Table of contents for June 2019 in Robb Report

Will Anderson Anderson is a still-life photographer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, he trained as a graphic designer in the UK, the Netherlands and Italy before moving to New York and pursuing photography. For Best of the Best, Anderson captured the spirits (page 207) and cigar (page 309) sections, using a concertina-like mirror that had to be custom built for the job. When not in the studio, he can be found surfing or playing drums. Mary Holland Originally from South Africa, New York–based writer and editor Mary Holland previously served as the online editor for GQ at Condé Nast in Cape Town. She chronicled the cream of the culinary crop this month for Best of the Best, sampling sought-after delicacies from Peru to Japan (page 231).…

The watch industry is a slow-moving business—it takes time to create time. But as the world moves at a faster pace, even the titans of watchmaking have had to rethink how they do business. Those calling the shots remain, remarkably, the heads of family-owned businesses that include Swatch Group, Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe. As head of Swatch Group, the largest watch conglomerate, Nick Hayek announced last year that he would no longer be showing his brands at Baselworld, Switzerland’s—and the world’s—biggest watch trade show. Richard Mille and François-Henry Bennahmias, Audemars Piguet’s CEO, followed, declaring they would not be showing at Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, the second-largest show. Meanwhile, amid rumors that Patek Philippe was looking for buyers, president Thierry Stern had to clarify that the…

Ten years after the crash, how healthy is the private-aviation industry? The industry has proven resilient and is thriving. More businesses and individuals have come to view private air travel as a necessity rather than a luxury. The core businesses of whole-aircraft ownership, fractional and charter are firmly established and stable. Forays aimed at reaching a broader demographic through apps, per-seat sales and the like have met with limited success and several stumbles. The recipe for success is the same today as it was 10 years ago—the right amount of flight time on the most appropriate and safe aircraft, at the best possible price. What are the biggest strengths? What is the weakest link? Private aviation’s biggest strength is the service itself. Convenience, time savings and peace of mind are…

What are the key jewelry items now? Girandole earrings have proven to be a timeless classic. Designers continue to experiment and expand on [the form]. I love those from Sylvie Corbelin in fun, fresh colors like pink sapphires, turquoise and citrine. Bold gold—think Krystle Carrington in Dynasty. I love chain necklaces, the bigger the better. Those shy of making a statement can opt for a humble hoop. Diamond rivière necklaces. We field a lot of requests for diamond rivières but lately noticed that women are coming back for more, to layer up. Who are the designers to watch? Tatiana Verstraeten. She was mentored by Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel for many years and just ventured out solo with a collection of exquisite haute jewelry. Her pieces are cleverly engineeredthey’re ultralight and…

What are you and Shinji trying for with Legent? We wanted to take the whiskey lover’s palate to another place on the flavor map, to explore areas that have never been explored before. You can only do so much with our normal mashbills and barrels. Secondary barrels can add hints of dried fruit and more. Some Scotch distillers use finishing casks and blending, right? That’s where Shinji learned that art. He worked in Scotland for a while. Japanese whisky mimics that. We’re going into their waters a bit. What are your favorite Scotch whiskies? Laphroaig, with its smoky peatiness. At first when you try it you think, who would want to drink this? But when you sit with its creator and are told the story of the whisky, when you…

You’ve signed several new artists lately, including Glenn Ligon. Are you always on the lookout? I still see ourselves at the beginning of development. We are presented with opportunities where we fall in love with an artist. An example: Charles Gaines, such an important figure within the conceptual practice, with huge influence on a whole generation. Diversity has always been part of our thinking. It’s also important for us to connect dots. We have Mark Bradford, one of the most successful living American artists. His two very important influences are Jack Whitten (also ours) and Gaines. Several smaller galleries have closed recently. Do you feel in some way responsible? It’s comparable to what’s happening in society: a top level doing very well and the rest of the world struggling. So…

Have you noticed an increase in diners who care more about saying they’ve eaten somewhere than actually eating there? Yeah, it terrifies me. I think it’s sad. The only reason you should want to go to a restaurant is to have a good time. What are they doing instead? I see people who are so obsessed with documenting the experience and then don’t have the experience at all. It’s such a silly thing to do to go to a restaurant just to post a picture on social media. Why do you think it’s happening? There’s an obsession with telling others what you do. If it gets worse, then one day I will just stop cooking because it won’t be rewarding anymore. You’ll just stop? The only reason why anyone should…

