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Issue 31

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34 THE FRONT PAGES WHAT’S WHAT From art exhibits and hotel openings to adventure and travel experiences.

46 JEWELRY DIAMOND ICE The forever rock gets a 21st-century update.

52 WATCHES SMALL IS BIG It’s time to put away those chunky options and get on the tiny watch trend.

58 TECH TOP 10 GIFTS TO GIVE These are the sought-after gadgets of the season.

60 THE LUXURY LOOK TWO-WHEEL REVOLUTIONS Getting around major cities has never been easy, but thanks to these two-wheeled vehicles, commuters can zip around downtown streets in style.

64 DESIGN HERMAN MILLER TURNS 100 At this year’s Salone del Mobile Milano, the brand is offering connoisseurs exclusive opportunities to engage with its storied heritage.

66 CITY UPDATE CHEAT SHEET CHICAGO Resilient and innovative, Chicago knows how to play to its strengths.

70 CITY UPDATE CHEAT SHEET NEWFOUNDLAND Off the east coast of Canada, this sparsely populated island remains a rocky slice of heaven.

74 ONE PLACE, NEW WAY OAXACA The best the city has to offer, from artisanal shops and ateliers to the most immersive hot spots to eat authentically and sleep well too.

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78 GETAWAYS THE HACIENDA EXPERIENCE Discover a different side of Mexico at one of the country’s historical and inimitable estate hotels.

84 ADVENTURE CAST OF THE DAY Fishing with a fly rod is an artful immersion that connects you to prized fish in impactful ways.

90 TRAVEL 6 COUNTRIES, 30 DAYS, 1 PRIVATE JET Fly directly to remote locals on a TCS World Travel cross-continental adventure.

96 JETS ELECTRIC SEAPLANES PREPARE TO LAUNCH Emissions-free flying from a watery runway may be the next smart aviation move.

100 AUTOMOTIVE REASONS TO CELEBRATE Legendary automotive marques stand the test of time.

106 ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN STELLAR WINE CELLARS Vintages displayed in grand cru style enhance the tasting experience.

116 FURNISHINGS BELLA BRAZIL The country’s best home designers and firms showed up to Salão de Gramado with these standouts.

122 FASHION A-LIST ASPEN Taking fashion to new heights in the chic Colorado mountain town.

138 SPORTS TRAVEL THREE TIMES A CHARM Skiing the Big3 in Alberta, Canada; enjoying Nordic activities in Stowe, Vermont; and dining in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

145 AUTOMOTIVE 2023 BENTLEY BENTAYGA EWB Driving the extended lap of luxury in British Columbia.

146 SPORTS TRAVEL DO IT LIKE AN OLYMPIAN In preparation for the 2026 Winter Olympics, hit the slopes where the greats have competed.

154 SPORTS TRAVEL HELI RAISERS That only the best, most extreme athletes can go heliskiing is a myth.

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162 ADVENTURE TRAVEL AN ICE ODYSSEY Antarctica’s sole lodging option launches its most luxurious, otherworldly base camp yet.

168 FOOD HAVE A STEAK ...

TOMATO Chefs with Michelin-rated accolades are redefining fine dining, and they’re doing it with plant-based cuisine.

174 WINE CALIFORNIA CONNECTION New hospitality options—and a private jet partnership—are bridging the gap between two of California’s most storied wine-making regions.

178 SPIRITS IN THE SPIRIT Craft distilleries are offering a behind-thescenes introduction to their process, with a place to rest your head.

182 SPIRITS IRISH WHISKEY MIXES IT UP Modern takes on the age-old spirit lure the promiscuous tippler with artful expressions.

188 REAL ESTATE THE NEW GOOD LIFE Long-term trends center around three broad priorities: working remotely, tax-friendly markets, and uniqueness.

194 ARTIST PROFILE THE SPIRIT OF FORM Works of French painter Fabienne Verdier.

202 THE LAST PAGES WHAT’S NEXT From fun shops and coffee-table books to new restaurants, bars, and spirits.

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33.5230° N, -112.0230° W

Exhale.

Indulge.

Visit a new state of mind.

H E R E YO UA R E A Z .CO M

On the Cover

A J

LUXURY MAGAZINE’s profile of Fabienne Verdier begins on page 194.

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Courtesy of the artist.

s a culture, we have come to understand the notion of a “void” as being synonymous apan’s indigenous Shinto culture is rooted in the belief that spirits reside in all natural with emptiness. In its adjectival form, Merriam-Webster defines it as “containing things: trees, water, wind, rocks, flowers. When Buddhism arrived to the island from nothing.” As a noun, void is “the quality or state of being without something.” Void is China in the sixth century, ikebana—the Japanese art of floral design rooted in religious a vacuum, a clearing, a vacancy. For the artist Fabienne Verdier, however, it’s something offerings of flowers to the Buddha—expanded upon the idea that a blossom could open else entirely: movement. minds and hearts to much more than the beauty of the petals themselves.

“The void is filled with a thousand and one forms of energy that are invisible, but constantly Makoto Azuma, one of the most important floral artists working in the world, did not attend changing,” says Verdier, who began to dream of how to represent manifestations of the void—“these ikebana school or study artistic composition with the masters. Still, his understanding of nature as mutations which are unstable, mysterious, and undetermined”—in her work. For more than three a transcendent and illuminating force seeps through the very pores of his botanical masterpieces, decades, she has been engaged in a process of looking at the movement of the world with renewed perpetuating a dialogue around the dualities of tradition and modernity. attention, and then painting it. Hers is a process of devotion that draws from everything and The Buddha believed that death could be used as a tool to awaken us to life, and that’s maybe as everywhere—East and West, nature and science—all at once. close to a summation of what Makoto’s work does at its best. “There exists a kind of beauty that reveals “To paint movement is to take an interest in the question of time, or rather the time scales that itself only in the face of death,” Makoto writes in Encyclopedia of Flowers III, a photographic catalog of enable us to observe transformations,” says the artist. “How long does it take to transform a mountain, his daily work in Tokyo over a period of two years. When Makoto speaks of flowers, he speaks about metamorphose a landscape, move a sea current, unfold a flower, molt a cicada, develop a child, the way they “present themselves to us.” In his Chiaroscuro series, they present themselves in between evaporate dew, or stretch a rainbow?” life and death. They are “chiaro” (light) and “scuro” (dark), their essence in harmony with the spring In Perpetuum Mobile II/IV (2017), Verdier’s poetic chant to the void reveals itself in white acrylic equinox—a time when light and darkness are evenly split, just before light prevails. paint that moves across a deep-blue canvas. Unlike a photograph that freezes a single moment in time, the painting transmits essence and spirit. It acts upon its viewer. “It’s up to the viewer to let this flow pass through them, and in turn set themselves in motion, putting their own energy at the service of the community and future generations,” she says of the painting featured on LUXURY MAGAZINE’s Fall/Winter 2023 issue. Nothingness becomes somethingness, rippling out in ways known and unknown—visible and invisible.

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ART, CULTURE & DESIGN Elmgreen & Dragset, whose wit and sly humor are behind Prada Marfa (that stocked-butnever-open boutique on a barren stretch of US Route 90 in Texas), have transformed two galleries at Paris’ Centre Pompidou.

Expect irony and a playful absurdity in Elmgreen & Dragset: Bonne Chance, through April 1. centrepompidou.fr The elegantly translucent, 129,000-square-foot Perelman Performing Arts Center at New York’s World Trade Center has scheduled its inaugural season of music, theater, dance, and opera with performances by well-known acts, a reimagined production of Cats, intimate conversations with cultural changemakers, and the Tribeca Festival in June. pacnyc.org

Glenstone Museum Ellsworth Kelly at 100 commemorates the artist’s 100th birthday (he died in 2015).

Maryland’s Glenstone Museum has put the entire expanse of his seven-decade career on display—nearly 70 works, including the massive installation Yellow Curve. The show runs through April 15 and then travels to Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton and the Fire Station Museum in Doha, Qatar. In New York City, Kelly’s indoor and outdoor sculptures are on display at the architecturally significant (International Style) Lever House until May 1. ellsworthkelly.org

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Elmgreen & Dragset: Bonne Chance The 94-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (best known for her Pop Art polka dots) has shown in most of the world’s contemporary museums and has designed everything from lip gloss to handbags. Two current, must-see exhibitions: Love Is Calling at Pérez Art Museum Miami (pamm.org) through February 11 and the three-story immersive installation Dots Obsession at WNDR Museum Chicago (wndrmuseum.com).

From enchanting, out-inthe-garden productions of Shakespeare to comedic cabarets between courses at a holiday dinner, Revels in Hand traveling theater company from the United Kingdom is taking bookings in the United States through the winter of 2023.

