West Coast Pipe Show, Las Vegas, Event Photos
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People look mellow and relaxed. Terrific array of artisan pipes by numerous carvers. The crowd looks abundantly conversational. Lots of yarns, fibs, and information I suspect. Thank you for these photos, really artfully done with good candids showing faces and interactions, which is not always easily done. People didn't brace and stiffen, the way they can. You just resign yourself, you're going to come home with a new pipe (or two or more) and a new blend or three. Some drive hard bargain, but you can be astonished ... some carvers will give you prices you cannot refuse.
Indeed it was/is! He's quite a conversationalist, and very affable. Also a talented cartoonist! I had the impression he was much older and more formal than he is in real life. (And I am younger than I appear in my avatar!! Though maybe by not a lot....) 
And, mso, you are quite right. Very congenial group, lots of sharing, both stories and tobacco. Then there are the knowledgeable ones and their willingness to share it, most rewarding. I had a few Barlings that Jesse gave some history on; always good to learn more. I pulled out a 50 year old military mount meer billiard and passed it around, and it may have kicked off a purchase by said expert of a collector-quality meer. Such are the delightful coincidences at the show.
You better spend good time at the Chicago show, buster!!
And, mso, you are quite right. Very congenial group, lots of sharing, both stories and tobacco. Then there are the knowledgeable ones and their willingness to share it, most rewarding. I had a few Barlings that Jesse gave some history on; always good to learn more. I pulled out a 50 year old military mount meer billiard and passed it around, and it may have kicked off a purchase by said expert of a collector-quality meer. Such are the delightful coincidences at the show.
You better spend good time at the Chicago show, buster!!
Re: smoking at the show. It is on. You can smoke in the exhibit room, the "lounge" (break out room?), in your room if you've specified a smoking room, and on the walk through the casino to the show floor. And at the pub/restaurant where folks meet and greet, sip and smoke. Bought a sweet pipe Friday night before the big action of Saturday morning.
This event is a ball and it's my second one in LV, plan to go next year.
This event is a ball and it's my second one in LV, plan to go next year.
Just returned from the WCPS.
John, the pictures are terrific and I hope that more attendees will post. The WCPS is a fun show to attend. The atmosphere, while thick withsmoke, intrigue, is also very mellow. There is a bounty of great pipes and tobaccos to be found at the show.
But there is also a tremendous bounty of fellowship. In what is starting to become a tradition, a group of 18 hearty souls went out to dinner at Mint Bistro, a delicious Indian restaurant, after which several of us headed to the Venetian for a stroll along the Grand canal and a stop at the gelateria.
It was great fun hanging out with ashdigger, greydawn, jpmcwjr, jguss, jiminks, trailboss, and several other members of this forum, as well as Mark Ryan, Steve Liskey, Brad Pohlman, Ryan Alden, Marty Pulvers, Mike Glukler, and Greg Pease and other members of the fraternity, sharing tobbaccos and discussing a wide variety of topics. We have some very smart knowledgeable and witty people in this fraternity.
I also got to hang out with Warhorse Red and Green bar, which I received from ashdigger, and which I shared with everyone I could over the two days of the event.
One of my goals was to buy Ryan and Daughters tobaccos. Mark Ryan is rightly credited with saving the Perique business from ruin and who better to visit for some rare and exquisite tobaccos. Mark, a big hearted generous soul, did not disappoint. I bought the same rare Canadian Perique procesed Virginia that was used in Russ' Acadian blends, 15 year barrel aged Perique that is full, rich and fruity, 10+ year old aged yenidje, and other fine blending leaf that almost no one, besides Mark, has. Go to a pipe show, and find wonders.
I also found two terrific pipes, a large Barling Quaint, and an unsmoked cased Andreas Bauer meer, both for very favorable prices. And, last but not least I was given a pre-1928 paneled Kaywoodie, in exceptional condition, by ashdigger, one of the kindest and most generous people I know.
Many thanks to all of you for making this show such a complete and unqualified pleasure!!
John, the pictures are terrific and I hope that more attendees will post. The WCPS is a fun show to attend. The atmosphere, while thick with
But there is also a tremendous bounty of fellowship. In what is starting to become a tradition, a group of 18 hearty souls went out to dinner at Mint Bistro, a delicious Indian restaurant, after which several of us headed to the Venetian for a stroll along the Grand canal and a stop at the gelateria.
