Barley Vine

Sunday Musings, The Temple of Speed and Liverpool V ManU

2024-09-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

My favorite time of the year is here, the weather is getting a little cooler and its EPL season is starting, while the Formula 1 season heads into the final stretch with a finish that promises to end in an epic fashion, but more on that in a bit. First up coffee.

This weeks beans come from Houston roaster Slowpokes. A mexican origin medium roasted coffee, I used my typical pour over method. It produced chocolatey notes with notes of red pepper, and a mild sweet vanilla note. A lovely cup to start the day.

Recommendation:

One of my all time favorite TV shows is West Wing. Regardless of where you lie on the political spectrum this show highlights the best of politics and where I think we would love politics to be, not in the gutter where it currently resides. There is new book titled What’s Next that documents behinds the scenes of this fantastic show, giving insight into how the show came to be as well as highlighting some specific episodes and honoring the late great John Spencer. Its a fantastic book written by two people who were actually in the show: Melissa Fitzgerald (she played CJ’s assistant Carol Fitzpatrick) and Marcy McCormack (she played Deputy NSA Kate Harper).

Formula 1

We’re at the temple of speed this week! The Italian Grand Prix at Monza! A great start to the weekend with both McLaren drivers starting at the front of the grid. Surprisingly both Red Bull Drivers struggled during qualifying and started further back at 7th and 8th. This is the 5th different pole sitter at Monza in the last 5 years. Hopefully Lando can break the curse as the previous 5 pole sitters failed to win. One big change to this weeks lineup is that Williams have made a switch in drivers. Sitting Sargent (rumor is he may be done for the year) and replacing him with Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto.

Most of the drivers are starting today’s race on the Medium compound tire, hoping for a one stop, means they need to get to around lap 20 or 22 before changing. A few drivers chose the hard compound tires, including the two Red Bull drivers.

Norris got a slightly pour start but recovered and stayed in the lead. Russell went off track at the first turn, however a few turns later both Piastri and LeClerc passed Norris and once again he won’t finish the first lap in first when he sits on the pole. Seemed to get a little chippy between the papaya drivers. Let’s see how this develops over the race.

First retired car was Tsunoda in lap 8.

Russell who had received some damage to his front wing at the beginning of the race was asked to pit at lap 12 to change out his front wing. He chose to switch tires, from Medium to Hard. Will be interesting to see if he can make it a one stop race changing tires out this early.

Norris called into the pits at lap 15 to undercut LeClerc, a nice quick stop of 2.2 seconds. Norris went in at P3 and came out at P9. With Norris on hard tires he should be able to finish the race without another stop.

Piastri called into the pits at lap 16, this will put Sainz in first with the Red Bull drivers in P2 and P3 since they started on Hard Tires. Piastri came out in P4 ahead of his teammate.

The pit strategy could be the deciding factor in how the drivers finish the race. When and where the Red Bull drivers pit could lead to them being out of the top 5.

Ferrari Driver Sainz who was in P1 pitted at Lap 20, came out in P6 leaving the Red Bull drivers in P1 and P2.

Verstappen is called into the pits at lap 22 to go from Hards to Mediums. I don’t see how he does a one stop race with Medium tires, that doesn’t seem like he will be able to get to the end of the race. He could do a two stop race and switch to soft tires at the end to get more speed.

And he stayed on Hard Tires, so definitely doing a two stop race.

Norris was told that he is allowed to race Oscar, so as we go forward in this race, things could get interesting. By lap 24, Team Papaya is back in P1 and P2 with Norris gaining on his teammate. Although it does seem that Norris for whatever reason doesn’t have the pace of his teammate. Norris got almost within a second of his papaya partner, but Piastri quickly seemed to separate himself and got the gap over 2 seconds.

Norris is struggling today, his tires aren[t holding up and he is falling back further behind his teammate and has allowed LeClerc to climb back to him who is putting a ton of pressure on him.

Norris pitted at lap 33, not a great pit stop that put him in P6 in between the two Red Bull drivers. He switched to new hard tires, so his previous tires were old which makes sense now with how little he ended up getting out of the old tires.

Piastri called to pit at lap 39 and stayed on hard tires, but not a great pit. He came out in P3 ahead of Red Bull driver Verstappen with Norris also on his tail.

Both Ferrari drivers are in P1 and P2, but they have only pitted once and I don’t believe they will be able to make it to the end without another pit.

Lap 41, Norris passes Verstappen into P4 now behind his teammate and Ferrari still in the lead

Verstappen pitted at lap 42 going to Medium tires, he went in at P5 and acme out in P6 behind Hamilton.

Lap 45 Piastri passed Sainz and moved into P2, can Norris get up there and McLaren get a double podium finish? There are 7 laps left, Push push push!

Lando passes Sainz in lap 48 up into P3.

An outstanding race, Ferrari winning at Monza is always cool to see, with LeClerc ending the race in P1. He raced a fantastic race, I honestly wasn’t sure he could hold on with doing a one stop strategy. McLaren gets a double podium allowing them to eat into the leads in both the driver championship and the constructors championship. Norris also got the fastest lap which gives him an additional point to eat into Verstappens lead who finished back in P6. While some will say that McLaren had the wrong strategy, I am not sure I agree. Their strategy was consistent with most of the other teams, honestly I think this was Ferrari’s day and they got a little lucky. LeClerc’s tires looked like trash at the finish, and Sainz had nothing left and fell back to both Piastri and Norris. There was a good chance that LeClerc wasn’t going to make it, and if he hadn’t McLaren would have looked like geniuses. LeClerc played the role of ultimate tire whisperer today, but it very easily could have gone poorly for Ferrari.

Quick notes:

Drivers Championship standings: Verstappen - 303; Norris - 241; LeClerc - 217; Pastri - 197; Sainz - 184. Getting tight at the top with Norris only 62 points behind the leader. There are enough races left that he can continue to chip away and win the championship.

Constructors Championship: Red Bull - 446; McLaren - 438; Ferrari - 407; Mercedes - 292. Its turning into a 3 team race with team Papaya only 8 points behind Red Bull and Ferrari less than 40 points behind. My bold prediction is that McLaren passes Red Bull at the next GP in two weeks at Azerbaijan and that Ferrari will pass them shortly thereafter. Red Bull will end up finishing 3rd in the constructors cup something no one would have predicted at the start of the season.

Kevin Magnussen was penalized once again which put him over the limit in a 12 month period meaning he is out for the next race.

Liverpool

Match 3 of the new season pits the Reds against their hated rivals ManU at the historic Old Trafford pitch. The Third match for new manager Slot and he is leading his unit against a team they must win against to show they are a team to be worried about. The lineup for today is consistent to where what they have put out so far this season. They have shifted away from Klopps format and are in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Jota at the top and Diaz, Szoboaszlai, and Salah backing him up.

Liverpool in their Whites while ManU plays in their Red kit.

Liverpool’s TAA scores within 6 minutes, the ball barely getting over the line, but a fantastic start for the reds. Unfortunately, the goal was called offside not because TAA was offisde, but because the ball hit Salah who was. The score was reset to 0—0.

25 minutes into the match and it remains deadlocked. ManU is taking ownership of the match with a hefty lead in possession at 63%, more passes, but LFC has more shots on target. LFC defense is doing well. A strong D is a mark of Slots teams in the past, but their offense continues to struggle to take control of a match.

At the 34th minute Diaz makes a fantastic header into the back of the net! This one is going to stick as he was fully on sides. Sloppy pass from ManU that was intercepted by Liverpool, and Salah got the assist with a lovely pass to Diaz who knocked it in with his noggin.

ManU’s Martinez picked up the first yellow card when he took down Szoboazlai in a ridiculously aggressive manner that raised VVD’s ire. Could have been worse than a yellow, he got lucky.

Luis Diaz takes another great pass from Salah and one times it into the net at the end the 1st minute. Diaz is on fire this season and Salah is really stepping up to be the set up man this season.

5 minutes of stoppage time is announced to end the half, let’s see if LFC can get another score before they head into the locker room.

The first half ends with LFC up 2 - 0 against ManU. Possession has evened out more compared to what it was earlier in match with United only up 51% to 49%. LFC is really taking charge of the match, and with their penchant for halftime adjustments I expect more of the same in the second half.

Right at the start of the first half, Jota and ManU player Mazroui come together and the United player goes down. He laid on the pitch for quite sometime as the trainers check him out. Eventually at minute 50 he got up and moved to the sidelines and play restarted.

In the 54th minute VVD gets a Yellow Card for fouling Man U player Bruno Fernandez. It didn’t look like a major foul as VVD just stuck his leg out and Fernandez tripped over it.

LFC drove quickly back and Salah got his goal at Old Trafford for the 7th consecutive time. LFC up 3 to nil against their rivals and the mood couldn’t be worse at Old Trafford.

ManU player De Ligt received a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Diaz in the 64th minute. Honestly it could have been a red. It was a reckless cleat up tackle.

5 minutes of extra time added to finish the match. Liverpool remains up 3-0 and has done a great job of holding off any attempt by ManU to make a drive and score. Their defense is so far ahead of where it has been in the last couple of seasons.

Liverpool gets a much needed win and a clean sheet for Allison. So far a great start to the season under new manager Slot.

Amazing to see ManU fans exiting the stadium with 10 to 15 minutes left in the match. They are abandoning their team already. While I have no love for ManU its amazing how far the United owners the Glazers have gone to disenfranchise their loyal fanbase. They have driven a once proud franchise into consistent mediocrity.

After the match Liverpool and Man City sit atop the EPL standings. Both with perfect records and similar goal differential.

Sunday Musings: I'm Back and so is the EPL

2024-08-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

Back to posting on the blog after a short Summer break. Needed some time off and a couple of trips, but now that school is back in session, so is the blog. And good timing too. While the F1 season is still on its on summer break, this weekend the English Premiere League season started which means my beloved Liverpool is back in action. More on that later. First, coffee.

The team behind Greenway Coffee owns one of my favorite coffee shops in Houston, Blacksmith Coffee. I've known that team for a long time, and even once upon a time many many moons ago hosted a beer education class at their home. This particular coffee is their Contemporary Blend, kind of their everyday blend. Nothing crazy, but just a beautiful roast and blend of beans from around the world. A smooth fruit forward chocolatey cup. You can't go wrong with it at all.

Recommendations

As I mentioned before F1 is still out on their summer break, however, there is a new F1 book out. Grand Prix the Illustrated History of F1 by Will Buxton has recently been released. If you've ever seen the Netflix series Drive to Survive, or watched any F1 Televesion than you are VERY familiar with Mr. Buxton. His sense of humor and level of detail shine in the book, as do the amazing illustrations. It's a great book that goes into good detail on rules and regulations, as well as a decade by decade review of F1's history. While some of it is very basic and most F1 watchers would know it, some of the details were new to me and some of the history especially the stuff back in the 50s and 60s was extremely interesting. Worth a pick up should you see it in your local book shop.

EPL

The Reds are back, but they aren't the same Reds of the last few season. The change starts at the top of course. Long time manager Jurgen Klopp has stepped away and new manager Arne Slot has taken the reigns. While Liverpool hasn't picked up anyone over the summer break there is still some time before the 30 August deadline so I won't go into a full predictions yet. That being said with Arne at the top, he has made some significant changes. Out is Clops standards format of play and in its place is a 4-5-1 that puts more emphasis on a single striker. How will that play out, only time will tell. To open the season up they played newly promoted Ipswich Town. As has been the case in recent years, the Reds started off slow, you could tell that they were still getting used to the new formations and how Arne called a match. The first half was very uneventful, with a few chances here and there, but nothing that was a sure footed fire at the net. However that all changed after half time. Slot made some adjustments, and team started to gel. Diego Jota scored first at the 60th minute with a beautiful shot. However, it was seeing Liverpool legend Mo Salah score at the 65th minute that put a huge grin on my face. Without his familiar flowing hair, Salah made a now familiar goal, and a record 9th season in a row where he has scored in the first game of the season. Mo looked truly happy out on the pitch, so here's hoping that he sticks around at least another season. While LFC should have easily beaten Ipswich, Arne Slot becomes the first LFC manager to win his debut, so it wasn't a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination. I have hope that LFC can finish near the top of the table this year. Not predicting a League win, but at the top, and maybe a trophy in one of the other tournaments they will compete in would be a great way to kick off the Arne Slot era.

Sunday Musings and Hungarian GP

2024-07-21T11:53:00.007-05:00

After a week off we are back to a Sunday Race Day, and all such days must start with a good cup of coffee. This weeks coffee is from Corvus out of Denver, CO. Called Dead Reckoning their seasonal blend, with beans from Ethiopia and Central America. This is a dark chocolate bomb. Lots of bitter dark chocolate, blueberries, mild sweetness. Delicious pour over cup.

