Wilke Pipe Tobacco Wilke No. 400

I received this as a sampler from Wilke. I choose this, High Hat,Surburgs Best Make and Surburgs Crystal palace. While they are all great blends I continued to reach for this. The depth, sweetness,smoothness and strength are the reasons. How can a lat blend be sweet? To me it's the Orientals. Jimlinks suggested there may be a slight topping but I feel it's the addition of the Orientals that provide the slight sweetness. The moisture level is good, packing is easy and relights are few. Nicotine level may be high for some but I find it just right. Billowing clouds of smoke, no bite and great flavor! What more could one ask for? On a side note John from Wilke sent me the wrong sampler at first (Aromatic). I emailed him and he immediately sent the correct one. Now that is customer service! If you haven't tried any of the Wilke blends I suggest you spend the extra cash and enjoy. The quality of Wilke blends is second to none. Tobacco isn't getting any cheaper so go for it!

Lager

Another excellent fine burning, full English. This one is neck and neck with Peretti's Omega at the top of the heap. The Peretti is a finer, more even cut, whereas the Wilke has a little more variety in the bag. The Wilke has Perique in it, and throughout the smoke you get little hints of Perique goodness. I believe 400 is a notch higher in the nicotine scale too, again likely due to the Perique. This seems to have a little more complexity across the board versus Omega, as you go through a pipe, you get little hints here and there of the various varieties in 400. I'd be hard pressed to have to choose between the two; why not get them both and try them for yourself?

Whatever basic tobaccos Peretti and Wilke are using, whether it's due to the cut or wherever they're sourcing them from, they both knock a lot of the more "industrial", mass produced full English blends into the weeds. Personally, I wish all tobacco blenders, from the biggest international concerns on down, the best, and I'm glad they're all out there making blends for us to put in our pipes, but these two brands of hand-blended tobacco are quite seriously superior in complexity and general quality... and there's a part of me here that wants us to support these independent blenders just so we can have these as a choice! The way all Wilkes I have smoked, as well as all the Peretti's, burn in the pipe, are the true indicators of quality as far as I'm concerned. They burn superbly, usually without need for a relight, and they burn to the finest white ash. I have to be aware of this when I'm getting to the bottom of the bowl, so I don't burn them straight to a mouthful of ash. I haven't even gone through all of the Wilkes or Perettis yet, but the ones I have are now just absolute must-haves, and have jars (and the great yellow labeled Peretti paint cans) fully stocked up at this time. Wilke Crystal Palace and Peretti Tashkent would be desert island smokes for me, with Crystal Palace like a mild Balkan (although some might classify it as an American English) and Tashkent possibly being the most unique full Oriental blend out there. Throw in a couple of packages of St Bruno and a nice Jose Rubio Prince pipe... and I'm ready to get on the boat to that desert Island right now now!

I think I kind of went off piste here a bit, which is pretty much what I'm prone to... but this website and its reviews have been a valuable resource and I'm hoping I'm able to contribute a little something to it. If me turning on fellow pipe smokers to some solid blends they haven't yet come across, as I have been turned on to some of these previously unknown blenders, then its certainly worth it. I haven't even gotten into HU blends yet here either 😎

Keep in mind too that I'm not an all day smoker, it's a conscious part of my day (and not every day) to sit back, usually putting a record on the hi-fi (howzabout some Wanda Landowska playing Couperin, or maybe the latest Sleaford Mods disc? lol) and spending some quality time with the pipe... so I do lean towards a complex experience in that situation. Out and about in a social situation, I'm fine with good old Saint Bruno or a nice mindless quality aromatic... something crowd-pleasing and enjoyable during conversation.

I fully agree with the review by DK. Comparing Wilke #400 to Nitecap does this tobacco a disservice! In my opinion, this is far superior tobacco to Nitecap! In many ways it has a similar overall flavor profile but much more like Nitecap that was aged for 5-10 years. The main difference, like DK, points out, is that you can taste all the component tobaccos in Wilke #400 which you cannot do with Nitecap. Smoking Wilke #400 is like smoking a Symphony of tobacco. At points, you get it all working together and at times you taste each individual tobacco flavor, each puff delivers something new and interesting to keep your attention all the way to the bottom of the bowl and you are looking for more! If you're looking for a NItecap match Wilke #400 is very close. Nitecap is more powerful when not aged. If you're like me you will be hooked by this incredible blend and never look for Nitecap again!

The full body of the sinergy between Yenidje and Latakia interacting with burley and virginias provokes a wonderful taste. I didn’t realize similaritie with Dunhill NightCap but strongly recommend this mixture. The quality of tobaccos used compares with the mixtures from the brazilian Sinergia, the best brand of mixtures in the world.

This has a flavor and aroma that reminds me of an old library adorned with aging leather chairs. PW 400 has been recommended to me as a "step up" from Nightcap and that comparison isn't lost on me, except this blend does pack a bit of sweetness whereas Nightcap is very dry on the palate... and this blend has a bit stronger Oriental presence with a touch less Latakia, at least in my own mouth and mind. Oddly enough the story behind this blend is that the "base" is syrian latakia that yendije, burley, VA, and perique is added to.

Potently Oriental on the front, with a latakia backbone. Rye/Caraway-like spice on the snork and a lot of sweetness (faintly caramel-ish) and pepper on the tongue. Smooth and quite strong nicotine-wise.

Burnt a little wet, next bowl I will likely let it dry a little. I was impatient because this stuff smells incredible in the pouch. One jar is on my desk, the other one is already in my cellar with today's date on it. We shall see how it fares in a year if it lasts that long - I really like this one. As with the taste, the room note is very oriental forward here. Don't think wife would even object.

Just a top notch English. The fire cured and perique give it some decent strength and it has a deep smoky sweet taste most Latakia smokers are looking for.

If this isn't my favorite English it's top 2 or 3 easy.

If you're deciding whether to try it. Stop deciding and start trying. It's a great one.

For me if a tobacco contains any humicant or an artificial casing, it fries my mouth. This tobacco does. Very noticeably. I really tried to like this tobacco as I ordered 8oz from P&W based on very good reviews from this site. Finally I gave up. Tossed the whole bag in the garbage. The only other tobacco I had to dump was 5110. BTW, #400 can't even stand against Nightcap - my favorite tobacco. But if you don't care about chemicals in your pipe, you may like it as many previous reviewers did. I will stay with Nightcap.

Wilke blends are some of the finest pipe blends on the planet. You will not find better quality.

I am mainly a Virginia based pipe smoker. I like english blends, but most of the time I reach for the Va's. That being said, when I do get that urge for a nice latakia based blend, I like em pretty big and pretty bold. Nightcap has always been a go to for me. I am looking for a big full latakia taste.

This blend really fits that bill, but has a lot of other interesting things going on.

This is a big chunky bulky cut. I find this in a lot of the wilke blends. They tend to be a little clunkier to pack than a fine ribbon or shag, but in the pipe they perform like a champ. Mostly medium to dark in color, the tobacco comes at the perfect moisture level.

This blend starts with a big wallop of latakia, but settles quickly into a somewhat complex blend. If you look carefully, there is a lot going on here. The addition of of the oriental leaf really peaks my interest.

This is a big beautiful meaty english blend. Right up my alley, and one of my top english blends. I would recommend this to anyone.

I've only smoked a couple of Carole's blends. This one is an absolute winner! For me it was time traveling back to the 60s and early 70s when GBD Original was still available. Holy cow, this is what English is all about. The latakia is balanced just right...the pouch aroma, the moisture...just right. It's so damn good it makes me giggle!!!!