Tobaccos Dunhill - Gold Label

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2005-02-11		Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant

I recently spent a bit of hard earned cash by winning a tin of Dunhill's Gold Label from Ebay. Upon popping the top, I smelled a very fermented orange/licorice odor. After packing the long strands of Virginia and cased black cavendish leaf and lighting up, I got the impression that my taste buds were being washed by a delightful variety of well aged Virginia leaf that had been spruced up with some really exotic flavors.

This blend also contains a nice dose of nicotine, and the upper half of the bowl was quite deep and rich. At the midway point there seemed to be less variance. Once I hit bottom and the fire went out I determined that life is good!

9 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2019-04-03		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Mostly golden ribbons with some brown-to-black streaks and a candied tin aroma, but not too overblown. Can't place the aromatic agent but Pipestud says it's honey and licorice. I can't confirm that but I can't deny it, either. This is a U.S tin named "Gold Blend" and is in a round tin rather than the rectangle tin of "Gold Label", which was for the Euro market. The tin was marked as being from 1986.

The Virginia used here is of extremely high quality and has a wheat bread flavor with a hint of sourdough and a fair amount of earth. The trouble is that I don't care for the flavoring used in the black Cavendish. It's kind of sickly-sweet and unnatural, as I assume it was designed to be. Thankfully this is a Euro-Aro and the flavoring wears off by mid-bowl. Drying the tobacco before loading causes the flavoring to further dissipate. Like Dunhill's Golden Hours blend, I suspect this was a 1980's tobacco designed to appeal to U.S aromatic smokers and possibly Brit smokers of things like St Bruno and Condor. It burned cleanly and had a room note that would appeal to non-smokers. I think it's telling that neither this nor Golden Hours has made a comeback appearance after they were originally discontinued and I doubt many people miss either one. I was able to finish the tin and I did enjoy getting past the midway point of each bowl, where I was rewarded for my patience with an excellent Virginia tobacco with a mellow and slight extra sweetness.

Age When Smoked: 23 years

3 people found this review helpful.