Dunhill’s Ye Olde Signe

27th January, 2009: Posted by glpease in Tobacco Commentary

Thanks to the generosity of one of our pipe smoking brethren, I have been given the rare opportunity to taste this long out of production blend. I’ve found myself quite awestruck by it.

Ye Olde Signe was one of Dunhill’s earliest mixtures, first produced in 1915[1]. It is listed in early catalogues as, “Pure Virginia  leaf, rich to natural sweetness, unusually mild with soft delicate flavour.”[2]. The sample I was given is ca. 20-years old, tinned by hand in the London store back when Dunhill still cared about tobaccos. It is a lovely dark, rich, shag-cut straight virginia blend, well matured, and rendered even more so by a couple decades in the tin. The bouquet is intoxicating, like any good, dark, well-aged virginia; softly fermented and inviting, with impressions of figs and sour Morello cherries (that’s actually a good thing), and minus the overly cased scent found in too many modern virginias. But what grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go was the flavour. Read more…»

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