Formula One

We are officially into the second half of the season with the Hungarian GP. The weekend started off with a wild and somewhat wet Free Practice session and qualifying. Team McLaren ended up locking out the front row with Norris and Piastri P1 and P2 respectfully. Red Bull Driver Perez continues top force RB to question if he should be their driver next season by spinning off and not getting out of Q1 yet again. More shocking was that Mercedes driver George Russell didn’t get out of Q1 either. Once again this is a great opportunity for the McLaren team to chew up some of the gap between them and RB at the top of the constructors cup.

Race Day didn’t start the way I wanted it too with the McLaren team feverishly working on Norris’s car while it was sitting on the grid before the formation lap as he complained of an issue with the throttle. It looks like the McLaren engineers were able to make the fixes they needed to and get the car buttoned back up just in time for the race to start.

For tires today, this is the softest range that can be used. With the heat of the track will be interesting to see what impacts this has on strategy. Most of the top cars were on Medium tires with a few in the second half of the top 10 chose soft tires to start the race.

Lights Out! Great start by mMcLaren three wide on first turn, but Verstappen goes wide, Norris falls to third, with max going ahead. Max should have to give up that spot due to Max going wide and taking a place while he was off track. Piastri doing well in P1.

Finally at lap 4 Max lets Lando pass him to take the spot back, but as Versappen is want to do as soon as he can he tries to use DRS to pass Norris but he is able to keep Max back.

By Lap 7 Norris had gotten enough space between him and Max that Verstappen could no longer use DRS.

The top 10 drivers started pitting around lap 8, meaning this race is probably going to be a 2 stop race. Most of there drivers switching to hard tires during this initial pit.

Lando in P2 pitted at Lap 18 switching form Medium tires to Hard. Good 2.8s pit stop. He comes out in P5, put into a good position. McLaren called Piastri in to pit the next lap again switching to hard tires with a 2.5s stop. Piastri came out ahead of Norris in P4. This back to back pit put Verstappen in P1, who has yet to pit along with the two Ferrari drivers who are in P2 and P3.

Verstappen and Sainz pitted at lap 22. Verstappen got a 3s pit stop. Max goes out in P5, with LeClerc who stayed out in P1 followed by the two McLaren drivers. LeClerc pitted at lap 23 and came out in P5.

Alpine driver Gasly got called into box at lap 34 to retire the car and is out of the Hungarian GP.

P3 driver Hamilton takes his second pit stop at Lap 41 as does LeClerc, both had pit stops under 3s. Hamilton come out P5 and LeClerc in P6. Hamilton on his second set of Hard tires and the Ferrari driver switched to medium tires.

Norris being called into the pits at Lap 45. Goes in at P2, good pit stop at 2.3s and a switch to Medium tires. He comes out at P4 ahead of Hamilton. Great job by the McLaren team as everyone ahead of Norris hasn’t had their second pit stop.

Piastri called into pit at lap 47, as is Sainz. Good pit stoppage by McLaren at 2.9S switching to medium tires coming out at P3. Norris in P2, Oscar in P3 both behind Max who hasn’t pitted.

Max pitted at Lap 50, good pit stop at 2.3s switching to Medium tires. Max comes out at P5 behind Hamilton and LeClerc.

20 Laps to go Norris in P1, Piastri in P2, Hamilton in P3, Leclere in P4 and then Max in p5, all on Medium tires except Hamilton who is on Hard tires.

After the last pit, McLaren gave orders for Norris to allow Oscar to pass him when he got close. Piastri never really did, with Norris opening up an almost 6 second gap on his McLaren Team mate. The Team radios got very awkward as the laps counted down to the end of the race with the team principal ordering Lando to slow down for Oscar to get back into 1st. I don’t get why McLaren was this adamant about Oscar getting P1 when Lando is in a fight for the championship. Eventually Lando let Oscar pass on the straightaway which allowed Oscar to get his first win, and McLaren getting P1 and P2 and Hamilton getting his 200th podium. Earlier Verstappen who was battling Hamilton for P3, tried to pass the Mercedes driver, but locked up and almost crashed with Hamilton. He recovered, but will be facing a penalty after the race.

On the team radio, Oscar sounded very subdued on the radio for his first win.

Exciting race and the 7th different winner of the season.

Does Zak brown get another tattoo? He has gotten tattoos each time one his drivers gets a win (first with Ricciardo, then with Norris).

Current Constructors Standings: Red Bull 389; McLaren 338; Ferrari 322; Mercedes 241

Current Drivers Standings: Verstappen 265; Norris 189; LeClerc 162; Sainz 154; Piastri 149

A quick note that these numbers could change if Verstappen gets penalized for his contact with Hamilton at the end of the race. Perez falls to 7th behind Hamilton, and my guess is that he will be behind Russell after Spa. How does RB stay with Perez when he will be in P8 at the summer break?

Post Hurricane Smoke and Pour

2024-07-10T17:57:00.002-05:00

It's been a crazy couple of days at the Barleyvine house. Our fair area got slammed by Beryl, a purported Category 1 storm that caused way more damage than any Cat 1 storm I have ever seen. We were lucky. We lost some limbs from our oak, and a small tree got blown over in our back yard, but otherwise, no damage. Our fence is fine while many in our neighborhood were blown completely down. Our house sustained no damage, not a single shingle missing. So we count our selves lucky. Our power went out, but it is back while many remain without power around the city. I am thankful things were not worse, our neighbors and friends are all OK and that is what counts. It with that in my mind that I sat down for a pour and a smoke. A time to sit and contemplate these last few days and be thankful for everything that we have.

The Whiskey

Michter is a distillery out of Kentucky, while they have recently returned to distilling, the name Michters has a long history of making American whiskey stretching back to the 1700s. This particular expression is their Bourbon. Sweet caramel corn up front, then comes some oaky toasty notes, cinnamon, stone fruits, peppery, maybe cherry notes. A lovely bourbon, not overly complex, but smooth, satisfying, with just enough underneath to keep you sipping looking for more.

The Cigar

I have spoken about Ezra Zion out of the DFW area before. Its a wonderful cigar company that does a great job of sourcing tobacco from around the world and then selling direct to consumer, which cuts down costs and allows folks to try cigars that are much cheaper than they would be otherwise. This particular expression called Naughty Bits Vogue LTD is just such an example. A cigar with a different wrapper name on it would be much more expensive. This is a medium strength 6x52 classic toro. Wrapper is a beautiful creamy 10 year aged Colorado leaf. The first smoke is creamy silky milk chocolate, and brown sugar. As you smoke notes of black pepper, vanilla bean and candied nuts comes out, mixing with the milk chocolate. It burns even and smooth, not hot at all. It's not an overly long smoke, around an hour. This went well with the bourbon. The bourbon was good, but simpler, this is more complex, so one doesn't overwhelm the other. I appreciate the flavors and smoked it down to a numb. Delicious.

Sunday Musings, Silverstone and Music inspired coffee

2024-07-07T10:52:00.003-05:00

Anyone reading this here blog knows I drink coffee from Texas primarily. There are a ton of good roasters in this state so I enjoy getting to try the different roasters out. However, every once in a while I'll get introduced to something new and get excited about it. This is one of those days. Corvus Roasters is from Denver, CO a city I am very familiar with, but haven't had coffee from them. This coffee is a very special single origin made in celebration of Nathaniel Hawthorne's newest album. From El Salvador, this is a naturally processed coffee. I brewed using my French Press. Makes a wonderful floral cup, citrus, some tea like qualities as well. Beautiful vibrant cup that absolutely sparkles. This is tremendous, will have to search out more from Corvus.

Speaking of Nathaniel Hawthorne, his newest album is my recommendation this week. Another great album by a tremendously talented band and the soulful singing of Hawthorne. Fantastic lyrics, great music that just makes you want to dance. His last few albums have all been tremendous. Go pick this up.

Formula 1

F1 hits the middle point of the season as they arrive at Silverstone for the British GP. The 12th race of the season promises to be an exciting race.

It was a good start to the weekend for the Papaya team. McLaren looked strong through the practice session with at least one of their drivers in the top 3 for each of the 3 sessions. For qualifying, Norris had a little skid during his out lap which kept him from getting pole, but it did lead to an all British top 3 with Russell, Hamilton, and Norris at P1-3.

Ferrari struggled, with LeClerc being out of the top 10. Perez was also out of the top 10 too not getting through Q2 and then due to penalties from the previous race starting at the back of the grid.

For the race the tires were the hardest three to choose from and most of the cars started on medium tires. Start to the race was uneventful, although Lando got driven outside the track, and Verstappen passed him. Gasly was our first retirement out by lap 3.

It being the British GP, rain was always a possibility and the team radios reported rain would be coming soon at areas of the track.

Norris drove past Versrtappen in lap 16, and got back into P3. Just brilliant racing.

Norris's passing opened up the flood gates and lost of passing started occurring as rain started lightly falling at lap 17.

Also Piastri passes Verstappen up into P4. The Red Bull car just doest have the pace.

The cars are starting to show the impact of the track getting wetter.

Norris passes Russell in lap 19 up into P2.

Norris passing Hamilton on lap 20 and up into the lead!

Piastri makes a brilliant pass of Russell into P3.

Some tremendous driving by both McLaren drivers.

Ferrari called LeClerc into pit at lap 20 to switch to intermediate’s.

Piastri drives past Hamilton into P2 so both drivers up at the top.

Around lap 24 the track was dry enough to enable DRS again. The drivers may have weathered the wet and may not need to switch tires. But that was short lived as DRS was once again disabled a couple of laps later as it started to get wet

Verstappen getting called into the pits at lap 27, along with Sainz. Both the Mercedes and McLaren cars stayed out.

The track is starting to get a little wetter, the Papaya team should pit at the next lap.

Norris pitting lap 27. Piastri stayed out, and both Mercedes drivers pitted

Norris came outing P2 so it was good decision, for when Piastri pits to change to inters Norris will be back in P1.

Piastri comes in at lap 29, unfortunately comes out in P6. Tough decision, not sure what the right call was. If both drivers came in at the same time, it may have slowed the pit down where Norris wouldn’t have come out in P1.

The track is causing the drivers some issues. The track has wet areas, but not enough to cool down the intermediate tires, so when they are on the drier portions of the track they are wearing out much faster than anticipated with Hamilton and Verstappen both complaining that their tires are falling apart. However the track just isn’t dry enough to get slicks back on.

Suddenly and unexpectedly Mercedes has to retire Russell at lap 34.

Report came from the pit reports that there was an issue with the water coolant system.

Sun really coming gout at lap 37, track should dry out quickly. When will they go into to get slicks and will they be able to switch to soft?

Hamilton coming into pit at lap 39. As is verstappen. Hamilton on Soft and Verstappen on Hard. Interesting strategy.

Piastri pitting too switching to new mediums.

Norris pitting on lap 40, switching to soft tires. Comes out in P2 behind Hamilton.

Verstappen in P3 and Piastri in P4.

Norris was passed by Max in lap 48. Dang it. The soft tires just aren’t holding up.

What a tremendous race. A ton of passing, great and not so great strategies that had true real impact on the race and the championship. I am not sure you could have asked for more.

Hamilton gets his first win since 2021, Norris gets P3, and with Norris and Piastri both doing well, McLaren will continue to climb closer to Red Bull in the constructors championship.

Half way through the season here is where we are in the standings:

Drivers Championship: Verstappen 255; Norris 171; LeClerc 150; Sainz; Piastri 125

Constructors Championship: Red Bull 373; Ferrari 302; McLaren 295; Mercedes 221

Some quick hit thoughts and predictions after making it halfway through the season.

1) Verstappen will win the championship. It may be closer than anyone thought it would be, but Max will end the season on top.

2) Redbull will NOT win the constructors. McLaren will. After the next race, McLaren will be in second place and by the end of the season they will at the top.

3) Not only will Ferrari not finish in 2nd place in the constructors cup, I think there is a good chance Mercedes passes them.

4) Ferrari will continue to rue the day they have gotten rid of Sainz, as LeClerc will continue to struggle the second half of the season.

5) Speaking of struggling, RB will announce that Perez is being demoted next season to their second team, and either promote Ricciardo, or maybe, just maybe sign Sainz (although I think this is highly unlikely).

Sunday Musings, and Formula one thoughts

2024-06-30T11:17:00.003-05:00

Another week another F1 race as we enter the second week of a triple header. But before the race one must have coffee. This weeks coffee comes from Houston roaster Ten Fold which I have talked about before. I have really enjoyed all their coffees and this one was no different. This coffee is a single estate from Burundi, and is absolutely beautiful in a pour over. Vibrant, bright, acidity, white grapes, fruity, almost floral notes. Not quite tea like, but nuanced and layered. Just lovely.

No real recommendations this week, so let's jump into the race.

Formula One

This week the paddock traveled to Austria and the Red Bull Ring. The home race for the two Red Bull owned teams. It was a good start to the weekend, as the McLaren team did very well the first couple of days, finishing 2 and 3 in the sprint race getting them much needed points, but unfortunately Max finished in P1 extending his lead at the top of the championship. For qualifying both McLarens looked like they were in P2 and 3, but Piastri had a track limits violation so fell to P7.

