To Dunhill or not to Dunhill? That is the question.
Whether it is better to have smoked Dunhill and suffer its demise or to have never smoked Dunhill and to not mourn it?
I have smoked Dunhill pipe tobacco in the past and have even enjoyed a Dunhill cigar or two. I remember them as being good. Very good. Above the norm in fact. I’ve smoked and enjoyed Dunhill Ready Rubbed and My Mixture 965. If I still had them in my possession, I would still smoke them.
But, my personal taste being as it is, I did not rush to my nearest tobacconist or on-line retailer to immediately buy more. I don’t sit around and fret about not finding a tin of Dunhill hidden in the bottom of my cellar. No, while Dunhill is good, it has never called out to me like some other pipe tobacco has. Given a choice between Dunhill Ready Rubbed and Rattray’s Bagpiper’s Dream, I will take Rattray. Set a tin of 965 next to one of Red Rapparee and I’m partial to the latter.
When in the mood for a good English Blend, and Dunhill made some of the finest, I would happily light up Peterson’s Old Dublin, James Fox Dorisco or even one of the Seattle Pipe Club’s English Blend. I just enjoy them more.
Therefore, I will not wistfully yearn for any of the Dunhill blends I’ve smoked before and can no longer purchased. There are too many other fine blends I have grown accustomed to smoking. And besides, I know pipe smokers. We have our favorite tobacco blends. We buy more than we can reasonable smoke in a short time and store it for aging. Instead of buying it from the local retailer, you will have to scour the internet auction sites for your Dunhill blends.
No, what I deplore is the loss to the pipe smoking community of arguably the preeminent tobacco brands of the last century. What Alfred Dunhill started as a small window display to get customers in his shop grew into the finest tobacconist and pipe shop in the world. Over the years, Dunhill pipe tobacco became the highest bar for others to reach for in quality and consistency. Some will argue the point but ask yourself this, “When was the last time someone said Dunhill tobacco tasted bad or was poor quality?” Personally, I have never heard that complaint.
In a perfect world, someone would buy the recipes and blend names from BAT and Dunhill and continue making the blends under a different label. Maybe the quality wouldn’t even drop that much (until some bean counter says, “We can make it cheaper.”). The Dunhill name wouldn’t join names like House of Windsor and others on the list of fine tobaccos no longer made.
The pipe smoking world will not come to a screeching halt because Dunhill is no longer produced. The pipe smoking world, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Even a hole as large as one left by the absence of Dunhill tobacco will eventually be filled. There are other premium labels producing numerous high-quality blends available in both the European and U.S. markets. Now we must just wait and see which picks up the mantle of the finest pipe tobacco blends.
(© J. Gibson Creative Services)
