Rattray Old Gowrie

Balanced, flavorful, elegant tobacco! Easy to load, easy to light, easy to smoke. If you want can be a "set and forget", and if you want you can dive searching for nuances and flavors. Well done Rattray!

Everyone who has seen the old Rattray's blending manual can see that this is not the OG OG (sorry, couldn't help it), but that's just fine - there's no shortage of good straight Virginia to be had anyway.

The Kentucky gives it a fantastic depth underneath excellent Virginias. Personally I have to smoke it a little hot to really notice the Perique, otherwise it contributes without standing out.

It all comes together into a good smoke with decent complexity that can be smoked on autopilot or carefully savored.

The Rattray's 3 wonderful vapers: Marlin flake, Hal O' The Wynd and this Old Gowrie are truly deserve their polarity and attentions. I find HOTW to be the fuller brother and OG the mellower young one. Sweet with some depth provided by Kentucky, it smokes smoothly without any possibility of bite. Normally I prefer HTOW for it's fuller flavor, but OG is great for some relaxing, mindless moments.

A fairly straight Virginia, I suspect there might be some Burley in here somewhere, of mid to dark brown broken flakes. The tin note gives some dark sugar aromas, a hint of chocolate and cinnamon and something that reminds me a little of plasticine.

Is a little moist straight from a fresh tin, but isn't particularly difficult to manage in the pipe.

A very sweet, and lightly spice-like smoke. It is uncomplicated, clean and linear. With these boxes ticked along with a good price point, it makes for a good all day smoke. My wife objected to this one, perhaps because it is somewhat cigarette like.

After reading some of the reviews, I was expecting OG to really be something special. While it's not "bad" by any stretch of the imagination, I was was disappointed when I found it be a fairly pedestrian blend.

The tin note is what you would expect from a VA with a hint of perique - semi-sweet citrus from the VA, a bit of earthiness from the KY, and just a bit of fig/raisin from the little perique that is present. The cut is a broken flake, with the tobacco cut length-wise rather than in chunks. So far, so good!

The tobacco is a bit too moist straight from the tin - rubbed out and given a few hours to dry out helped things along, but being left out overnight really worked wonders for the burn rate and kept things nice and cool.

The smoke itself was not bad, provided enough drying time was given. Smoked straight from the tin or without rubbing out left things slightly-acrid up front and muddy/ashy by mid-bowl. Dried out, it could be a worthwhile blend, as that's really the only way to experience what OG has to offer.

There are some pretty significant pros - first, the VA is top notch. This IS NOT a blend designed to blow your socks off with in-your-face VA sweetness. It is a very mellow blend that can only really be appreciated by smoking low and slow. I was a bit surprised by the fact that I could more readily taste the earthy Kentuckys more readily than the spicy/fruity perique, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This isn't a tangy VaPer at all - it's a non-intrusive, relaxed sort of blend.

There are some drawbacks though, and they are worth noting. First, this can get very monochromatic, very quickly. To my personal tastes, I expect this an appreciate this in a Virginia-only or Burley-forward blend...in a blend like OG that includes KY as well as Perique, I would have hoped for a little more nuance, and for the smoke to change a bit throughout the bowl. This may not be a problem for most, but it does keep it out of 4-star territory in my book. As mentioned, the tin-moisture is also a bit of a drawback - not because the drying time is a problem in and of itself. For me a truly "great" blend is great out of the tin and out-of-this-world with a bit of drying/moisture to correct the levels. OG requires drying time to go from smokeable to very good.

Given proper drying time and the expectations of a straightforward, consistent smoke, this could be something that is really, really enjoyable. It's worth the muss and fuss, though, and certainly worth recommending to someone looking for a mellow VA to spend some time with.

HOTW light. A nice, mellow VA with some support from the perique and the Kentucky. Not really a standout in my mind. VAs are not my favorite so I was not very excited about this mild blend. Most of the Rattray Vas taste very similar to me and just vary in strength. I say "eh."

EDIT 5/31/2016

It has been nearly four years since I reviewed this one. I bought 500g of this based on my first experience. When I first smoked this (I had only been smoking for 9 months when I first reviewed this) I lacked a lot of knowledge that comes in handy now.

To start with, the tin I first bought had a lot of age on it and it wasn't till later that I learned that Virginias intensify in sweetness with age, thus my first experience was overwhelmingly a sweet Virginia taste.

I just recently finished up about 7 ounces that I jarred and will say that it was not the same fresh as it was aged. It was still good, but very different from what I reviewed. Smoking it fresh, the Kentucky and perique were more apparent, albeit, still lightly applied to my taster. I still like this blend, but am taking a star off of it as there are too many with this flavor profile I would choose before this one. I do look forward to seeing how the remaining containers I have aging will taste after they get a few more years on them.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 7-19-2012

A wonderful VaPer or rather something in between a VaPer and a straight VA. Perique is light, but still noticeable. I highly recommend it and need to get some more soon.

Old Glaurung, my favorite Virginia of all, and probably one of the most unique on the market. You have your sweet VA's like McClelland, Astley and Butera, and then you have the floral soap from GAwith and the like. Old Gowrie seems like fresh tobacco to me. All I can think of when opening the tin or smoking it is of fresh mown hay in the sun. As soon as I open a tin I think of bright days in October, with my Dad mowing and baling hay. The smoke itself is satisfying and sturdy, keeping a hay-y, oaty, earthy, sweetness all the bowl through, never cloying or bitter. I find this one far superior to its brothers Marlin Flake and Hal o' the Wynd, and it positively pummels Brown Clunee. Nicotine overload is never a problem. I keep a fair number of tins on hand and it takes well to aging, mellowing and sofenting around the edges (note: for aging the 4oz tall tins are better than the flat metal tin shown above).

When the tin pops open you a delicious smell comes to your nose. The tin note reminds me a lot of McConnells Scottish Cake - but a bit less fruity and more woodsy and earthy.

Deep, fermented fruits, reminding me of sugary-sweet Oranges, fine raisins, plums and figs - a colourful melange of stoved fruits. Some tanginess, a slightly sour note. Inviting, with depth and deliciously mouth-watering.

Once smoldering you will wish the bowl will never end! Tastewise it reminds a bit of Scottish Cake too, yet it has its own, darker, spicier and earthier personality and taste. Old Gowrie is much more smokey and woodsy, less fruity and a bit stronger than McConnell's Scottish Cake and Rattray's Brown Clunee. Very earthy smoke, with some woodsy smokiness, tagy and piquant. The Perique lurks with some pepper and underscores the fruity, hay-ish and earthy Virginias. The dark fired Kentucky holds a lot of spice and earth, a decent amount of smokiness and delicate piquancy. A spicier companion to Brown Clunee.

In the german registry of pipe tobacco additives you'll find that this blend - just as Gowrie and Clunee - has around 6mgs of flavouring added on 1000mgs of tobacco...really just a whiff, but it's there, though I don't taste it as such!

GENIUS in one word! A truly top-notch blend in the fashion of old English blends as I'd imagine them to have been back then. Love it, it's far superior to Scottish Cake and a true brother to Brown Clunee.

List of additives: https://service.bmel.de/tabakerzeugnisse/index2.php?detail_id=104657&site_key=153&stichw_suche=Old+Gowrie&zeilenzahl_zaehler=2