Last year I drank Sazerac's, this year it seemed Vieux Carré's were my drink of choice. New Orleans has such an interesting history, especially as the birth place of the cocktail. But, finding a good cocktail in New Orleans can be a task. Forget Bourbon Street, except for a rare few establishments. Some of the places off Bourbon offer potential, but aside from this one particular week, most visitors to New Orleans are looking for anything but complex cocktails. So the general advice is pick your cocktail carefully.

Just a quick note to those who are looking for the Sensory Perception and Mixology presentation info. I'll be posting it here shorty, hopefully within the next week or so. I just have other priorities to take care of at the moment, but rest assured, I will be post the info.

All good things must come to an end and it is time to conclude my Tales posts, so here's the wrap up. Tales of the Cocktail has become one of the coolest events around, and those who participated would probably agree. I don't know anyone who had a bad time, and even if things don't go as planned, you really don't care because it seems everything works out anyway. The reason for this is the people who show up. All great events are dependent on the personalities involved. Let me explain.

A great article in the Globe and Mail about wine connoisseurs. Basically a couple of movies (Bottle Shock and Judgment of Paris) are coming out about the 1976 Paris wine tasting session where Californian wines took the world by storm, at a time when they were frowned upon.

In the blind tasting many of the judges confused the Californian wine with French wines, much to their embarrassment. But the worst part is how vocal they were about it, claiming to identify classic French wines, but were actually Californian.

"Without the benefit of a glance at the label, wine connoisseurship is so much hot air and bluster."

With my presentation (Sensory Perception and Mixology) just completed at Tales of the Cocktail this article could not be anymore timely. It just serves as a warning that no matter how good we think we are, in a blind tasting anything can happen because there are not external influences.

As Georg Riedel, head of the famous Austrian wine-glass company who's seen his share of boneheaded guesses by famous palates, once wisely and humbly told me, "A label on a wine substitutes 10,000 years of [tasting] experience."

Good read, go check it out: Wine connoisseurs - I call them cons

As soon as Tales of the Cocktail gets started, it seems it is over. As a friend said, too many drinks makes the nights go by fast. But, most people used their time very well and made the most of the sessions, parties, bars and the city. There are hundreds of posts and comments about the event showing up on the Blogosphere and this is my small contribution to such a big event. This is how it went down for me.

It looks like this is going to be a Tales to remember. So far this year seems to have more of a party atmosphere and there are a lot of people. This is my first post from New Orleans and there is a fair amount to cover. Hopefully I can keep the posts coming but eventually lack of sleep will catch up with me. So here is what's happening.

I’ve just put the finishing touches on my 50 slide presentation for Tales of the Cocktail. I’ve gathered up all my gadgets and packed them away. The luggage is set to go and now I just have to wait until 1AM (July 16^th) to catch my airport shuttle to Detroit. My flight leaves at 7:15AM so I should be checking into the hotel around 1PM tomorrow. I think tomorrow will be a long day because there are a lot of people to meet, things to see, events to attend and drinks to drink. Looks like it is going to be a 24 hour day without sleep. Pretty much like last year. To all those attending see you shortly, and to those who can’t make it, stay tuned I’m entering full blogger mode for the week.

Well, I left this poll up for a fairly long time. But I watched it closely and noticed that the results changed the longer I left the poll open. Initially whisky was in first place, not surprisingly at about 48% and rum and gin were number two and three respectively. But as the poll gathered votes, vodka started to make a rapid climb in the standings, from about 5% to the current 24% and whisky declined to 31%. So what does this tell us?