For intimate gatherings, grand celebrations, or corporate affairs, Revels produces tailor-made entertainment, including fullscale immersive treasure hunts. revelsinhand.com At the Victoria & Albert in London through February 25, Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto is showing more than 200 looks that trace the remarkable story of Chanel’s fashion empire and the evolution of her classic (and still relevant) style. An alternative

to making reservations through the museum, untimed tickets are being sold through the Kensington Hotel and guests with suite reservations receive a copy of the Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto coffee-table book. vam.ac.uk Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, 1892

Through January 15 at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Fashioned by Sargent shows 50 paintings by leading Edwardian portraitist John Singer Sargent (above) alongside more than a dozen period garments and accessories. Think Madame X in a daring, off-the-shoulder black gown and Dr. Pozzi at home in his scarlet robe de chambre.

Also, visit the museum’s two newly renovated spaces: Art of the Italian Renaissance and the French Salon. mfa.org

As Corvette celebrates its 70th birthday (the first one rolled off the assembly line in 1953 and became an instant classic), join the festivities by visiting the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky—also home to the only Corvette manufacturing plant. Tour the plant and then take a spin on the property’s 3.2-mile road course track. corvettemuseum.org Through April 2, Mark Rothko at Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton (fondationlouisvuitton.fr) chronologically displays works from the painter’s five-decadeslong career—from early figurative paintings to the abstract work for which he is most famous.

Simultaneously through March 31, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (nga .gov) displays more than 100 of Rothko’s lesser-known paintings on paper (below), some on view for the first time, in Mark Rothko: Paintings on Paper.

Untitled (The Subway) (Subway Station), 1937

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top: Pace Gallery/Andrea Rossetti/Héctor Chico; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/John McKenzie; New-York Hitorical Society/Glenn Castellano; Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland/Ellsworth Kelly at 100

What’s What

Bulgari Hotel Roma

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top: Bulgari Hotels & Resorts/Francesco Luciani; Maroma, A Belmond Hotel/William Jess Laird; The Palmetto Hotel/Jack Robert Connolly; Capella Sydney

HOTELS This year Bulgari opened two jewel boxes. Bulgari Hotel Tokyo (from $1,354) has 98 rooms with embroidered silk walls and hand-painted ceilings on the top floors of a 45-story skyscraper in the city’s central Yaesu neighborhood, right in front of Tokyo Station. Highlights include the eight-person omakase sushi counter and a swanky rooftop bar with views of Mount Fuji. Bulgari Hotel Roma (from $1,485), which features 114 rooms, hand-laid mosaics, Murano glass lamps, and Ginori vases from the 1930s, is located in a renovated 1930s building near the Spanish Steps. There’s a lush rooftop garden bar and restaurant from lauded Italian chef Niko Romito. bulgarihotels.com

Capella Sydney

Occupying an entire city block, Capella Sydney opened in March. A seven-year transformation of an early 1900s government office building revealed 192 rooms and 32 suites on nine floors.

Book rejuvenating treatments at the Auriga Spa followed by drinks and dinner in a brasserie inspired by Victorian-era drinking dens. History buffs will want to take the two-hour walking tour to The Rocks (in the shadow of Sydney Harbor Bridge), hearing stories about culture, crime, and convicts that shaped the city. From $482; capellahotels.com The first North American outpost for the Singaporean hotel group, Raffles Boston opened in September. The hotel occupies a newly built, 35-story, LEED Gold building and operates with Raffles’ trademark amenities: a personal butler, packing and unpacking services, and a spa with private hydrotherapy baths and ice showers. Guests of the 147 rooms also enjoy five restaurants and bars. From $1,089; rafflesboston.com COMO Le Montrachet, a 31room hotel arranged across

four heritage buildings in Burgundy’s Côte-d’Or region, is a haven for connoisseurs of French wine. The hotel offers seasonal wine-paired menus in its restaurant and private tours of local wineries with its sommelier. From $500, including breakfast; comohotels.com Maroma, A Belmond Hotel

72 rooms, suites, and villas. Wellness offerings include spa treatments that incorporate ancient healing rituals, ocean meditation, and Mayan star gazing. Play sustainable ocean golf using biodegradable balls. From $1,095; belmond.com In Charleston’s historic district, the 45-room Palmetto Hotel opened in March with impeccable architecture and polished interiors featuring original art, historic blackand-white photos, and classic Southern antiques revived with contemporary fabrics.

Complimentary continental breakfast with great coffee; dog friendly. From $225; palmettohotelcharleston.com  —Irene Rawlings

Between tropical jungle and white-sand beaches in Mexico, Maroma, A Belmond Hotel, Riviera Maya, reopened in August after a complete renovation under the leadership of distinguished interior architect Tara Bernerd, who worked with local artisans to create furniture, pottery, textiles, and art for the property, encompassing Palmetto Hotel LM FALL/WINTER 2023

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What’s What ART, CULTURE & DESIGN

Clockwise from left: Time Dilation exhibit (2021); The Belleview Biltmore: Study for Veiled Classical Bust (2023); Stratified Venus of Milo (2023); Wherever You Go, There You Are (2023); Stratified Bust of Melpomene (detail, 2023); Time Dilation exhibit (2021)

GALLERY SPOTLIGHT Prolific multimedia artist Daniel Arsham puts on simultaneous shows.

Through October 14, the artist Daniel Arsham is showing 20 Years / 20 Ans— a dual exhibition at Perrotin (perrotin.com) in Paris and New York that honors his 20 years of collaboration with the gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin.

Arsham has a way of taking something iconic and flipping it sideways (sometimes literally), while landing viewers squarely in the paradox of time and space—where he has playfully explored in the mediums of sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, fashion, and architecture for more than two decades.

“I’ve kept sketchbooks since I was a kid and I go back to them pretty frequently,” says Arsham, an artistic polymath whose practice has spanned large architectural installations

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and several years of set design for the late choreographer Merce Cunningham. “Even notebooks from college with ideas that were maybe not possible to make, either because I didn’t have the technical ability or the financial resources ... I’ll go back through those.”

Stratified Bust of Melpomene (2023) is such a creation. Crafted from stainless steel, patinated, polished bronze, and wood, the Greek-style bust began as a sketch that took Arsham more than 2.5 years of experimentation to fully render into existence.

“The title draws from this word ‘amalgam,’ which is a kind of joining together,” he says.

It’s a ribboning of materials—the parts that come together to create one whole sculpture—that can be understood as a sort

of visual synecdoche for the entire exhibition.

The show weaves together a salon-style hanging of sketches on hotel stationery, wall surface manipulations that feature the illusion of falling clocks, a new sculptural collaboration with Star Wars, and large-scale paintings created with a new impasto paint specially developed by Arsham to invoke the texture of Renaissance masterpieces.

The sense of play among it all stems from a conceptual imagination that’s been active for more than three decades. “I have more work that I want to make than is actually possible,” says Arsham. “[By the time] I arrive at the completion of an exhibition I’ve already started playing around with something else.”  —Brooke Mazurek

Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

Lost Me, 2023 Below: Pulling Falling Clock, 2023

LM FALL/WINTER 2023

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What’s What ADVENTURE & TRAVEL

What to know for the upcoming season.

SPORTS Now open to skiers is Hero’s, Aspen Mountain’s new northeastfacing, high-elevation terrain—the first significant improvement of the resort since the opening of the Silver Queen Gondola in 1985. The mountain (called Ajax by locals) measures smallish (under 1,000 acres) by national standards but is justifiably famous for its demanding steeps.

Hero’s adds 150 acres, including 1,200 vertical feet, 15 trails (some are extensions of existing doubleblack diamonds), and beautiful glades with caches of ungroomed powder. Accessed via highspeed quad, the addition all in all increases Ajax’s skiable terrain by more than 20 percent—for powder hounds, that’s huge.

Among diversions for nonskiers, fat-tire biking is growing in popularity, with many hotels offering rentals. Take the Rio Grande Trail—42 miles all the way to Glenwood Springs or just 7.3 miles to Woody Creek, where you can grab a drink at the Woody Creek Tavern (a favorite watering hole of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson).

For snowmobiling, tour the snow-covered Maroon Bells or ride across the 12,095-foot Independence Pass while the road is closed to cars for the season.

LM FALL/WINTER 2023

Explore Booksellers

Almost anyone can climb a frozen waterfall with a professional guide from Aspen Expeditions, who recommends the activity for advanced climbers as well as those who are just beginning.

Aspen’s mild daytime temperatures are ideal for winter fly-fishing; Aspen Outfitting will take you to the best spots on the Roaring Fork River, local streams, and private water. Arrangements can be made through its shop at The St. Regis Aspen Resort.

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SHOPS Don’t bother packing. All the big names are here—Gucci, Prada, Dior, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, and Moncler.

