Fribourg & Treyer Vintage

Fribourg & Treyer’s Vintage shows first class in the tin, rows of well-formed flakes stacked neatly in nice, white paper, with a gold tape seal. Tobacco colors range from yellow to mottled brown. Tin note is sweet, air cured, pressed and lightly fermented VA tobaccos with a very light casing of honey, orange, apricot, and a drop of vanilla. The casing begins to fade away as soon as the tobacco is handled. The flakes are moist in the tin, and they dry out quickly when exposed to the air. I prefer to dry it some, and FTV is the only VA flake I routinely rub out. It lights and smokes down easily. I’ve learned to take very easy draws during char and light, not to dull my pallet for what’s to follow. My 50 gram tin bears the following description: “Cold-pressed gold and brown Virginias with full-bodiedtangy [sic].” True, that. FTV is just so… natural, more “mature” than its ½ brother, Cut Virginia Plug. It’s subtle, also subtly complex, at the same time “pure”, and delicious, if you like VA tobacco. Strength is mild. Tastes are close to medium, and no sense pulling for more, IMO. Room note is pleasant. Aftertaste is nothing but fine VA tobacco, just like the smoke.

While F&T’s Vintage is mild enough for VA newbies, there is plenty to reward experienced VA smokers, as well. I think most VA lovers would like it, and some may come to esteem it, as I have. No matter the time of day, the time of year, or the weather, indoors or out, for me, Vintage always hits the spot.

Interesting... the tin note is exceptional, never smelled a tobacco like it. Cinnamon or something? Christmas Cake? I dunno. That aside, this is tasty virginia, not a clean grassy thing but the a sort of polluted one. It's dark and delicious. I like this, I can't say quite why. It's not especially remarkable for flavor but it is super friendly, so I'm reaching for it pretty often. It's maybe like a wimpy version of Hal O'The Wynd. Powerful enough in flavor to pair against whisky, and not especially sweet as Va leaf goes.

Fribourg & Treyer - Vintage.

The tin contains two neatly stacked rows of mottled brown flakes all at a good hydration level.

I struggle to detect any topping of any sort really, maybe a very slight touch of honey but the only potent smell I get is quite a standard Virginia one.

The flakes rub with ease to a fairly fine consistency (if desired) or are favourable for the fold and stuff method as they virtually fall apart when folded making them easy to light.

This is a very easy flake to ignite and burns superbly. Once lit I can't detect much of a false topping, again all that can really be identified is a pungent Virginia grassy taste.

The nicotine is of a pleasant amount for me. It seems mild most of the time unless really drawn hard then it becomes medium not strong.

This is a great straight Virginia, pretty much perfect in its field so four stars is easily warranted:

Highly recommended.

50 gram square gold tin. Label is gray with black calligraphy

Tobacco appearance and tin note: Beautiful tiger striped flake, with just an occasional bit of dark weed peeking out. Moisture: perfect. Flakes separate easily into nice, thin strips. Tin fragrance, glorious, rich undernotes augmented with that "tang" representative of light, sweet Va. That "tang" is sans hints of acetic acid, or other negatives occasionally associated with Va's. Packs perfectly. Die Warchow's "Rubber Glove" remix of KMFDM'S "Light", on the faithful Nakamichi,.... let's rock!

Flame hits weed releasing one of the softest, lightly fragrant smokes that I have ever encountered. It has sufficient body that the delicate hints of lemon and grapefruit has some grounding, but *just* enough. Smooth? This stuff is slicker than Johnny Cochran coated in Crisco. If it's your thing, this one is extremely inhaleable. The fragrance and room note is not particularly remarkable, but pleasant in a Carolina evening kind of way . Mid bowl: the fruit mutes a tad, moving a hint of peanut brittle to the foreground, the complexity remains stable. Mellow.... wonderfully mellow. End bowl: Excellent. This Vintage Flake has the least traumatic "end game" of any Va that I have tried.

Summary: Oh, yeah! One of the finest Va flakes that I have tasted recently. Deliciously light, smooth and pleasant. A great one for those reluctent to jump into the Virginia "sea". This one is great for morning to late afternoon smokes .Good stuff, Maynard!