Where do you stand on the trend of using less sugar—lower dosage—in Champagnes? Dom Pérignon is extra brut, so it’s never been a sweet wine. But 20 years ago, it was sweeter—at 9 grams compared with about 4 grams currently. It has continuously declined. Why? Because the wine deserves it. We experiment with dosage at six months and one year, and I’ve been observing vintage after vintage that less is more. Are there any changes you want to make to the wine? When you’re young you want to change the world, but you realize Dom Pérignon is much bigger than you. So the second stage is needing to do something important. You have to understand where you fit in the trajectory of the brand. One of my first missions was…

How do you see the state of the superyacht industry? Azimut|Benetti Group has been the top company in this segment (yachts above 78 feet) for the last 19 years. From this observation deck, I see a sparkling market in yachts 80 to 120 feet. From a demographic point of view, we may cautiously say there are younger new owners of yachts, due to the fast wealth generated by the new economy. What are you doing to change things up? We are introducing new concepts, designers and lifestyles on board for both the Azimut Grande and the Benetti brands. Azimut Grande has enjoyed enormous growth because of a wide range of products, from the Azimut Grande 25 Metri (82 feet) up to the 35 Metri (114 feet)—but much more is to…

Why has this year been important to you professionally? We built a new manufacturing facility in Cave Creek, Ariz. It was a massive project. Meanwhile, we just launched a new Momentum preamp, with other Momentum and Progression products in development. And we introduced the Relentless amplifier. Your new Relentless monoblock amp—at 6,000 watts and $250,000 per pair—establishes a new benchmark. What inspired it? It answered a personal challenge: What amplifier would I build if I could build one without any limits? It was really just the pursuit of perfection—something that was beautiful, super-powerful and the best sounding amp I’ve ever made. What’s the future of premium audio? My vision is to make audio accessible, products that are at the leading edge of technology—sonically—but that you can literally talk to or…

The line between art and design, long fuzzy, has now been almost completely erased. For years, emerging and established designers alike have been creating limited-edition and one-off pieces of furniture with only a hint of function, which get presented at fairs like Design Miami and TEFAF. And artists have occasionally been tapped for design collaborations. Now, instead of trying to find balance between these different disciplines, artists and designers—if we still care to differentiate—are working freely in both. The well-regarded contemporary artist Deborah Kass designed rugs with BravinLee programs, which came out late last year. The veteran industrial designer Jasper Morrison has an exhibition of his cork furniture running at the New York art gallery Kasmin through June. And a new wave of talents who once operated in the middle…

It takes focus and respect for both palate and terroir to narrow down the top cigar releases from premium makers, but here you have the outcome of our smoke trials over the past year. You’ll see that while the majority of non-Cuban cigars continue to be made in the Dominican Republic, there’s a heightened emphasis on the rich tobaccos of Nicaragua—two-thirds of this year’s Best of the Best cigars come from that somewhat beleaguered country. We’re also seeing richer, but not necessarily stronger, cigars. This is coupled with a shift to larger ring sizes, for fuller flavors. The result is a quality and variety that’s never been better. Rocky Patel Hamlet 25th Year Salomon BIG SMOKE To smoke or not to smoke . . . that is the question this…

Which cigars are your personal picks? I still enjoy classic sizes and shapes and am not a fan of the gob-stopping 58-ring-gauge cigars that have become de rigueur. My favorites are the Bolivar Belicosos finos and the Montecristo No. 2. I’m fortunate to have a deep collection of mature and vintage Belicosos and have been a devotee of the Montecristo No. 2 since my father introduced them to me long ago—we still enjoy them together. Where in London do you go to savor them? My haunt is the Garden Room at the Lanesborough. The vibe is laid back and comfortable, the cigar selection is comprehensive, and the service is truly the best in the business. The cigar sommeliers’ knowledge of both regular and vintage cigars is impressive. I also enjoy…

