Oh gawd - I spent New Years Eve week in the Tampa area (with me' retired parents, ya know), and found it to be little more than a pastel-coated homogenous geriatric cultural wasteland. How did this place elude me?!?! CURSES..

- Morrigan

By Wolfgang on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 05:15 am: Edit

Wow!

...must - get - lottery ticket ...

By Petermarc on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 03:35 am: Edit

many of these houses were established and/or owed by the english, like in oporto and bordeaux...these designations have existed for a long time and the french honor(or obsess about) tradition even more than language(not the same as quebec)...

By Heiko on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 02:13 am: Edit

btw. why is that VSOP and XO stuff in English? How can the French put English quality labels on their cognac? C'est impertinent!

By Heiko on Friday, January 11, 2002 - 02:10 am: Edit

...and if you need a plugin for that first (like me):

http://www.ipix-eu.com/cgi-bin/download.pl

By Verawench on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 08:00 pm: Edit

http://www.bernssteakhouse.com/Ipix/winecellar.ipx

Holy... wow.

By Perruche_Verte on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:56 pm: Edit

VSOP = Very Special Old Pale

One step up from VS (Very Special), one
down from XO (Extra Old) or "Napoleon" (roughly
the same thing).

Some makers, notably Hine, don't use the traditional terms.

By Verawench on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:49 pm: Edit

snooty?

Seriously, the place looks gorgeous... I must be in the mood for some scorched flesh and a nice vintage.

By Artemis on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:44 pm: Edit

Very something old pale, I think.

By Verawench on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:42 pm: Edit

Tampa's damn expensive.

By Verawench on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:39 pm: Edit

Pardon the ignorance, but what does "VSOP" stand for?

By Artemis on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:37 pm: Edit

That's the stuff all right. I don't think it was a matter of having trouble finding it so much as we assumed it had passed out of existence.

If any place would have a taste, Bern's would seem to be it. Supposedly the wine list weighs five pounds, and they have a million bottles. I doubt if *anything* there is cheap. They even grind their own flour!!

I wonder if there's a bottle of E. Pernod or two in their musty cellar?

See:

http://tampabay.citysearch.com/profile/2664558/

http://www.restaurant.com/bernssteakhouse/

By Perruche_Verte on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 07:08 pm: Edit

Certainly anything more recent than that doesn't appear to be available.

Nice to know a little of it is still around. I'm sure it's not cheap.

By Timk on Thursday, January 10, 2002 - 03:06 pm: Edit

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:wMiRB7o0xyAC:www.bernsteakhouse.com/des_dessertspirits.htm+%22Sazerac-de-Forge+et+fils%22&hl=en

This restaurant lists an 1870 sazerac de forge et fils cognac on their spirits list - is it my memory, or were we having some trouble finding some?