Cornell & Diehl Da Vinci

Holy smokes! If you are a latakia lover, this one should be considered. As I am writing this review I am still feeling a little woozy. Such a great blend. Good hit of nicotine that relaxed right from the start of the bowl. Rich in flavor. I did get a bit of a tongue bite but just because I was puffing on it a bot fast. Love love love it! Great latakia full bodied blend. Well done, Cornell & Diehl!!! Will definitely be coming back to this one!

As the tin said "Heavy Latakia", that's the reason I bought it and I am glad. For the true Latakia lover only, I have smoked about 40 tins day or night so far and seems like got hooked on it. My other milder blend are Penzance, Night Cap and Odesey, but none give me that full latakia punch like de vinci. Warnning: if you smoked this for two days, other tobacco will not taste anything any more...there is no turning back.

I saw this on the C&D table at the local show last weekend and decided to make it my sample to smoke during the show. Upon my examining the tin the lady helping me warned that it was their "heaviest" latakia blend. I said good, That I liked that sort of thing and packed a bowl up.

I was pleasently surprised it was very smooth and flavorful, Not harsh at all. I was expecting something more like Pirate Kake but this is way better and stronger too. I went back and bought an 8 ounce tin.

I have been smoking it all week and I love this stuff. It is definitley a cooler weather smoke. There is plenty of volume of smoke too.

The Burley plays a nice background part and keeps things interesting. The nicotine will make you sit down after the first few bowls until you build up a little resistance, it packs a punch. I find this stuff makes the best nightcap ever. It just makes you feel so lazy and lethargic. Very relaxing smoke.

I smoke it on the slow side and find it while not overly complex to be dimensional and not boring. The latakia in this stuff is exceptional in flavor and is so smooth.

C&D has a real hit on their hands with this one, At least with the true heavy english smokers out there like me. I planned on buying a bit of this for the cellar. It really is good, I reccomend it to anyone ready for the big one.

Like a previous reviewer said...it's a "lat bomb"! (well said btw...) I love it and have devoted my new Nording to this tobacco alone. That being said, it is not for everyone and it could easily clear a room....it is a heavy smoke. It is a slooooow smoke, great for quiet evenings on the porch with a whisky or nice port. Made the mistake of loading up my little pug with this and that was a major oops....one does not smoke this whilst driving as it requires quite a bit of fiddling with, relighting etc. All in all though a brilliant blend and one I will truly savor. I appreciate the detailed reviews on this blend (like on so many others here) as it led me to give this one a bit of a burl.

This blend scared me at first with it's 75 percent Latakia content. Normally, I only like Latakia as a seasoning, not as a main character. I thought this would be way too strong, and harsh, but as I won five tins of this in a Pipe Chat essay contest, I gave it a try. My first reaction upon lighting it up was WoW! Not a bad Wow, but a good one. This tobacco has the sweetest, smoothest Latakia I have ever smoked. And the burley background really works with it. It has the leathery aroma of Latakia in the pouch aroma, and is mostly black with some dark brown leaf mixed in. It comes the perfect moisture content as do most C and D blends. It packs very easy in the pipe, and takes a couple of lights to really get it going. But the sweet taste is wonderful! I had several bowls with my morning coffee and it just was a great wakeup blend. It smokes slow and steady, it has very little bite and then onlt if one puffs too agressively. The Latakia obviously dominates, but it has a wonderful sweet taste on the tongue and is smooth and creamy. It takes a couple of relites with it's slow but and the fact it's best smoked sipped. It smokes down to literally no dottle just a nice grey fine ash. No moisture in the pipe at all. Room note is good to me but it chased away anything within a mile of me and it does tend to cling to the smoker for hours afterward. I really enjoyed this blend and plan on keeping in my rotation for when I want something to wake up my taste buds. I recommend trying it, a very good good blend from C and D.

In critiquing anything fairly one must confine his critical review to those elements which the creator of the "thing" purports it to be. In reviewing a tobacco blend, therefor, it would not be an objective review to grade it upon a scale which is beyond the scope of what the blender intended. To this end, the tin description must be our guide as to whether or not the blend succesfully achieves this.

In the case of Craig Tarler's "Da Vinci", I have to say that it is everything that it purports to be.

This is, indeed, a Latakia lover's blend. The tin odor is exceedingly Latakia with an earthy, musty, smokey odor that I somehow relate to the smell one first encounters upon stepping into an Army/Navy surplus store. If you know what I mean then you know what I mean. If you've ever camped in a damp canvas tent and warmed yourself by an open fire then this blend will undoubtedly stir those memories.

Da Vinci is blended very consistently and the moisture level is perfect. A couple of charring lights and it burns slow and long. I first smoked this in a new, unseasoned Savanelli Opera #316, which has a relatively shallow bowl. This lasted a full hour and needed only one relight toward the very end. With no cake in this pipe I fully anticipated a wet, troubled smoke but was pleasantly surprised when absolutely no moisture developed. This pipe utilizes Savanelli's balsa filter system which may have had some bearing on this and also seemed to help tame the richness just a bit.

Although the room aroma is barely tolerable to the non-smoker, I found the smoke true to the tin aroma and absolutely intoxicating.

Da Vinci is a fantastic blend and because it is everything that the tin describes, I give it a 10 out of 10. A must try for the Latakia lover.

The only question here is: do you love Latakia? The other 25% of the blend or just there to offer structural support to the smoking experience (although the Virginia does add a bit of sweetness), giving a nice smoking experience with a good amount of billowing smoke.

If you are not looking for a nicotine fix but like strong flavors, this might be for you. If you like your whisky to smell like a peat camp fire, this might be for you.

This tobacco does not pretend to be anything that it isn't. It makes your mind relax, makes your surroundings smell like the loveliest camp fire, and puts you in a contemplative mood, ready to invent crazy flying machines or make beautiful sketches.

Da Vinci. Oh where to start. How about with that latakia eh?

I was pretty concerned at first thinking the latakia was gonna be too much. I was very wrong. It was so well blended. It smokes very cool, and the taste was incredible.

The room note is not pretty and the wife was worried for my well being. However that is normal for a lot of english blends.

The burleys and virginias, which I haven't seen as an extra add great flavor and calm down the smell just a touch.

In the end the ribbon cut and cool smoke add up to yet another fantastic C & D blend.

This is definitely a unique blend. The burley is not in cube form as I am used to but all 3 tobacs are in a medium/short ribbon cut. The moisture upon opening is perfect. The aroma in the tin is delicious with the latakia making its prescence known. I tried half a tin of this in a Radice classic poker (not all at once, of course). The taste upon first light is of the burley grassiness with the brightness following but after the second light, the latakia harmonizes nicely. What I like most about this blend is how it develops as you smoke it down the bowl. The nuttiness of the burley with the smoky sweetness of the latakia and the brightness of the virginia make for a truly exotic journey for the tongue. Speaking of which, there is no tongue bite in this blend and as advertised,it smokes slowly. This is marketed as a vintage blend and if this is what the old-timers smoked, I think I was born in the wrong era. This is truly a great unique blend. Highly recomended......... Update 07-03-03: This blend is not to be confused with Dan Tobacco's Da Vinci which IMO is an aromatic abomination.This blend is very full flavored, I liken it to a "maduro" wrapped cigar. It leaves a fluffy grey ash when finished, but be warned,this is for latakia lovers only......