4noggins Prairie Wind

Another 1 oz sample from 4noggins. Deep mahogany in color with a tin nose of virginia covered in some sort of artificial sauce. No mention of this from the blender, so I'm not sure what's up. Smoked in a full bent pipe with the bowl smoke reaching my nostrils, this smelled more like a light aromatic than a VaPer. The perique that is listed as being heavier than Alamosa was there but I felt it was more on the lighter side. Then again, I usually prefer a heavier dose, so perhaps I'm immune to the lighter ones.

The virginia in this seemed fine but that casing ruined it for me. It wasn't bad tasting, and if I were reviewing objectively, I'd probably give this three stars. But for my subjective taste, aromatic sauce this heavy has no place in a VaPer. It wasn't nearly as heavy as your average goopy aromatic, but it was a bit too noticeable. It was kind of a hazelnut/vanilla something or other... the smell was like something from a fancy coffee shop. Not bad, but better served elsewhere. Of course, I only smoked an ounce, so perhaps my sample got a bit heavier dose than usual - hard to say at this point. But after smoking and enjoying Alamosa, this one was a disappointment.

I received an ample sample of this tobacco from Rich. I've already ordered 8oz and will order lots more. I enjoy the sweetness of the virginias with the peppery shadow of perique being just what the docter ordered. As soon as I've hoarded enough of this, it will become my allday smoke.

This is the perfect Va-Per for me!!

This ambitious mixture by Richard, containing 3 types of Virginia (gold, red and brown), unfortunately contains enough Perique, for my tastes. Also, for me, the flavoring tends to be typical in all his mixtures. Something like the ketchup scent for the McClelland mixtures, but fortunately much more pleasant. I get a taste of chocolate and something else that I cannot recognize. Unfortunately the fact that it contains Perique, highly affecting the taste, will not permit any positive feedback for Prairie Wind on my behalf. That's ok though, as I really thrilled by Richard's other mixtures. The room note is very good.

A well balanced tobacco, mild but tasteful, sweet but not treacly, with the generous amount of Perique definitely present but not overdosed, and with a very gentle room note. Recommended, without doubt. [All my reviews/ratings are based solely on my personal experience/taste].

This is a great tobacco if you enjoy VA's and I do. This tobacco is easy to pack and once dried for a short period of time it lit easily and stayed lit. Its sweet, citrus note appeals to me and the perique is there, but only as a condiment and only hints of occur when smoke is exhaled via the nose. The perique is not strong and is not over powering in this blend. I believe this tobacco will be even better if you have the patience and discipline to celler it for a year, two or more. The sweetness of the tobacco dissapears when you DGT this tobacco, the VA taste and perique intensifies but still tolerable. I highly recommend it to lovers of VA's. This is a tasty sweet tobacco which I need to order some more of 🙂

A generous sample from an order some time ago. Thank You Rich. Pouch aroma is a tangy, pleasantly acidic pure Virginia with some grassy notes. Given the name, I was expecting something that came from the southern end of north bound bovine, but this stuff smells great! A bit of drying time, into a trusty Rhodesian and off we went for a wonderful late summer afternoon smoke. Very refreshing with its bright flavors, but with some very good foundation flavors. The Perique was just perfect. A good nose tickle and some peppery flavors dancing about, but not so much as others of the genre. I'm a Perique junkie, so I could have enjoyed more Louisianna leaf, but I sure didn't miss it. Very nice.

For me this gets 3+ stars as a pleasant and relaxing break from the bolder Balkan and Burley blends I tend to prefer. It’s not a wow blend but I kept reaching for it and smoked through my two ounces in about a month, which is unusual for me since I have so many open tobaccos to choose from. I’ll be ordering another eight ounces or more, some for now, and some to put in a jar to see how it develops with age.

However, what I received is certainly not the same blend that most of the reviews here are talking about. As often happens, somebody was talking up this blend on one of the forums, and showed a picture of the tobacco that looks so appetizing. I needed to fill out an order with Noggins and added a couple ounces of this. So I never actually read any of the reviews here. But in preparation for this review, to see what the overall rating was, I happened to see Jim Inks review (from ten years ago) sitting at the top of the list, and I was just floored at how utterly unlike his review is from what I received. So, I then read all 31 reviews on this site, and another 17 on 4Noggins site, and in all of that, I found only one recent review (from Bushido in 2021) that sounds like what I received.

One thing is for sure, this tastes nothing like Hal O’ the Wynd, of which several reviews here compared it to. I dutifully got out my 4 year old HOTW and they are nothing alike. From what I can gather, some changes have occurred since the majority of the reviews here were posted, many now well over ten years old. Remember McClellands? It seems that they supplied at least one of the three Virginias and the Perique. So we know that once supply of those ran out some substitutions had to be made, probably to Sutliff 515. Then there was the transition between Rich and the new owner/blender, Jeff. Dare I suggest there have been variable applications in top dressing, or different tolerances in blending percentages?

Here’s what you can expect if you are ordering Prairie Wind in 2023: This is a mild, but intriguingly nuanced Va-Per, with a subtle flavoring that almost suggests a semi-aromatic character, but without undue sweetness. The primary impression I get from this mirrors most of what Bushido described as “an almost malty vanilla undertone” with the perique nuances being “more of a light spice than a peppery flavor.” Deep nosing of jar did reveal a slight wheat bran note like HOTW, but at about 10% intensity level, and this never showed up as a flavor. I found that different types of pipes, meer, cob, briar, somewhat altered the flavor balance, but the distinctive creamy vanilla custard was present in all pipes. The differences were that the meer brought out more pepper, the cob more tarragon and alfalfa, and the briar more custard, some lemon grass, and some blanched almond. But these are all subtle distinctions compared to the huge difference between this and HOTW. In all pipes the Perique was generally a little more prominent at the end of the bowl, but is more like a delicate dusting of white pepper than of coarse black pepper.

Verdict: If what you are after is a Va-Per with deeper, darker Virginias, pinch of Kentucky, and lots of dark fruit/raisin from the Perique (like HOTW), this will probably be too light for you. If you like traditional Va-Pers like well-aged Escudo or Rouxgaroux, then you will certainly find the vanilla undertone here an abomination. However, if you are like me and find that you don’t very often crave that classic Va-Per profile, then this may just be the ticket for you. The new Prairie Wind fills a needed niche in my rotation, so for me it’s a keeper.

I got a sample of this with a tobacco order I put in with 4Noggins, and have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. It has the smooth sweetness of a well aged VaPer. The tin aroma hits you with a bit of vanilla, but the aroma does not come through in the smoke with nearly the intensity you expect. I am definitely going to get some of this with my next order.

Rich was kind enough to add a sample of this to a recent order from 4noggins. Also in this order was a pound of St. James Flake, which has been sitting idle while I enjoy this Prairie Wind. An excellent smoke all around. It does need a little drying, as the other reviewers have noted. But I'll be ordering more.