8 out of 10 Bearclaws.

-- Bear Graves

A hugely underrated pure virginia flake. For whatever reason cut blended plug gets more attention and is better known. And Golden Mixture because of bertrand russell, is more visible somehow. But Vintage is actually one of the two real gems in the F&T catalogue (the other is special brown flake). Vintage is just virginia....and reminds me a bit of a softer version of Gawith FVF. Now there is a very very very slight casing here. Might just be sugar, to be honest. Or honey.But its very slight. The moisture level is perfect out of the tin. The virginias are dark but dont taste heavily stoved. There is some fermentation to the taste, but not like the late mcClelland flakes. This is just a very fine straight virginia. Naturally sweet, with some depth. Nic hit is a tiny bit over mild. Room note is great. FOUR stars./

I have family in FL and visited a local tobacconist. The store was devoted to cigars but there were about 10 random tins of pipe tobacco on the shelf. I picked up a tin of Dunhill Light Flake and a tin of this, which was in a completely different package than it is presented now. Obviously both were old as Dunhill has dropped the "Light" from the name and the F&T tin changed many years ago.

I smoke a pipe a day. This stuff I burned through in 5 days. It has all the qualities of a great smoke: Easy to light and keep lit, no bite, great flavor, and great presentation. I believe it has a casing on it but it is light and hard to discern. Sweet, but in a good way.

Try some. Very underrated.

Neatly arranged fluffy flake strips in this tin. Excellent stuffing and smoking conditions. Perfect moisture. It is amazing how many intense flavours I pick out of this straight Virginia. There is citrus, hay, grass, bread, yeast, a dash of honey and natural tobacco sweetness. It lingers beautifully. I cannot detect any flavouring, casing or topping. If there is any, it’s really well done, supporting, rather than altering these Virginias. Succinct, it is the best straight Virginia mixture I have ever smoked.

Presentation is nice. The flakes are neat, moist and soft. I absolutely love it. The tin note is like grains, oats, sultanas and raisins, but the raisin notes don't come through in the taste. I let this dry for a bit to keep the heat low for smoking and make the combustion better. You could probably smoke it at tin moisture, but I prefer not to risk the tongue bite.

In the smoke I get notes of of topping of vanilla, sweet bread, slight honey, fermented overripe banana, cashew sweetness, shortbread cookie, some spice which is kind of tingly on the tongue and on the retrohale, oats, some molasses, a nuttiness develops, sultanas, some wood notes, a floral aspect too, pastry notes. Sometimes it seems like there is a vanilla note, and maybe cocoa. The end of the bowl is okay. It gets quite smokey and earthy with some spice, yet there is still an underlying sweetness. I get the barest hint of cinnamon and brown sugar as well.

Nicotine strength is maybe medium, for me, and so is the tobacco strength. The taste is medium. There are a lot of flavors.

I would buy it again. I would recommend it for the Virginia-lover. What makes this Virginia flake special is the sweetness and spiciness and slight pungency of the fermented taste quality. It also gets earthier than most Virginia flakes, and when I say "earthy", I mean like soil or mustiness of wood. Things like that. It's similar to Capstan blue in it's sweet, oat-like taste, but the fermented taste is unique, and different than the fermented taste imparted by Perique in Virginia Perique flakes. It's a pretty rich, tasty straight Virginia flake, and a good expression of Virginia complexity.

When I opened the tin I smelled dried tomatoes, very pleasant. The flake was not too moist and could be packed into the pipe right away. However, a little drying will not hurt and it will allow for a dry, cool smoke. This is as simple a tobacco as they get, but In a good sense. The taste is mild, rather flat (you won't get the complexity of some VAPER blends) and very good. The nicotine content is low, so if you need a powerful "nic-hit" this is not the way to go. FT Vintage is now on my list when I think about an easy smoke. Four stars.

Update: I have had one tin which I had allowed to dry out. While smoking dry tobacco is not the best thing to do, this blend performed very well despite its condition.