Dunhill Three Year Matured Virginia

It is supposed to be a Virginia Mixture with Oriental, “lightly flavoured with a mixed fruit essence”, as the official description states. Regarding flavouring, the reviews range from 1 to 10, that is from “none detected” to “extra strong”. Nearly the same spread regarding “strength” and “taste”. This inconsistency highly irritates me.

On opening the tin I smell bread/yeast from the Red Virginia and some vinegary sourness from fermentation of the matured Virginia, that’s all, neither Orientals nor artificial flavours. Let’s see, which aromas will appear upon smoking:

Good burning conditions. There is not much taste, it’s faint. The most obvious being that of matured or stoved Virginia, a bread/yeast note that is, hiding away the hay/grass notes. The small amount of Oriental leaf is noticeable and welcome. All aromas (good and bad) are quite irregular while smoking through the bowl. Some might find this interesting. I am not able to describe and specify the added flavouring. The tragedy is, that this artificial flavouring hinders most of the natural tobacco aromas to unfold, and the subtle ones are totally suffocated. Like many other artificial flavours do, it releases bitter tastes. At the end of the bowl I don’t know what I have been smoking and I am left behind with an unpleasant, weary after-taste.

It is misleading to call this mixture TREE YEAR MATURED VIRGINIA! It does not taste like an honest Virginia Blend. It is an indefinable, obvious Aromatic. It lacks in body, depth, character and taste. A disappointment. I can’t recommend it.

I really looked forward to this. Three year matured etc. It was a bit disappointing. Took flame OK and burned OK and tasted OK. Usually for me blends improve as I smoke down the bowl. With virginias a sweetness develops. With Burleys a sort of nuttyness. But here it was just meh!

Maybe if you usually smoke aromatics it might be a step up(?)

As much as I have enjoyed all of the recent re-issues of Dunhill - BB1938, Aperitif, Dubar - this one is quite disappointing. To me this one has no personality. Just a rather rough-edged and sharpish tobacco, that I will not buy again. For the good, pure and full-filling Virginia experience, I will still look towards Rattray's Old Gowrie and HOW - but maybe a re-introduction of Dunhill's Ye Olde Signe could somewhat change my mind. This one i a no-go.

This is for the relaunch version, smoked right out of the tin in a Missouri Meerschaum Wasp, this stuff bit like a rabid dog, it smoked hot, harsh and largely flavorless. The tin note was nice, not much of a top dressing noticeable, it wasn't too moist or dry, it was just about perfect. I'm not going to write it off yet, I may revisit in a week or 2 (when my mouth heals 😀)

This is something I had wanted to try for a while, just from the name and the maker. I'd never tried Dunhill virginias so I didn't know what to expect. I read the reviews here, but didn't let them bother me too much. My father bought 6 ounces of this at Tinderbox in Sacramento. (citrus heights, actually) He bought it for himself, tried it, and promptly shipped it off to me. That should have been fair warning.

So, moisture content in the bag was o.k. Pouch aroma was uninviting; just a vague tobacco smell, without the berries or pineapple I'd read about. It did smell like tobacco. Like cigarette tobacco, except a little sweet. Fair warning. I smoked it anyway. It tastes like a bad non-filter cigarette, and I've had some bad ones from Poland and Romania.

This is the only tobacco I've ever smoked that makes me sick. It makes me wretch. I know it's not the nicotine. I have smoked Nightcap as my all day smoke when I was out of everything else and had a big stash of it. My sample of Three Year does have a fair amount of nic., but something else about this tobacco really turns the screws on me. Maybe the tobaccanist dug this out of a secret bunker somewhere, but i'm not going to buy it ever.

Even worse than smoking it was my attempt at DGT with Three Year Matured Virginia.(Insert vile descriptive here) Never again. I've tried smoking it a couple times since, just for a nic fix, but got a twisted stomache.

Oh yeah, this isn't meant as a shot at Tinderbox, just this tobacco in particular. My parents taught me not to say anything if it's not going to be positive, but I just had to give something back to this weed. It was not very nice to me;-}I expected much more from Dunhill.

Please just let me echo the sentiments of the first 6 reviews. I tried this tobak in about 3 pipes, and it took a while to get the nasty taste out of each of them. YUK!!!

I like Virginias...I like them a lot. But this is a waste of good weed and a HUGE waste of $$$.

Description says: "A medium blend consisting of red (and other) Virginias, a pinch of Oriental leaf, and a very, very subtle fruit essence, leaving the flavors of the tobaccos themselves clear and intact. A classic now returned after a long absence."

Only able to distinguish the sweet Virginias which smokes well and delicious from start to finish. lApparently the pinch of Oriental leaf is small enough to make it undistinguishable. Not my favorite Virginia, but not a bad smoke at all.

Easy to pack, burns a little hot if not given a rest while smoking.

Room note is pleasant.

Overall: I enjoyed the first pipe load and really wanted to enjoy each subsequent smoke, but as I continued to smoke through the tin, I became less enamored with this tobacco.

This blend is not exactly the flavor I imagine should be inserted into a pipe. A cigarette tube? Absolutely. I can see the relevance of this tobacco and I appreciate it for what it is. If you enjoy mixing orange juice and coffee in your mouth at breakfast before swallowing then you just found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Luckily for me and the tobacco, I was able to trade it with someone who would enjoy it more. I wish I would have enjoyed it and maybe one day I will give it another try just to see if I missed something.

With so many great choices out there, this one just falls flat for me. I really don't get any flavor. Once I got to the bottom of the bowl i detected a slight fruityness with a hint of butter, but it wasn't easy to get that out of it. This is just a bland tobacco especially when there are so many other choices out there like Petersons Sherlock Holmes that have the virginias and oriental with a nice flavor to boot. Just not my cup of tea, might be good for a cigarette smoker that just swapped to pipes?