When he died in 1965 he possessed both a knighthood and the Nobel Prize for literature. So far I have neither, but on matters of quality, he and I are as one. “My tastes are simple,” he once said. “I am easily satisfied with the best.” And as luck would have it, it is very much “the best” that we are concerned with this month. At Robb Report we constantly survey and distill the finest things imaginable and present them to the most discerning audience in the world: you. Once a year in June, however, we take a different tack. This issue, our biggest of the year, is something of a connoisseur’s directory. What follows are the cars, boats, planes, bikes, watches, destinations, jewelry, style, spirits, wines, restaurants, tech, art…

THERE’S NO BETTER endorsement for a guitar maker than having talent the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Jack White own several of your handmade instruments. That craftsman is James Trussart, a French native who moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and is considered by many to be the world’s preeminent producer of stylish steel guitars. More than precision performance, Trussart’s axes, which sell for thousands of dollars apiece and can take anywhere from two weeks to six months to build, are designed to have the look and feel of a vintage instrument with the added appeal of metal construction. But achieving that desirable worn-in look takes ingenuity and devotion to detail. “When you love what you’re doing, it’s easy to maintain complete focus on every aspect of production,”…

Describe your design philosophy. I’ve studied Leonardo da Vinci since I was young and have long appreciated his designs as beautiful solutions to a problem. I strive to create what I call “timeless futurism,” where you take the viewer forward in time while still delivering classical beauty. The challenge lies in feeding innovation, which can make a viewer feel uncomfortable. While at Pininfarina, you designed Ferrari’s 599 GTB and one-off P4/5, as well as Maserati’s GranTurismo and Birdcage 75 concept car. What’s it like working with legendary nameplates? Iconic brands like those have rich visual histories. It’s your responsibility to master the foundational design philosophies before you try to bend the rules and explore new forms. Pushing an icon forward is incredibly satisfying, but I always had a desire to…

“I like to style my suits up with sneakers, a turtleneck or pocket square.”Joseph “JJ” Johnson Chef “A suit can convey professionalism, rigor or even fun, depending on how you wear it. It’s about understanding the rules and breaking them.”Vishaan Chakrabarti Architect “The trick is don’t think of it as a uniform. Show your personality and wear it in different ways.”Eric Villency CEO, Villency Design Group “A suit makes me feel more put together and elegant when I’m seeing clients. Auctions are an old-world business, and I think it’s charming the way we still dress up to go to work.”Rahul Kadakia Christie’s International Head of Jewelry “A suit makes you a bit sharper when you’re meeting clients. Finance is a serious business, and it requires a level of serious dressing.”Paul…

What timepieces have been hits with your clients from the last year? The Bulgari Octo Finissimos has been popular. There’s been a lot of buzz about Zenith and the El Primero—the vintage-looking reintroductions. Kari Voutilainen is on fire, but obviously the problem is getting the merchandise. There has also been new interest in Greubel Forsey, now that they’ve come out with a smaller case size on the Balancier Contemporain. Vacheron Constantin’s blue dials in their Fiftysix case have been popular, as well as A. Lange & Söhne’s Lange 1 “25th Anniversary” watches and their Datograph “Lumen”timepiece. But that’s another one that makes such small quantities we’re not able to fulfill every inquiry. What has been popular with women? Women’s watches seem to be a little bit of a problem these days.…

One of the most expensive aspects of owning or chartering a plane is the cost of fuel. It takes a lot of energy—and creates a lot of CO2 emissions—to get these amazing machines into the air. And while we have seen an uptick in alternative-energy aircraft—Israel-based Eviation’s all-electric and Boeing/JetBlue–backed Zunum’s hybrid planes, for instance—vast efforts are also going into raising the awareness and availability of sustainable alternative jet fuels (SAJF) for business and commercial aircraft already in service. In January, California’s Van Nuys Airport became the first general aviation airport in the United States to offer SAJF on a trial basis and serve as a model for offering alternative fuels at other airports, which could help the industry achieve emissions reduction goals. Gulfstream, which has been using SAJF since…

