Las Vegas "Big Smoke" Weekend

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It's that time of year again. Cigar Afficionado is sponsoring their cigar show in Las Vegas the weekend of Nov 12 thru the 14th. It's at Mandalay Bay again. They have all the major cigar manufacturers represented along with many "luxury" goods; Maseratis, Hummers, upscale liquors and beers, etc. Last year Woodford Reserve and Knob Creek had booths and gave you a health pour. There's also a band and local upscale restaraunts serve samples buffet style. It's a great time to visit with the cigar makers themselves (kinda like visiting with the Jimmy Russels of the cigar world).

If anyone else is attending/or will be in Vegas...pm me and we'll get together for a bourbon. They serve Pappy at the steakhouse at the Venetian.

Randy

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Here's my report from the Las Vegas Cigar Show......Brown Forman had an attractive booth pouring JD, Gentleman Jack, JD Single Barrel and Woodford Reserve. In discussions with their rep....he stated the bottles of WR they brought with them had "significant" quantities of pot stilled whiskey in them. I tasted it twice early in the evening and remain unconvinced that it's getting better. Very little corn sweetness and very dry/thin tasting.

Jim Beam was pouring their entire Small Batch Collection. I tried Baker's for the first time and it was fine....but I drank a fair amount of Booker's that evening. Had a great time!

I bit the bullet and bought the bottle of cognac with the Opus X cigar in a tube suspended in the bottle. Had the Sr and Jr Fuentes sign the bottle for me. This one stay's closed as I'm not a big cognac drinker....But I sure want to smoke that Opus X.

Randy

[gr8erdane]

Randy,
You do understand that they sell Opus X cigars sans cognac? So far, my experience with Opus X has me rating them equal to or above any Habanos I've had the luck to try. They're just too hard to find around here and too expensive for more than a special occasion when I do find them. I really like their sibling Diamond Crown which I found to be almost as good and a lot easier to find around here but still very pricey. Still, I guess having the signatures makes the whole tubo in the cognac thing special. I wonder if we could talk Julian into doing the Pappy cigar in the Pappy 23 bottle too?