Penzance

As the title implies, this thread is about Penzance. 18+ year old Penzance to be exact.
You all may remember that back in April my son Nick and I went to the TAPS pipe show in Raleigh. While there one of the things I picked up was a pristine tin of Penzance. The older gentleman selling it knew only that it was over 10 years old and had been kept in a mason jar all of this time. (he bought it from an older gentleman that had since stopped smoking a pipe)
With the help of folks here and on other forums it was determined that the tin was a 1999 or older 2oz tin of Penzance.
Once I learned this I decided to save this lucky find for a special occasion.
Well, that special occasion was this weekend. Our baby girl, Jenni, just graduated from High School. Although she didn't have any of this incredible tobacco delight, she did sit in the mancave for a while with her brother and I when we both enjoyed our very first bowl.
I gotta tell you guys, this experience was all I had hoped it would be and more! HOLY COW is this GREAT STUFF!!!!
Having never ever smoked Penzance before, I didn't have anything to base our experience off of, as it relates to whether or not this was typical of all tins of Penzance or if somehow, the fact that it was 18 or 20 years old?
I'm obviously not a tobacco reviewer, but I can tell you that the flavor of this was much richer and fuller than the Margate I've been smoking for the last several months.
Don't get me wrong, I love Margate, but after experiencing Penzance this evening, Margate is a distant second.
What pipe, you may be asking yourself, did you give the honor of facilitating this nirvana moment?
Why, the beautiful Yacht sitting in my pipe rack of course...

Embers,
This yacht is one of my all time favorites. It's not the most expensive or oldest or rarest. But it is arguably one of the prettiest.
I picked it up as part of an estate lot. The seller, a widow, and her daughter met me in the grocery store parking lot of a neighboring town. The daughter drove her mom to meet me because her mom's car was in the shop.
Sweet lady that was selling 8 pipes, a 6 pipe stand and miscellaneous accessories. She had it on CL for $15 o.b.o.
After talking to her on the phone I told her I'd pay $30 sight unseen.
When she showed up and took the box of pipes and gear out of her daughters trunk I could immediately see that every one of the pipes had chipped, chewed or broken stems. I was kind of regretting my offer. But stuck to it, especially after seeing that this lady could definitely use it.
The yacht was in the worse shape of all of them. The stem was broken @ the button and the toe of the stummel had a big chip out of the right side when viewing it from the stem side.
I tried unsuccessfully to reconstruct the stem using black superglue. It was a disaster. So I concentrated my efforts on the stummel.
The stummel had a really funky laquer of some sort on it and looked terrible. So before I spent any time on the chip I decided to strip it and see what the grain was like.
Wow! What a beautiful grain pattern this pipe had. I spent many many hours sanding the chip out of the toe of this pipe and then shaping the opposite side of the stummel to match. I took it slow being as I didn't want to lose the character of the pipe.
Now I know what some of you are thinking... All of this trouble for a $4 or $5 dollar pipe? And you're probably right.
Anyway, after gettin the stummel lookin ship shape (see what I did there?) I sent it off, with it's destroyed stem, to Ric Farrah @ Briarville.
A few weeks later I got it back and these are the photos I took after opening the box and mating the stem to the pipe...




Now I know that there are a lot of you out there probably thinkin.... "yadda, yadda, yadda... What the hell does all of this have to do with Penzance!?!?!" Nothin, except that yesterday I was able to enjoy the best bowl of tobacco I've ever had, in my all time favorite briar.

Hubba hubba!
Those are some mighty fine lookin Penzance Smokers.

Ok Embers...
Now you gone done and did it!
Just when I think I'm gonna take a break from stockin my modest cellar, recently acquired enough Margate, Dorchester and Penzance to get me through the year, you got me to realize that not only do I not have any Virginia Flake, of any make, I've never tried it.
So, which obtainable brand out there is a "Must Have" ?