As for the race itself, it was a hell of a race by the time the checkered flag flew. Initially all cars were on Medium tires and it started without incident. Max in the lead with Norris chasing him. Although the LeClerc Ferrari sustained some front wing damage on the first lap and had to pit for a quick change out and he fell to P19.

After about lap 20 drivers started to pit switching to hard tires, Norris and Verstappen both pitted in lap 24 going to Hard tires.

Piastri moved into P1 since he hadn’t pitted, but ended up being called to Box Box at last 25 allowing Max and Lando back into P1 and P2 respectfully. Oscar came out in P6.

Both Perez and Hamilton were given 5 second penalties for separate pit lane incidents, but that ended up not playing much a role in the race itself.

Even though Norris has gotten fasted lap, Verstappen continues to open a gap leading by almost 8 seconds by lap 34. However, by around lap 45 Norris seemed to start gaining on Max, whether this is a tire wear issue or something else was unclear, but Norris had narrowed the gap to 6.4 seconds.

Another round of pits happened at this time as well, Sainz pitting at lap 48 Piastri moving up to P3 as Hamilton complained about tire wear. Verstappen and Norris both pit again at lap 52.

McLaren had a much much better pit than Red Bull as they struggled with a tire change. A large pit different of 2.9 seconds to 6.5. Now Norris is now only 2 seconds behind the leader

Even after pitting Verstappen complains about no grip, Norris is well within DRS zone at lap 57, and starts to make some moves, he made an attempt to pass but went off track so Max remained in the lead.

Norris did try another pass at lap 63, Verstappen goes off track and kept his lead, but I don't think he should have. He should concede the position back just like Norris did earlier in the race.

For sure Norris is right at the line of exceeding track limits, but Verstappen is reverting to his old self, being overly aggressive and swerving, not maintaining his line which isn't legal either.

At lap 64 it all came to a head as Norris and Max collide each puncturing a tire, but Norris sustains some significant damage to his underside. Russell takes the lead while both damaged cars limp back to the pits. Verstappen is able to change out his tire, but Lando unfortunately has to retire his McLaren car.

Oscar moves up to P2 trying to make a move on Russell, Max is back in P5, and gets penalized for 10s, but that has no impact as he has a 15 second gap.

George Russel wins, Piastri gets P2 and Carols gets P3. Norris for the first time this season gets a DNF.

The race was super frustrating as a McLaren fan. Happy for Oscar, but dissapointed for Norris. As stated earlier Norris was aggressively driving and you could mark him for exceeding track limits at times, but there is no question that Max was the cause for the incident. There is a reason why Max was called Crashstappen in his early career, this is what he does. We haven't seen it for a while since he has had such a lead on other teams, but once the pressure is on, he will crash other drivers, and make illegal moves on track. It will be interesting to see if F1 does anything, but I won't hold my breath.

The Drivers Championship remains mostly the same: Verstappen 237l Norris 156; LeClerc 150; Sainz 135; Perez 118; Of note Oscar is right on Perez's heels with 112 points and I expect him to pass the Red Bull Driver next week.

The Constructors Championship standings: Red Bull 355; Ferrari 291; McLaren 268; Mercedes 196.

Sunday Musings and the Spanish GP

2024-06-23T10:04:00.003-05:00

It's a race day! My favorite day of the week, but before we get to that a few other things to write about. Firstly coffee! Today I am using beans from a bookstore, well kinda. Iconic Houston book store, Murder by the Book purchased another iconic place, Houston's House of Beans which is next door. House of Beans was probably Houston's first non chain coffee shop. They have been roasting and selling beans since 1973! When the owners wanted to sell, their next door neighbors stepped up because what's better than a book and coffee. Recently when I went in to the book store, I saw this specific blend, Brew-Dunnit and had to pick it up. Mystery themed bag of beans, why not! Made a pour over this morning, and this is a slightly darker roast than I normally brew. But it's full of dark dried fruits, raisins, dark chocolate, cinnamon. Some acidity, some sweetness. Well balanced for a more darker roast. Very enjoyable.

I have two recommendations today, the first is the book in the picture that I picked up during my visit to Murder by the book. A fantastically fun thriller. Imagine John Wick going to an AA type group for reformed assassins, and then having folks go after him, but he can't kill. That's the book. And it's a ton of fun, so highly recommend.

My second recommendation is a new documentary on Hulu, Brats. The story of the 80's group of actors the Brat Pack. Directed by brat pack member Andrew McCarthy it shows the impact that one single story and one label had on this group. Some never got out from under being called brats and being labeled as not being serious actors. As a child of the 80's this was really interesting and full of nostalgia. Andrew did an outstanding job of directing and pulling in as many of the members and near members as he could. Well done and worth a watch for sure.

Formula 1

This week the paddock went to Spain, specifically Barcelona for the Spanish GP. The weekend started off well for McLaren as Norris captured pole position ahead of Verstappen. Although it wasn’t a perfect day for the papaya team as Piastri was at P10. But it still set the team up well for the race. Unfortunately it was not a great start as Lando gets pushed to third with Russell and Verstappen crowding him out and the Mercedes driver jumping to first, Verstappen staying in second. By lap 3 Max had passed Russell and moved into P1. This stayed fairly consistent for the next handful of laps, Norris, stayed very close to Russell, with Verstappen able to open up a couple of seconds gap.

Around lap 16 drivers started to pit around lap 16. At lap 18 Verstappen pitted allowing Norris to get back in P1. The McLaren drivers waited as long as possible to pit, a very different strategy than other drivers. Piastri ended up pitting at lap 22. Went in at P4, went out at P11.

Lando pitted at Lap 23, in P1, good pit at 2.4 seconds came out at P6 just behind Sainz.

Lando doing a good job of climbing back up, and moved into P4 as of lap 27. Piastri back in the points at P10.

Lando made an outstanding pass of Hamilton to get into P2, but Verstappen had opened up quite a gap, at this point it comes up to pitting strategy and tire management.

Based on lap times, it is obvious that the McLaren has pace as it consistently gains on Verstappen chipping away at the lead.

Verstappen took his second pit stop at Lap 45, great pit stop at 2.8 seconds, switched to the soft tires that will need to last 21 laps. The pit allowed Norris to move into P1.

Piastri takes his second pit at Lap 47, out at P8, with a new set of Soft tires. Lando pitted at lap 48, he came in at P1. Unfortunately they had what looked like a slow pit stop at 3.6s, but he still was out at P2 ahead of Russell and Hamilton. Gap to Verstappen is 8 seconds with less than 20 laps left. Lando may have enough time to track down the Red Bull driver as he initially gained 1.5 seconds in the first couple of laps after the pit.

Over time however, the race balanced out and Norris wasn’t making as big of strides as he once was, only getting within a coupe of seconds of Verstappen, but couldn’t close the gap more than that even though he was constantly getting fastest lap. I wouldn't say the race was boring, but there was a surprising lack of back and forth outside of around the pits. Everyone finished the race and there wasn't a lot of thrilling over takes which I didn't expect.

For the finish Verstappen gets P1, Norris gets P2, Hamilton, for the first time this year gets a podium finishing in P3.

The other Mclaren driver finished in P7. So another race with double points, should help in constructors especially now that Norris is now P2 in drivers championship.

So for the season the drivers championship looks like: Verstappen 219; Norris 150; LeClerc 148; Sainz 116.

Nice to see Lando for the first time in his career in second place in drivers championship.

Constructors Championship: Red Bull 330; Ferrari 270; McLaren 237; Mercedes 151

McLaren keeps slowly gaining on Ferrari and Red Bull, Its going to be a fun second half of the season.

Wednesday Whiskey err Beer and Cigars

2024-06-19T11:54:00.001-05:00

A special Wednesday pairing post. While I drink more whiskey than beer these days, I still enjoy a good beer and cigar pairing. As with most things, some beers make much better pairings than others those are usually darker, barrel aged beers. This particular beer is one of those great cigar pairing beers, but it is so much more than that. This beer celebrates Houstons own Saint Arnolds 30th Anniversary. 30 years brewing craft beer is a tremendous feat, especially when you look at how many craft breweries have either shut down recently, or sold out to a a Macro brewer, or even tried to combine forces with other smaller craft breweries. Saint Arnold has stayed true to its roots, and has stayed independent throughout it all. While I haven't been in Houston for all of Saint Arnolds existence, I started visiting the brewery back in 2002 when they were in an un-airconditioned warehouse. Summers were fun. I've written about them many many times in the past on this blog, even getting the opportunity to interview the owner Brock Wagner. I am very happy to toast Saint Arnold and their 30 successful years with this outstanding beer.

The Beer

The beer is called a Grand Cru, which has no real meaning, but for Saint Arnold it means taking their imperial stout Commitment, aging it in bourbon and whiskey barrels for 2-4 years, then finishing it in Tokaji, Madeira, or Port barrels before blending it all together to create something that is incredibly unique. The beer pours a dark opaque brownish black with a thin quickly dissipating copper colored head. Bourbon, booze, oak, and vanilla spice on the nose. The mouthfeel is viscous, thick, heavy. Rich and creamy, wine like on the palate. Notes of port, dried fruits, slight oxidation. Cherries, tobacco, chocolate, slight acidity. Damn this is superb. It's been a long time since I have had a beer this complex, and enjoyable. Outstanding job by the Saint Arnold team.

The Cigar

When I smoke a cigar, I don't always want something that is going to last me an hour or more. Sometimes, I want something that is a shorter smoke, I am not in the mood to have a long sit down. When I am in that mood, I usually reach for a Nub, a small short stubby brand of cigars from Oliva Cigar company of which I have spoken about many times before. Nub makes a fairly wide range of small stubby sticks, in various shapes, but all are thick gauged. This particular stick is from their Nuance line, specifically their Single Roast. This is one of the few flavored type of cigars I have smoked as it is infused with coffee flavors and has a sweet cap on the wrapper. An Ecuadorian wrapper with Nicaragua filler, and very thick gauged this is not a harsh smoke at all. This is a creamy milk chocolate bomb, with a slight spice and cedar plank finish. It worked well with the beer, but I could have actually used a little more robust cigar I think to play off of the beer. Something I will have to try in the future.

Wednesday Cigars, Whiskey and Watches

2024-06-12T06:53:00.001-05:00

If you can, everyone should take a little time midweek for some you time. Time to relax with whatever you want, but just to relax, no TV, no noise, just you enjoying something. For me that's sitting down with a cigar a scotch, and maybe a book, or maybe just sitting outside. In addition to a smoke and dram there is a new watch to my collection to talk about! Excited for this one. But first....

The Scotch

I've talked about Ardbeg before, it's my favorite peated Whisky and in my mind one of the more complex balanced smoky drams you can find. This however, is not that. This is full on peat in the face, beating you back and forth until you ask for mercy. On the nose it's smokey, yes SMOKEY! There is an almost cloying sweetness behind the smoke, some stone fruits. The mouthfeel is oily, it coats the tongue and won't let go. There are notes of leather, peaches, vanilla, tanic like a dry red wine, coffee grits like I used to get from my grandads percolator coffee. It's unbalanced, but almost in a good way. I am not sure I would drink this on the daily, but every once in a while it's a wake up call for what over powering peat can be.

The Cigar

I smoked an AVO for the first time not to long ago, and am quickly becoming a fan. I believe this is the third expression from them that I have tried and it holds up very well to the intense scotch. The AVO Expressions is a limited edition cigar that has an Ecuadorian wrapper with American and Dominican filler tobacco. It's a medium bodied smoke which is my particular zone. It lights well, notes of vanilla, white pepper, and cream, as you smoke it down you get some cinnamon toast. It's mild, but not weak at all. I think it balances the power of the scotch with its mildness. I think if you had two in your face things it would be to much, with this there is a yin and yang that play well with each other. It's a great cigar to sit down for a good long session as this lasted me a little over an hour and a half. Definitely a good pick up and one that I would recommend.

The Watch

As I said above, I am excited to talk about this watch. I posted an unboxing video on my Instagram page as well as YouTube a couple of weeks ago and have been wearing this watch regularly since then. Dufrane is based out of Austin, TX and has been making some beautiful watches over the last few years. Each watch is put together in Austin. I've been looking at their watches for about a year, looking to purchase one since I thought it was cool that there was a good Texas Watch maker (and there are a couple more out there like Trafford that are worth looking into). I never pulled the trigger however, until I got an email a few months ago announcing the release of their new GMT watch. I figured this was the perfect time to make the move and pre-ordered the watch. The fine folks from Dufrane did a good job of keeping folks updated on the progress until it showed up on my doorstep. I was excited to open it up and let me tell you this watch for the price is stunning. It's got incredible finishing, I love the blue dial as I think it absolutely pops. The watch has very good lume as well with it being easily read in the dark. The bracelet is fantastic as well with easy release and easy adjustments standard (this should be standard for all watches, looking at you Tag Hauer). The watch is the first from Dufrane to have the Made in Swiss statement on the dial. Unlike his previous watches this one is assembled in Switzerland and then shipped over here, vs being put together in Austin. But this office GMT style watch offers a lot of bang for the buck with its finishing, beautiful dial, bracelet, and leather strap that comes with it, as well as just good solid functionality. Overall this is a great watch, by a great Texas company. My full review of the watch is below. Check it out and like and subscribe for more content on YouTube.

