Hearth & Home Black House 10th Anniversary

Notes: In 2011, the Seattle and New York Pipe Clubs acquired a large tin of Balkan Sobranie 759 that was around 23 years-old and tried to figure out what to do with it. They decided to send samples to three blenders - Carl McAllister of Sutliff, Mike McNiel of McClelland, and Russ Ouellette of Hearth & Home - and asked them to try to replicate the blend for a contest at the 2011 Chicagoland Pipe and Tobacciana Show. The challenge was modifying the blend to accommodate 23 years of aging. When the contest, called the Balkan Sobranie 759 Throwdown, was completed, Russ' entry, now known as Hearth & Home Marquee BlackHouse, was the winner. To celebrate a decade of this now classic blend, Russ wanted to do something special. When he learned about a small cache of well-aged Orientals the answer was simple - substitute the Orientals from the original with this vintage leaf. Because the amount of the aged Orientals is very limited, he had to do this as a limited edition blend called Hearth & Home BlackHouse 10th Anniversary.