The Closest I came To Poker This Weekend (Non Poker Trip Report)

[HDPM]

Was seeing Phil Hellmuth wandering about the Oakland airport today. That and seeing wendover out the window of the airplane. Short trip to the Napa Valley. An excellent place to go. Food actually has flavor there. I mean, you can get the same or similar dish here, but there is no taste. Produce, herbs, and bread are just sort of bland compared to there where things are fresh and good. And the wine of course. I love a trip where you drive around and drink wine. Perfect. A great country we have. And as the stuff we ordered starts arriving it will be great. Prizes coming in the mail to be consumed at will. And when we run low, a few phone calls or e-mails to get the prescriptions refilled and billed to a credit card. Almost makes you not cynical. But I'll get over it. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Zeno]

Sounds like an enjoyable time. Are we going to get a review of the wines?

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Almost makes you not cynical. But I'll get over it. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

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That's good to know. We need more than just one misanthrope on the 'other topics forum' to keep some sane balance to all the drivel posted by the political pundits. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

-Zeno

[Stu Pidasso]

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Was seeing Phil Hellmuth wandering about the Oakland airport today

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Did you get him to sign your copy of "Play Poker Like the Pros"? Do pretend you didn't buy the book. We know you bought it and the chipset too.

Stu

[scotnt73]

[ QUOTE ]
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Was seeing Phil Hellmuth wandering about the Oakland airport today

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Did you get him to sign your copy of "Play Poker Like the Pros"? Do pretend you didn't buy the book. We know you bought it and the chipset too.

Stu

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and his million dollar system on video. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[HDPM]

"Sounds like an enjoyable time. Are we going to get a review of the wines?"

There were too many. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Seriously, it was good to go to a bunch of places and taste. You can try stuff you can't routinely afford for a relatively small fee. I also tried to talk to some knowledgeable people and get their take on some wines. Found an excellent store with a knowledgeable sommelier and well trained experienced employees. They do tastings of smaller wineries in their tasting room and can recommend stuff you have not heard of. We ordered a mixed case from them, all red, from smaller wineries. I can't remember the different ones offhand. Tasted at a bunch of wineries and didn't have anything nasty. Some weren't great or were clearly made just to be popular, i.e. too overdone and not good with food, etc... I am biased toward cabs and have always liked stags leap area cabs. Had some nice ones and signed up for the quarterly prize shipments from clos du val. 2001 reserve cabs are just coming out and I tried some good ones. Can't afford many I want tho. I am also hunting out more zins, some good values out there. I like them more than my wife tho, so I didn't order as much zin as I might have.

[scalf]

[img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] nice report hd..

gl

[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

[Ulysses]

Miner. Darioush. If you didn't visit this time, try them next time. You'll enjoy.

Also, try D-Cubed Zin. Very good, not very expensive.

[HDPM]

Hit darioush's new tasting room yesterday. Interesting array of wines. 99 reserve cab is distinctive. Very spicy and interesting. Probably flawed in some ways, but we liked it. A good buy at 25. They will sell out. Their blends and cabs are good, but cost more than the unusual 99. We didn't buy much from them, just a dessert wine and a chardonnay we carried on the plane. But we'll keep them in mind. Didn't see the others. Something to look for next time, thanks for the tip. I wanted to hit that collective tasting room in napa that dcubed mentioned on the website, but ran out of time.