Table of contents for March 2021 in Robb Report

Ben Sager Sager has been taking pictures since before he could walk; he has been shooting cars since before he could drive. This month, he captured the new Maserati MC20 for Dream Machines (“The Tip of the Trident,” p. 56). “I wanted to make the set feel like the already blurred line between memory and imagination,” he says. Sager’s initial love for photography was sparked by travel, and documenting journeys remains one of his greatest passions. Ana Neves A photographer and content creator, Neves graduated with a bachelor's degree in marketing management in 2019. She shot her father, José Neves, the CEO and founder of fashion e-commerce giant Farfetch, for this month’s profile (“Meet the Most Powerful Man in Fashion,” p. 74). “The idea was to capture a friendly, relaxed…

When the going gets tough, the tough (and well-heeled) get second passports. Now, thanks to a new initiative from top-tier travel agency Embark Beyond, getting one, along with a second citizenship, is simpler than ever. The company’s new Dual Citizenship Program helps clients with the process for 15 European Union nations, and unlike opportunities requiring a major financial investment in the intended country, this one is based on lineage. Clients complete a detailed family tree, then Embark and its European partners assess the best way in and handle all the logistics: record retrieval, translation, certification. Costs run from $2,000 to $3,000, depending on the required paperwork, with an expected timeline of three months (Germany) to two-plus years (Italy). “We vetted the idea with a dozen clients,” says Embark cofounder Jack…

Southern California’s Santa Monica Airport is home to some of the most exclusive private aircraft in the world—and, less obviously, a boutique motorcycle dealership specializing in lust-worthy sports machines from the 1980s to the early 2000s. The aptly named Iconic Motorbikes sells its inventory via direct sales and its auction platform. During a visit to its hangar, we were left slack-jawed at the available models, including the Ducati 750SS, the Yamaha YZF-R7, the Mondial Piega and more Honda RC30s than probably anywhere else on the planet. With classic sportbikes now very much in vogue, the shop has become a leading destination for both seasoned collectors and anyone searching for their personal bucket-list ride (nearly any model can be sourced). “This is a very niche part of the industry, but it’s…

FOLLOWING LAST year’s blowout season and a sustained demand for seclusion in the Covid era, the charter industry is looking beyond the Med to a new destination: the ends of the Earth. Take the expedition yacht Ragnar (pictured), which will explore sections of Iceland and Greenland with a focus on adventure. Converted from a supply vessel in 2020, the 224-footer comes with Jet Skis, Seabobs and a BigBo amphibious ATV you can use to land on pristine tundra. Available from Burgess Yachts from $525,000 per week, Ragnar has a wood-clad interior—featuring a double master suite, fireplaces, a spa and an observation lounge—that is pure, elegant warmth, while her top-deck Jacuzzi is ideal for soaking beneath the stars as you cruise Iceland’s fjords. Want to heli-ski Greenland’s untouched early-summer slopes? A…

Sun-tzu’s The Art of War is a favorite reference for many a hard-charging power broker, but José Neves cites a decidedly less aggressive classic of Chinese literature as an early influence: Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching. After stumbling upon Taoism’s foundational text as a 13-year-old in northern Portugal, Neves delved into Eastern philosophies and emerged as a Zen Buddhist. It’s a school of thought that the founder and CEO of Farfetch, the luxury online retailer with the largest audience in the world, still follows today. “I’m a Buddhist by philosophy, not by religion,” says Neves, who spends much of his time in London with his wife and five children. As we Zoom, he certainly looks like a Zen acolyte by way of Jil Sander, wearing a minimalist black T-shirt against the…

While fine wine in Europe and the Americas becomes increasingly focused on individual vineyard plots, Australian producer Penfolds has always taken a broader view, making its mark by blending premium grapes from across South Australia’s wine regions. The result: critical darlings, from the popular Bin 389 to the highly collectible Grange. This month Penfolds widens its lens further still with the launch of its California Collection. It’s not the first time it has jumped continental boundaries, nor is Penfolds the first wine powerhouse to do so. What makes this expansion so notable is its remarkable history, plus Penfolds’ new-world willingness to say “rules, schmules” and go its own way. “Penfolds got its first taste of California sun in the 1990s, with Geyser Peak,” says senior winemaker Stephanie Dutton, of the…

