins in the green waste recycle bins (the empty tins went into the garbage). I'm pulling one of my two stars.

5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 15, 2015 Mild Strong Medium Pleasant
Old Grove is an aromatic in Cornell and Diehl’s new cellar series and for some, this may be the best blend in the series fresh from the tin. For me however, it was a hard blend to dissect due to the heavy topping that has been applied to the blend. Popping the lid off of a sealed tin dated 4/15, I am greeted with a wonderfully fruity, red wine like aroma. It is obvious while looking at the tobacco that it is of high quality, although I did find one small twiggy or woody bit mixed in with the tobacco in the tin. The tin note is rather enticing, with the aromas of fruit, said to be pomegranate, being the major player. As for the Virginia, there is a very faint or subtle sweetness that can be smelled in the tin, but the aroma is hard to detect over the fruit topping. As for the other tobaccos, they are lost as well, and I have yet to be able to identify them in the tin note. The moisture level of this particular tin is spot on perfect and there was no drying time needed before being able to smoke, however I have gotten some tins that needed to be set aside for quite some time due to being overly moist. I suspect that the moisture level is intentional as the cellar series of tobaccos are intended to be aged and be at their best in ten to fifteen years. Due to the cut of the tobacco and the moisture level of this particular tin, it is easy to pack and readily takes a flame. Upon lighting, the first flavors that I notice come from the Virginia and they are slightly grassy almost tea like, but they are quickly overtaken by the sweet fruitlike topping that has been applied to the tobacco. The topping is rather heavy in this particular tin and it makes it very difficult to detect the natural flavors of the tobaccos. As for burn characteristics, I did not have to tend this blend at all, and when finished, the tobacco burned down to a fine white powdery ash which made cleaning the pipe rather simple, only requiring that I run a pipe cleaner through the stem and around the inside of the bowl to remove any remaining moisture. As for the room note, those around me made mention that the tobacco smelled very sweet, so I take that to be pleasant to tolerable. Overall, I have had a hard time dissecting this blend, but I expect that there are some that would really enjoy this blend due to the sweetness and fruity flavor. I can only imagine what it will continue to become with ten years or more of age. With this in mind, I purchased a few more tins so that I could smoke a tin now, and cellar several, comparing my notes later on down the road. I would recommend this blend to anyone who enjoys a very sweet aromatic.
Pipe Used: Italian Briar
PurchasedFrom: PipesandCigars.com
Age When Smoked: fresh from tin
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 21, 2017 Mild Medium Medium Pleasant
Picked this up on a lark just to give it a whirl since this mixture is not the usual aromatic concoction. The tin note and taste are not overpowering, which is a good thing. The mixer of this had a restrained hand on the flavoring of this fine blend. It works quite well with the very different tobaccos used here. The only down side to this is there could be a bit more nicotine in this one. But one can't have everything. All in all, not a bad addition to the C&D collection. Recommended.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 20, 2020 Medium to Strong Medium to Strong Medium to Full Tolerable
I just finished up my first of two tins of this blend. It started out rough, but I really grew to enjoy the blend as i got used to the topping. This is a very aromatic blend make no bones about it. The pomegranate runs deep. You will immediately notice it upon opening the tin.

The tin note is wonderful IMO; however, upon light up the topping is a bit overwhelming and will cover up most tobacco taste. I did not enjoy smoking the topping as much as I did smelling it. The good news is that it lifts pretty quickly allowing the underlying leaf components to emerge and coalesce into a really wonderful tasting blend in the vein of american english blends that C&D does so well.

This one has some backbone, but will not clobber you with nicotine like, say, Old Joe Krantz. I would say, like the other cellar series blends, the virginia is the primary star here but it gets a lot of support. The cavendish, burley and Perique all combine to give this blend plenty of body and smoothness. The turkish presence really stands out to my tastes and gives this a sour dryness that really works well against the topping as you work your way down the bowl.

This is one blend that I eventually got excited about smoking each bowl. That kind of excitement makes me want to give this four stars, so that is what I am giving it.

Age When Smoked: 4yr 4mth
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 26, 2017 Medium to Strong Medium Medium Tolerable
I cannot believe the bad reviews this is getting. I liked it. It has a nice aromatic topping that I can't quite place. However, it is not too much of an aromatic. Good blend with little to no bite.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 13, 2019 Medium Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
I've decided to review to cellar series blends from C&D upon purchase (or thereabout) and after the recommended amount of aging to see the changes. I intend to update the review after that period of time has elapsed.

Now:

Tin note of sangria.

The tobaccos are interesting, but it seems that flavoring muddles the intricacy. I get bitter and sweet flavors, like raisins of that nature. There's a general flavor of iced tea flavored with berries. As the topping burns off, the tobaccos become more prominent; I find the Virginias benefit most from this newfound spotlight.

My video review of this blend unaged can be found here:

https://youtu.be/2AWnz_H1X1U

Aged:

Stay tuned.
Pipe Used: SMS Meerschaum Skater
PurchasedFrom: Smoking Pipes
Age When Smoked: 22 Months
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