Russ Ouellette wins Balkan Sobranie Throwdown. Mike McNeil wins People’s Choice Award

A rousing standing ovation was accorded to Hearth and Home pipe tobacco blender, Russ Ouellette, when Balkan Sobranie Throwdown emcee Matt Guss revealed the Throwdown judges’ tally at the Chicagoland International Pipe and Tobacco Exposition last Saturday, May 14th at 6:00 PM.

Matt Guss congratulates Throwdown Winner Russ OuelletteThe Balkan Sobranie Throwdown was a competition between three leading pipe tobacco blenders to determine who could most faithfully reproduce the fabled Balkan Sobranie 759, a blend that was discontinued in April of 1994 when Gallaher ceased making and marketing pipe tobaccos.

Mike McNeil of McClelland likewise received enthusiastic applause when he took the People’s Choice Award – an award determined by ballots distributed on Friday and Saturday to show attendees.

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Balkan Sobranie Throwdown

If you’ve ever heard on older pipe smoker wax lyrically about favored old tobaccos, you have almost certainly heard about Three Nuns, John Cotton, Sullivan Powell, Bengal Slices, and what many consider the greatest of them all: Balkan Sobranie. Even given the plethora of great blends available today, for some the absence of these storied old blends is like the memory of a great friend no longer present. You can see that absence in misty eyes and dusky smiles when they recall some of their favorite smokes. They are missed. Nothing else will quite do.

For them, smoking these great old blends doesn’t stop with flavor or aroma. Their taste and smell conjure long-gone moments. Nothing will prompt memory so vividly or quickly as a particular smell or taste. This is why we see tins of these legendary old blends selling for extraordinary amounts. While a younger pipe smoker may want to discover for himself what the experience entails, the older pipe smoker may want to penetrate a memory gone foggy.

While it is almost certain that blenders have attempted to duplicate these tobaccos, how successful have these efforts been? Has it been done? Can it be done? In his letter of invitation to me to be a judge, Matt Guss wrote, “This Throwdown is purely for fun — we don’t expect to faithfully actually recreate Sobranie for many practical reasons.  This is just the kind of creative event that breathes fresh air into the pipe world.  And we believe it will be really well received.”

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