During the course of a year, the surface of a spirits editor’s desk becomes crowded with bottles tall and squat, brown and clear. In just about any other environment, it would be unacceptable to have your office look like the top shelf of a neighborhood bar, but for a spirits editor, a desk devoid of whisky, bourbon, gin, tequila and vodka would seriously endanger credibility. We’ve sampled hundreds in the last 12 months—forget about 5 o’clock, by the way, 11 am is the sweet spot for the palate—and a few bottles from masterful distillers around the world have distinguished themselves as exceptional. We share them with you here. Bruichladdich Black Art 1990 Edition 6.1 OVERALL Bruichladdich has never won a Robb Report Best of the Best award, but this small…

Wine can be seductively elusive and changeable, evolving across both decades and hours. You want to chase it, to know it. Of the many new releases we chased this past year, the selections here are the ones that, when sipped, tasted like nothing else—and made us long for more. We varied our approach to winners this time, awarding 14 wines instead of just six, as we did in 2018. Even with the expansion, we agonized, and accomplished wines slipped the net (but can be found as part of our broader Best of the Best selections at robbreport.com). The wines we chose here span the globe as well as the breadth of varietals and styles, but they all share two things: the potential for long years in the cellar and the…

Jewel of the Cellar Louis XIII Black Pearl edition ($13,000) is that rare single expression of Cognac that demands a separate bottling all its own. It’s drawn from a single tierçon hidden in a cool, damp corner of the former chairman’s family cellar, where scents of forest floor and mushrooms have permeated the spirit, along with honey, myrrh, cigar-box and passion-fruit notes. And to hold this prized Cognac, Baccarat created 1,498 crystal decanters in anthracite with pearl inlays and palladium plating. louisxiii-cognac.com Lady of Leisure Dutch superyacht-builder Feadship spent five years constructing one of the biggest yachts it has ever created. This spring, Lady S had its coming-out party, setting sail in the North Sea, near Feadship’s new shipyard in Amsterdam. The 305-foot vessel with elegant, angular lines left the…

Jewelry is being celebrated and sold more like art—and it’s about time. It didn’t happen overnight, but in the past year in particular we witnessed a clear repositioning: More elite jewelers, including Hemmerle, Taffin and Suzanne Syz, exhibited at more high-profile international art fairs and galleries alongside contemporary artists, and the auction houses hosted individual designer exhibitions. There also has been a proliferation of artistically inclined jewelers forging sculptural pieces and innovative concepts in gold and gemstones, from the young haute joaillerie designer Emmanuel Tarpin, who is creating imaginative, modern pieces like we’ve never seen before, to familiar favorites Silvia Furmanovich and Fernando Jorge, whose artistic creations combine gemstones with unexpected elements, such as wood and the Brazilian tagua nut, respectively. Clients are firmly on board, appreciating their jewels’ artistry…

How has the concept of a luxury hotel changed in the last 20 years? Undoubtedly, the rise of boutique hotels, with their more genuine and authentic approach, has altered what people now expect from the bigger players. I think our current work with brands like Four Seasons and Rosewood showcase this shift, with more attention being given to creating that same home-away-from-home feeling, but on a larger scale. We want to feel an emotional connection to the people and places we’re visiting, and therefore we’ve moved on from the old-world formality of years gone by. Where does that leave traditional service—butlers and the like—which could be considered old-world? Fantastic service is never out of place, regardless of what form it comes in. My work with a hotel group in Osaka…

Across the millennia, wherever man has gone, he’s made something potent to drink. It seems there would be little to add after those centuries. And yet . . . the world’s top distillers keep following the advice of poet Ezra Pound to “make it new.” To the lab, the fields and the forests they go, experimenting with atypical cask woods, different barrel finishings and unusual botanicals, and employing native ingredients, such as yeasts and potatoes, in different ways. We look forward to the next renditions of their spirited adventures in and out of the lab.…

It wasn’t so long ago that the Sackler clan was celebrated for its generous philanthropy: There are Sackler wings, galleries, courtyards and the like at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Guggenheim, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Victoria and Albert Museum, to name just a few of the institutions that have benefited from the family’s largesse. What a difference a few years—and an estimated 47,000 opioid-overdose deaths in 2017—make. Once wooed and honored, the family that has become synonymous with the opioid crisis—through one branch’s ownership of Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin—was roundly shunned by the art world in the spring. In a stunning turn of events, first the National Portrait Gallery, then the Tate, both in London, declared a moratorium on gifts from the Sacklers.…