It was great fun hanging out with ashdigger, greydawn, jpmcwjr, jguss, jiminks, trailboss, and several other members of this forum, as well as Mark Ryan, Steve Liskey, Brad Pohlman, Ryan Alden, Marty Pulvers, Mike Glukler, and Greg Pease and other members of the fraternity, sharing tobbaccos and discussing a wide variety of topics. We have some very smart knowledgeable and witty people in this fraternity.
I also got to hang out with Warhorse Red and Green bar, which I received from ashdigger, and which I shared with everyone I could over the two days of the event.
One of my goals was to buy Ryan and Daughters tobaccos. Mark Ryan is rightly credited with saving the Perique business from ruin and who better to visit for some rare and exquisite tobaccos. Mark, a big hearted generous soul, did not disappoint. I bought the same rare Canadian Perique procesed Virginia that was used in Russ' Acadian blends, 15 year barrel aged Perique that is full, rich and fruity, 10+ year old aged yenidje, and other fine blending leaf that almost no one, besides Mark, has. Go to a pipe show, and find wonders.
I also found two terrific pipes, a large Barling Quaint, and an unsmoked cased Andreas Bauer meer, both for very favorable prices. And, last but not least I was given a pre-1928 paneled Kaywoodie, in exceptional condition, by ashdigger, one of the kindest and most generous people I know.
Many thanks to all of you for making this show such a complete and unqualified pleasure!!
I don't have much to add, but I'd like to echo the sentiments of all the posters above.
The "stuff" part of the show was certainly amazing, but the camaraderie was the real winner. The generosity, the inclusiveness..
I can't tell you how pleased I am with everyone I met over the weekend. Likely the finest collection of individuals I've seen assembled in one place, and I'm not trying to use hyperbole. Smart, funny, delightful. Definitely interesting to see how the "internet persona" contrasts with the real-life individual - which isn't to say anyone isn't genuine - point is more that the forums simply don't do them the justice they deserve.
Truly, thanks to everyone for everything this weekend. I am absolutely overjoyed and I won't soon forget it.
The "stuff" part of the show was certainly amazing, but the camaraderie was the real winner. The generosity, the inclusiveness..
I can't tell you how pleased I am with everyone I met over the weekend. Likely the finest collection of individuals I've seen assembled in one place, and I'm not trying to use hyperbole. Smart, funny, delightful. Definitely interesting to see how the "internet persona" contrasts with the real-life individual - which isn't to say anyone isn't genuine - point is more that the forums simply don't do them the justice they deserve.
Truly, thanks to everyone for everything this weekend. I am absolutely overjoyed and I won't soon forget it.
I regret not having taken more photos!
I just never seem to think about it until its too late.
Hopefully more will show up over the next few days.
I just never seem to think about it until its too late.
Hopefully more will show up over the next few days.
"Mark Ryan is rightly credited with saving the Perique business from ruin "
Not true. Why do people keep repeating this myth??? He has been a big help, and came around five years after the fact to service the pipe tobacco market, but cigs saved Perique.
GRAND POINT, La. — About 15 years ago, the world supply of the pungent Cajun tobacco perique was down to about five barrels. One of the rarest tobaccos in the world, it comes from St. James Parish, about 50 miles west of New Orleans.
The market had been declining since a peak in the 1920s, and Percy Martin was the only full-scale farmer left. A few bad seasons had knocked his production down to the point where perique was on the verge of extinction.
Mr. Martin died last year, but not before he saw the tobacco he had spent his life with make a nearly miraculous recovery to what might be its biggest business success. His son Ray took over the farm, and this spring Ray Martin has 236 barrels sitting on his barn floor — the most he could remember seeing, ever.
“I started getting more people, must be five years ago,” Mr. Martin said. “We just kept it going. We were the last ones planting.”
The backbreaking labor associated with that preindustrial process, combined with a succession of storms and low prices, had led to a long period of attrition. When two tobacco enthusiasts, Christopher Brown and Matt Nichols, decided around 1998 to go see where one of their favorite products grew, they were shocked to find just a few acres of farmland left.