Sunday Afternoon Musings

2024-06-09T15:11:00.001-05:00

Posting a Sunday afternoon musings instead of Sunday morning due to the afternoon start of the Canadian Grand Prix. But I still have to talk about this cup of coffee from Greater Goods that I had this morning. Used my normal pour over method to make this cup and it was tremendous. Strong flavors of peach tea throughout. Just tremendous. It is such a unique cup that it explodes with the tea flavors, bergamot, and then subtle notes of peach came underneath. Lovely bright cup.

I'll hold off on my recommendations as I plan to post that on my Instagram page tomorrow, a very specific book related recommendation so be on the look out for that.

Formula One

The Montreal GP weekend started off interestingly enough. Not only did the newly signed to a long term contract RB Driver Perez fall out during Q1 for the second race in a row, but his teammate failed to top the pole and settled for P2. Another surprise was both Ferrari drivers didn’t make it out of Q2. Mercedes sat atop the Pole with Russell in P1, McLaren did well with Norris at P3 and Piastri at P5. The biggest concern going into the actual race on Sunday though was the weather. It had rained some during the practice session, and threatened during qualifying, but race day looked like it could be seriously affected by weather.

Both Sauber cars had to start from the pit lane due to having to fix some their cars after qualifying.

The Grand prix started with some rain, with cars choosing to be on the intermediates except the Haas team that was full wet tires.

Surprisingly clean start to the race. Shots of spray at the start, but through the first few turns the cars were able to stay clean and on the track. Initially the HAAS decision to start on Wets seemed to be a good one as they climbed up the grid, both in the top 10 through the first few laps.

By Lap 5 the Ferrari paddock was reporting to LeClerc that they were seeing engine problems with the car. Not clear on the issues, but they were working it, doesn’t sound like it will be a good day for the red team.

Lap 6 one of the Williams cars wen toff track, but they were able to get back on which cleared the section specific yellow flag, and by lap 7 the sun started to come out which should help dry the track up.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen went into the pits in lap 8 to switch from full wets to intermediates.

Fellow Haas Driver Nico Hulkenburg pitted at last 13, which then caused both of the cars to fall out of the top 10.

With the track drying DRS was finally enabled at lap 18.

Lap 21 Lando was able to use that DRS to bypass Verstappen and get into P2. And then a little later in that same lap Norris passed Russell to get into p1! Lap 25 Logan Sargent went into the wall bringing out a yellow flag and then a safety car. Unfortunately Norris’s pace was so quick that he couldn’t pit, but everyone behind him did pit, including his McLaren teammate Piastri. Teams were putting on another set of Inters preparing for an additional rain storm that was forecasted to be coming shortly. Norris pits on Lap 26 putting on Inters, unfortunately he came out in third behind Verstappen and Russell behind the safety card.

Reports of rain coming down again in lap 28.

Safety car out at lap 29.

By lap 36 it looked like the rain had passed. The question will be how long will the intermediate tires last, and if the teams will need to pit again before the race ends after lap 70. Intermediate tires don’t tend to last very long once they are on a dry track so the teams are going to have to use some interesting strategy as the race goes on.

Ferrari ended up retiring LeClerc’s car at lap 43. A few cars started pitting to switch from inters to slicks. I think it may be a couple of laps to early, but expect to see more cars pit by lap 46.

Hamilton came in at lap 44 to switch from inters to Mediums.

McLaren driver Piastri went in to pit at lap 45 and switched to mediums.

Verstappen who was in P1 was called into pit at lap 45, Russell followed him, but Norris stayed out which put him in P1. Norris is being called to Box at the end of lap 47. He is over 20 seconds ahead of P2 and could get out ahead if there is a good pit. McLaren puts on medium tires, but Norris wasn’t able to stay ahead of Verstappen. As of Lap 48, Verstappen is in P1, Norris in P2, Russell in P3 and Piastri in P4. A little over 20 laps left, can Lando make a move on his Red Bull rival?

Unfortunately Russell passed Norris in lap 50, around the same time that Max started complaining of issues with his car. At lap 51 Russell ran wide, blew across a curb and Norris was able to get P2 back.

Lap 54 it looks like Sainz and Alton made some contact and spun each other around brining out a yellow flag and a safety car.

Sainz ended up retiring shortly there after, Hamilton pitted and switched to hard tires, and Russell got Medium tires on, both hoping that it will help him make a move through the remainder of the race.

Safety car ended after lap 58.

After Piastri and Russell got into a skirmish, Hamilton ended up passing the McLaren driver in lap 66 and into P3.

A hard fought race by all the drivers, 5 drivers fell out due to crashes or mechanical problems, but Verstappen was able to get back on top, with Norris in P2 and Russell in P3, Piastri did well and finished P5. Overall an exciting race after the bore that was Monaco a couple of weeks ago. The off and on rain lead to some great strategies being deployed by the different teams and made for some back and forth racing. Overall a fun race and happy for team papaya.

Some additional thoughts:
1) I’ve said it all season, but I will say it again, I don’t understand Red Bull’s love of Perez. He has shown that he is an OK driver when everything is working, but if he is challenged he falls apart. He could well be the reason they don’t win the constructors cup this year and they won’t win it next year because of him. So why did they re-sign him? Because he doesn’t threaten Verstappen, and Max’s weak ego who can’t handle being challenged by a teammate.

2) McLaren continues to show they are the second best team on the grid. Yes Ferrari is ahead in the constructors championship, but by the end of the season McLaren will be head of them.

3) Good to see Ricciardo finish in the points today at P8.

4) Aston Martin had a rare race this season with double points with their drivers finishing P7 and P6.

5) For the season the Drivers Championship looks like: Verstappen 295, LeClerc 138, Norris 131 Sainz 108, Perez 107

6) For the season the Constructors championship looks like: Red Bull 301, Ferrari 252, McLaren 212, Mercedes 124, Aston Martin 58

Sunday Musings Its June

2024-06-02T10:05:00.004-05:00

Happy Summer to all. For most, the school year is over, which means summer vacations for most. Mine will hopefully be later this summer, but in the meantime I am enjoying this amazing coffee from Texas roaster Greater Goods. This Finca Rosita is from Bolivia, it's a lighter roasted coffee that I think is highlighted by doing a pour over which was my method this morning. This is a smooth cup, notes of citrus, cinnamon, churros, a nice rounded cup. Not overly acidic, just a hint, but its smooth, gentle cup that is a really nice cup of coffee.

Unfortunately the Premiere league season is over, and Forumla 1 is an off week, but there are still some things to talk about. But first a recommendation. I've been on a bit of documentary kick lately and that continues this week with a new movie on Disney Plus celebrating the life of the great Jim Henson. Henson the creator of the Muppets, and really being groundbreaking in showing what muppets, and puppeteering can do. His ideas of ability to communicate to children and adults is something that is all to rare these days. He and his muppets whether on Sesame Street or the muppet TV shows and movies was a HUGE part of my childhood. The documentary goes into detail on Jim and his wife Jane and how they started the Muppet company and brought in other amazing puppeteers not the least of which is Frank Oz. how they struggled to show producers and other industry people that these muppets weren't just for children and are just another form of entertainment for all to the creation of the aforementioned Sesame Street. I didn't realize that it took the brits to get the muppets on TV, with the first Muppets variety show being produced over in London. The show overall is worth checking it out, it definitely brought back some great memories and really made me think about what would have happened if Henson hadn't passed away at such a relatively young age.

While I don' have a lot of EPL things to discuss, I did figure I could chat about Formula 1 for a bit. Just some bullet point thoughts:

I wonder if Sainz's team knows what they are doing. It seems like they had an opportunity to sign with some teams earlier for less years, but may end up being left with only Williams and Audi as an option. While I think Williams is stepping up and has potential in the next couple of years, that is a huge step down from Ferrari, or Mercedes and of course Red Bull who were both rumored to be options in the past. He's a great driver, and better than what Ferrari will have next year, so it's a shame that he won't be in a great car.
Will Estaban Ocon be racing in Canada this coming weekend? Seems like there are mixed signals, with some saying that he is going to be replaced for one race due to his idiotic decision making at Monaco, but he released a statement earlier this week that sure indicated he was going to be racing. I honestly don't think he should. The guy has had a conflict with EVERY driver he has been partnered with. He may be a good driver, but he is not a team player, and I wouldn't want him on my team.
I'll put a prediction for next week down on paper (well virtual paper at least). I think the Canadian GP may be another race that RB doesn't finish 1st. That track isn't set up to their strengths, and I think they have way more weaknesses than anyone thought after pre season testing and the first couple of races of the season. Now who will step up to finish P1? Ferrari or McLaren? That I won't predict, but am hoping for team papaya.
Shockingly it looks like RB is going to re-sign Checo, which I just don't get. He is 35 so he is getting to the downside of his career (unless you are Alonso, but even he is struggling this year) and he is already starting to struggle this season. I believe that RB's decisions will directly lead to them losing out on the constructors cup this season and next season as well. They will have the best driver, and probably win the drivers championship this year, but won't win the constructors cup due to not wanting to rock the boat for Verstappen's fragile ego.

That's all for now, see you next week after the Canadian GP.

Sunday Musings, Monaco Edition

2024-05-26T11:17:00.001-05:00

It's Sunday, time for a great cup of coffee and a Formula One race. Not just any race mind you but the iconic Monaco Grand Prix. But before I get to the race, let's have some coffee and recommendations. For the coffee today, I used Onyx's Tropical Weather, and my. Aeropress. To make the aeropress, I use the inverted method, which means, I turn the Aeropress over, and make the coffee upside down before flipping it over to press in the cup. I prefer this method to putting the coffee and water in with the Aeropress upright. It ensures that the coffee and water can fully mix without any water seeping out early. Additionally, I used the Fellow Prismo Attachment made specifically for the Aeropress that adds additional pressure. Overall makes for a tremendous rich intense cup of coffee. Not quite espresso, but not like a normal cup of coffee either. Silk, oily mouthfeel.

Quick Rec

A quick recommendation for today. Disney+ has released a tremendous documentary on The Beach Boys. Recently there have been a couple of great docs on the Beatles, so it is nice to see something diving into what was one of their biggest competitors in the 60's. Competitor may be the wrong word, they were really each other's driving inspiration. They went back and forth creating albums that would try to one up eacother from Revolve, to Pet Sounds, to Seargent Peppers they went back and forth expanding what music really could be. The doc is enjoyable and shows the fragile mental state of Brian Wilson throughout this time period. Overall worth a view.

Formula 1 race

It's Monaco time! One of the most iconic, but boring races on the calendar. Track is too small for the wide cars of today which leads to hardly any passing, and actual racing. It's more about qualifying, and then managing tires for the entire race hoping that you don't have to pit and can stay ahead of the drivers behind.

During practice sessions, Norris didn’t look great, but once qualifying started, he turned it on and qualified P4 with his McLaren teammate at P2 and the two Ferrari cars at P1 and P3. Interestingly there were no Aston Martins qualified in the top 10. So with qualifying being critical for Monaco, this isn't a bad start to the weekend.

The start seemed clean with no one having issues through the first turn, however, Sainz got a tire puncture and seemed like he was going to be out of the race, but shortly thereafter a red flag started waving due to a bad crash between red bull and Haas, the side pods of Perez’s red bull almost disengrated as he ran into the wall and then the second Haas car was taken out. To the surprise of no one Kevin Magnussen was involved in the crash. Was it his fault? Probably not a hundred percent, but he should have backed out especially in Monaco. So barely into lap 1, 3 cars are out and the race was stopped.

Depending on how things go, this can end up going well for McLaren as they should be able to gain on Red Bull in the constructors championship.

Additionally during the down time we learned there was contact between the two Alpine cars with one driving the other into the air. It turns out that Esteban Ocon damaged his car so much he too was out. So now 4 cars were out of the race.

Once the Red Flag clears it will be standing restart. Sainz will be able to start back at third, so the red flag ended up saving him and keeping him in the race as I don’t think he would have been able to return back to the pit if the cars were at full race speed.

For the restart, the top 4 drivers put on Hard Tires that could allow them to make ti through the end of the race.

Everyone made it through the first few turns unscathed this time.

Once the race started going, and the drivers got into their comfort zone it really began being more about tire management than racing, as expected.

About a third of the way through the race, the top four drivers, Leclerc, Piastri and Sainz and Norris had made a fairly large gap to the rest of the pack, with a 13 second lead between Norris at P4 and Russell at P5.

Lots of tire chat on the team radios, talk of abrasion and graining. Real riveting stuff.

