Dunhill Three Year Matured Virginia

Dunhill Three Year Matured Virginia is a tobacco with a coterie of devotees and somewhat of a puzzlement to many others. It dates back to 1923, but was discontinued before production switched to Murray and Sons in Northern Ireland. They revived it, but it was discontinued before their hiatus for Dunhill. Later the Dunhill offerings were taken over by the Scandinavian Tobacco Group. But STG did not reintroduce Three Year Matured until this past year. The fact that TYM keeps reappearing is a testament to that core of fervent fans.

Open a tin and you discover a ribbon cut of varied browns: light, medium, dark. The sniff reveals a typical Virginia smell with a faint overlay of aromatic. There is a smidgen of oriental in there, although I do not detect it in the tin odor. The moisture level is OK, although I find virtually all tinned blends better with a bit of drying initially.

TYM lights without difficulty, and burns steadily without need for relights unless puffed exceedingly slow. It burns cool when smoked with the relaxed puff rate proper for Virginias. The room note is pleasant, Virginia plus just a hint of the aromatic element. The nicotine level is slightly higher than expected from a Virginia dominant blend. Tongue bite threat is low for a Virginia based mixture. It burns dry and leaves a white ash.

What sets TYM aside is the flavoring, which I deem to be top noting rather than casing. The Tobacco Reviews description at the time I write this review states that it is "flavored with mixed fruit essence." I find it to be more a a berry essence, black currant and/or raspberry. There is just a whisper of fruit, possibly apricot or citrus. The flavoring is restrained and it does not mask the Virginia.

For me the flavoring, light though it is, seems dissonant to the tobacco itself. Some flavor agents such as honey. molasses, and maple sugar merge nicely with Virginia tobaccos. The Berry/fruit of this blend does not work for me. (I do not detect the oriental in smoking, although I am sure it does influence the mixture.) The underlying Virginia is excellent. Whether three year matured or not (I presume that it is), the Virginia is good stuff.

The repeated resurrections of Three Year Matured signal that for some smokers the symbiosis of flavoring and Virginia tobacco tickles their fancy. So I do suggest pipe smokers who often try Virginias sample this. Others who often smoke Virginias may well mirror my own lack of appreciation . However, even though the flavoring is subdued, I suspect that some aromatic fans will deem this a very interesting change of pace. I am less convinced that those who favor latakia or burley based blends will discover TYM an interesting diversion.

I smoke TYM in my aromatic dedicated pipes, although I do not think an occasional load of it will create a noticeable ghosting effect in pipes normally used for non aromatics.

This is a very polite tobacco. The tin note is very pleasant, what you would expect with some mature Virginias, dominated by dark dried fruits, figs, prunes, dates. Disappointingly, this does not carry over to the smoke, which is really quite bland and uninteresting. Marginal sweetness, no hay, no tartness, no fruitiness, just a vague Virginia style flavour with a strong licorice component (the sweetener?). Orientals? I didn't notice any. The room note is decidedly cigarette-like but at least not very strong. The tobacco is undoubtedly very high quality though, packs, lights and smokes like a charm, consistent from light to heel. Relatively high on nicotine. All in all I found it quite disappointing, there are much more interesting Virginias out there. Personally I prefer more distinct blends like Royal Yacht, Capstan Blue, Dunhill Flake.

This was an interestingly stronger VA than I expected. Fruity, sweet, dark in character. For some reason though I simply did not care for the flavor profile as it was presented. Otherwise it loaded easily, smoked clean and cool and had a moderate smoke volume when dried a little.

Smoke in peace, brothers and sisters of the leaf.

Back in July a friend of mine at the pipe club gave me a tin of this. He had bought several tins of this probably a year ago when Dunhill was on sale but did not really care for it. This is a densely packed tin of tobacco predominately medium dark brown ribbon with a mildly sweet tin note and quite moist. I have smoked this on and off the past few weeks and while it is listed as an aromatic, I would say a light one indeed. For a 3-year Virginia if that is what it really is, I was left desiring more flavor from this smoke than what was offered. It is okay, probably a good candidate to pass around the club for those interested. For me, a somewhat recommended blend.

THREE YEAR MATURED VIRGINIA: This blend should be straight Virginia but it isn’t. I don’t know why STG has changed the recipe, but this change made the product much worse. A Virginia mixture matured for three years certainly does not need oriental tobaccos and least of all fruit essence. Bad job by STG which probably employs poor quality Virginia and for this reason the change of recipe. Dunhill deserves more. Now this mixture is gone, but I will not miss it. So, in my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 7 and two stars.