While he has worked in the industry for over 30 years, Patrick Munsters is the rare designer who isn’t interested in what’s fashionable so much as what endures. Born and raised in the Netherlands, he got his start at the Dutch brand Scotch & Soda, eventually buying the company with partners and turning it into a global juggernaut. But after 11 years as creative director, he decided to sell and leave the rat race. After launching Marie-Stella-Maris, a brand of mineral water and toiletries, Munsters returned to fashion in 2017 with Salle Privée, but this time with a clear differentiating factor: Rather than seasonal collections, his brand offers a permanent range of the pieces that men rely on, year in and year out—the perfect peacoat, chinos, T-shirt. No seasons, no…

The MC20 takes up the mantle from the MC12, one of the most sought-after Maseratis of the modern era. Founded just months after the start of World War I in 1914, Maserati has been gamely battling relative latecomers Ferrari (1947) and Lamborghini (’63) for Italian sports-luxury prominence despite several lost decades of mismanagement and financial hardship. And the Bologna-based brand still has plenty of fight: Witness the launch of the 630 hp MC20, its first supercar in almost two decades, while the pandemic was in full swing, inauspicious circumstances that actually allowed gearheads more opportunity to obsess. The mid-engine MC20 takes up the mantle from the MC12, one of the most sought-after Maseratis of the modern era, which returned the marque to racing in 2004—the “MC” stands for “Maserati Corse,”…

Private aviation’s version of the Airbus A220-100 commercial plane, the new TwoTwenty from Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ), was designed to compete on price with traditional large-cabin business jets but with a far more impressive spec sheet. Airbus calls it an “Xtra Large Bizjet.” But with significantly more interior space than large-cabin aircraft from competitors Gulfstream and Bombardier Global and, according to ACJ, lower operating costs, it might be more accurate to call the TwoTwenty an entirely new class of private business jet. “When we started analyzing, we realized that unfortunately you can only have two out of three factors” among cost, range and space, says ACJ president Benoit Defforge. “We asked ourselves, ‘How do we find a platform, a product with no compromises, that includes all three?’ ” The answer:…

While every musical recording captures a moment in time, the technology that delivers it is anything but immutable. But that can be a good thing: Vinyl’s resurgence, along with new advances in CD playback, means that old-school delivery systems are rejoining the fray alongside cutting-edge cloud-based streaming. Here, three very different components, each at the top of its category. NAD Masters M33 Streaming BluOS Amplifier Essentially six components in one, the M33 is a music streamer, digital-to-analog converter (DAC), phono stage, preamp, power amp and headphone amp. Its wireless BluOS technology uses your tablet or smartphone to access streaming services while syncing with any other NAD BluOS devices in the house to offer wireless, whole-home audio. Weighing about 40 pounds, the M33’s sleek aluminum chassis is beautifully machined and features…

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM considers the garage less an extension of the home than an afterthought: four windowless walls to keep cars dry, out of the freezing cold or searing sun, and safe from the scratches and dings that all too often accompany street parking. But sometimes that kind of practical, style-free bunker is no match for an owner’s automotive enthusiasm. Architects and real-estate developers are increasingly coming to the rescue with designs that upend the very concept of car storage, using clever layouts and inventive engineering to create more fluid connections between living areas and four-wheeled objects of affection. Interior glass walls offer views of bright, spotless garages, and in many cases cars pull right into furnished rooms, where they have pride of place as if they were billiard tables or…