As is typical, other than the craziness at the start there wasn’t much action. Very little passing, and a lot of tire management. But overall happy with the results, McLaren won P2 and P4 which will help them in both the drivers and constructors champsionship. It was very nice to see Monaco native Charles LeClerc to win the race after being 0-16 from the Pole recently. Well deserved win for the Ferrari Driver.

After Monaco, the 8th race of the season we are a third of the way through the season. Some takes on the season:

We all thought Aston Martin was going to push McLaren and Ferrari and there would be 3 teams and then Red Bull. Sadly that is not the case, between issues with the car, and Lance Stroll not being a very good driver, the Aston team just isn’t a competitive.
We don’t have to fear this season being a repeat of the last two. Yes Verstappen may and probably will win the drivers championship, but he isn’t going to run away with it. Out of 8 races he has lost 3. Additionally, I think there is a decent chance that Red Bull doesn’t win the constructors cup. After a good start to the season Perez seems to be reverting back to last years form. If he does that, the way Ferrari and McLaren are driving, either one of them could win the constructors championship.
Speaking of Perez, if he doesn’t come through in one of the next two races and finish second, I think his time at RB is done. The question will be is if they can sign Sainz, or if Sainz will have already signed with another team. IF thats the case, who teams with Verstappen? Tsunoda?
For the Drivers Championship the top 5 look like this: Vestappen 169; LeClerc 138; Norris 113; Sainz 108; Perez 107.
For the Constructors Champion the top 4 look like this: Red Bull 276; Ferrari 252, McLaren 184; Mercedes 96

Tag, Cognac and Cigar

2024-05-22T12:40:00.001-05:00

This Wednesday its not about Whiskey and Cigar pairings, but Cognac and Cigars, oh, and a Tag too. But first the dram.

Cognac is a liquor distilled from grapes and made in one region of France. This specific Cognac comes from Famille Vallein Tercineier, a producer for over 150 years. This particular expression the Napoleon Vieille Reserve is fantastic. I actually won this in an auction a couple years ago at the Houston based Southern Smoke Festival, a wonderful and amazing charity for folks in the restaurant business. So I don't break this out very often, but it is worth it when I do. This is a blend of older and younger spirits with notes of citrus and vanilla on the nose. The mouthfeel is smooth, unctuous, sweet, floral, orange marmalade. It's nice, if not overtly complex, but as someone that doesn't know a ton about Cognac I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Cigar

For whatever reason I was feeling in a special mood, not only breaking out the Cognac, but smoking one of my favorite special occasion cigars. This cigar was one of the first that I had that really blew me away with its complexities, robustness and flavor. It comes from my favorite cigar brand Oliva and is their Serie V Melanio. This won Cigar Aficionado Cigar of the year back in 2014 few years back, and unfortunately the prices went up and they can sometimes be hard to find, but when I was introduced to them about a decade and a half ago I felt like they were a steal. Now that's not necessarily the case but I still consider it a well priced smoke. This is their Toro sized cigar and is one of my favorites. Ecuador wrapper with fillers and binders from Nicaragua. This is a full bodied cigar full of black pepper, bitter chocolate, leather, creamy coffee notes. While it's robust and full flavored it's not harsh, I find this an exceptionally smooth smoke. One of my most highly recommended cigars for those interested in something that is full bodied.

Tag

My newest edition to my watch collection comes from Tag Hauer one of the brands that falls under LVLH brand. Originally called just Hauer they are the maker of one of the most iconic watches in the world, The Monaco thanks to Steve McQueen. The brand was purchased by TAG back in the 80's and sometimes gets a bad rap for the quality of watches they produced after TAG bought them. However, in the last couple of years they are producing some amazing watches. Last year they introduced a glass box Carrera their round dialed chronograph to the delight of many. This year they took it a step further and introduced this vintage inspired panda dial with brushed silver steel and black sub dials. This watch is absolutely stunning hands on. It shines with radiance. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it so I called up my local watch store (Houston's own Zadok Jewelers) to see if could put my name down for one. Not only did they do that, they got me the first one. Amazing customer service! I've had the watch for a couple of weeks now and I have really enjoyed it. I've worn it on several different straps including the steel bracelet it comes on, some NATOs and some nice leather rally straps. My favorite is the rally strap as that is the iconic look for these Carreras.

It's well proportioned and the sapphire glass box allows you to read the dial from almost any angle and adds some depth that I think would be missing with a standard flat crystal. The legibility is perfect and spot on. The chronograph buttons have a nice give to it, and let you know they are engaged with a noticeable click sound. My one complaint on the watch is the bracelet it comes with. It looks great, but I am not a big fan of its comfort nor of the lack of micro-adjustment. If you are buying a luxury watch it should come with the ability to do easy micro adjustments, so I do think Tag missed the boat. But for the watch itself? It think they absolutely nailed it. My full thoughts are at the video below. Check it out.

Sunday Musings, F1 and the final day of Premiere League

2024-05-19T11:52:00.002-05:00

A fun sports Sunday with a F1 Race and the final day of the Premiere League season. But coffee and recommendations first. The coffee today comes from local Houston roaster Fusion Beans. I've been enjoying Fusion Beans since they were selling them direct to customers at the Seabrook farmers market years ago, even before they opened up the fantastic Southside Espresso that has now sadly closed. A great team that I always wish good things for. This particular coffee is a single origin Guatemala coffee. Used a Chemex to make this cup and got some really wonderful notes of chocolate, cream, and tropical fruits. Lacked a little clarity, but that could have been my fault as I haven't dialed in the grinder for the Chemex filter. Still a great cup, but will try this in my normal pour over to get the clarity and acidity I typically enjoy.

My recommendation this week is the newest season of Dr. Who which is now streaming on Disney+ here in the US. I think that Jodie Whitaker gets a lot of undo flack for her time as the Doctor. In mind the blame lies at the feet of the writer, so I was extremely happy to see Russell T. Davies back at the helm, along with the newest Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. A couple of episodes in and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. It's a mix of pushing the current boundaries while also being a bit of a throwback, a bit silly, but fun as Dr. Who should always be. Can't wait for the rest of the season.

Formula 1

Today was the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, the first of two GPs in Italy.

Overall McLaren had a good start to the weekend. Both drivers were in the top 5 in qualifying. Oscar was actually P2 after Q3, but got penalized 3 positions due to a run in with Magnussen in Q1, which put Lando at P2 and Oscar fell back to P5. Surprising no one Max Verstappen was once again a top the Pole.

The start of the race was fairly pedestrian with most drivers starting on Medium tires. Not a lot of crazy passing or anything at all really. Imola can be a tough track to pass, with only one DRS zone, as well as being fairly narrow compared to other tracks not named Monaco.

The top of the leaderboard started pitting around lap 22 with Mercedes Driver Russell the first in the pit. Followed by Lando pitting in lap 23 switching from Medium tires to Hard. Lando tried to come out in front of Red Bulls Perez but the team just didn't time it right, however within in a lap he had passed the driver from Mexico.

Piastri also came in and pitted in lap 24 also switching to hard tires.

Norris eventually got up to P2 as others pitted, but he still felt like he wasn’t getting pace of the drivers behind him. The McLaren crew fell that the other drivers were burning through their tires at a much higher rate than Norris was and that in the end it would work out.

Norris was solidly in P2 but it was obvious that this was yet another race where Verstappen and the Red Bull car were on another level. At least for a little while, as the laps progressed Norris started to nibble at Verstappen’s heals, as Max started to complain that his tires were shot. LeClerc who had been attempting to get within striking distance of the McLaren driver began to fall back a little bit. With11 laps to go at this point, the question was if there was enough left in the race for Norris to pull closer.

Norris showing once again that he is truly a tire whisperer, doing an outstanding job of nursing his tires allowing him to have some left for a fight at the end of the race to battle Max.

The last 5 laps Norris was pushing incredibly hard. Some of the best driving I have seen all season. Not just nibbling, but gulping down the space between him and the leading Red Bull. Getting it down to 1.5 seconds with 4 laps left. Getting within DRS zone striking distance.

This was a rare race that actually had some excitement at the end of the race.

But it was for not. Norris may have pushed his car and tires to the limit and started to complain that he had lost all grip on his tires. He still valiantly fought on through the remaining 3 laps, still nibbling, still fighting. While Norris was running out of tires, Verstappen's battery was running out. A great finish to the race with two drivers leaving it all on the track. Unfortunately, Lando just ran out of time, narrowing Max’s lead to almost a half a second by the end of the race, but ultimately finishing P2 with Oscar finishing P4 and LeClerc at P3. Some great points for Team Papaya. Lando gaining on LeClerc in the Drivers championship and McLaren gaining on Ferrari and RB on the constructors championship.

Ferrari finally got on the podium at Imola for the first time since Schumacher thanks to the hard driving of LeClerc.

7 races into the season and we see some shuffling in the drivers championship:

Verstappen at top with 161 points,

LeClerc passed Perez and has 113 points to Perez's 107 and Norris is at 4th with 101 and Sainz rounding out the top 5 with 93 points. Very close 2-5.

In the constructors championship, Red Bull stays atop with 268 points, Ferrari with 212 and McLaren gaining a little ground with 154 points.

Premiere League

I love how the EPL finishes their season. All teams playing on the same day at the exact same time. It makes for a great time of flipping among channels to see how everyone is doing especially when your team is playing for the championship. Alas that is not the case for the reds this season. They unfortunately played extremely poorly down the stretch. They seemed lackluster and played with very little heart which was the most disappointing thing to see especially considering that this is to be Jurgen Klopps last season with the Reds. Klopp came into a team that was struggling and in a short time has lead them to multiple championships winning multiple different types of titles. I had hoped that they would win another premiere league for him this year, but it wasn't meant to be.

One of the coolest scenes today was the crowds lining the Liverpool Streets as the team bus made its way to Anfielf, the fans singing and changing for Jurgen showing him a tremendous amount of love and appreciation for all that he has done for the city. He will go down as one of the great managers that Liverpool has had and is incredibly beloved by every Reds fan.

While the Reds didn't have anything to play for today, I had high hopes that they would step and play their hearts out for Klopp, especially considering there were some players like Mo Salah who were probably playing their last match for LFC.

A rather frustratingly lack luster start to the match. At the 28th minutes, a Wolves es player got sent off with a red card leaving them a man down for the rest of the match. McAllister finally put one in the net for the Reds at the 34th minute. Giving them the lead hopefully for the rest of the match.

Shortly after Quansah scored on an assist from Salah to make it 2-0 at the half. The reds slowed down the second half, but still gave Klopp a win in his final match. It was nice to see him give the fist pump one last time and the crowd was amazing in their outpouring of love to Jurgen.

They started chanting for him with 5 minutes left in regular play and kept it up throughout extra time and afterwards. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be there live, how loud and loving it would ben.

Overall after having some high hopes for this season, I end on a disappointment. Yes the Reds win, but Man City once again finish the season on top of the table. Worse, I have to believe that the Reds are going to take a big step back next season. While I think Slot will be a good manager he will need a season or two to put his stamp on the team. Plus I believe there will be significant turnover with not only Salah leaving, but a few other players as well. The team will look and feel completely different next season so not sure how far up the table they will finish. Cheers to Jurgen and all the success he has had with this team. He has done so much for the team and the city, I wish him all the happiness in what ever he does next.

Sunday Musings, F1 and What am I doing

2024-05-05T21:42:00.004-05:00

This week I am in Chicago attending the annual Aerospace Medicine Conference, this is the field of work I am in and my interests outside of what I typically talk about here. So it will be a ton of space and medicine and human exploration in extreme environments this week. But before I head off into that world, I wanted to write a little for the blog.

First up recommendations. As a fan of Top Gear, Grand Tour and the lads behind it I of course have to recommend the latest season of Clarkson's Farm, the first part now out on Amazon Prime. Yes Jeremy Clarkson acts the baffoon, but at its heart it highlights the stuggle of farmers in the UK, and I think those struggles apply to farmers everywhere. It's this reason that I think the show is worth tuning into. Plus its hilarious because Clarkson is of course a buffoon.

Formula One

Another week of the Formula One Season and there are as many fireworks off the track as there are on. The week started with the the shot heard round the F1 world with the news that Car designer savant Adrian Newey is indeed leaving Redbull after this season. No news on where, or if he will go somewhere else, although rumors are hot and heavy that he will go to Ferrari. I shared my thoughts on the whole situation last week for reference.

As far as on the track news goes, the drivers, were back in the USA for the first of 3 races this season. Kicking it off at the Miami GP. It was a weird week leading up to the race itself, with some drivers like Daniel Riccardo doing really well in Sprint Qualifying, and then doing horribly in actual qualifying.

As for the start of the race itself, to the surprise of no on Verstappen won Pole, but the McLaren team started P5 and P6 with both drivers starting on Medium Tires. The race got off clean with no real issues, and very quickly McLaren driver Oscar Piastri took hold of P2 and did an admirable job of holding off the two drivers from Ferrari. Norris stayed in P6, but kept pressure on Red Bull driver Perez and then finally passing him when he went to pit during lap 19.

