Wilke Pipe Tobacco Mediterranean Nights

The blended Turkish provides a wealth of earth, wood, floralness, tart and bitter sourness, vegetation, herbs, some spice, mild buttery sweetness, and smoke as the lead components. The very floral, fragrant, tart and tangy Macedonian Prilep offers a lot of earth, wood, herbs, vegetation, spice, a fair amount of dry sourness, mild sweetness, light bitterness and smoke in an strong support role. The maduro cigar offers a fair amount of earth, wood, smoke, peaty vegetation, floralness, toast, some spice, creamy sugar, fairly mild tangy citrus, cocoa, light coffee, dark fruit, and a touch of molasses. It’s a notch behind the Prilep in terms of effect. The tart and tangy citrus, grass, bread, sugar, floralness, mild spice, light sour lemon aspects of the flue cured bright Virginia are a couple of slots above the condiment line. Has strong body, depth, nicotine and full flavor. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. Does have a few small rough edges. Well balanced, it burns cool and clean at a reasonable rate with a very consistent creamy sweet and more sour, floral, fruity, spicy, savory flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is very pungent. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Not an all day smoke, but veteran pipers accustomed to blends in this genre may find it repeatable. Four stars.

-JimInks

A really great blend. It’s hard enough to find an Oriental forward blend without Latakia, even harder to find one with a good nic kick (check out Wilke’s Red and Dark Oriental for two others in this realm). The Oriental really shines here, taking lead over the cigar leaf. They’re floral and vegetal to my palate, with a decent bit of spice and wood coming through consistently, with a light incense note as well. The cigar leaf adds some good body and depth, and an earthiness that plays very nicely with the Oriental. Others have noted a sour note that I can find, but I don’t personally feel it’s very prominent. There’s definitely a fair bit of sweetness from the VAs, but it feels complimentary rather than a stand out note.

I’m not usually good at picking out flavors like this, so there’s probably deeper depths to plumb here if even I can taste all this.

I love this blend. It’s a bit stout in terms of flavor and nic to be an all day smoke for me, but it makes a great end of day smoke. I highly recommend it if you’re searching for a strong Oriental without Latakia.