Cornell & Diehl Opening Night

(3.54)
A delicious blend of the finest red and bright Virginias pressed to perfection and sliced into flakes.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Series Simply Elegant Series
Blended By Craig Tarler
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Straight Virginia
Contents Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 2 ounce tin, 8 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.54 / 4
76

29

9

2

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 11 of 116 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 15, 2024 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Opening Night is a pretty good straight Virginia. There are both bright and red Virginia's, and I get a note of each during the smoke, but I'd say it leans a bit towards the red side, with a darker fruit note rather than a citrus or grassy note.

Broken flake, smokes right out of the tin. Minimal relights. No bite, but does occasionally have a harsh edge. Overall I'd recommend, and possibly buy again in the future, but I think there are other straight Virginia's I'd prefer.
Pipe Used: Savinelli Caramella and cobs.
PurchasedFrom: SmokingPipes.com
Age When Smoked: 2 years
0 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 17, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The earthy, woody red Virginia is mildly tangy dark fruit sweet, bready with a few sugar, floral and spice notes, and takes a light lead. The lemon Virginia provides a little tart and tangy citrus, bread, a few blades of grass, sugar, with very light spice and floralness as a supporting player. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is just past the center of mild to medium. The flakes easily break apart, and burns clean at a reasonable pace with a cool evenness and a very consistent rich, deep flavor from top to bottom. Leaves almost no moisture at the finish. Requires an average number of relights. No chance of bite or harshness, though I would say this is only moderately smooth. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste, and the room note is tad stronger. One of the better starter Virginia blends on the market, it will also appeal to experienced smokers. It's designed to please straight Virginia smokers whether they like a mild or a strong smoke. Can be an all day smoke. Four stars.

-JimInks
82 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 02, 2010 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Very Pleasant
Old Pipestud is singing with the choir on Opening Night. Truly an outstanding Virginia with an atypical sweet note that I found to be tantalizing!

This one, like most C&D blends, burns cool and dry right down to the last puff. It has been calmed by the blender and absolutely will not bite. Thumbs up all the way around - just one heck of a fine Virginia with enough strength to please the vets and cross the eyes of the newbies.
66 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 14, 2010 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
Part of what determine's a blends greatness for me is how quickly I finish a tin. I finished this one in record time, and ordered several more.

This may become my new reference blend in the straight virginia genre. Yes, it may just unseat FVF, Blackwoods Flake and a few other well-known favorites. And this appears to be somewhat of an unknown! How does such a thing happen???

This is an excellent smoke - sweet but not too sweet, spicy but not too spicy, and complex as any straight VA out there. Nice broken flake of dark brown goodness with a tin aroma that made me salivate. As do most excellent VA's, this improved as the bowl progressed and was a medium-bodied but rich and mouth-filling smoke. It was also easy to smoke - no tongue bite or other aberrations such as an overabundance of moisture. It smoked very cleanly and down to a fine gray ash. Can't wait to crack my next tin! If you enjoy straight virginia blends that provide the sweetness of lemon VA along with the richness and coolness of red VA, this is definitely one you should try.
59 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 26, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
This is just right in nearly every category. Sweet, sour, fruit, citrus, spice, tang, grass, body, nicotine....you name it, it's just right. A "Goldilocks" flake if there ever was one. An outstanding smoke. If I had to nit-pick anything it would be that it gets just a little too sour for my taste toward the end of the bowl. I have to really nit-pick to say that though. I can live with that. This is an easy 4 star flake. Lovely stuff.

Medium all around. Burns very well. Not even a hint of a bite.
Pipe Used: MM Little Devil Cutty, Little Devil Acorn
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: fresh
23 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 05, 2018 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium Pleasant
Cornell & Diehl - Opening Night (Simply Elegant Series).

A flake which has been loosened enough to enable easy filling. It isn't a case of having to remove a flake and give it a vigorous rub, a bowl's worth can be simply 'pinched' from the tin. The blend's medium brown in colour and of a good hydration.

The smoke? At first it could be mistaken as just another Virginia, but as a bowl burns the flavours 'chop and change' a little. Throughout a pipe the tart red Virginia leads, but as well as this there's a toastiness, some hay, and a little sharpness. If I'm honest I don't find this as sweet as some other Virginias, there's a gentle sweetness, but it doesn't 'lead'. It interacts with the other flavours creating a more complex Virginia smoke. It burns superb, mid temperature, clean, without needing much maintenance. Bite? None.

Nicotine: a healthy amount for a Va. Room-note: pleasant.