Other choices? Stylish and expensive, Gorsuch sells hautealpine couture by bold-type names such as Bogner, Dale of Norway, and Brunello Cucinelli. Locals crowd into tiny Performance Ski to snap up owner Lee Keating’s elegantand-edgy Authier designs and the latest in European

brands, including Kjus and Frauenschuh. Pitkin County Dry Goods is Aspen’s oldest clothing store, but don’t be fooled by the quaint, old-fashioned-sounding name. Inside you’ll find Ulla Johnson’s cashmere knits, dreamy L’Agence silks, and Canada Goose Black Label.

At Explore Booksellers in a Victorian house on Main Street find book-lined rooms, creaking floors, and frequent talks by visiting big-name authors.

Le Bateau EATS & DRINKS Michelin-starred BOSQ Aspen serves an uber-seasonal tasting menu. Your meal may come with a cocktail flavored with locally foraged blue spruce. For the entrée: elk loin prepared with stinging nettles and mountain huckleberry plated on stoneware by local potter Alleghany Meadows. Newly opened, Le Bateau offers a fish-andseafood-centric menu, and the name comes from Aspen’s first ski lift—a rope-tow hooked to a boat. Ajax Tavern at The Little Nell is always packed with skiers breaking for a Wagyu double cheeseburger with truffle fries

Courtesy Images, From Top: The Little Nell; Le Bateau; Aspen Chamber Resort Association/Tamara Susa (2)

ASPEN REPORT

Courtesy Images, From Top: Aspen Meadows/Jason Dewey; Stranahan/Nikki Rae; Aspen Music Festival/Luna Choi; ASPENX Beach Club/Joel Nunez-Smith

Aspen Meadows Resort

or a healthier kale-and-quinoa Caesar. J-Bar at the historic Hotel Jerome is the place for a more traditional burger or, to warm up après-ski, a bowl of classic chicken noodle soup. Try the Aspen Crud, a bourbon-spiked vanilla milkshake concocted during Prohibition. Just next door, Bad Harriet does ultra-curated, of-the-moment craft cocktails in the basement of what used to be the Aspen Times building. At Pine Creek Cookhouse, the rustic, log cabin dining room sets the tone for grilled quail, elk bratwurst, and house-smoked trout. Access the restaurant by snowshoe, crosscountry ski, or in a sleigh drawn by two huge draft horses.

ASPENX Beach Club—a sunand-sand-themed party originally envisioned by photographer Gray Malin—returns for a third season.

Stop by for a chaise-side lunch

Photo Credits

ASPENX Beach Club

and Dom Pérignon served in colorful, striped cabanas on a private mountaintop plateau.

In downtown Aspen, Stranahan’s, the Colorado single malt whiskey with a cult-like following, has opened a tasting room.

STAYS MOLLIE Aspen (from $500; mollieaspen.com) opens in December with 68 rooms and a rooftop pool, across the street from Paepcke Park. The cozy decor features warm woods, earthen ceramics, and hand-dyed textiles, and the food and drinks program is spearheaded by Gin & Luck (the group behind Death & Company). The Little Nell

(from $1,250; thelittlenell.com), a perennial favorite with locals and out-of-towners, launches a new ski-in/ski-out spa with treatment suites designed

by Spanish sculptor and designer Luis Bustamante (who designed the exclusive ASPENX Mountain Club). The historic 1889 Hotel Jerome (from $2,200; aubergeresorts .com) is cowboy-meets–Le Corbusier: leather-wrapped chairs in the glass-domed lobby; playful, faux-vintage paintings in the tin-ceilinged Prospect restaurant. The St. Regis Aspen Resort (from $1,030; marriott.com) is a modern take on a Gilded Age manor with 179 alpine-chic rooms. Bring a doggie treat for Kitty, the resident Bernese Mountain Dog who is the pet-friendly hotel’s “fur butler.”

Aspen Meadows Resort (from $620; aspenmeadows.com) debuts its newly renovated, Bauhaus-inspired spaces, perfect for art- and designminded skiers and a short walk to the Aspen Institute’s Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies. A new exhibit features Bayer’s landmark World Geo-Graphic Atlas.

EVENTS X Games returns to Aspen January 26–28, 2024, with top contenders in the most extreme show sports. Later in the season, top international ski racers will compete for the Men’s World Cup on Aspen Mountain at the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup (March 2–3, 2024). Belly Up Aspen hosts live music by big names such as Seal, John Legend, Widespread Panic, and Maggie Rogers. Come back in summer for the 75th anniversary of the venerable Aspen Music Festival—more than 300 classical music events including concerts by five orchestras, chamber music performances, and fully staged opera productions.  —I.R. Aspen Music Festival

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What’s What ADVENTURE & TRAVEL

Venture above the Arctic Circle with Secret Atlas.

MICRO CRUISING

Dive with Rascal Voyages.

Sail the Mekong River with The Jahan.

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With just 12 guests aboard MV Vikingfjord, the Secret Atlas expedition (from $12,400/person for nine days; secretatlas.com) ventures above the Arctic Circle to witness calving glaciers, polar bears, walruses, humpback whales, bearded seals, and colonies of carnivalesque-faced puffins. Another entry point into wildly scenic waters is the comfortable, country-houseat-sea Hebridean Princess (from $5,600/person for seven days; hebridean.co.uk) that navigates Scotland’s Hebridean archipelago.

The cruise stops at remote islands, including distillery-dense Islay.

Halfway around the world, explore off-grid islands in Southeast Asia with Rascal Voyages (from $5,500/ person for five days; rascalvoyages .com). Swim with turtles and manta rays, spot whales and dolphins, dive at the Ring of Fire. The ship has a tropical beach house look and can host up to 10 guests in five cabins.

Finally, there’s the riverboat The Jahan (from about $13,400/ person for 12 days; expeditions .com), operated by Lindblad Expeditions in partnership with National Geographic. Sail the mighty Mekong River from Siem Reap to Saigon, staying in opulent cabins with private balconies and accessing the ship’s fitness room, steam bath, mosaic-tiled pool, and guided tai chi sessions on the Terrace Deck.

Courtesy Images, From Top: Secret Atlas/Florian Ledoux; Rascal Voyages; Jahan. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions (2); andBeyond (2)

With fewer passengers aboard, these excursions by sea reach more fascinating, more remote locations.

Indian Pacific crosses Australia from east to west.

Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions specializes in epic treks across Australia by train. Board The Ghan for a three-day chug (from $3,070/ person) that crosses the Outback from south to north and watch the scenery change from vibrant green mountains to rugged red desert. Highlights include stops at Marla, the historic Alice Springs, and Katherine. Meanwhile, the Indian Pacific crosses the country from east to west in three days (from $3,135/person), stopping in Adelaide, the World Heritage– listed Blue Mountains, and a lonely scattering of old mining towns (gold, copper, and opals) on the vast Nullabor Plain.

Punakha River Lodge in Bhutan

The Ghan crosses the Outback.

Look out for camels, wombats, and kangaroos. journeybeyondrail.com.au Punakha River Lodge, a modern-day Shangri-la from outfitter andBeyond, opened in September in a lush, green valley on the banks of the Mo Chhu River in the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Ideal for adventures like rafting, kayaking, fishing, and treks in the dramatic, forested surroundings.

Indulge in a traditional Bhutanese hot stone bath and choose among the property’s six tented suites, a honeymoon villa, and a family villa. From $890; andbeyond.com

The 15-car Orient Express La Dolce Vita hits the Italian rails in 2024 with mid-century interiors designed by Milanbased Dimorestudio (one of the AD100 for 2023) as well as 12 deluxe cabins, 18 suites, and one owner’s suite—all with private baths.

In the white-tablecloth dining car, Italian haute cuisine is accompanied by Italian wines. Book one- or twonight itineraries through Rome, Venice, and Portofino, or lesser-known Rome, Palena, and Matera. From $2,100/person; orientexpress.com

At Brazil’s Caiman, Pantanal, spend the day with a team that works to save jaguars, hyacinth macaws, and blue-fronted parrots. Spend evenings sitting around a campfire looking up at planets and constellations with your guide. The property’s powerful telescope let’s you observe Saturn’s rings. Family-friendly with 18 suites and private villas, Caiman is a pioneer in ecotourism in the wild lands of Southern Panatal.

From $1,185/room, double occupancy, including meals; caiman.com.br  —I.R.

A tented suite at Punakha River Lodge

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What’s What HOTELS Atlantis The Royal

Opened in February, Dubai’s 795-room Atlantis The Royal features knockout views of the Arabian Sea and Dubai’s skyline. An architectural marvel resembling six perfectly balanced Jenga-style towers, the complex includes 17 restaurants from celebrity chefs including José Andrés, Gastón Acurio, and Nobu Matsuhisa. A 22nd-floor infinity pool overlooks the Burj Khalifa.

