Rattray Brown Clunee

A sweet virginia scent, with a dark, slightly sour, smell that, along with the uniform darkness of the ribbons, tells we that this blend was aged, probably in pressed cakes.



Upon lighting, I discovered this to be a very mild virginia blend. That means that caution must be exercised to keep my greedy self from puffing too hard and turning my tongue into something resembling fried chicken.



The first third of the bowl is mostly uneventful, but with a slight deepening of the virginia flavors.



The second third sees the virginias start to really come alive, and by the two-thirds mark, it has developed into a fuller, richer smoke.



The ending of the bowl is very pleasant, with the tobacco quietly going out, leaving only stark white ash, and a mild nicotine buzz to remember it by.

Summary: a Virginia-forward Perique blend given depth with dark fired Kentucky Burley.

Mixing Virginia and Perique directly tends to result in an overly sweet flavor in which the Perique emerges over time, but this blend staunches the sweetness with dark fired Kentucky Burley that slows the burn and gives a rich smoky, chocolate-molasses flavor that melds with the tang of the Perique and lets the Virginia find its place in a supporting role. In that, this blend reverses the typical Va/Bur/Per formula where the Virginia dominates, and instead becomes a Perique-dominated blend with the Virginia and Burley in balance. Mild and with a pleasant enough room note, this ready rubbed blend is easy to toss in a pipe for all-day smoking.

As for me, this is not as good as its cousins, Old Gowrie, Hal o' the wynd and Marlin Flake. I get mainly the kentucky and the perique, and very little of the sweetness often associated with the virginias. So all is dark, dark and dark, with little to no nuances. You expect something else while puffing, but you reach the end of the bowl and nothing happens. Luckily mixed 50/50 with Red Rapparaee it makes a good English...

UPDATE APRIL 2023 Having jarred it for some months, the experience changed substantially, now I feel the nuances I had expected, it resembles to me Marlin Flake and I'm smoking it with satisfaction, but I think that a tabacco has to be ready at the moment I buy it, so my rating remains unchanged...

Brown Clunee left me with the impression of "why would you buy this again when you could get HOTW instead." The tin aroma has the typical prune-fig smell common to Rattray blends, but no casing is detected. Upon smoking, the flavor is smooth on the tongue, cool, easy, with a rounder, softer feel than HOTW. Still, there is nothing of any great interest here, and nothing that would pull me back to buy another tin.