Rattray Brown Clunee

I tried this tobacco after hearing a little bit about its namesake. Brown Clunee was named in 1952, after Rosemary Clooney had a torrid love affair with Sidney Poitier, resulting in a child being born that would be George Clooney's half brother in 1948. His name was Samuel L. Jackson. Charles Rattray, being Sidney Poitier's cousin, and one of the only ones privy to the truth about his and Miss Clooney's love child, jokingly called the young Samuel Jackson the only 'Brown Clooney'. This eventually led Mr. Rattray to name his tobacco after Jackson in 1952, changing the name slightly to avoid suspicion, to 'Brown Clunee'.

Unfortunately, I have to say that when Charles Rattray first blended Brown Clunee, he must not have had an inkling of a notion of what Samuel L. Jackson would be like as an adult. His hardline acting style, often associated with tough heroes or cold-hearted villans, is not found here at all. Instead, Brown Clunee is a mild tobacco that offers little taste unless coaxed along. When right out of the tin, this tobacco smokes best, with a mild golden Virginia taste that eventually evolves into a citrus taste, with a mild taste of orange peel or lemon juice slowly grazing over the tongue. When smoked slowly and deliberately, this will last the entire bowl and be very enjoyable. However, when the tobacco is dried out, it loses this interesting citrus taste and becomes a quite boring, bland tobacco. Because of its difficulty to coax flavour, this blend can only deserve 3/5 stars, or 2 stars. Needless to say, if Charles Rattray had seen into the future, he would've made 'Brown Clunee' a nicotine-heavy, dark dark virginia blend with plenty of punch as a tribute to Jackson, but alas, hindsight is always 20/20.

Opening the tin B.C. has the tipical smell of Va: dried fruits and dried Medicago Sativa, it smoke easy with a smooth flavour, the taste is naturally sweet with a slight bitter note that probably derives from Ky leaf. I can't detect any Perique as K&K declear on official website. Nothing bad about this blend but.... for me is boring.

I am normally a burley fan but I was given some of this blend in a trade. I also tend to be a fast smoker but this morning I was in no hurry, I brought out my rusticated bent Italian pipe that is on of my best pipes and I don't smoke it daily as it is a real showpiece. But I knew it was dry and had no shadow in it. So I filled the bowl, sat out in the gorgeous day we are having an along with tea, I spent two hours savoring this blend. All I can say is WOW! It is a virginia so I made sure and sipped it slowly and it gave me a mellow, sweet, delicious smoke and really made my morning. It was great with black tea. It had the fresh cut hay aroma, and it had a lot of flavor so I never wanted to puff fast at all. I could see this could be a tonque biter, but it never did for me and I smoked a very large bowl of it at one sitting, burning all the way down to a fine white ash. I will want more of this one and that is saying a lot for me. Simply put, it was not complex but was delicious and I am already wanting to return to it for more. Three star because I had to relight several times. Really should be a three and a half.

Quality Virginia, I tend to smoke this before lunch. Sometimes I smoke it FOR lunch. To me this Rattray isn't as complex as others and could be described accurately as monodimensional. I find it builds a bit more nicotine towards the end of the smoke than Old Gowrie.

Do Clunees come in other colors than Brown? What the hell is a Clunee? For that matter, what the hell is a "Gowrie"? Let's all lobby Rattray for some nice young Gowrie.

This is a rubbed out Virginia flake with colors ranging from very light to dark brown. The tin aroma is a combination of dark raisin, prune, faint chocolate notes and the vegetal fragrance of dried sweet clover, the barn-smell of good Virginia tobacco. Clearly, some sweeteners have been added to provide a distinctive flavor. The tobacco arrives a bit on the moist side. As a regular Virginia flake smoker, I am inclined to let Virginias dry a bit, but I decide to take a chance. Because of the moistness I am careful not to pack too tight. It takes a charring light, a tamp and a relight to get it going. I am somewhat surprised that the tobacco burns well despite the moisture content. The smoke starts out with that familiar Virginia tingle on the tongue that warns of a bite lurking. But I am a naturally slow puffer and sip the smoke along. The taste is a naturally sweet Virginia flavor. The draw appears to be just right and delivers plenty of smoke. It is not overly sweet; I taste no raisins, no prunes, and no chocolate, just Virginia tobacco that has had its natural sweetness lightly enhanced. On the one hand, I am somewhat disappointed because there is no unique flavor as promised by the tin fragrance(I was hoping for a Three Nuns experience). On the other hand, I am pleased by the straightforward taste of Virginia. The hint of a bite subsides about a fourth of the way down the bowl, and the flavors remain consistent throughout. This is a good smoke for a Virginia flake lover. It is reminiscent of SG Best Brown, the undisputed king of Virginia flakes, but just a bit too sweet and lacking the depth of tobacco flavor. This is comparable to some of the McClelland Virginia flakes, a little sweeter, a little kinder to the tongue, and without the vinegary tin aroma. All in all a clever treatment of Virginia tobacco. I do not think I will include it in my regular rotation, but will keep it on hand for a change of pace. I recommend it highly to the Virginia flake smoker. Paddy

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.

Very green and grassy, significant sweetness. Slight floral perfume, maybe lilac or similar. Easily enough here to keep me from getting bored. Not quite a 4, but it's close

Mid bowl I'm getting a little more of the perique, a slight fleeting fetid note and some tart fruit.

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...