The race stayed clean up until a virtual safety car came out in lap 23 due to a cone that Verstappen had hit. The virtual safety card initially allowed some drivers to pit, however the leaders had passed the pit stop so they couldn’t take advantage of the cars temporarily slowing down.

Eventually the leaders started pitting with Verstappen coming in to change tires in Lap 24, which allowed Piastri to take over the lead, and then Russell pitted in Lap 25

Piastri pitted at lap 28 as did P2 driver Sainz which allowed the other McLaren driver Lando Norris to take the lead as he stayed out.

I feel like it needs to be said that Norris is quickly becoming a tire whisperer. He seems to be Alonso like, always eeking out more life from his tires than other drivers. Then the gods shines their light on McLaren and Lando.

A yellow flag came out at Lap 28 due to an incident between the sole US driver Logan Sargent of Williams Racing and Kevin Magnussen of Haas, which allowed Lando to get an easy pit stop during lap 30. He was able to stay out in the lead even after the pit stop because everyone was driving slower due to the yellow flag. Once the safety Car came in at Lap 33, Lando was in P1

Verstappen in P2, Norris in P1, Leclerc in P3, Piastri in P4 and Sainz in P5 and then the race was ON!

Sainz and Piastri had a wonderful battle for 4th with Sainz finally coming out on the better end of the battle at lap 40 when the two briefly touched, with Piastri then quickly getting passed by Hamilton. McLaren quickly made the determination that Oscar's car had been damaged during the collision with Sainz. Specifically he sustained some damage on the right part of the front wing. The team called him into the pits to make a quick change of the front end, however by the time he came out of the pits he was behind the rest of the drivers.

With 10 laps left, Norris had opened quite a gap leading the race with Verstappen actually struggling to make anything happen in the Red Bull car, it felt bizarre watching the huge verstappen like gap that Norris had, while Verstappen himself was struggling to make anything happen.

And that was it, Norris held the pack off and won his first race! you could hear the joy in his voice, and see the teams reaction for how excited they were for Norris. He just had a dominant race that lead him to his first win after so many races finishing P2. The entire Papaya team did an outstanding job this weekend and deserve a lot of credit for putting together a great car together for the Englishman. Great great race.

Other thoughts, Yuki Tsunoda continues to show he is the better VCARB driver over the popular Ricciardo gaining more points for the team.

Unfortunately Piastri couldn’t get points this week due to the collision he and Sainz had earlier in the race. Piastri was even told near the end of the race to not do anything to crazy to gain positions as McLaren didn’t want any safety cars to come out with Norris being up front.

It was also really nice to see Team Alpine gain their first points of the season with Icon finishing P10.

After the race there was some tightening up in both the racers championship and constructors cup. For the top 5 in the drivers championship:

Verstappen - 136

Perez - 103

LeClerc - 98

Norris - 88

It really is very close between P2 and P5.

For the constructors the top 5 look like:

Red Bull - 239

Ferrari - 187

McLaren - 124

Mercedes - 64

Aston Martin - 42

There seems to be some spacing occurring, although I still feel like McLaren can catch Ferrari if they keep making improvements to their car and Norris continues his season.

Whiskey, Cigars, and Shocks

2024-05-02T17:15:00.005-05:00

A midweek step down, to sit, sip, smoke, and relax. There isn't much better than that. This week we've got a little Texas flare, an amazing smoke, and to finish something shocking. First up let's talk Whiskey.

Milam and Greene is a Hill Country based distillery that has been around for a few years now and is incredibly well respected. One of the really cool things they do is take pride in blending whiskey, something that is too often under appreciated in the US, and looked down upon. It's not a bad word if you are doing it well, and are open and honest. They are up there with one of my favorite Texas Distilleries. In a state where many Texas 'craft' distilleries cut corners, or bring in out of state products and try to brand it as Texas Made, Milan and Greene are doing things differently. They are also one of the few women owned and with a woman head distiller. This particular expression, their Triple Cask is one of those aforementioned blends. Taking whiskey distilled at their Blanco headquarters, along with whiskey distilled in Bardstown, KY, they blend the product and age it all in TX. The malt bill is the same for the both; 70% Corn, 22% malted Rye, and 8% barley and it comes in at 94 proof. It's got notes of vanilla and spice, and oak. It's not too hot which is a common problem with younger Texas whiskies. It's smooth, but has a some body. Not overly big, or tannic, but enough of a bite that lets you know you're drinking. Good mouthfeel, if just a little light bodied. While its not my favorite M&G expression (I love their rye, and some of their reserve series more) this is seriously good, and for under $50, well priced and worth a pick up.

Avo cigars is a sister brand to Davidoff which I've spoken about before. These are a little lower priced, but are still incredibly good cigars. They make a handful of cigars, but this one was recommended to by my local smoke shop. Comes in a beautiful orange capsule, the AVO XO is a beautiful smoke, and may become one of my go to's. This XO is their Intermezzo 5x50 with an Ecuador wrapper and other tobaccos from Dominican. This hits my preferred sweet spot of being medium bodied, big and bold enough to let you know that you are smoking a cigar without being overpowering and killing your palate. It's incredibly smooth with oaky notes, vanilla, spice, and dried fruits, with just a hint of sweetness. The flavor profile is incredibly similar to that of the whiskey. So a more complimentary pairing, vs a pairing that plays off of the notes in the whiskey. It works for a nice midweek sit down. I've smoked a couple of these recently, and will definitely be picking up some more in the future.

Now our shocking finale. OK, OK, enough with the puns, it's time to talk about the Casio G-Shock. The watch collectors GO-TO for a rugged every day, digital watch. These are next to indestructible and have been designed that way since the 1980's. This particular G-Shock is their GAB2100GC-3A and is a gorgeous monotone olive green with splashes of color around the octagonal bezel. It's very light weight as well. This is a solar powered model, which means while there is a battery it gets its power from the sun (or other light sources) helping it last for a very long time. You won't need to replace the batter like you do in standard quartz watches. Additionally it has what's called a Smartphone link that allows it to receive data like timezone, day and date making it very easy to set. It has multiple function to track lap times, timer, count downtimer, world timer, full scale calendar year to 2099, and a slew of others. My wife got me this watch for Christmas and it has become my GO-TO weekend watch. I can go out and grab some coffee, or I can go do some yard work. It's made for both. It is a big watch with a case size of 41mm and a lug to lug of 48mm. But it wears fairly well on my 6.75 inch wrist. If I had one complaint it's that the screen that has date and seconds on it can be a little hard to read. But the lume on the watch is amazing. For under $200 I think this is a no-brainer watch to add to the collection, or start your collection.

Sunday Musing not a lot going on, but still there's news.

2024-04-28T10:53:00.005-05:00

My Sunday morning cup comes from another Texas Roaster, Zelie Beans out of Sugarland. This particular batch is their Guatemala single origin. It makes a fine cup, some milky chocolate notes along with some roasted nuttiness. The flavors are a little muted, there is nothing vibrant going on, the cup likes a certain acidity that I tend to enjoy. So a good cup, not a great cup in my mind.

While I don' have any recommendations this week, nor was there a Formula One race this weekend (have to wait one more week for the Miami GP) there is plenty to talk about in both EPL and F1.

Formula One

The biggest news this week by far has been the rumors that car designer extraordinaire and Red Bull Chief Technology Officer Adrian Newey may be leaving the team. Newey is widely regarded as the greatest designer of F1 cars of the last 30 years. He has won trophies with McLaren and Williams back in the 90's and has been with Red Bull since their inception in the 2000's, helping them win trophies under two different drivers. So him leaving would be HUGE news, if and I'll throw my two cents in and say it's a big IF, he moves on. The reason I think it is unlikely that he leaves for another team is two fold:

1) if he leaves he would have to sit out for 2 years due to his contract not being up for another year and there is a stipulation in his contract that adds another year. So if he left, the earliest you would see him at another team is 2026 when the new car designs are put into place under the differing F1 regulations. This would mean he would have no input into a new designed car and I just can't see that happening.

2) Secondly Newey is 67, and has just purchased a massive new yacht that is being build (look up the YouTube video of him at Oyster Yachts). He wants to sail, all over the place. Additionally he has left England for a team before, and quit that team because he didn't want to be away from his family. So those folks that think he is going to move to Italy and work for Ferrari are kidding themselves I think. So while he may be frustrated with all that is going on at Redbull behind the scenes lately with the Horner situation, he mostly likely could just retire, or move into a consultant role for another team, or even for F1 or the FIA, vs going to a new team.

If he did go to a new team, an interesting one would be Aston Martin. That would allow him to stay in England, and Daddy Stroll has a ton of money to throw around. I don' know how likely any of this is since no one has officially confirmed anything, but when the BBC picks up certain rumors they tend to have a bit more credibility than the random you tubers or bloggers (myself included) which I why I wanted to put down my thoughts. How likely will he leave RB? I put it at 50/50. How likely will he go to another team? Less than that I think.

Liverpool

While the Reds continue their incredible slide into 3rd and even 4th place of the EPL Table there is some positive news. The Reds have looked absolutely pathetic lately, and the last match yesterday against West Ham didn't help with Mo Salah and Klopp getting into a little sideline tiff. But as I said before there is good news. It looks like the Reds have found their new team leader to replace (if one can ever do that) the departing Jurgen Klopp.

It seems as if the Reds will be adding Dutchman Arne Slot, currently managing Feyenoord to a win in the Dutch Cup this season and an opportunity to seal a spot in the Champions League. The 45 year old is incredibly well respected amongst the Football community and it seems like Liverpool has already sealed a deal with his current employers to make the transfer to Liverpool occur. He is an aggressive manager, his team always playing on the front foot driving the ball forward in play. He seems to get compared to Pep Guardiola a lot, to be clear I am not equating their coaching ability, just their strategy. I like having a younger coach come in and not brining in an old retread. I trust the Liverpool leadership to make the right decision here. It will also help Slot transition is that he won't be depended to make as many of the transfer moves as Klopp has recently since Slot will report to the new Sporting Director which could allow him to focus on strategy and building team unity. There is a good chance next year will be rebuilding as I think Salah leaves in the offseason to the Saudi league (with Liverpool receiving a large transfer fee) and there could be others leaving as well (Nunez hopefully as he has looked positively dreadful this season). We could be able to rebuild while maintaining a certain level of talent that allows us to compete in the EPL and Champions league next season, so while things currently look bad, I am hopeful that things will get better.

Whiskey and Cigar Friday!

2024-04-26T16:51:00.000-05:00

A couple of days later, but better than never, I bring to you another cigar and whiskey pairing. It's an unusual paring today that I am excited to share!

The Scotch

It's really unfortunate that in many instances blended Scotch gets a bad rap compared with the classic Single Malts that everyone, including myself tend to reach for. Maybe that mentality goes back a few decades when many blended scotch's were unrefined and not nearly as good as their single malt counterparts. But these days if you never try a blended malt, you truly are missing out and there is not a better maker of blends than Compass Box. Exclusively bottling blended scotch since 2000 they take single malts from all over Scotland, blending them together, sometimes aging them again and bottling them into something that in many cases is a sum far greater than its parts. What I also love about Compass Box is they are totally transparent. While you may not be able to find all the details of what's in the bottle on the bottle (many times this is because the law prohibits transparency as crazy as that sounds), if you go to their website you can find all you want to know and more. Take for example the expression I tried for today's paring, The Circle No.2, there isn't a lot of info on the bottle, but the website dedicated to it there is a ton. This is a usual expression dedicated to the color of coral, which seems pretty unique to me. This is a blend of 5 different distilleries scotch including Ardmore, Speyburn, and Glen Elgin. Naturally colored and not chil-filtered, it does have a beautiful unique color. Its ABV is 46% so this isn't a beast or a scotch, and not a lot of peat on the nose. There are flavors of pineapples, vanilla, honey, raisins. A very enjoyable dram that is smooth, and sweet without being cloying. I do enjoy this quite a bit. It holds up to the cigar well, the sweetness partnering well.

The Cigar

A few weeks back I mentioned a cigar with a Texas connection, well here is another. This cigar comes from North Texas's Ezra Zion Cigar Co. They are a direct to consumer brand with no real brick and mortar retail presence as far as I can tell. I have been smoking them off and on for a couple of years. Never the same stick as they seem to release new blends on a weekly basis. They all have fun names that are inspired by the season, Dallas, Texas, or something completely unrelated. This particular stick is the Spicy Chicken and Waffles, inspired by north Texas institution Babes Fried Chicken. The cigar is a 6.25x48 Toro size and made with Corojo leaf wrapper. It's a medium bodied cigar with notes of cinnamon, milk chocolate and maple syrup. The longer you smoke it brings some spicier notes that balance the earlier sweetness and play well with the sweetness of the Scotch. There are notes of licorice and dark chocolate in their as well. It's a decent length of smoke to lasting well over an hour as I sit and enjoy my cigar. It's well balanced, coats the mouth, blending with the sweetness of the scotch that's also swishing around. Great pairing that makes for a great evening.