Mr. Brown and Mr. Nichols resolved to do something to preserve perique. They helped Ray Martin send samples of his tobacco to major companies, and one of them ended up on the desk of Mike Little, now the president of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which makes American Spirit cigarettes.
“I was just enamored by the process and so impressed by the work ethic of these farmers,” Mr. Little said. “And the end product you get is just this very unique, very spicy tobacco product. Being an old tobacco guy and a blender, it was a real experience.”
In 2000, American Spirit introduced a perique cigarette, giving Mr. Martin the consistent buyer he needed. Over the years, American Spirit and its perique blend kept expanding, finding plenty of willing buyers in America and overseas. Mr. Martin also runs a processing plant for the growing ranks of perique farmers.
In 2005, a North Carolina businessman named Mark Ryan bought an old processing facility in nearby Convent, La., with a lineage going back to Pierre Chenet, thought to be the first Westerner to produce perique. Recently, he added to it. Mr. Ryan has more demand than he can fill with his local farmers, and augments his barrels with tobacco from places like Kentucky, Virginia and Canada, as his predecessor had done for years as more and more farmers left the business.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/tobacco-lovers-discover-mystique-of-perique.html
Not true. Why do people keep repeating this myth??? He has been a big help, and came around five years after the fact to service the pipe tobacco market, but cigs saved Perique.
GRAND POINT, La. — About 15 years ago, the world supply of the pungent Cajun tobacco perique was down to about five barrels. One of the rarest tobaccos in the world, it comes from St. James Parish, about 50 miles west of New Orleans.
The market had been declining since a peak in the 1920s, and Percy Martin was the only full-scale farmer left. A few bad seasons had knocked his production down to the point where perique was on the verge of extinction.
Mr. Martin died last year, but not before he saw the tobacco he had spent his life with make a nearly miraculous recovery to what might be its biggest business success. His son Ray took over the farm, and this spring Ray Martin has 236 barrels sitting on his barn floor — the most he could remember seeing, ever.
“I started getting more people, must be five years ago,” Mr. Martin said. “We just kept it going. We were the last ones planting.”
The backbreaking labor associated with that preindustrial process, combined with a succession of storms and low prices, had led to a long period of attrition. When two tobacco enthusiasts, Christopher Brown and Matt Nichols, decided around 1998 to go see where one of their favorite products grew, they were shocked to find just a few acres of farmland left.
Mr. Brown and Mr. Nichols resolved to do something to preserve perique. They helped Ray Martin send samples of his tobacco to major companies, and one of them ended up on the desk of Mike Little, now the president of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which makes American Spirit cigarettes.
“I was just enamored by the process and so impressed by the work ethic of these farmers,” Mr. Little said. “And the end product you get is just this very unique, very spicy tobacco product. Being an old tobacco guy and a blender, it was a real experience.”
In 2000, American Spirit introduced a perique cigarette, giving Mr. Martin the consistent buyer he needed. Over the years, American Spirit and its perique blend kept expanding, finding plenty of willing buyers in America and overseas. Mr. Martin also runs a processing plant for the growing ranks of perique farmers.
In 2005, a North Carolina businessman named Mark Ryan bought an old processing facility in nearby Convent, La., with a lineage going back to Pierre Chenet, thought to be the first Westerner to produce perique. Recently, he added to it. Mr. Ryan has more demand than he can fill with his local farmers, and augments his barrels with tobacco from places like Kentucky, Virginia and Canada, as his predecessor had done for years as more and more farmers left the business.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/us/tobacco-lovers-discover-mystique-of-perique.html
I did/we did! Now, with a total of three shows under my belt, I feel like an old hand, wise, content, and happy. The wise part is more of a wish, but as a newbie last year, several guys really helped me feel at home, and I knew who to go to for advice.
Jackswilling, maybe the debate about Mark could be another thread?
Thanks for posting the pictures from the show. It's nice to live vicariously through picture takers and posters. I wish I could have been there this year, but I will eventually make it out there. Thanks!
Thanks for posting the pictures from the show. It's nice to live vicariously through picture takers and posters. I wish I could have been there this year, but I will eventually make it out there. Thanks!
It really was a pleasure, and will have a couple more when I get home, leaving Las Vegas! momemtarily. (thinking of the movie)
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