Penthouses have private, glasswalled infinity pools. From $850; atlantistheroyal.com In June, Richard Branson debuted Son Bunyola in Mallorca’s dramatic Tramuntana Mountains. Originally a 16thcentury finca, the building has been repurposed as a 26-room hotel using local materials and traditional building methods. A medieval defense tower on the property was converted into a suite with views of the mountains and rugged coastline. Kitchen gardens, olive trees, and honey from the beehives supply the restaurants. The comprehensive wellness program incorporates miles of hiking trails. From $650, including breakfast; virginlimitededition.com

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As residence club Exclusive Resorts expands its collection of curated homes in the world’s most desirable locations, from beachfront retreats to ski-in/ ski-out chalets, it launches the Experience Collection.

You decide where to vacation, and a concierge (more like a personal assistant) takes care of the rest—every transportation request, all restaurant reservations,

yacht charters, catering orders—from the time of your reservation until you’re back home. For travelers who yearn for far-flung adventures, the Experience Collection offers membersonly, full-service vacations including African safaris, culinary adventures in Mexico, and private aroundthe-world jet journeys. exclusiveresorts.com Exclusive Resorts

THE MONTAGEPENDRY BRAND CELEBRATES 20 YEARS Twenty years ago, Montage Hotels & Resorts opened the doors of its flagship property Montage Laguna Beach, on 30 waterfront acres in sunny SoCal. In the past two decades, the hospitality brand (which includes Pendry Hotels & Resorts) has launched many distinctive properties nationwide and internationally. The brand’s 20-year journey and anniversary celebrations include Jimmy Choo limited-edition totes, Clase Azul’s Anniversary Collection tequila, and Jonathan Simkhai’s collection of resort swim and sleepwear. In 2024, the brand will open Montage La Quinta (California) and Montage Cay (Bahamas). Pendry Newport Beach just opened with 295 guest rooms (most with views of the ocean, harbor, or bay), three restaurants, and private membership dining at The Ellwood Club. A favorite bolthole for Angelenos is Pendry West Hollywood, with views of Los Angeles and up to the Hollywood Hills. And, if you love it here (who wouldn’t?), you can buy yourself a residence (from $4.5 million). montage.com Montage Laguna Beach

Le Grand Contrôle

Dunbar Ranch

Ocean House

Pure Kauai

Courtesy Images, From Top: Le Grand Contrôle; Dunbar Ranch; Ocean House; Pure Kauai/David Tonnes.

Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: Atlantis Dubai/Dany Eid; Exclusive Resorts; Montage Hotels & Resorts

SENSATIONAL STAYS Upgrade your hotel room to an entire ranch, estate, or villa.

In Aspen, The Dunbar Ranch ($36,000/night; dunbarranch.co), owned by Yellowstone star Kevin Costner, has just become available for rent. The 160,000-acre compound comes with three separate rustic-luxe homes (12 bedrooms and 12 baths total), private fishing waters, a pine forest, and a baseball diamond. Villa Munch ($12,000/night; ramme-fjordhotell.no), the summer home of celebrated Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sits on a private cove above a rocky shore by the sea. Secluded but just a 30-minute drive south of Oslo, the color-saturated, fourbedroom cottage was recently restored by the owner of the nearby Ramme Fjordhotel.

Housed within a Palladian-style townhouse, 8 Holland Street (from $3,600/three nights; 8hollandstreet.com) in Bath, England, consists of three floors of antiques and contemporary art and three palatial bedrooms. Shop while you stay, as everything throughout the spaces

is for sale. Villa i Gerani (from $19,600/week; rentalescapes.com), the seven-bedroom Tuscan property built for the Ferragamo shoe family, comes fully serviced on 10 acres of manicured gardens that include a pool and tennis court. Enjoy a private cabana on the white sands of Roccamare Beach. Find Le Grand Contrôle (from $2,190/night; airelles .com), just 13 antique-and-toile-filled rooms, on the grounds of Versailles. The staff treats guests like 18th-century royalty, facilitating after-hours tours of the palace, moonlight strolls (sipping Champagne) in the gardens, Alain Ducasse–created meals, and a Royal Camp for kids. Villa la Vigie (from $17,500/ night; edgeretreats.com), Karl Lagerfeld’s majestic, three-floor, six-bedroom summer house on the French Riviera, is perched high on a bluff overlooking the sea and includes use of a private tent at the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer. Pure Kauai (purekauai

.com) is a collection of nearly 30 private homes and estates that come with private chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants and offer concierge-organized wellness experiences and outdoor adventures. Each home has a dedicated host available 24/7. Prices range from $450/night for a two-bedroom home overlooking Hanalei Bay to $21,000/night for a 15-acre estate with private beach access.

Ocean House (oceanhouseri.com) in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, is amazing in summer and even better in the peaceful, snow-dusted days of winter. Book the sunny-yellow and oceanblue Bemelmans Suite ($5,500/night), with two bedrooms on the third floor and views of the Atlantic Ocean. Admire artwork by beloved illustrator and author Ludwig Bemelmans (best known for his Madeline books). For families, the hotel offers the Sleepover with Madeline package, including Madeline-themed swag and a tray of house-made madeleines.  —I.R.

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What’s What HOTELS

A HARBOR VIEW

There’s a quote by Martha’s Vineyard resident historian, David McCullough, hanging in a historic building of the Vineyard Preservation Trust on North Water Street, just up the road from the Harbor View Hotel, that reads: “When you stand there, in that very real, authentic place, you feel the presence of that other time— that history—in a way that would be impossible did it not exist.” The Trust is about ensuring the island’s character, heritage, and cultural history for generations to come—something Bernard Chiu, owner of the iconic 1891 Harbor View Hotel, feels strongly about as well. He bought the 117-room resort overlooking Edgartown Harbor in 2018 with the intention of preserving its storied past while solidifying its future.

Hong Kong–born Chiu came to the United States in the early ’80s and had been visiting Martha’s Vineyard for 30 years. He bought a house steps away from the Harbor View and watched the hotel struggle for years, until finally, the time was right to save it. Buying Harbor View was Chiu’s first foray into hospitality, and he took the responsibility seriously, calling himself the hotel’s steward and doing everything possible to make it the best it can be. With a background in product design, Chiu holds more than 100 US patents and made a small fortune when he sold his company’s digital thermostat technology to Honeywell.

Turns out, he was the perfect buyer for the hotel as it was in massive disrepair and its mechanical system needed a major overhaul.

“It was a huge challenge,” says Chiu. “The

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hotel had 34 air conditioners hanging on window ledges! We spent $10 million alone under the restaurant floorboards to make the pumps work.” For Chiu, being environmentally sustainable is a priority, so he replaced the aging structures with a central computerized energy management system to monitor temperatures throughout the property and allow on-site technicians to see that it’s all working properly. “Environmental products, heaters, humidifiers were my business,” he says.

It was also important to Chiu to preserve the building’s historic charm. Though they ripped everything down to the studs for the renovation, they intentionally kept certain elements, such as the exterior windowpanes that are slightly askew. “As part of the restoration, we worked hard to retain the building’s character. When you have a uniform design, it loses something,” he says. Chiu also stayed in more than half the rooms in the hotel to understand what works and what doesn’t, “for the personalization,” he says. “Lighting is great, towels are soft and absorbent.” Even the red lamp shades in each room have a significance: When the hotel opened in 1891, red Chinese lanterns decorated the inaugural celebration.

The Harbor View’s rarefied location is an added benefit, being centrally located within walking distance to boutiques, art galleries, and beaches, yet secluded and tucked in among a neighborhood of authentically preserved mansions on tree-lined roads. The main building was brought over from South Beach because

it failed as a hotel on that side of the island and sat empty for 10 years. Then in the 1900s, captain’s cottages were added and in the late ’70s came the addition of The Roxana building, which offers guest rooms with a surfer-chic vibe and spacious balconies. The cottages feature working fireplaces and fully equipped kitchens, making them perfect for families and long-term stays.

“The island needed a hotel like this,” says Director of Marketing Jean Wong. “No A-list property existed.” Low-touch boutique hotels with self-check-in and lovely accommodations can be found in town, but no real services are offered. The only movie theater has two screens and, though no national franchises are allowed, there is a Lululemon store. Still, the island is a great homogenizer according to Harbor View’s General Manager Scott Little, “because no matter how big your boat is, you still must stand in line for ice cream.” And during the high season, that line can get pretty long with close to 150,000 visitors adding to the yearround population of about 23,000. Typically, the season extends from the beginning of May until the end of October, but Harbor View stays open through the winter months, retaining a staff of more than 80 employees all year and offering a cozy ambience with incredible dining venues that are always buzzing. “I found in the hotel business, you have to anticipate all your guests’ needs,” says Chiu. “By the time the guest tells you what they want, it’s already too late.” harborviewhotel.com u —Deborah Frank

Courtesy Harbor View Hotel/Shannon Shipman (left); Barry Grossman (right)

Forget crowded summer visits; fall and winter offer an ambience that’s unsurpassed at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard.

