Cornell & Diehl Pennington Gap

Because of the reviews that compared Pennington Gap to Barbary Coast (my current fave), I decided to try this blend. Thanks, fellow reviewers! This is a great blend, fuller than BC, but a bit more "touched" by the bourbon casing than BC's brandy. For me, the difference is the same as whether I'm in the mood for brandy or bourbon. Generally I prefer the brandy, but bourbon is nice for a change of pace. I'll have to get more of this!

This is a pretty interesting blend. Sir Craig has done this well. On opening, the tin aroma is amazing, and when you pinch a bunch of the cubed cut, it almost feels wet. I lay it out on a piece of waxed paper, and an hour later, it hasn't seemed to dry out much at all! I s'pose the lesson here is that this just isn't cased, it's drenched! And yet, it lights fairly well, and stays lit a lot better than I'd have thought. This is one of those occasional aromatics for those who don't usually favor them. Not at all an all-day blend for me, but it's a nice change of pace every so often. Not a bad biter for an aromatic either. It's just a neat, sweet-ish blend that isn't at all cloying. I'm surprised by some of you guys on your descriptions of the room note. I think it's outstanding. Just enough perique to pique your interest, and the black cav mellows out the burley. This is pretty neat stuff. Three stars.

Just as KFC claims to do chicken right, C & D knows how to mix bourbon whiskey in its pipe blend without overpowering. I generally hate booze and tobacco blends, as I?ve stated in other reviews. They?re exotic gimmicks, and you can?t taste the tobacco or the booze because they both tend to compete with rather than compliment each other. PG gets it right, and quite perfectly. This is a classic American cube cut burley without any bite and a grand whiskey, almost maple flavor. The Perique is evident though not overwhelming. It reminds me a little of the style of Canal Boat, though PG is much more interesting. Unlike Wilke?s Nut Brown Burley, which hurts my tongue, I never have this problem with PG. It?s a long smoke, perfect after dinner; cool, even burning and delightful. Even if you don?t like aromatics, you?d have difficulty not enjoying this one. More great quality from C & D right down to the tin art.

Four of five stars

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update 2006

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Still great, though give it a few days to dry out. The pebble cut makes it sticky and wet, and the true tastes will not be fully revealed to you. At first shot, I thought Tarler was putting in that same crap he uses to poison the newly revised Strathspey. However, after a few days it got good again, and this is one I'll want to try several more tins before reaching a definitive consensus.

Four and a quarter of five stars

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Update 2007

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Unlike Strathspey and other C & Ds, PG actually improved tremendously. Sometimes Craig Tarler decides to add rather than subtract from his blends. As other reviewers here have observed, C & D is not consistent in their blending style or quality control. In this case, Craig must've been hittin' the moonshine a little heavier one night and actually introduced a more generous dram of Kentucky bourbon into the mix. The result is a heavenly hash of flavors and genuinely earthy aromas. This is currently my favorite burley/perique blend; stuff to smoke all day. Please Mr. Tarler, don't change perfection, you've already achieved it.

Five of five stars

This is a unique blend. The cubed burley is pretty good here. The accent of spicy Perique combined with the bourbon topping give you a great sweet/spicy combo. I smoke mostly English blends at this point. But this has a place in my rotation. It's really hard to describe this blend. Try it if you are looking for something different.

After Haunted Bookshop, I almost swore off burleys...Being a new Pipe smoker and perhaps not having the knowledge or experience I am acquiring. So I tried Pennington Gap with some hesitation- I was soo pleasantly surprised. Opening the can you get a great smell of Figs or raisins- a nice sweet smell. Also you can detect very faintly in the background the smell of the boubon topping. Lighting up, after the charring light, there is a wonderful full smokey sweet taste and some great spicy perique finish as you finish your exhale. I can't do it justice in words. Its a great sitting on your porch smoke Or taking a long drive. But not what I would take on a work break. It a slow burner due to the cubed burley, I would put aside some time.

Man, I had high hopes when I ordered this stuff....I couldn't wait for it to get to me. I opened the tin, took a sniff, and thought I was in for the bourbon tobacco experience of a lifetime.....

What a letdown! All I got a taste of was the Burley, and Granger does Burley better. At about 1/4 the price.

'Nuff said.

I bought a tin of this blend based on its description, looking for a suitable blend for a dessert smoke. I was not in any way disappointed. Opening the tin brought forth a delicious aroma imparted by the bourbon, just a little candy-like, with a decided hint of alcohol. The cut is very chunky, a style that for me took some getting used to. That accomplished, I found it to be a cool, sweet, nutty smoke that completely satisfied my expectations, and with a pleasant room aroma to boot. Although too sweet for me to use as a frequent or everyday smoke, Pennington Gap is a superb blend for relaxing with after a meal, with a good cup of tea or coffee. Delightful.

A very nice surpise! As close to an ideal Aromatic for non-Aromatic smokers as I have tried. The only drawback is the room note is rather strong. Not bad, just strong. A very nice change of pace when I don't have time to load and smoke a flake-type tobacco. I would not have recognized the Burley component as such. It is very smooth and gives the blend some strength without any trace of bitterness. Highly recommended and very tasty too!

Sometimes my taste seems to differ radically from that of some esteemed ASPers... I truly hated this tobacco! I was expecting something similar to Barbary Coast (cubed burley, booze topping, perique...), but how wrong I was! The tin aroma is something to die for: like bananas doused in good bourbon... very sweet, strongly alcoholic. I have never smelled so much alcohol in a tobacco! This, together with the high wetness of the tobacco and the presence of cavendish, made my mouth drool but also my brain to worry a bit. After all, Barbary Coast is much subtler when you first approach it by sniffing the opened tin. It was so moist that the paper in the tin was all heavily stained! Quite weird for a C&D product, maybe they messed up this batch? Anyway, the tobacco seemed to take fine to the light and burn well. Actually, in spite of the wetness and the alcohol, the burning rate was slow and regular, producing a cool smoke. But then where's the problem? The problem lies in taste: I find it watery, uninteresting, unsurprising. The burley is never as nutty as in Barbary Coast or other C&D blends, it just tastes like hot air. You can't even feel much of the alcoholic scent that is so evident in the tin! It's just a weak, "empty" smoke (maybe due to the Cavendish?), with some of the heavy notes which are so typical of Perique (and I don't like too much Perique!) and some hints of sweetness. Boring!