Sunday Musings, Texas Coffee Edition

2024-04-21T10:38:00.003-05:00

Happy Sunday, another week, and I missed my midweek post, so apologies, but already have something lined up for this week so should be good to go and back on track. I hope everyone is enjoying a nice weekend. Kicking today off with some coffee, which got me to thinking about Texas Coffee roasters, something that I have mentioned in previous posts. For today, I am enjoying another cup of beans from Dallas based Ascension Coffee. This particular bag is a blend of central and South America beans. Made my traditional pour over and it produced an outstanding cup of coffee, full of notes of milk chocolate covered almonds, some fruity notes, slightly sweet, medium bodied, but does a good job of coating the mouth. A good cup to wake up with and love the new cup from Bark And Jack, the same place I pick up most of my watch straps (that icy blue on my Hamilton is amazing looking). Love that type of cup, and it goes well with my other enamel cups that I have. Getting quite a selection.

I don't have any recommendations this week, but we did have a Formula 1 race this week, and as always we have Liverpool to chat about. But before we get to that let's talk Texas coffee. While there are states that get more love for their home grown roasters. States like California, Washington, Oregon, and Illinois (due to the coffee culture in Chicago), I think Texas Roasters are holding their own. Yes there may not be a ton of small roasters here, but the quality of what that small group produces is as good as any in other states. Here are my top 5 roasters in the state, in no particular order:

1. Greenway

2. Amaya

3. Greater Good

4. Tenfold

5. Ascension

What are some of your favorite Coffee Roasters in Texas?

EPL

I can't explain how frustrated I am right now as a Liverpool fan. The last couple of weeks they have completely fallen apart. And I don't even understand why. They are actually getting healthier with players like Salah and their star keeper Allison coming back and they still are playing like crap. 2 weeks ago they had an opportunity for 4 trophies, 3 to add to the earlier Carabou cup. Now? They may end up with only 1. The have been knocked out of the FA Cup, and the Europa League, and are third in the EPL after being first since before the New Year. It's been frustrating matches to watch because it's not like other teams are playing lights out. The Reds have just looked lack luster and uninspired. When they should be playing lights out for Klopp it seems they just don't have any more heart and Klopp has lost the ability to inspire them. Maybe it's true, that Klopp realized he was losing the team and knew that it was time for him to leave. It sure looks like this team has left Klopp behind. Now we may see City once again win the League which is incredibly disappointing. The reds could still step up as they have a relatively easy end of the season, but there are so few matches left, I don't think it matters if they win out or not. I would love to see them end the season playing some inspired football, but the team outside of the always amazing Salah has been bad. TAA is just not stepping up and Captain VVD isn't the same player he was a few years ago. Our midfield is lifeless as well. OK OK that's enough venting. Let's see the reds step up and beat on Fulham today!

Formula 1

After a 5 year hiatus the teams were back in China. Having had to skip the Shanghai GP due to Covid restrictions since 2019, the teams were able to go back, very differently than they were in 2019 when Hamilton and Mercedes were at the top of the grid. They are no longer a top team instead being replaced by Red Bull. Another early morning start that I honestly didn't stay up for, but I as always do have thoughts on the race.

Firstly it seems that McLaren may have figured some things out. After a decent, but not great start to the season after the first two races, the last couple they are doing very well. Norris was at the top of the grid for the Sprint Race start, and finished P2 in the actual GP. He continues to be the bridesmaid and not bride, having his 8th (I think) 2nd place finish with never a top finish.

Time may be undefeated, but Aston Martins Alonso is doing one heck of a job of holding it off. His racing today was absolutely lights out. His passing in the turns had me holding my breath. It was just tremendous. Unfortunately for the team they don' have a great second driver, which will be what ends up hurting them in the constructors cup. Lance Stroll finished a very dissapointing 15th. While I know that Papa Stroll won't fire his son, part of me wonders if sponsors will start making noise now that it is evident that if they had a better second driver they could finish higher in the constructors championship.

Ferrari continues to be a strong second contender to Red Bull. Both Ferrari drivers finished in the top 5 with LeClerc finally finished ahead of Sainz. But both drives overall looked good.

Haas continues to surprise by gaining some points and being one of two (along with VISA Cash APP RB) other teams beyond the big 5 to score points this season.

Overall, while it is unfortunately evident that Max is going to run away with the top spot this season and Red Bull is going to win the Constrcutors cup, I don't think its a 100% garauntee that Perez finishes second and spots 2-5 in constructors is fairly wide open which does make for some exciting watching.

We have a week off before the Miami GP on 5 May. Racing and Cinco De Mayo? Sounds like a winning combination to me.

Sunday Musing, Recommendations and Japanese GP

2024-04-07T10:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday! It's a great Sunday when there is Formula 1, Liverpool on the TV, and a great coffee to drink. Today I decided to make a pot of French Press, using a classical Bodum press. There is no crazy technique, just time. Seems perfect for a semi lazy Sunday. Today's coffee comes from Dallas roaster Ascension Coffee Roasters. I've been going to their original spot in the Dallas Design District for close to 15 years, every time I go back home to visit family. They are probably my favorite Dallas area roaster, and one of my favorite in Texas. Which makes me think that at some point I need to do my list of top Texas Coffee Roasters. Maybe in a few weeks I'll put that together, whether it's a separate post or part of a Sunday musings will be TBD.

Anyways back to this particular coffee. Is a light roasted Ethiopian that went through a natural processing. The cup is incredibly fruity. Honestly the first taste brought back Saturday morning memories of eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. There is a juiciness to it as well, but it's the fruitiness that is the focal point here. Well rounded, not a lot of acidity here, coats the tongue (that may be an effect of using a French Press). Overall I really enjoy this, it has a tone of character here but nothing is overpowering or hitting you in the face.

Before I get into sports talk, I do have another weekly recommendation. This time from a show on Apple TV+. A little over a week ago they released a two part documentary on the great comedian Steve Martin and I must say it is tremendous. Part 1 really focuses on his early days growing up and doing stand up, discussing the struggles he went through as he was really ahead of his time with what he was doing on stage. The second part focuses mostly on where he is now with being a dad late in life and doing stand up with Martin Short. While it touches on his movie career and talks about some of the highs and lows over the course of his films, that is definitely not the focus. It's very much about his life now. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the doc, and really love the insight it gives into his long friendship with Short. I do wish they had talked about some of his films more, but I would still recommend this to anyone that is a Martin fan, or standup comedy.

Before I get into Liverpool, I figured I'd discuss the latest GP race first. Full disclosure, I did not stay up this time to catch the race live. The start time for me was after midnight and I just couldn't make it that late this weekend. But watched the replay this morning and I must say it was a great race. To recap things that happened during qualifying and leading up to the race, Williams Driver and American Racer Sargent has been given Albon's old chassis for the rest of the year (or at least until Miami when Williams could get a 3rd chassis). You may remember that Alton wrecked his chassis a few weeks back during a practice session. McLaren did very well during qualifying with Landon starting in P3. Unsurprisingly Red Bull finished P1 and P2 in qualifying to start the race at the front of the grid.

The Race started with a bang, shortly after lights out, Albon and Ricciardo touched going through the turns and crashed out of the race. Ricciardo's no good very bad season continues and it kicked off a Red Flag not even a lap into the race. No shenanigans at the restart occurred and we were off to the races so to speak. Overall the race was fun. The track has a ton of turns and is quite narrow in certain places, but that didn't stop passing from occurring. Some drivers like McLaren driver Land Norris, and the Ferrari drivers just went for it, making their move in the middle of turns and narrow tracks. It was fun to watch. Unfortunately the streak of Red Bull not winning only lasted one race as they were back on top in P1 and P2. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz continues to prove to everyone that Ferrari is making a HUGE mistake letting him go for the struggling Hamilton. Sainz finished third, Hamilton finished 9th (for comparison his Mercedes team mate finished 7th). McLaren drivers finished P5 (Norris) and P8 (Pastry) and Sainz teammate Charles LeClerc finished P4. The finish of this race continues to provide some separation for Red Bull and Ferrari from the rest of the pack. With McLaren increasing the gap between 3rd and 4th where Mercedes sits followed immediately by Aston Martin.

Other quick thoughts from the race:

RB Driver Yuki Tsunoda finished in the points recieving the hometown cheers. Which, as much as I love the honey badger Yuki is showing that Ricciardo just may not have it anymore. Yuki has pretty much beat him in qualifying every race and finished ahead in all but one race.
Lance Stroll continues to show that the only reason he in the Aston Martin car is his daddy. While Alonso continues to carry the British team on his back, Lance doesn't finish in the top 10. Where would Aston Martin be without the spaniard? They would be Haas if they were depending on Stroll. That's how bad it is.
I truly feel bad for Williams. They have made so many bad decisions in the past decade and now the whole team is paying the price. They have had some back luck this season for sure with bad wrecks that could damage both the chassis of both their cars. The fact that they don't have a spare is just absurd and shows how poorly they have been mismanaged. I think team principal Vowles can bring them out of where they are, if they are given the time they need, but with where the money is at in F1, I am not sure they will given the time they need.
The rest of the F1 drivers better hope that the Red Bull car has more mechanical issues like they did in Australia or this season is going to look a lot like last season did. The only positive thing is that the next 5 spots are up for grabs and the racing from McLaren and Ferrari is outstanding.
Prediction time: In the next 3 weeks it will be announced that Sainz is going to Mercedes which will mean that if he races next season Alonso will do so for Aston Martin. With all the open spots, we may not see as much shuffling as we anticipated, at least from the top clubs. Assuming of course that Checo stays at Red Bull (anyone that thinks Verstappen is leaving is not being serious).

Liverpool

Liverpool had a mid week Premiere League match against Sheffield United that they won keeping them safely atop the table. However today, as I am writing they are facing the hated Manchester United. While ManU is not any good this season, at least not up to their standards, this isn't a gimme match. ManU showed that a couple of weeks ago when they knocked the Reds out of the FA Cup competition. So far as we hit half time the Reds look good. It's a dreary rainy day in Manchester but Liverpool is up 1-0. If that lead holds they win and stay atop the table ahead of Arsenal and Man City. Liverpool hold the championship in their hands. They are the masters of their destiny at this point with 6 more matches to play. Can they pull out another premiere league title for Klopp before he leaves? I say yes!

Whiskey and Cigar Wednesday

2024-04-03T15:29:00.002-05:00

A week away from posting due to work trip and some personal life stuff, I hadn't time to sit down and post until today. And what a fun enjoyable post it will be. A scotch from my favorite Scottish distillery and a a cigar that I had never had before. What is better than that?

The Scotch

As I have mentioned, The Balvenie is not only my favorite non-seated whisky, it is my favorite whisky period. I love every expression they put out (well at least every one I have tried). This expression is a 16 year old scotch. It is aged primarily in first use American Oak casks (think old bourbon barrels). Then after 16 years of aging and gaining color and flavors from these old bourbon barrels the master distiller finishes this nectar in casks that held French Pineau. Pineua is a fortified aperitif wine based in Western France. This combination of casks create a complex character that I really enjoyed. This Scotch is sweeter than other Balvenie expressions, full of honey, vanilla, balanced with notes of grapefruit and ginger. It's got sweetness up front, but balanced with some bitterness and spice notes that I think are outstanding. As I have it I wonder if this would work in a cocktail, maybe something like a Boulevardier with Campari? I don't typically have scotch in cocktails, but may need to try this out. I'll report back soon!

The Cigar

This is an interesting one to me. This Lancero style cigar comes from Tatuaje Cigars. This cigar shape is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It looks incredibly elegant and usually produces a longer concentrated smoke that I enjoy. Tatuaje is owned and operated by Pete Johnson out of California. It is one of 6 cigar brands he owns and operates. This particular expression from Tatuaje, is Escasos is made out of Miami, with Ecuadorian wrappers and Nicaraguan filler. There is a sweetness, a nuttiness up front at the first part of the smoke. Follows with pepper, toast, woody. The nutty notes persist and combine with peppery toasty notes. A smooth smoke that holds it form for the duration. It lasts a bit over an hour of consistent smoking while I sit with my scotch in the other hand. Its a good smoke, and one that I would reach for again.

Sunday Musings, Australian GP

2024-03-24T09:02:00.013-05:00

It was late night last night staying up to watch what turned out to be a fantastic Australian GP Formula One race. But, more on that later. No new coffee for me this week and Liverpool is off this weekend (sadly after a horrible loss to Manchester United last week in the FA Cup tournament) so we'll jump straight to some recommendations before I give my thoughts on the race.

Two recommendations this week. First up is another TV show. I'll fight anyone that says this is a kids show, but on Disney+ this week they released the animated X-Men '97 that takes off right after the excellent 90's cartoon ended. This past week they released the first two episodes and they are outstanding. Slightly updated the animation, but the stories are tremendous, timely, and absolutely in-line with historical X-men comics. Through two episodes I couldn't be happier with what Disney has done with this release and hope that the series continues it impressive start with more amazing episodes.