A WORLD ALL YOUR OWN

Rising from the heart of Waikiki, ESPACIO The Jewel of Waikiki is the ultimate oceanfront retreat. Nine full-floor suite accommodations provide incomparable privacy within an exclusive haven and serene sanctuary — an elite world-class experience that has achieved Forbes Travel Guide’s Five-Star Rating.

2452 Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815 | 1.844.672.0799 USA Toll Free 1.808.376.7355 International | 1.808.377.2246 (1.808.ESPACIO) Property EspacioWaikiki.com

LEARN MORE

GRAFF Threads Collection ring in white gold with diamonds, $38,000; graff.com

Diamond Ice

The forever rock gets a 21st-century update.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN POZNIAK MARKET EDITOR PAUL FREDERICK

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LUGANO DIAMONDS Flexible Cushion Cut bangle in white gold with diamonds, price upon request; luganodiamonds.com

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JACOB & CO. Boutique Collection watch in white gold and diamonds, $580,000; jacobandco.com BOUCHERON Quatre Double White Edition Head jewelry in white gold, ceramic, and diamonds, $50,400; boucheron.com

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DAUPHIN Disruptive ring in white gold and diamonds, price upon request; dauphin.paris Opposite: VHERNIER Tourbillon ring in white gold and diamonds, $13,700; vhernier.com MORITZ GLIK Baile Shaker Hoop earrings in white gold and diamonds, $11,700; moritzglik.com

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Small Is Big

It’s time to put away those chunky options and get on the tiny watch trend.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN POZNIAK MARKET EDITOR PAUL FREDERICK

CHANEL Première Ribbon mini watch, $5,900; chanel.com

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CARTIER Tank Américaine mini watch, $7,750; cartier.com

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ROLEX Perpetual 1908 39mm, $22,000; rolex.com

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On him: PARMIGIANI FLEURIER Tonda PF Automatic 36mm, $26,200; parmigiani.com On her: VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Perlée 23mm, $29,800; vancleefarpels.com

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On her: CHOPARD Happy Sport 25mm, $8,900; chopard.com On him: TAG HEUER Carrera Date 36mm, $3,200; tagheuer.com

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PIAGET Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin 42mm, $60,000; piaget.com

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TECH

1

Top 10 Gifts to Give Whether solar powered or Bluetooth enabled, intricately designed or beautifully understated, these are the sought-after gadgets of the season.

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BY SHAUN TOLSON

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Go to luxurymagazine.com for more cutting-edge products featured in “The 100+ Best Gifts to Give & Get” 58

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1. FOR HOMEOWNERS

If you consider mowing the lawn a chore, you’ll love the EcoFlow Blade Robotic Lawn Mower, a rover-like device that’s equipped with visual sensors to avoid obstacles or obstructions as it mows your lawn for you. Using an affiliated app, owners can program boundary lines, ensuring that the self-guided mower stays in their yard.

A lawn sweeping kit is available, which converts the rover into a device that can remove debris (mostly leaves and sticks) from your yard while mowing, plus a weather sensor will return the mower to its charging station if it detects that rain has started. From $2,900; ecoflow.com

2. FOR EXPLORERS

Made in Finland, the Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar Canyon Watch is a must-have for serious adventurers who take roads less traveled—or avoid roads altogether. Constructed of titanium and sapphire crystal, this military-tested timepiece is compatible with all five major satellite navigation systems and it can operate in some of the world’s harshest environments.

The watch offers up to 85 hours of battery life in tracking mode, 500 hours in tour mode, and can be outfitted with solar-charging capabilities. $840; suunto.com

3. FOR AUTO ENTHUSIASTS

Sports car fans already consider the robust growl of a Porsche 911 to be beautiful music, so it makes sense that Porsche Design chose tailpipe trim from a 911 GT3 to inspire its first portable speaker. The Porsche 911 Speaker 2.0 delivers 60 watts of power and 16 hours of playback between charges, and easily pairs with other Porsche Lifestyle sound products to create a dynamic, in-room sound experience. $650; porsche-design.com

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

4. FOR AUDIOPHILES

The music industry’s leading amplifier manufacturer enters the portable speaker market with the Fender Audio RIFF, a 60-watt speaker with a built-in Class-D Power Amp that delivers loud, clean sound. Equipped with two bass radiators and four speakers, the compact device doubles as a battery-powered guitar amp, and thanks to auxiliary guitar cable input, users can simultaneously plug in their phones and their guitars. Adjust sliding scales for treble, bass, and volume; pair with additional speakers; and through a partner app, adjust music playback while strumming along. $470; fenderaudio.com

5. FOR WATERMEN

8. FOR CYCLISTS

6. FOR GAMERS

9. FOR RUNNERS

In 1961, Swiss watchmaker Vulcain debuted the first diver’s watch equipped with an aquatic alarm. (The timepiece’s triple case back acted as a resonance chamber to alert divers when it was time to return to the surface.) This latest iteration, the Vulcain Cricket Nautical Diving Watch, is easy to read underwater given its size (42 mm in diameter), while its two superimposed dials—one fixed and one adjustable with a crown at 4 o’clock—allows divers to easily measure decompression times. The watch boasts a 42-hour power reserve and its underwater alarm chimes for about 20 seconds. $4,860; vulcain.ch

Racing simulation technology may deliver lifelike visuals with a realistic interface, but you can’t simulate the movement of a high-performance race car from the couch.

That’s where the Playseat Trophy Logitech G Edition Sim Racing Seat comes in.

Conceived through a collaboration between Playseat and Logitech, the standalone, open-cockpit chair is composed of a carbon steel and an anodized aluminum frame that sits on the floor. You sit inside the frame on Actifit cushioning that is wrapped in polyurethane leather. The seat itself is fully adjustable, which includes the positioning and placement of the pedal plates and steering wheel. Best of all, it weighs only 40 pounds, so you can easily move and store it out of sight after you’ve completed your final hot lap. $600; logitechg.com

7. FOR COFFEE DRINKERS

Coffee connoisseurship is at an all-time high, with specialty cafés delivering refined pours and artfully finished lattes. With much of the technology needed to create those beverages at home now readily available, you can try a new routine. The Breville Nespresso Vertuo Creatista Espresso Machine features an integrated, hands-free steam wand that not only purges itself after each use but is programmed to heat and froth milk at three different temperatures and three distinct texture levels. Such specificity means that home brewers can even dabble in creating their own caféworthy latte art. $750; breville.com

Taking inspiration from its RS Q e-tron Rally Paris-Dakar racing car, Audi has built its first electric mountain bike, the Audi eMTB. From enduro tours to downhill treks and off-road journeys, the twowheeled dynamo is equipped to do a bit of everything. At the bike’s core (and charged by a 720-Wh battery pack) is a 250-watt Brose S-MAG motor that’s paired with a 12-speed mechanical drivetrain. Together they deliver more than 66 lb-ft of torque with four levels of pedal assistance.

From $10,600; audi.co.uk

An icon of the past has been resurrected with the new Sony NW-A306 Walkman A Series.

Equipped with 32 gigabytes of storage that can be expanded via an SD cart slot, the 21st century’s first Walkman boasts up to 36 hours of battery life, Bluetooth audio streaming, and immersive 360 Reality Audio technology. It’s also compatible with wireless headphones and features Sony’s proprietary S-Master HX digital amplifier, which reduces distortion and background noise. $350; electronics.sony.com

10. FOR GOURMANDS

When used frequently in the field, most kitchen knives are susceptible to corrosion, rolled edges, swollen handles, and bent tips. The Anzick Chef’s Knife, however, was designed specifically for outdoor use and is the result of a two-year collaboration between The James Brand and Sitka Gear. The blade is made from MagnaCut, an American steel known for its toughness and resistance to corrosion, while the two-tone, composite handle was designed to be easily gripped with wet hands. A Hypalon sheath means easy access and cleaning, and ensures the blade remains sharp and protected when not in use. $500; thejamesbrand.com u

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THE LUXURY LOOK

Two-Wheel Revolutions

Getting around major cities has never been easy, but thanks to these two-wheeled vehicles built in Brooklyn—one classically designed, the other more modern—commuters can zip around downtown streets in style.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW YEE STYLING BY PAUL FREDERICK

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inimalist in its design aesthetic, the Pave BK packs a punch. More specifically, the vehicle delivers the power and torque of a small-engine motorcycle but looks like an e-bike. Except that it’s not, because riders aren’t required to pedal. A simple activation of the throttle engages the 3,000-watt motor, capable of reaching a top speed of 30 mph in less than four seconds.

Its inventors, brothers Nico and Caspar Nagel, grew up in Berlin and wanted to create a clean alternative to the traditional combustion-engine scooters popular during their youth. By 2018, they had moved to Brooklyn and major advancements in electric drivetrain and battery technology had changed the game.

