Cornell & Diehl Sansepolcro

Upon opening the Tin the smell is very light, grassy, little vanilla/sweet, i rubbed it out further than it was formed a wad and packed it, packs easily you have to be careful not to pack to tight as it compresses very easy. Nic comes on slowly and lasts for hours (at least for me) it packs a punch similar to Irish flake or a good burly. It has very nice dry smoke, lights amazing and tamps wonderfully. Burns slowly and steady needs reasonable amount of relights if your taking your time took around 1.5 hrs as i went back to it a few times during my morning smoke. Overall taste is light grassy naturally sweet but continues to gradually get deeper and deeper the Dark fired is very subtle but just a perfect amount of spicy/ tingly sensation on retro hale. the room note isn't pleasant and is strong not that of cigarettes but not pleasant enough for an indoor smoke. Some may consider this blend "Blah" but for me its a perfect weekend morning smoke enjoying the sunrise.

I bought a few of the small batch releases from C&D last year and I managed to snag 3 tins of this to try. The label is very informative and attractive on this one. When you open up you will see a broken flake consisting of light yellows and dark browns. The smell in the tin is bready, nutty, and earthy with some autumn leaves. Now it could be the fact that my tobacco has been sitting in a jar, but it's a touch dryer than I typically like. It packs well and lights well.

I've loaded up my Savinelli Oceano Poker and upon first light some delicious white smoke from the Dark Fired comes up. Taste wise the Italian Dark Fired is very interesting it has a typical Burley nuttiness coupled with soft spice, cocoa, leaves and cedar wood. The Red Virginias form a soft bready, and dark fruity base, offering a little sweetness to balance everything.

The taste is medium. Nothing's trying to take my tastebuds by storm. The strength doesn't hit me in the way Dark Fired normally does, so I give this a medium. The room note is slightly cigarettish from the burley. All in all a very good blend to sit with. I will open another tin in a year or so and see how age treats it.

I just finished two tins over the last month or so. Boy this is good stuff. Yikes. I live in dread of C&D running out of it. It reminds me a bit of dark bird's eye crossed with something like old dark fired or kendall kentucky. Its ribbon cut, which it the only thing I don't love about it. But it does make it easy to pack and smoke. Its got a pretty big nic hit. Its a nice all day smoke if you can handle the nicotine, and I can ....ergo i smoked these two tins pretty fast. The flavor is smokey but not burnt. Its more a tangy bitey sort of spiced smoke. All tobacco all the way. Great stuff.

I finally got to popping one of the tins of Sansepolcro I purchased upon its release. I am a sucker for blends with Burley and Cigar Leaf, so this one seemed right up my alley.

One thing not noted in the description is that there is a topping on this blend and it distinctly includes an Elderberry liquer and I could have sworn the description here on TR did once say this. This is the reason for the floral essence as far as I can tell. It almost comes off as minty to my tastes. It also makes this blend somewhat unique for this type of blend. It brings to mind only one other blend that I would say is close and that is Perettis Cuban Blend which I believe has a sort of mint topping. Smoking Sansepolcro though has me thinking that CB may also be topped with elderberry. I wish that I could have smoked these back to back as it has been a while since I have tried CB

Having said all of that this is an enjoyable blend, that is certainly burley forward to my tastes, but I feel the elderberry is a touch too much. Maybe it is because I like Perettis Cuban Blend so much that I nit-pick this one. I really don't have anything bad to say about it. It is the perfect moisture content in the tin, it packs nice, burns great, doesn't bite, but after all of that, I am left thinking that I would rather be smoking Peretti's Cuban Blend. It is this reason that I would put this at about a 2.5 star, but I will round up to 3, since it is unique and I really can't find any real fault with it.

