That being said, if you like high-quality burley as your main smoke, you will probably like this. It's not nuanced, but it is reliably smooth and tasty, especially at first.

If you are an aromatic smoker, especially one who smokes Lane bulks or drugstore blends, run, don't walk, to get a few cans of this.

Absolutlely a great tobacco with nice flavor and extremely good burning qalitites, no doubt due to its fine cut. I rate this tobacco 9.9 out of 10. You can't miss with this offering from C&D!

Aroma: Opening the can releases an almost overpowering sweet and boozy aroma. After it dries a bit, some burley nose appears, although the booze seems to predominate.

Packing: While still moist, it can easily overpack. When dried properly (for my taste)it packs easily into any size bowl.

Lighting: Lighting is the usual two match affair. Not too slow or too fast to catch.

Initial flavor: To me, this tastes like Borkum Riff original. Way too sweet, and too much of the Bourbon. Much sweeter than Barbary Coast, which I like.

Mid-bowl: There is some tobacco flavor as it burns into the middle part of the smoke, but I still find the flavoring way too dominant. Burns cool and dry for an aromatic. (There, I said it. It's an aromatic, nothing but an aromatic).

Finish: Not much change at the end. It left the pipe dry and clean, and surprisingly little of the aroma lingers

Summary: No place in my rotation. There are other Burley based blends much more to my taste. This is probably the lowest rating I've ever given to a C&D product.

When I first opened the tin and took a big whif I thought "Am I supposed to put this in a glass with ice, or in my pipe?" The bourbon smell was really strong. I wondered if I would taste anything else in the tobacco. I needn't have worried. It's a nice looking blend too. Mostly darker browns with some light brown and a bit of black. Felt a bit damp, but that proved to be no problem.

The cube cut made this an easy load. Just gravity feed it in, using the tamper once a while to even it out across the bowl.

The charring light tasted like a sip of bourbon. On the re-light, things got going well. I expected the bourbon flavor to disappear pretty fast, but it didn't. I suspect the topping combined with the Perique to keep a nice toned-down bourbon flavor going to the mid-bowl point.

After mid-bowl the bourbon flavor faded and the Perique came out a bit more. Then the burley started to show up with a slightly nutty flavor. It combined well with the Perique. There was a bit of an underlying sweetness that made an interesting combination with the burley. Must be the Black Cavendish.

Toward the bottom of the bowl, the Perique became pronounced, but not too strong.

Overall, a good smoke. Left a nice fine ash, and the pipe was nice and dry. Required minimal re-lights.

If you like Barbary Coast, Pennington Gap will be a good choice. Not as complex, but a nice change of pace.

I would especially urge those who enjoy their Perique in small doses to give this blend a try - absolutely delightful.

I should also mention that the cube cut of the leaf and the perfect moisture content makes this one of the easiest blends to pack and light that I've ever found.

I purchased a tin of this at Campbell's Smoke Shop in East Lansing, Michigan. He must not sell a lot of tinned tobacco, because there was a pretty thick cover of dust on the lid of the can I purchased. I made the purchase on the strength of the reviews on this site. I was not disappointed.

Others have lauded the virtues of this fine blend so well that that there is little that I can add. It is pleasant to the eye. Its fragrance in the tin is rich and pleasant. I find the components unusual: Burley, Black Cavendish, Perique!, AND Bourbon. The blender did exceptiona work in conceiving and bleding this fine tobacco.

It is a delight to smoke. I rated it "I smoke this on occasion." only because at $10.00 per 2 oz. tin locally I will cannot afford enjoy it more often than an occasional treat. Pennngton Gap and MacBaren's Burley London Blend, though quite different,share one common denominator: they are two exceptional Burley based blends. I recommend them both.

With the above comments as a guide I bought two tins of this blend - I'll be buying my next installment in bulk. My normal Astley's, Dunhill's, Pease's, Gawith's, etc. are still my cherished friends...but bowl after bowl in pipe after pipe I really enjoyed this. The term "fun" has been often used in reviews (Fun? Hmm-m-m-m. We'll see about THAT.) Well, I can only say that I agree wholeheartedly. I sipped, I sidestreamed, I puffed like a steam engine going out of the station. It all worked, though severe puffing brought out the gurgle. I didn't care, pipe cleaners are cheap...I was having FUN! The aroma is OK, the burn is easy and complete, the taste is excellent, the SMOKE is sublime. With a nice satellite photo I'm sure you could pick out my smoke stream from 200 miles up! Clouds of the stuff! What a delight! Layers - no. Subtlety - no. Development - no. Back slapping, knee whacking, by gosh I like this stuff fun - you betcha! Buy it. Enjoy it. You'll be glad you did.