On launching Pave Motors in 2019,

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Caspar says, “We are building a brand to upend how we think about mobility. Yes, [the bike] should be good for the environment, but it should also be safe, easy to use, and incredibly fun to ride.”

Soon, Pave may delve into the ridesharing space, thanks to a digital key system that operates through a dedicated app.

Owners can create networks of people and grant each of them individual access to operate the bike. “Think of it as the Turo or Airbnb of the electric mobility world,” says Nico. “Our Pave+ app and its innovative technology will allow for a fundamental transformation of the ride-sharing and electric mobility space.”

There’s less cutting-edge tech associated with the Brooklyn Bicycle Co. Willow 7i Disc, but that’s no knock on this vintagestyled, 7-speed cruiser equipped with

hydraulic disc brakes. The bike sports a custom steel fork and fender with front carrier braze-ons, and its lightweight, aluminum step-through frame (weighing only about 30 pounds) is equipped with internal cable routing. Most notably, the bicycle features low-maintenance components such as a rear Shimano Nexus internally geared hub, a chain guard, and 35inch puncture-resistant tires—all elements that make the Willow 7 an ideal commuter bike for the rigorous demands of city riding.

Ergonomics is no less a consideration, as Brooklyn Bicycle Co.’s flagship commuter model features a Selle Royal sprung saddle, plush grips, and relaxed handlebars. Best of all, the upright and relaxed frame geometry—which accounts for the bike’s vintage flair—ensures a remarkably comfortable ride.

—Shaun Tolson

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RALPH LAUREN PURPLE LABEL shearling shirt jacket, $4,995; ralphlauren.com TOD’S sweater, $795; tods.com ETON shirt, $265; etonshirts.com BROOKS BROTHERS tie, $108, trousers, $248, and socks, $98; brooksbrothers.com BRUNELLO CUCINELLI shoes, $1,250; brunellocucinelli.com ZEGNA EYEWEAR sunglasses, $365; neimanmarcus.com J.W. HULME briefcase, $895; jwhulmeco.com BROOKLYN BICYCLE CO. Willow 7i Disc bicycle, $1,100; brooklynbicycleco.com

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BRIONI shearling jacket, $8,995; brioni.com BROOKS BROTHERS sweater, $128; brooksbrothers.com BRUNELLO CUCINELLI trousers, $1,995; brunellocucinelli.com GIORGIO ARMANI boots, $1,995; armani.com TOD’S backpack, $2,175; tods.com PAVE BK e-motorbike, $6,900; pavemotors.com

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DESIGN

Counterclockwise from top: George Nelson Bubble lamp; Eames Lounge chair and ottoman; Isamu Noguchi’s biomorphic coffee table; and Eames Molded Plywood chair.

Herman Miller Turns 100

At this year’s Salone del Mobile Milano, the brand celebrated its centennial and is offering connoisseurs exclusive opportunities to engage with its storied heritage.

H

erman Miller was founded in 1923 in western Michigan when its namesake’s sonin-law, DJ DePree, acquired majority shares in the Star Furniture Company, renamed it in Miller’s honor, and ditched its forebear’s quaint colonial aesthetic for modernism. Under influential design director Gilbert Rohde, who also revolutionized companies like Heywood-Wakefield and Widdicomb, the firm adopted elements of the Bauhaus and Streamline Moderne movements.

Responding to the modern innovation of the open-plan office pioneered by Mies van der Rohe, Herman Miller became a workplace juggernaut, filling skyscrapers with furniture suites designed by luminaries such as George Nelson, Bruce Burdick, and Charles and Ray Eames. This preeminence continued through the 20th century with the iconic Aeron Chair from Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick, and into

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the 21st with the Sayl chair by Yves Béhar.

Office furnishings account for most of its sales, though the brand has deep roots in consumer products. The designers fostered

by Herman Miller created some of the most iconic, collectible home furnishings, many archived in design collections of the Smithsonian and the Museum of Modern Art. A selection of these includes the Eameses’ rational Lounge chair and ottoman, Molded Plywood chair, and Molded Plastic side chair; George Nelson’s whimsical Bubble lamps, Coconut chair, and Marshmallow sofa; Isamu Noguchi’s biomorphic coffee tables and side tables; and Alexander Girard’s abstracted textiles and Color Wheel ottomans.

All of these remain in production today.

The post-pandemic shift to work-from-home business models only boosted the company’s contemporary profile, as people invest in home office furnishings that are stylishly classic, comfortable, durable, and ergonomically

supportive—the Herman Miller hallmarks.

The Eames Lounge chair and ottoman, first released in 1956 and today commanding prices up to $10,000, just recorded its highest revenues ever. Not that Herman Miller needed a new work model to enhance sales. Since the reevaluation of mid-century modern design in the 1980s, many pieces originally designed for the office are now considered classics, allowing them to comfortably transition into living spaces (all the aforementioned items are ubiquitous in today’s interiors).

Among the year’s celebratory centenary initiatives are a limited-edition reproduction poster designed by John Massey in 1970; a partnership with Wright to auction ephemera designed by Nelson, the Eameses, and others; with Vitra, the release of a limited-edition Eames chair (hand-painted with a Saul Steinberg cat); and the launch of a capsule program with Wright encompassing 100 vintage collector’s pieces. hermanmiller.com u

Courtesy Herman Miller (4)

BY BRETT BERK

Cheat Sheet CHICAGO

St. Regis Chicago

Resilient and innovative, Chicago knows how to play to its strengths. On the foundations of its architectural legacy, the Windy City welcomed a new addition to its famous skyline, the wavy, Jeanne Gang–designed St. Regis, and anticipates the opening of the South Side’s Obama Foundation Center by 2025. Not to mention its Michelin-starred restaurant count is up to 23.

BY TANVI CHHEDA

Park Hyatt Chicago

SLEEP Park Hyatt Chicago Fresh from a $60 million renovation, the 182-room, Michigan Avenue hotel was the first-ever Park Hyatt, opening back in 1980. (The brand now operates more than 40 hotels worldwide.)

In Chicago, sprawling rooms in cream, sand, and caramel tones remain the streamlined sanctuaries they’ve been, but better. For a sense of place, just look out the window: the views of Lake Michigan and the Water Tower are unmatched. parkhyatt.com

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St. Regis Chicago The long-anticipated and frequently delayed St. Regis hotel, designed by starchitect Jeanne Gang, has transformed the Windy City’s skyline with its three wavy, interconnected towers. Hotel rooms, 192 in all, fill the first 11 floors with residences above. Just months old, the property has slated food and beverage offerings and a wellness program that sound equally standout: a Tuscan steakhouse by Chef Evan Funke and a 12,000-square-foot spa. marriott.com Pendry Chicago It may be just 2 years old, but the 364room hotel feels like it’s always been part of the city, occupying the 1929 green, terra-cotta, and black granite Carbide & Carbon Building on Michigan Avenue.

Topped with a slender, gold-leaf cap, the 37-story Art Deco landmark resembles a bottle of Champagne (a daring statement during the days of Prohibition). Rooms feel contemporary but not modern, appointed with classic details such as crown molding and wainscoting, dark wood furnishings, black-and-white photographs, and herringbone marble baths. At the Château Carbide rooftop bar, playful drinks lean on floral and herbaceous notes. pendry.com

Sophy Hyde Park Farther south, close to the University of Chicago campus, the 98-room Sophy keeps a standout, 600-piece art collection that includes works by students from local schools. Within the sevenstory brick façade are elegant, thoughtful interiors and the popular Mesler Kitchen restaurant. While in the neighborhood, don’t miss the Gothic-style Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, colossal Museum of Science and Industry (the only building standing from the 1893 World’s Fair), and upcoming Obama center. sophyhotel.com

Sophy Hyde Park

Ever

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Ever/Michael Muser; Alpana/Anthony Tahlier; Virtue.

Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: The St. Regis Chicago/Jason Dewey; Park Hyatt Chicago; Sophy Hyde Park/Alan Shortall

EAT & DRINK Ever Courageously opened in the midst of a pandemic, Ever—helmed by Michelinstarred chef Curtis Duffy, whose numerous accolades precede him—has gone on to earn two stars in its own right. Elegant courses showcase each season’s bounty, such as curled hamachi with black rice pudding, shallots, lime, and mint; white asparagus accented by mandarin, pumpernickel, and dill; and grapefruit heightened by jalapeño and ginger snap. For a nightcap, Ever just opened After cocktail bar and lounge: Go next door for caviar flights and heady cocktails. ever-restaurant.com

The Office Most travelers to Chicago have made the pilgrimage to The Aviary, the famous mixology-meets-molecular gastronomy bar where the In-the-Rocks cocktail involves using a slingshot to crack open an ice shell injected with cognac, rye whiskey, vermouth, and Benedictine. Such theatrics have made the 12-year-old Aviary the stuff of legend, but lesser known is its sister The Office, a speakeasy that sits just below. The 22-seat, dimly lit bar, which could easily pass for the billiard room or library from the board game Clue, features adroit bartenders and plenty of booze, much in the way of rare and vintage spirits. theaviary.com

Esmé Another Michelin-star recipient, Esmé takes the food-as-art metaphor to a new level.