Opening Night? An easy four stars:

Highly recommended.
Pipe Used: Caminetto
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: 9 months
20 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 05, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
What a full virginia blend should be. Sweet, Spicy and full of flavor. The tin note has a bit of that virginia ketchup smell but thankfully that dosn't come through in the smoke. The tobacco comes in nice loose flakes that are easy to rub out into a ribbon cut. Easy packing, easy lighting, slow burning and smooth smooth smokin. Opening Night makes for a great luxurious evening smoke. Flavors coming through in the smoke are predominantly sweet Virginia with a background note of wonderful spice to keep things interesting. As for room note it makes the room smell like a classy old fashioned smoking lounge. Thats the only way I can put the room note. It just smells classy. Still a tossup between Opening Night an Dunhills Royal Yacht as to which is my favorite straight virginia blend. However when you factor in price Cornell & Diehl always has an edge. As for a daily virginia smoke I think Opening Night is a winner. Fantastic, Classic Virginia blend. It amazes me how C&D can have so many fantastic blends like this that go relatively unnoticed.
Pipe Used: Micheal Thomas Featherweight
18 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 25, 2009 Medium None Detected Full Pleasant to Tolerable
A great virginia. Full flavor, spicy, no bite. I have tried about 50 virginias, but this one is by far the best. Opening Night and Penzance, my two desert island tobaccos.
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 02, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
Opening Night is offered at my local Tobacconist and based on the steady good reviews thought I would give this straight VA a go. It is my first Cornell & Diehl.

Great VA sweet smell from the tin with the right moisture, though I let it dry an hour before the light.

Wow! I was surprised by the complexity of this simple blend. There is a steady spicy note caused by the red VA balancing perfectly with the sweetness of the bright Va. When I mean sweet I mean the end of my pipe tasted super sweet like sugar water. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. That's a first. I didn't expect the spice and it reminded me of Perique. I actually sat my pipe down and ran to look up the ingredients again.. Okay.. what am I smoking again?? I was shocked when this was a straight VA blend.

The smoke was thick and the ash was soft like velvet and burned down clean. All evidence of a fine high-quality-no-joke tobacco.

The rich flavor stays to the end and I love the warm spice and rotating sweetness. I must say be mindful of the nic kick. While puffing away trying to disceren this blend I was caught with a Tyson hook to the jaw. I awoke about an hour later in my bed with a cool fan blowing in my face. It made me quite nauseous. Now that's a VA blend by God!! Smooth, spicy, sweet, Med flavor.

Recommended for a good quality VA only smoke. Looking for a straight VA blend with some med flavor and some complexity? Give this a shot, but watch the left hook.

Update: 4/7/14 This tin has turned into my go to blend and its disappearing faster than any pipe tobacco I have ever bought. The blend has mellowed since opening and it went from spicy to a warm tasty red. I can handle the nic pretty well and even crave it. A very tasty blend. I will be buying more and in larger quantities.
Pipe Used: Bertram Prince
PurchasedFrom: JR Cigars
Age When Smoked: 3-28-13
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 11, 2019 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
I don't know why some reviewers proclaim it is essential to smoke an entire tin (or 3) in order to properly evaluate a tobacco. One bowl of Opening Night is all I needed to recognize an outstanding straight Virginia that is indeed Simply Elegant.

A tobacco of this caliber always makes me wonder how it would have been received by Union or Confederate troops had someone wandered into their field camp with a few pounds of the stuff. In other words, would (what I consider to be) a simply outstanding straight Virginia blend of the 21st century be considered the same by a seasoned piper of the mid-late 19th century(?) Opening Night has earned its place on the top shelf of my cellar (literally) right up there next to my McClelland Virginias.

UPDATE: June 4, 2019

I just discovered clay pipes, and what a difference they make -- all the difference in the world when it comes to straight Virginias. Smoking Opening Night out of a clay is like tasting the tobacco for the very first time. THIS is how Virginia's are to be enjoyed, in a clay pipe. All you get is the true taste of the tobacco, and nothing more. Cool, very dry smoke (no moisture at all). Started smoking pipes back in 2013, and have just now discovered I've been doing it all wrong when it comes to straight VAs.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 28, 2015 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
It is Opening Night and the orchestra has been seated. This blend of virginias is a masterful combination for this genre. The Virginia provides the hue of natural sweetness without disrobing its earthiness and serves as the overture and is up to scale. There's a little pepper as accompaniment in the background that let's you know it's there. If you are looking to see what a straight up virginia is like out of a nice flake, this is a great show to see. Its consistency throughout is like a timely refrain from beginning to end letting you know there's a master conductor behind this one. So far, my favorite virginia. Has a little punch if you get jumping on it too hard and fast, keep it slow and savor this one. Enjoy the show! It's Simply Elegant and a fine one at that.
Pipe Used: Austrian Briar
PurchasedFrom: P&C
Age When Smoked: 3-6 mos
10 people found this review helpful.
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