As with Royal Yacht, I think that this tobacco has a bad reputation that is not completely deserved. Sure, it ain't the greatest thing in the world, and it has a couple of characteristics that can easily drive some smokers pissed, but I seem to enjoy it once in a while. The appearance is of a fine cut dark brown/reddish Virginia, finer than Dunhill's English blends: this accounts for great packing and even burning. What shocks most reviewers seems to be the berry flavoring, an addition that seems to have been added only in recent years. Say what you wish, but I think it's one of the better touches of this blend, and I usually don't like aromatics! This is another kind of aromatic, not the usual lousy ultra-cased cavendish with no tobacco taste: here the Virginias are clearly perceivable, and the topping perfectly complement their naturally sweet taste. The berry flavor comes and goes, just a bit more than slightly perceivable, never intrusive and always very natural. No soapy impression, too, which is a bonus in comparison with stuff like Dunhill Ready Rubbed and, in a minor way, Royal Yacht. Some of the sweetish tones remind of Royal Yacht, but it's less nauseating: also the nicotine content, while rather high, is lower than that of the dreaded Yacht. The taste is not always perfect (a bit sharp at times), but I found out that using a little slightly bent pipe and a light packing helps. Very critical for appreciating this tobacco is keeping it slow burning and cool. If you feel the exterior of the bowl is hot (not scorching hot, just plain average hot) you are spoiling this blend. I personally think it's slightly better than Royal Yacht, but I still prefer Rattray's flakes when I want a nice Virginia as this one is rather boring. Anyway, sometimes a bowl of this is nice, with its berry flavoring which hits the spot (and is rather pleasant to non smokers around) and its absolute lack of bite. It leaves an unpleasant smell in the bowl, though, but it's not a problem for me since I don't smoke it too often, so it is quickly cancelled out by other tobaccos.

In my cellar, I found two Dunhill blends from the year they were re-released, 2015: Ready Rubbed and this one, Three Year Matured. So this review will be of a ~6 year old tin of Dunhill's Three Year Matured, with some memories of the fresh blend too. The tin note smells pretty strongly of fruit, possibly apricot. The sides of the inside of the tin are sticky with topping. Tobacco looks ok, it's your basic ribbon cut with a pretty uniform brown coloration with very little variation. First few puffs, the flavor is mostly the fruit topping (apricot maybe) and quality matured red Virginias. There's very little overt Oriental flavor, except for some light sourness. The fruit topping starts to fade a bit by a quarter of the way into the pipe. That's when the blend becomes more enjoyable IMO. The natural sweetness and fruitiness of the aged red Virginias is more apparent at that point. It's a pleasant smoke. I don't remember if this was the case when fresh, but I get no bite at all from this 5 year old stuff. It's very mellow and very smooth all the way to the end. The ~5 year aged tin is much nicer, smoother, and naturally sweeter than the fresh tin. The fresh stuff is a 2 star blend, but after aging a while, it's a solid 3 stars.

An interesting tobacco for sure. The tin I opened had 6 years of aging on it after purchase date. The tin note is of very subtle citrus combined with rich, matured Virginias. Being a STG product there are no excessive humectant added. Lighting up the tobacco and keeping it lit do not, thus, represent a challenge. The taste is of a rich Virginia, more on the savory than sweet side and builds up some spiciness from the Orientals as I progress. TYMV is not very complex after 6 years of aging - I was expecting something more- but complex enough to keep me interested. I do have some more tins in the cellar but would not, if offered the opportunity, buy more.

I know my matured and aged Virginia's. Somehow, I suspect this isn't aged as much as the tin suggests it is. After my second bowl I decided to put the rest into a jar for long-term aging. I have another unopened tin that will go into the cellar as well. I really like aged Virginia's, I buy Orlik Golden Sliced and never touch it until it is at least 3 years old, even better at 5-6 years. As this tobacco tastes to me now, I would describe it as young-tasting and very one-dimensional.

I suspect that the blender for Dunhill pipe tobaccos had every intention of properly bringing this blend back, but ended up releasing it early because they knew production was ending and they didn't want to be stuck holding a stock of Virginia's they had no use for. Of course, that is just my own speculation, it's not supported by any inside information. However, it would explain the state of this tobacco blend.

I recommend anyone that has this to age it for 3-5 years. I'm sure the Virginia lovers will find it matures nicely.