The whitewashed Lincoln Park restaurant draws inspiration from a rotating roster of local artists, enlisting them to create specific works to be installed on walls and used in service pieces: think a lined paper ceramic plate reminiscent of school supplies, in collaboration with nonprofit Kitchen Possible, or a Cubist tabletop sculpture with shelves for nibbles by Courtney Shoudis. From the community spirit to the art to the food, Esmé hits it out of the park. esmechicago.com

Virtue From James Beard–awarded chef and restaurant owner Erick Williams, Virtue attracts locals and visitors to its inviting Hyde Park dining room for soulful and comforting Southern fare. Dig into honey butter–smeared cornbread, blackened catfish, or shrimp and crawfish with stone-ground grits. Virtue’s success is tied to Hyde Park’s success, thus Williams has gone on to open other neighborhood eateries (Mustard Seed Kitchen, Daisy’s Po-Boy and Tavern, Top This Mac & Cheese) and invests in development projects in the area. virtuerestaurant.com

Alpana

Alpana One of just 269 master sommeliers in the world, Alpana Singh curates the food menus at her eponymous Gold Coast neighborhood restaurant around the wine, not the other way around. Dishes—such as a Brussels sprout crostini with apple saba, ricotta, marcona almonds—or housemade creste di gallo pasta with tomato grappa sauce—are meant to complement and balance the mouthfeel, acidity, and fruity sweetness of crisp sauvignon blancs from California, gamay reds from Beaujolais, France, and barolos from Piedmont, Italy.

A 33-page tome with notes such as “pair a sauvignon blanc with anything you would squeeze lemon on,” the wine list is both an odyssey through the world’s grape-growing regions and an ode to Singh’s 25-year career in wine. alpanasingh.com 

Virtue

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Steppenwolf Theatre

SEE & DO Steppenwolf Theatre This premier ensemble theater has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a basement of a Highland Park church. Along Halsted Street, between the Lincoln Park and Old Town neighborhoods, Steppenwolf has debuted the modern, steel-and-glassencased Lefkofsky Arts and Education Center, with a 400-seat theater in the round as its pièce de résistance. A whimsical and humorous production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull opened in the space last summer. The $54 million building is part of an ongoing expansion to enhance the theater. steppenwolf.org Obama Presidential Center

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Chicago Cultural Center In the shadow of Millennium Park’s shining “The Bean” sculpture and the Art Institute (with its 300,000-piece collection), a hidden gem across Michigan Avenue is the Chicago Cultural Center.

Originally built as the city’s first central public library, the CCC hosts some 700 art, music, film, and lecture programs throughout the year.

Drop in for a free tour and marvel at the Classic Revival architecture, mother-of-pearl mosaics, and the Preston Bradley Hall’s restored Tiffany stained-glass dome, which measures 38 feet in diameter and comprises some 30,000 glass pieces in the shape of fish scales. chicago.gov Obama Presidential Center Part presidential museum and library, part community center and gardens (including a one-acre wetland area and children’s playground), the $830 million Obama Presidential Center, in Jackson Park, within Chicago’s South Side, is expected to open in 2025. Husband-and-wife architectural team Tod Williams and Billie Tsien will incorporate words from President Barack Obama’s 2015 speech, honoring brave marchers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, into the façade of the museum building. Along with a central plaza, the Obama Presidential Center will revitalize portions of Jackson Park to encourage visitors and families to connect with nature. obama.org

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Chicago It’s no secret that Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of American architecture and Prairie-style homes has its roots in Chicago’s western Oak Park suburb. Tour his private home and studio, or the concrete and geometric Unity Temple, Wright’s only surviving public building from his Prairie period. Both the Chicago Architecture Center and Frank Lloyd Wright Trust run a variety of guided tours of individual sites as well as full-day overview tours visiting several of Wright’s buildings. architecture.org; flwright.org Green Spaces It arguably started in the 2010s with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who made “greening” Chicago his personal mission. The 18.5-mile Lakefront Trail is continually being upgraded, and most recently separated into designated bike and pedestrian paths. Next, The 606 (named for the zip code prefix all Chicagoans share) transformed an abandoned El train track into a 2.7-mile biking, jogging, and walking trail through some of the city’s liveliest neighborhoods. Now comes Lincoln Yards: a new 53-acre, mixed-use real estate plan on former industrial land along the northern branch of the Chicago River, which will add some 50 acres of riverfront green space.

Lincoln Yards is due to be completed next year. lincolnyards.com u

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Steppenwolf Theater/James Steinkamp; City of Chicago/Patrick L.Pyszka; The Obama Foundation

Chicago Cultural Center

Cheat Sheet NEWFOUNDLAND

View from the Baccalieu Coastal Drive

Off the east coast of Canada, the sparsely populated island of Newfoundland remains a rocky slice of heaven with award-winning restaurants, inspired accommodations, once-in-a-lifetime adventures, and notable worldly comforts all its own.

BY MARK HACKING

Petting Ponies Among the Change Islands, on a small archipelago on the ferry route from the mainland to Fogo Island, make a stop at the Newfoundland Pony Sanctuary. A breed raised to work in coal mines and other hazardous settings, the animals were close to extinction before Netta LeDrew took it upon herself to open the sanctuary with the help of donations and volunteers.

She accepts help from visitors, but you need to book in advance.

709.884.6953 Newfoundland Pony Sanctuary

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Go Fishing Take a fishing excursion in pretty Petty Harbour with outfitter and community nonprofit Fishing for Success. The story of Newfoundland is the story of the cod fish, but today there are restrictions on cod fishing to protect the fisheries. This educational organization founded in 2014 respects those rules, imparting traditional fishing knowledge and skills to visitors and Newfoundlanders alike. Take home the fillets you catch or donate them to local food banks. fishingforsuccess.org

Fogo Island

Village Walking Tour Local guide Al Dwyer grew up in the town of Tilting on Fogo Island and the walking tour he now leads traces the steps of his childhood.

Visitors see the house where he was raised, the building down the road where fresh-caught cod were cleaned, and the well where he chipped away ice to draw water. It’s a fascinating look at what must have been an incredibly difficult childhood in a small fishing village. 709.266.7644

DRIVING ROUTES Baccalieu Coastal Drive A road with plenty of history is the Baccalieu Coastal Drive, which skirts the coastline of the Avalon Peninsula.

Encounter coastal towns with quaint, one-note names such as Cupids, Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire, and Heart’s Delight. The route also passes through Harbour Grace, the town where Amelia Earhart embarked on her solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932. The first woman to accomplish such a feat, she’s honored with a statue at the southernmost entry point to the town. A former fishing outpost, Harbour Grace has been scarred by fires over the years, but there remains a faded glory to the place.

Discovery Global Geopark Across Trinity Bay from the Baccalieu Coastal Drive is Discovery Global Geopark, which received a UNESCO designation in 2020. Hiking routes cross the 444-squaremile area that includes 27 towns, and the Discovery Trail drive follows picturesque routes 233 or 230. Begin in the town of Trinity, passing though quaint seaside settlements enroute to the northern tip of the peninsula and the town of Bonavista.

Of late, this town has seen a tremendous resurgence, in part through the annual Bonavista Biennale celebration of contemporary art that takes place in late August/early September.

Courtesy Images From Top: Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism (2); Mark Hacking. Opposite, Clockwise From Top: Courtesy Mallard Cottage (2); Adobestock; Courtesy Mark Hacking; Courtesy Bangbelly Bistro

SEE & DO Whale Watching From the town of Trinity, embark on a whale-watching tour hosted by Sea of Whales Adventures. During the two- or three-hour tour, closely track humpbacks searching for capelin to eat. seaofwhales.com

Mallard Cottage, one of Canada’s best restaurants, serves gourmet fare (right).

Bangbelly Bistro

Irish Loop A 194-mile drive that begins and ends in St. John’s, the Irish Loop heads south or east, depending on which side of the loop you tackle first. Both ways reveal stunning scenery with highlights such as the town of Ferryland, arguably the most picturesque in Newfoundland.

Another worthwhile stop is St. Vincent’s Beach, one of the best places on dry land to spot whales. Swing past Cape Race Lighthouse, where the distress signal for the HMS Titanic was received.