My second recommendation is a podcast. Not just any podcast but one from Top Gear/Grand Tour star Richard Hamilton. Surprisingly though this podcast has absolutely nothing to do with cars. Instead it is him, his daughter and a guest discussing men's mental health called Who We are Now. I can't tell you how good this series is, and how imprortant it is to get blokes (as Hammond says) to talk about their mental health and not just go all blokey about it. They are a few episodes into it, but I would encourage anyone to go back and listen to them all as they are excellent.

Australia GP ReCap and thoughts

As I stated before it was a late night watching the Australian GP with lights not occurring until about 11pm Central time, but it was definitely worth it. First a recap of what happened during qualifying. There were only 19 cars on the starting grid because Williams was down a car due to Albon crashing out during a practice session. Williams made the tough decision to sit American driver Sargent and put Albon in his car instead hoping he could get the British team a point.

McLaren had the best starting positions of the season with McLaren with Norris P3 and Pastry P5 thanks to a 3 grid penalty for Perez. Shocking no one Verstappen continued his streak of sitting on Pole position. I think the biggest question at the start of the race was how the warm track temperatures would affect the tires and if there would be any crashing at the start of the race, something the Aussie GP is notorious for. However once we hit lights out there were no shenanigans and Verstappen got a way with a clean start, or so we thought.

Very quickly Sainz, two weeks after an appendectomy, passed the leading Red Bull and went into first place. Verstappen initially complained of his back end being loose, but his car started smoking at the back thanks to what turned out to be a stuck brake, and shockingly the dutchman had to retire ending a 43 race streak of finishing. So only a few laps in, we knew we would have a different winner for this race, but who would it be? Could Ferrari hang on and would Sainz be able to complete an incredible comeback after his surgery?

By lap 10 McLaren was already pitting, with Piastri coming in and switching from Medium tires to Hard hoping to undercut LeClerc, and then Norris pitting shortly afterwards in lap 14 again going from Medium to Hard and coming out behind his teammate. Just when everyone though we were getting into a fairly standard race, more surprises came with Hamilton’s Mercedes experiencing engine failure and retiring at lap 17. He pulled over to the side of the track which caused a virtual safety card, slowing the race down and allowing Alonso to pit his Aston Martin who was leading at the team and desperately needed to change his tires. Due to the cars having to slow down he was able to get in and out without losing to many positions.

By lap 29 McLaren made the call to swap the drivers position moving Norris up to P3 and Piastri fell to P4. The move was smart as Norris had the pace, but the Aussie crowd was surely disappointed that their hometown driver was asked to move back.

The next few laps had the Ferraris and McLarens pitting which shuffled the line up some but near the end of the race you had Ferrari in P1 and P2 and Norris and Piastri breathing down LeClerc’s neck in P3 and P4 respectively. They wouldn’t have caught him, but it became a moot point because during the last lap Mercedes driver Russell crashed into the wall causing the race to end under a yellow. So Ferrari finished in the top two slots with a well deserved and quite frankly unbelievable win by Carlos Sainz. I am not a Ferrari fan (team papaya all the way!), but I have to admit that was fun to see him win with everything going on. His race continues to push my point that Ferrari will end up regretting dropping him and replacing him with Hamilton. Hamilton was great, one of the best, but he is not the same driver, and Ferrari will be worse team next year.

Some other thoughts from the race:

Mercedes continues to struggle. I have to think at some point some significant changes are going to have to occur at the team. They are already losing Hamilton, and they are wasting some of the best years of Russells career as they struggle trying to find the right design of their car. When will enough be enough and they have to admit they need to make some changes to their engineering team.

Best race McLaren has looked honestly. Even though they didn’t get P1 they had a very fast car. Is this a sign of things to come? I am hopeful that even when Verstappen finishes, that team papaya can keep up and continue to finish in the top 5. If they do that they will have a season where they compete for 2nd place in Constructors and that would be HUGE.

Perez just didn’t have the pace and couldn’t help RB after Verstappen dropped out. Does that continue to paint a picture that Perez could be out at the end of the season>

Haas continues to run well surprisingly with another race getting some points.

After three races the top four positions in the drivers championship table are Red Bull and Ferrari drivers, followed by the two McLaren drivers.

Verstappen	51
LeClerc	47
Perez	46
Sainz	40
Piastri	28
Norris	27
Russell	18
Alonso	16
Stroll	9
Hamilton	8

The Constructors Championship is looking pretty nice for McLaren as well, especially as I am hopeful they will continue to show improvements throughout this season.

Red Bull	97
Ferrari	93
McLaren	26
Mercedes	26
Aston Martin	25
RB	6
Haas	4

Watch! A Negroni

2024-03-20T14:20:00.003-05:00

Anyone that knows me knows that my favorite cocktail has always been, and will always be a Negroni. Ahhhh just saying the word Negroni makes me smile. This isn't a complicated cocktail that needs a ton of ingredients and special equipment to make. It's simple, and often times I make it directly in the drinking glass. A simple mix of 3 ingredients and a twist to orange is all it takes to make this beautiful and wonderful drink. Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth, an ounce of each, mix, and you to can enjoy this lovely sweet, bitter, boozy drink.

Typically, when I make a Negroni, I keep my ingredients as simple as the drink itself and use a nice dry London Gin like Beefeaters, however from time to time I like to mix it up and try an unusual gin which is what I did here. I grabbed James Gin, made by petrolhead James May of Top Gear and Grand Tour fame, specifically his London Drizzle expression (although they are all wonderful, pro tip, try the American Ramstud in a dirty martini, pure bliss). The London Drizzle is an incredibly unique gin made with beetroot, lovage, bay, orange, and ginger. This is a much earthier gin that a traditional one is, but it comes together with the Campari for a unique take on a Negroni.

As an unabashed lover of all things Campari and Negroni you can imagine my joy at finding a watched that expressed it better than I could. A couple of years ago Japanese watchmaker released a series of watches under their Presage Line called 'Cocktail' watches. Each watch had a different colored dial that represented a cocktail, they had a champagne cocktail, and a green mojito dial, and of course a red Negroni inspired dial, which I of course picked up recently from online shop Teddy Baldassare. It's a gorgeous watch, with a steel case housing the gorgeous dial on a calfskin strap. It shimmers in the light and has a texture to it that keeps you staring at it to see the different shades of red. A perfect watch to wear out on a date, or for a cocktail hour. It also doesn't break the bank as it comes in well under $500. Its a good size, not to big, nor too small at around 39MM in diameter. While the crystal isn't sapphire it is Seiko's proprietary Hardlex which feels nice and strong. Also has an open case back, although the movement isn't anything special to look at. If you love to switch straps, you can do so easily as the lug to lug on this is 20mm which allows for any number of straps to be used. More stats below along with a more indepth video review of the watch if you are so inclined.

Movement	4R35 Automatic
Case Diameter	38.5 mm
Lug to Lug	45 mm
Lug Width	20mm
Thickness	12.22 mm
Crystal	Hardlex
Water Resistance	50M
Strap	Calfskin with quick release

Sunday Musings Coffee and Donuts edition

2024-03-17T10:22:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patricks day, hope you're wearing some green today, just not drinking any green beer. Leave that to the amateurs. Started my day off by taking the kid for donuts at an amazing local shop called Blackline Donuts. Really great shop with great donuts, kolaches (really klobasnik but it's Texas ya'll) and Scones. Instead of grabbing coffee at this shop, I made my own at home using beans from local Houston roaster Tenfold. I really enjoy this roaster. Their shop is amazing, great food and coffee options. They also have a space set aside for having educational classes which I think is really cool and wish more places would do it. As for this particular set of beans, I made my usual pour over. This is their everyday blend (literally and figuratively), medium roasted silky smooth, low acidity, sweet fruits. Delicious and great paired with the pick up from Blackline. Good way to start the morning, powered by sugar and caffeine! Onto my more typical Sunday musings, Liverpool and F1.

Formula 1

It's an off week with no racing as they take a week away to relocate from the Middle East to Australia for next Sunday's Grand Prix. However that doesn't mean there isn't news. The paddock may be a bigger source of excitement this season than the track as it look like another run away title from Red Bull and Verstappen. But that doesn't mean there isn't any drama. Red Bull, the predictable champions are the source of the greatest amount of drama. The Christian Horner saga shows no sign of letting up. For the uninitiated, team principal Horner was accused of misconduct right before the season started. In about an opaque of an investigation as you can have Red Bull hired an independent investigator who cleared Horner of all charges. However that hasn't stopped F1 pundits of all shapes and sizes from predicting gloom and doom for the Racing Bulls, insisting that Horner will soon be removed, or Verstappen will leave the Austrian race unit. Personally, I just don't see this happening. Horner is the longest running principal in F1, and is one of the most successful. He has been there since the beginning of Red Bull and has brought them multiple constructor Cups and individual championships with Vettel and Verstappen. If he is truly cleared why would they replace him? Who would be able to come in and do what he has done? Verstappen has been with RB and under Christian since the beginning of his career. He has thrived under Horner, and that car. There is no other place that he can go that give him a car like this. It just doesn't make sense to me. But it is F1 and strange things happen when ego's get involved (plus his father doesn't seem to be able to get out of his own way being the source of a lot of drama). I think the other thing driving a lot of drama is the amount of drivers that become free agents at the end of the season. 12 out of the 20 drivers have their contracts end in 2024. That is crazy and I can't remember a season where that has happened. So there could be a total remake of the grid for 2025. We already know Sainz is out and Hamilton is in at Ferrari. Perez's contract is over at RB next season and I can see him not being there in 2025. I think all of those contracts ending is causing a lot of drama, as well as a ton of speculation from the pundits who are driving clicks to their sites. I think there may be more drama on the track than others. While P1 may be locked up, I think P2-5 is going to be great to watch both on the driver side and constructors side. Should be a fun season if you can get over the predictability of the winner.

Liverpool

No Premiere league matches this week, but that doesn't mean Liverpool was resting. They had a mid week Europa League match against Czech club Sparta Praha in their second leg to move on in the second tier European league. As they did in the first leg, Liverpool absolutely dominated beating them 5-1. And honestly it wasn't even that close. In just a few minutes Liverpool kicks off an FA Cup match against their hated rivals the obnoxious Manchester United. ManU continues to be in disarray so I have confidence that Liverpool pulls out an away win and continues on to the semifinals of the premiere British tournament. That keeps them on the path to potentially capture 3 more titles in addition to the already captured Carabou Cup. The are still on track for the EPL title, Europa League Title, and FA Cup championship. What a season this could be to celebrate all that Klopp has done for the Reds.

Wednesday Whiskey and Cigar

2024-03-13T20:23:00.002-05:00

It always feels good to take a step back, slow down and relax with a nice smoke and a scotch. Especially with all the things going on these days, getting a little bit of time to oneself is a critical part of taking care of your mental health. It was with that in mind that I sat down to enjoy these two lovelies.

The Cigar

This is a box pressed Rocky Patel Decades cigar, it has a Sumatran wrapper with a secret mix of fillers within. This is a mighty robust cigar. One that definitely tells you are smoking a CIGAR! It's spicy with notes of black pepper, tar, leather, and nutty. It's oily and intense. It coats the mouth with its intensity. This was a gift from a friend, so I was eager to smoke it. It's also a well regarded cigar if you pay attention to ratings (which with cigars, I typically do not). For me though this was on the too intense side of things. I tend to enjoy milder cigars that don't saturate your taste buds, and this definitely did that. It is a good cigar to sit and smoke for a while, as it lasted quite a while. If you like robust in your face cigars this may be worth seeking out.

The Scotch.

My last few drams of Scotch have been lovely unseated expressions. That stops with this pour from the distillery that makes my favorite peated Whiskies. Ardbeg is located on the southern part of Islay, the spiritual home for peat heads. Ardbeg has been around for hundreds of years producing outstanding scotch. While they make many different expressions, some labeled by their year, and others as Non Age Statements (NAS) with unusual names like An Oa or Uigedail they all share a bold note of peat. This particular expression Ardcore was a special release in 2022. A typical thing that Ardbeg does is release a special expression on Ardbeg day and in 2022 this was that release. In something I haven't seen before Ardbeg used roasted black malt to make this which adds even more smokey and some would say bitter notes to the spirit. It's lightly colored as with most Ardbeg offerings. I am always surprised by this. I don''t know why, but my mind always expects a darker liquid for a smokey scotch and that is never the case. On the nose this is peat, smoke, charcoal, a little burn of the nostrils. The mouthfeel is slick and almost syrupy, with notes of dark bitter chocolate, licorice, leather. I love it. It's robust and in your face, and it holds up to the robust cigar, although taken together it is a lot of in your face smokey notes. But I appreciate these smokey flavors more than I do in this particular cigar. The flavors of the scotch meld together more tightly, more cohesively. For whatever reason, I hadn't reached for this bottle in a while. Glad I did tonight, it was just what I needed.