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

First char: pleasant. Quaint. Not much going on flavor wise except for cigar, but like a really tiny cigar.

1/3: burnt tires. Damp earth. Small pockets of incense. Woody. Hard to taste past the cigar.
I can taste the oriental briefly on relights. Then they hurry back to their spot behind the cigar.

2/3: how much cigar leaf does this have? It’s at every turn. Every drag. It’s not sitting too well with the Ph of my mouth today though. Making my coke taste like lemons. Odd, but worth noting.
More burnt tires. Retrohale tastes the same and stings a bit. Starting to get that bitterness creeping in. Can’t imagine the room note smells any different than a cigar either.

3/3: Surprise, more cigar. Hitting some cedar notes (only good cigar flavor I got from this). Ashy oriental taste on relight. Slight nuttiness. Some creamy taste/mouthfeel on my last few relights to get the dregs.

Overall:
Why does this even have cigar??
Better yet, why does it have anything other than cigar if that’s a the only flavor?

Nicotine: medium to strong. I’m no lightweight, but this one is making me feel it.

1 star. Blend is not a Va/Or in the slightest. I’m with the rest of speakeasy on this one… what a big disappointment. I wouldn’t buy this and I’m glad this was the last of my sample.

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.

The bag/tin note is sweet, with a noticeable booze topping.

First third of the bowl: There is a prominent note of sour woodiness I associate with club soda through a paper straw, with hints of sweetness and just a touch of barbeque. I like this!

Second third: The sweetness comes around as the dominant taste for a bit, really complimenting the sour, but it fades back as the bowl progresses.

Last third: The sweet and sour notes fight for position, while a bit of spicy goodness spikes up for a little bit, then hides behind the others. Very good.

If I had to sum this up in a phrase, it would be "comfortable, but not boring". The booze topping really isn't present in the smoke, though that could just be my weird taste, but it sets the tone of the smoke. Woody sourness that runs into Virginia sweetness, with some barbeque and spice. A bit sour, a bit sweet, sometimes more of one than the other, with a bit of spicy burn coming through once in a while. Not a smoke to blow me away, but one I'd return to again and again, because it isn't a boring smoke. The cigar leaf does tamp down the flavors from the other tobaccos, and it would be nice if there was a bit less of it.

Tin note is cigar and a sweet liquor topping.
Room note is strong and more cigar-like. Wife did not approve.

First third of the bowl was cigar forward with some hint of oriental tanginess.
Second third was a good dose of Virginia, pushed the cigar off center-stage for a bit.
Last third was strong cigar.

Overall, would have like the cigar to be more subtle, if there at all. I don't know many blends with cigar leaf where it doesn't dominate the blend. Very much like Latakia for me in that way. I'd smoke it again if someone offered me some, but I wouldn't purchase it. Room note designates this as an outdoor smoke, in cooler weather.

This is a decent smoke but for my tastes it's a bit of a jack of all trades and master of none. The cigar leaf seems to overpower the burley and Orientals that I think should shine in a blend like this. I'm not usually a big fan of the kitchen sink blends and prefer a blend that highlights a certain leaf or two allowing you to enjoy the full experience of that tobacco varietal.

If you're looking for a cigar leaf blend then this is a decent option as the supporting tobaccos provide a good base for the cigar flavors. However, I think the cigar leaf masks what otherwise could be a unique blend with good burley and Oriental flavors. I think stripping the blend down to just a VA/bur/Oriental would allow the smoker to not only fully enjoy the Oriental and burley but also let the strengths of the Virginia leaf shine more as well.

The alcohol topping seems most noticable to me in the bag note and doesn't overpower the smoke. Overall an obviously quality smoke, but it leaves me hunting for the Oriental and burley notes in between blasts of cigar flavors.

First impressions Day 1.

Tin notes are very clean, but with a fresh grass and hay undertone. There is a definite sweetness that proceeded this that reminds me of under ripe apricots with a drop of sweet white grape stalks.

The lighting, ashing and burn experience was top notch. Lovely soft ash that held it's shape well in the bowl. Perfect light and relights with the flame drawing through with little turbulence whilst bringing a glow back to the bowl.

Flavour wise. I struggled.. first I got a peppery nearly gingery warmth over my tongue that I felt smothered my taste buds not allowing other notes to be properly identified or enjoyed. Leading to a very similar experience on the retrohale.

The overall flavour wasn't bad it was just heavily weighted by the peppery nearly mineral taste.

I enjoyed the first bowl and am looking forward to trying a larger bowl tomorrow