THis one was craned straight to the top of my favourite " other than VA's" -smoke list, this is a premium burley/perique blend with an aromatic bent. Some may think this too heavily topped, but I think the perique & cube cut balance the whole thing out very nicely. The rich woodsy/cherryish/spicy-sweet tin aroma is very appealing to me, both in the tin & bowl. Fairly intense this is , The C & D fellas Don't hold back with the perique! So if your like me & you like the intensity of a perique-heavy blend you will enjoy. Now this & McC's 2015 are my 2 favorite smokes to sit back & sink roots with a bottle of mash with. ( in moderation)

Pennington Gap is just great. Don't be fooled by the Bourbon casing. While the tin aroma is Bourbon big-time, the flavor of the tobacco is not. Instead, it has a full-bodied all natural tobacco flavor with touches of Perique spice and Cavendish roundness. Hints of natural (not casing) sweetness. A nice aroma but not aromatic in that goopy sort of way.

I guess Latakia blends to me are like Scotch whiskey, whereas Pennington Gap and other similar Burley blends are like Sour Mash. Both are dark and naturally woodsy/sweet, but one is smokey and the other is not.

Really good stuff. Try it!

First Smoke: First puffs are only the slightest bit sweet. There is a dry, astringent smoky taste that is probably the bourbon topping. I don't think I particularly care for it. If the underlying blend were slightly sweeter it would be better. Later in the smoke the flavor becomes somewhat sweeter and the bourbon smokiness lessens to bare detectibility.

Second smoke. Less smoky-bourbony this time and sweeter. Nice and sweet, gorgeous virginia flavor. You may ask why I said "virginia". Well to me this tastes like it has Virginias in it. Perhaps it's the Kentucky that tastes that way. Anyway this is a keeper.

Cool-burning, tasty, and bite-free, this is an ideal tobacco for breaking in new pipes, and the cube cut makes it well-suited for pipes with wide bowls, such as Savinelli Autographs. Were it not for the "green" taste, this could be an all-day smoke for me.

When first opened, I found the blend to be a bit on the moist side compared to other C&D Vintage Blends. The aroma of Bourbon was pretty strong.

After letting the tobacco get a little drier, I dug in and fired up a bowl. My initial smoke was nothing special, perhaps a bit of sharpness from the Perique but not exceptional, just good.

Smoking several more bowls over the course of several weeks really put the hooks in me. This blend is very smooth and flavorful, with a welcome bit of sweetness I wouldn't expect from Burley. The Black Cavendish element contributes this I suppose, but it doesn't overwhelm. The Bourbon flavoring is done very well, it should please both fans of good aromatics as well as fans of Burley. The tobacco flavor is predominant, and it is good. Pennington Gap, like most really good blends, is more than the sum of its parts. It is a rich Burley lifted up with a sparing amount of Perique - which I have come to appreciate.

The cut makes for very easy loading and smoking. It seems to burn a bit quickly, but that is probably because it is so enjoyable. It seems to like larger bowl sizes. "The Gap" smokes very nicely to the bottom of the bowl and has earned a place on my short list of favorite smokes.

The tobacco's exposition is smooth and clean, with an easy light and an initial burst of flavor. There is a definite casing that is well-balanced with cavendish and burley, and burns off quickly, leaving distinct flavors of cavendish and something slightly sour (the bourbon?). Perique makes intermittent appearances through the first third of the bowl, becoming more pronounced as the bowl progresses. It's a tasty and satisfying smoke, very smooth, cool and gentle, exceedingly pleasant through the nose. I've smelled a friend smoke this blend as well, and it has a wonderful aroma.

I notice a bit of the sweetness returning towards the end of the bowl. It seems to take on some fuller dimension and linger on the palate at its finish, and leaves behind a very fine white ash.

This is easily my favorite C&D blend, and a great blend for a regular smoke.