Wilke Pipe Tobacco Vice Cat

The Macedonia Prilep provides plenty of earth, wood, herbs, vegetation, spice, a fair amount of dry sourness, mild sweetness, light bitterness and smoke as it takes a moderate lead. The Connecticut cigar offers a fair amount of earth, wood, smoke, peaty vegetation, floralness, toast, some spice, creamy sugar, fairly mild tangy citrus and dark fruit. It’s a supporting player. Right behind the cigar is a mix of nutty, earthy, woody, mildly sharp burleys and gold Virginia. The latter produces some tart and tangy citrus, bread, sugar, grass, floralness, honey, a pinch of spice, and a discreet cognac casing. The aspects of the red Virginia are a fair amount of tart and tangy dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, some sugar, mild tart citrus, floralness, a few blades of grass, and small touches of spice and vinegar. By percentage, there’s more of this than any other component, but its effect is a hair behind the cigar, burley and gold Virginia. The peaty, earthy, woody, nutty, vegetative, floral, barbecue sweet and sour, spicy dark fired Kentucky is a couple steps above the condiment line. The strength is a notch past the medium mark. The taste is a slot stronger. The nic-hit is medium. No chance of bite or harshness. Has a few small rough edges. Well balanced with subtle complexity, it burns cool and clean at a reasonable rate with a very consistent sweet and sour, floral, spicy, bready, smoky, nutty, zesty, savory, deeply rich flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is tolerable. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, and repeatable under any circumstance. Four stars.

-JimInks

VC is an interesting blend. Honestly, I cannot pick out many of the individual varietals, save the Virginias. It seems that everything harmonizes well with layers of sweet, tangy, grassy, floral, mild sourness and a slight bit of earthiness. Very satisfying and rich with an abundance of thick smoke from an excellent burn. There is no harshness and this blend burns more on the cool side. I only detect a slight whisper of the casing every so often. In the last quarter, towards the bottom of the bowl, this gets more of a full, rich, toasty flavor profile. The finish is clean with no fatigue on the palate. Methinks that one could enjoy this blend more than once per day. As I noted, this is a very rich, full, satisfying, creamy smoke. I will be adding more to the cellar.