At my somewhat local pipe and cigar store I purchased this a few weeks ago. The description says it is blended with Italian dark-fired florets. So, I did what most people do and googled floret. “one of the small flowers making up a composite flower head.” My first thought was that are they blending it with the tobacco flowers? It took watching this video to learn the truth. tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQhqV0bM6E. The florets are the end tips cut off the machine made dry dark fired cigars such as Toscano. The tips are sometimes used as pipe tobacco in Italy. From what I understand watching this informative video the current blend does not have the florets but rather just the leaf strips that are grown in the Sansepolcro area. I thought this blend would be darker since it has dark fired leaf but found it to be more medium/light medium reddish-brown ribbon. It has the usual sweet Virginia tin note. When smoking I got (to me) more of the VA profile and very little of the cigar. It is good tasting but not sure if this flavor profile is for me. Nonetheless, I would give this one a recommendation to try. Apparently, I had bought another tin of this sometime ago and forgot. So, I have a backup to age. Tin date 051420. 6097/8000.

I'm reviewing tin 2221/8000 of the new 2020 lot which was released in June 2020. The tin was canned on my birthday 05/08/2020 which means it had to be good right?

I tried some of the original smaller release the first time it came out a couple of times but never wrote a review, but also didn't stock up on any at the time.

The ribbon cuts are a mixture of light and dark. The tin note to me was heavy on the virginia "Hay" side. The moisture straight out of the tin was great and didn't require extra drying for my preference. The ribbon cut makes it easy to pack, prepare and light.

The taste to me started with the high notes of the grassy/bright virginias that i love during the summer. Building up through that (and overpowering it at times) is a spiciness which tasted in my mouth peppery. The pepper continued to build through each bowl.. but seemed about half way to reach a point of balance where it was not overpowering.

I'm not a big cigar smoker, except for sweet ones from time to time. Usually that leathery/pepper isn't what I want in a relaxing smoke and I usually tire of cigars before I finish them. I can see cigar smokers really enjoying this blend though.

I've made it through about 5 bowls in different shaped pipes and find it smokes the best in taller bowls and really great in my radiator pipes. Very little moisture at the end.

Wife thought I was smoking a cigar in the house when she smelled the roomnote.

First sampled at my pipe club at Liberty Tobacco in San Diego. Based on that sample purchased 2 tins from Watch City to round out an order. Flavorful and enjoyable. Particularly enjoyed the taste of the dark Italian. Similar to Savenelli’s 1040 which I found a little richer and smoother.

A friend of mine passed on this tin I gave to him as a Christmas gift and gave it back to me. He didn't like it. As for me, I'm enjoying this one. It's manly and will put hair on the chest of the fruity, light aromatic smoker. Strongest thing that I notice is the prominent flavor of what seems similar to dark-fired Kentucky in this blend. Retrohaling will bring the cloves to the palette as well. Being a cigar guy who switched to smoking pipes over the years, this earthy kick appeals to me. I'd say this is a good blend for cigarette smokers as you can freight train this stuff and feel the nicotine really kicking in. Not at all an aromatic to me, but that's what Cornell & Diehl are claiming. Should cellar very well - and that's what I'm doing with the remainder of this tin.

Ok, so I see some great reviewers on here who get me imagining a lot.......In the dark fired realm I think I've had Navigator, GL Pease Jackknife Plug, and maybe one other I can't think of. I definitely know that type of taste.

I have to say its primarily in that ballpark. It's a stout flavor, but not as pronounced and strong. It's a bit more subtle then those. So, It's not quite as overwhelming as Kentucky dark Fired blends with that flavor. It's like a less strong dark fired Kentucky flavor with a lot of what I think is Red Virginia.

I absolutely love Red Virginia blends and this Italian dark fired tobacco doesn't completely overwhelm the Red Virginia taste I love. All the other dark fired blends I've tried are super flavorful with that and its hard to notice much else but that stout flavor in them. This Italian stuff isn't quite like that, so I would prefer it any day to those. It's still pretty stout though, just not as much as the Kentucky, if that makes sense.

If you like Red Virginia and would like a bit of dark fired mixed with it, that's about what I'd say this is like. I still get the Red Virginia though, so if you like Red Virginia blends, this really hits the spot there too.

If you like full bodied stuff, its still fairly strong and It's kind of nice for a nice after dinner smoke, not one I'd smoke on all day, or in the morning. It' not a complete favorite, but its nice to have in the rotation of Red Virginia blends, if that's your thing.