One can spend endless vacations chasing the latest high-profile trend or gizmo, from culinary tourism to submarines. But there’s a shift afoot, a desire to seek pleasures that are more simple, though by no means less luxurious, with a return to old-fashioned adventure and the chance to enjoy the meditative powers of nature with as few filters as possible. For devotees of Andalusia’s peerless Marbella Club, this means a twin ski-and-swim trip: a few days perched high in the Sierra Nevada mountain outpost El Lodge, followed by a few more at the brand’s palm-strewn beachside hostelry. From around $2,550 per person, mountain mornings kick off with expeditions into the Sierra Nevada National Park by horseback or hikes in Los Cahorros, a network of gorges, rock pools, waterfalls and historic acequias…

THINK TANK THERE USED to be a lot of gasholders in the United Kingdom. A regrettable name, perhaps—they were once called gasometers, but that’s progress for you—these enormous metal containers helped store gas to power urban areas. This was back in the 1850s, of course, when you needed a lot of the stuff to help keep the lights on. Now technology has made the proud gasholder irrelevant, and they’ve been consistently demolished since 1999. Some have endured, however, including a trio at King’s Cross in London. Rather than tear down the surviving frames, architects WilkinsonEyre transformed them into a set of luxury apartment dwellings dubbed—yup—Gasholders. One of the penthouses, a duplex listed for $9.6 million, sits atop the tallest stack. It was no small undertaking. The cast-iron frames were taken…

MV AGUSTA’S Superveloce 800 starts with a growl, but pushing the tach to 6,000 rpm in second gear you’ll immediately realize there’s as much bite as bark, the bike sprinting out of hairpins like a predator going for the kill. But such viciousness is tempered by its stunning, elegant aesthetic, with the bold, sweeping lines one expects from a hand-built custom, not a production machine. That’s because the Italian manufacturer’s new 148 hp model is a contemporary interpretation of 15-time World Champion Giacomo Agostini’s Grand Prix dominators from the 1960s. Under the retro café-racer silhouette lies MV Agusta’s modern F3 800 supersport platform with its 798 cc inline three-cylinder motor. Marzocchi forks and the Sachs shock are devoid of electronics but fully adjustable, while the four-piston monobloc front-brake calipers, biting…

The configuration is slightly asymmetric, with back-to-back seats in the center overlapping to create six-foot-long “individual living zones.” AIRGO DESIGN wants to revolutionize the sleeping experience on midsize and supermidsize business jets. Those two classes—transcontinental commuters with ranges between 3,000 and 4,100 nautical miles—typically have 6 to 10 seats, though usually only a few will convert to beds. “Space efficiency on private jets often doesn’t get the attention it deserves,” says Alireza Yaghoubi, AirGo’s cofounder and chief technology officer. “The seats are bulky, and floor space is used almost wastefully. Our Supernova seating makes better use of the space, so all seats convert to beds.” Each seat is also transformed into a personal zone, with a divider, in-flight entertainment, power outlets, tray tables, even its own drink cooler. While the…

For a country of such constant and varied innovation, America is largely famous for making things bigger. Skyscrapers, mass transit, SUVs, Michael Bay explosions, half-gallons of single-serving soda. It’s a sort of compulsion, a restless anxiety like standing in a sprawling new house, marveling at the echo and thinking, “Hell, we’ve got to fill it with something.” Mega-scale has always been our great national export, in terms of both product and philosophy. That makes it, on some level, a matter of taste. Everyone is quite pleased with the mobile phones and personal computers, the rock ’n’ roll, disposable contact lenses and microwave popcorn, but we’re still in the red over fast food, which seems stingy, since it was part of the same moon-shot thinking. Take the Chicken McNugget, a snackable…

The single-track mountain-bike trail drops through a scrubby high-desert landscape of gnarled trees and thorny bushes and directly into a tunnel formed of spiky cactus. There is no other way to describe the formation. One side of the trail is framed by a wall of tall cholla, a plant famous for wicked barbed spines like those of a porcupine. The long bristling arms of a huge cardon “elephant” cactus thrust overhead on the other side, leaving just enough space to fit my bike and me—if I duck. And so I pedal inside, wincing, and concentrate on the light at the end of the tunnel. My Specialized bike is light and supremely agile. I only wish my cycling skills were its equal. My forearms are already patterned by a crimson crisscross…