I'm continuing my journey through Cornell & Diehl's new Summit series, inspired by the National Parks here in the US. Today I'm smoking what on paper, I think, was the one that I was most curious about because it plays to my personal taste: Lone Sentinel.

Lone Sentinel is a Virginia/Perique plug. The components are pretty simple. I'm a Virginia/Perique smoker and I love Cornell & Diehl's Red Virginias in particular. In a plug format, this was really exciting and something I was eager to sink my teeth into.

Comforting Tin Note

Let's get into the tin note real quick. It's exactly what you would expect. It's malty, sweet, and has a little bit of a citrus, lemon zest kind of a thing. A little bit of earthiness and dark fruit, maybe. It's pretty unassuming, but it's got all of those malty, bready, and bakery aromas that I associate with really good Red Virginias. It's comforting and inviting.

Plug Cut & Aging Potential

The plug format is what ties the whole Summit series together. One of the best things about that format is that you have total control over how you cut it. You can cut it across the grain or with the grain, thin, thicker, or cube cut; it's a really cool way to experiment with different cuts for different pipes, chamber sizes, and see what the cut really does to a blend. The experience can be very different.

The other thing that's cool about plugs is that they will age differently than a flake or a ribbon cut or even a ready rub. Since they're pressed and condensed, I think that opening your tin and moving part of the plug into a jar is gonna maintain that moisture content pretty much indefinitely because of that sort of compression.

It will also age much more slowly and more gracefully over a very long period of time. There's less surface area for the oxygen to react to, so even if you move it out of the tin and into a jar where there's a little bit of oxygen, you're gonna find that it has really long legs and it's gonna last a really long time. Plugs were originally invented as a preservative measure, so it's a cool aspect of this cut format.

Lone Sentinel Components & Dry Time

Sentinel is composed of two different grades of Red Virginias, both from 2021, and long-cut genuine St. James Parish Perique from 31 Farms in Louisiana.

As with the Summit series blends that I've smoked previously, and pretty much every Cornell & Diehl Virginia at this point, I am aerating the tobacco a tiny bit before packing the bowl, but I'm not giving it any real serious dry time. I wanna preserve all of the oils and all of the nuance that these tobaccos have, and I think that they take to the flame well and are very easy and maintenance free, even at the moisture content directly outta the tin.

Because it is in a plug format, I do some aeration for sure, maybe even a little bit more than I would if it was a flake, and then I think that it's easy to pack and light after that.

Red Virginias: Star of the Show

Aside from the common theme of the Summit series, which is the plug format, what I get from Sentinel is just a rock-solid — no pun intended — Virginia/Perique blend that is primarily featuring the Red Virginias. In a lot of cases you have a mix of different grades, and I think since this one features two different Red Virginias and the St. James Parish Perique, you get a really good feel for what Red Virginia has to offer.

For me, there is less of a grassy character and maybe a little bit less of that zesty citrus note, and it's a lot more on the malty, bready side. The Red Virginias are definitely the star of the show right off the bat. There's a lot of body, it's definitely dense, and it's a really approachable and comforting Virginia character.

A little bit into the bowl, maybe a quarter or a third of the way in, I really start to notice the Perique more, particularly on the retrohale. You start to get a little bit of that pepper tingle, a little bit of some earthy notes, some loamy character, and I think the malty notes from the Virginia prop up the dark fruit and plummy, figgy vibe that you get from the Perique.

Quintessential Va/Per

Together, though, I think it's really great. They complement each other well. There's a reason that Virginia/Perique is such a common pairing in blending. The spiciness and the complexity from the Perique is amplified by the drier and more malty and bready notes of the Virginias. You also have a lot more perceived sweetness. The Perique brings that out of these Virginia grades really nicely.

Again, I try not to throw this word out a lot, even though it does tend to happen, but this blend is balanced. I would not necessarily say that this is gonna blow your mind in terms of complexity, but I don't think that that's the point either. It is just a quintessential Virginia/Perique blend and it really showcases the best of both of those worlds, particularly Red Virginias paired with Perique.

Today I'm smoking Cornell & Diehl Summit series Lone Sentinel in a little sandblasted Eltang Basic. It's a really great, very versatile, and very utilitarian pipe, and this one in particular has seen a lot of Virginia bowls through it. It's really liking Sentinel, for sure.

As the bowl progresses, I do notice a lot more of the natural sweetness from the Red Virginias that balance out the bakery-type flavors and the breadiness really well. There's a lot more complexity on the retrohale from the Perique.

Versatile in Different Cuts

If you're a Virginia fan, and if you're a fan of Cornell & Diehl's Virginias in particular, this is a no-fuss, very approachable, and very reliable Virginia in a format that is versatile. I think that's the point. You have so much control over the cut here that you're gonna get a different experience almost every time that you smoke this. I couldn't even go through all of the different ways to cut this for different chamber sizes even if I had an hour to sit here and do this.

It's really important to try it in a bunch of different ways. You cannot go wrong. You will have a very lovely Virginia/Perique experience no matter what you choose to do in terms of cut and pipe size.

I think if you enjoy Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake, maybe even some of the Virginias in the McConnell line like McConnell's Red Virginia, and maybe even Scottish Flake, and if you like some of the Cornell & Diehl blends like the Cellar series, Speakeasy, and definitely Carolina Red Flake, this is gonna resonate with you, for sure, and you're gonna have a lot of fun playing with the cut.

Another winner in the Summit series, and this is just the beginning of my exploration. I wish you the best of luck as well.