With a glint in his eye and a mischievous grin, the chef said, “Follow me.” He darted up the stairs into an office above the restaurant, where menus and invoices were strewn about, then approached a fully stocked bookcase in the corner. “Check this out,” he said, while straining to slide the bookcase on hidden casters. His efforts revealed a large hole in the wall, stocked with jars of various sizes filled with vinegars and vegetables suspended in murky liquids. The chef, who requested anonymity to evade detection by the health department, wanted to experiment with fermentation without having to jump through his city’s endless hoops to get approval. He was on the search for flavor, no matter the cost. Because although the cool thing for chefs to tout over…

In a winemaking sense, the West Coast has been looking back across the pond to France and Italy recently for cues on both style and technique. We’re seeing a shift from the big fruit bombs of yore to leaner, more elegant reds that are just right to drink now but still have the power and structure to hold their own in the cellar. Taking another cue from Europe, some pioneers are backing away from new oak and experimenting with neutral casks, looking for an even greater emphasis on terroir. Even Oregon and Sonoma Pinot Noirs have become more Burgundian in style. We couldn’t be happier about all these juicy developments.…

Expedition- or explorer-style yachts have been around for years, built by a specialized few. Now, however, echoing the rise in popularity of the SUV in the automobile market, every boatbuilder wants to get in on the action. Earlier this year, Jonathan Beckett, CEO of superyacht brokerage house Burgess, said, “The new style of yachting is to be more adventurous, both with destinations and activities.” Think kite surfing near a remote Pacific atoll or in a northern fjord. This last year, Dutch shipyard Heesen unveiled plans for its first explorer yacht concept, the 187-foot XVenture, and Italian yard CRN has three AlfaRosso explorer-style vessels in build. Baglietto, also based in Italy, has a 141-foot explorer-yacht project in the works, and the 230-foot Project Crystal (shown) from Dutch firm Mulder Design will…

There are two camps in the audio community—analog vs. digital—and they have been crusading against each other like zealots since the dawn of the compact disc in 1982, each swearing that their solution to state-of-the-art sound is audio’s true religion. In the early days, most digitally recorded and reproduced music could make your ears bleed because it was so unnaturally sharp and edgy, with sound not remotely comparable to magnetic tape or LPs. The intervening decades have further honed the analog and digital arts, with phono reproduction today achieving the highest fidelity in its history and causing analog acolytes to exclaim “Eureka!” Meanwhile, digital technology has played leapfrog, making sonic advancements in hardware and software, to a point where high-resolution audio streaming from music services like Tidal and Qobuz—with vast…

Every year, legions of designers aim to reimagine the furniture and objects that populate our homes, seeking to create products chicer or more daring or just plain more comfortable than those already in our living rooms. In the quest for newness, however, some pieces end up appearing overwrought, while others simply fail to improve on what has come before. A select few, however, achieve an elegant balance of functionality and aesthetics, becoming new classics that are worth holding onto for the long haul. Whether a chair of supreme simplicity, a rug in bold graphics, a lamp that looks as if Miro drew it or a substantial table cut from travertine, the following are the best, most thoughtfully considered designs of the past year. Norman Foster for Stelton TABLEWARE The Danish…

Why did you start Field + Supply and the showroom Fair? I noticed there were a lot of people starting to do really beautifully handcrafted work again, but they were scattered across different design fairs and getting lost in the noise. I thought bringing them together would be a better way to showcase elevated craftsmanship. We had a great response to the first edition of Field + Supply, in 2014, and I could immediately see that people were hungry for it. Are these makers reclaiming something we lost in the age of mass production? Absolutely. It’s a reaction to the big retail chains and disposable furniture. A lot of these pieces could be considered future heirlooms. Hopefully, they’ll be passed from generation to generation. People were longing for furniture with…

For decades now, public spaces for cigars to be smoked have been whittled away to almost nothing. Last year saw a seismic shift in smoking culture, however, with the legalization of marijuana across many states. Suddenly there’s a new enthusiasm for the luxurious accessories that cigar smokers have long appreciated—beautiful ashtrays, lighters and humidors—as well as a greater need for social spaces in which to light up. While cannabis and cigars are two very different substances (with very different effects), we expect to see a more embracing attitude toward smoke in general in the years to come.…