EAT Bangbelly Bistro Created by a former chef at the Fogo Island Inn (which houses the area’s other high-end restaurant), this café is not formal, but the food is flat-out fantastic, so reserve your table in advance when it opens for the season. bangbelly.com

Mallard Cottage Nestled in the picturesque Quidi Vidi Village, just five minutes from downtown St. John’s, this dining venue occupies one of the oldest surviving buildings in the province and makes regular appearances on the annual Best Restaurants in Canada list. mallardcottage.ca Growlers Ice Cream Shop Another spin-off of the Fogo Island Inn, this unique shop is located in Joe Batt’s Arm on Fogo Island and incorporates local, seasonal ingredients, such as partridgeberry jam. They continually experiment and refine flavors according to the season’s offerings. 709.658.7015 

Growlers Ice Cream Shop

The Merchant Tavern Inside a former bank building in downtown St. John’s (left), the tavern was created

by Jeremy Charles, two-time winner of Canada’s Best New Restaurant Award

by Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and the chef featured on the Newfoundland episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. themerchanttavern.ca

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STAY Fogo Island Inn Seemingly perched at the edge of the Earth, Fogo Island Inn is hard to get to even after you’ve landed on Newfoundland. Situated on Fogo Island off the northern coast, it’s accessible only by ferry or private aircraft. The other tricky part: There are only 29 rooms, so reserving your place requires plenty of advance planning. If you do manage a stay, the reward will be a level of tranquility not easily achieved in more convenient locations, plus a hearty mix of foraged ingredients and homespun recipes in its spectacular restaurant with soaring ceilings and imposing views of the North Atlantic. fogoislandinn.ca

Cape Race Newfoundland Another inspired private home—or, rather, a series of private homes—is Cape Race Newfoundland. Owned and operated by Ken Sooley, whose family has been on the island for generations, Cape Race operates a boutique travel firm and owns seven original homes in St. John’s, Bonavista, and Heart’s Delight. Each has been restored to its former, modest glory—in other words, the simple yet charming abodes aid guests in gaining a feel for life in Newfoundland in the early 20th century. caperace.com Goose Cove Retreat

GETTING THERE Most international flights land in the capital city of St. John’s, a straightforward starting point for day trips in the northeastern corner of the province.

You can also fly through Gander International Airport, which is closer to the center of the island and the setting for the smash Broadway hit Come From Away. A number of regional airports dot the island from east to west, since the network of roads is not as extensive as the area is vast.

Traveling by car from point to point in a reasonable amount of time means reconnecting with the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs through the middle of the province. The road stretches for 561 miles—but it’s the least scenic route and far from the coastal towns, where the true beauty of Newfoundland reveals itself. u

Goose Cove Retreat The glorious Goose Cove Retreat in the heart of Trinity is essentially a luxury home divided into three segments, painted in different colors.

The property has everything needed for a truly restful stay: a gourmet kitchen, sauna, hot tub, fire pit, bicycles, and a waterside dock. If you’re lucky and it’s the right time of year, whales may pass right by the dock. goosecoveretreat.com Cape Race Newfoundland 72

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Courtesy Images From Top: Fogo Island Inn/Alex Fradkin (2); Goose Cove Retreat/Stephane Dandeneau; Cape Race Newfoundland/Donna Griffith

Fogo Island Inn off the northern coast features rooms with spectacular views (right).

Somehow you feel even closer when you have more space.

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One Place, New Way: Oaxaca

BY JACKIE CARADONIO While Oaxaca is well known as the birthplace of some of Mexico’s most famous exports— mezcal and mole sauce—the city’s vibrant art and design scene flourishes. Those in the know flock to the UNESCO-designated capital of the southern Oaxaca state to rub elbows with an inspiring coterie of locals and expats who are weaving together the past and present at every turn—from the hoteliers fashioning new retreats out of historic landmarks to the hip artisan collectives

WHAT TO SEE AND WHERE TO SHOP The state of Oaxaca has the largest indigenous population in all of Mexico, so it’s no wonder the capital city is home to museums showcasing the rich artisan heritage of the country. For a crash course in the ancient crafts and fashions that continue to inspire today’s Mexican designers, visit the Museo Textil de Oaxaca (museotextildeoaxaca .org), where graphic Huichol embroidery and woven blankets from Teotitlán del Valle are exhibited in a restored 18th-century adobe mansion, and the Museo de la Culturas de Oaxaca (sic.gob.mx), showcasing Mesoamerican artifacts such as exquisitely crafted gold jewelry from the royal tombs of Monte Albán.

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Viewing these and other ancient treasures offers insight into the inspirations of Oaxaca’s modern-day designers, like Javier Reyes, founder of rrres (rrrrrr.es). The studio sells limited-edition clay vases, dyed Zapotec rugs, and woven sculptures that are handmade by local artisans—many of whom are showcasing their works for the first time beyond street fairs, thanks to Reyes’ commitment to traditional technique and natural materials.

Oaxaca’s famous black pottery, barro negro, has been a tradition for the better part of a century. Invented by a Zapotec potter in 1952, the dark-patinaed style was serendipitously achieved when she added quartz to her clay before firing it in the kiln. Today, artist Miguel Fabián is achieving edgy results with the medium at his Galería Miguel Fabián (+52.951.551.0313), molding the opaque clay into largescale installations and moody decor like skull sculptures and rippling bottles and decanters.

fusing traditional artistry with modern design.

Move over, San Miguel de Allende: Mexico’s evergrowing creative cognoscenti are hidden behind Oaxaca’s pastel-colored colonial façades.

Here’s a little black book of the best the city has to offer, from artisanal shops and ateliers that celebrate their well-preserved home with a splash of something fresh and new, to the most immersive hot spots to eat authentically and sleep well too.

1050° (1050grados.com) is another pottery workshop, but this one, tucked away along the city’s historic aqueduct, is an earthy representation of the ceramics made by Mexico’s pre-Hispanic peoples. Pieces are sourced from artisan communities throughout Oaxaca, such as Santo Domingo Tonaltepec, known for employing an ancient firing style that adds a splattered stain glaze, and Santa María Atzompa, whose colorful and intricate layered sgraffito pottery techniques date back hundreds of years.

For fine textiles, head to Los Baúles de Juana Cata (+52.951.501.0552), where owner Remigio Mestas Revilla is dedicated to working with Oaxacan artisans to revive lost and disappearing weaving and dyeing techniques. Highquality pieces in his studio are arranged in neat piles and hang from rough-hewn wooden racks, displaying a range of fashions from traditional embroidered huipils (woven blouses) and rebozos (shawls) to more modern-cut dresses and tops.

At Marchanta (@marchantastore on Instagram), Oaxaca’s contemporary designers shine in a sunlit casita with an earthy palette. Though the concept shop is named for the women who traditionally worked in Oaxacan markets (marchantas, or merchants), its inventory of women’s fashions is firmly rooted in the 21st century. Nearly everything you’ll find in the interconnecting adobe rooms comes from a Mexican designer, whether it’s minimalist dresses from the Mexico City–based, Japan-inspired 1/8 Takamura or playfully feminine lingerie from La Sirène.

Courtesy Images, Counter-Clockwise From Top Left: Hotel Sin Nombre (2); Criollo/Araceli Paz. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: 1050º/Diego Mier y Terán; Marchanta/Luis Young; Los Baúles de Juana Cata

Clockwise from left: Hotel Sin Nombre, Criollo restaurant, and Hotel Sin Nombre. Opposite from top: Pottery from 1050°, shoes at Marchanta, and fabric from Los Baúles de Juana Cata.

Designer Christina Hattler’s shop, Mexchic (mexchic .co), is more closely tied to Oaxaca’s artisan heritage, but her colorful dresses and accessories are no less relevant for modern-day fashionistas. All her limitededition clothing, accessories, and textiles are the result of collaborations with Mexican artists using centuries-old methods. Her studio is as much a place to ogle beautiful things as it is to learn about artistic heritage, allowing guests to watch Hattler and her partners work on their latest creations from a pair of beige raw natural-cotton jeans to a hand-felted wool blanket.

WHERE TO STAY You won’t find big-box hospitality brands in Oaxaca— only thoughtfully crafted boutiques that connect with the city’s artistic culture in meaningful ways. In the Centro, the nine-room Casa Antonieta (casaantonieta .com) might elude travelers at first. Tucked behind the unassuming façade of one of the city’s first buildings— dating all the way back to

1529—it is fronted by a massive wooden door, with only a small marker beneath an ancient stone etching giving the location away. But inside feels like it could be the evolution of the world’s first members’ club, with its lush courtyard and exclusive rooftop terrace. Travelers who want to feel more like in-theknow regulars than pampered tourists will appreciate the cushy accommodations adorned with handwoven headboards and rugs from Teotitlán del Valle. It’s all meant to feel residential and exclusive—a special means of entrée into the authentic scene of the city.

That local vibe is also evident at Hotel Sin Nombre (hotelsinnombre.com), an 18-room property set within a 17th-century mansion near the main Zócalo. The historic abode has been respectfully renovated by architect João Boto Caeiro, whose sensibility for refreshing without disrupting is evident in the restored stone floors, whitewashed walls, and façade coated in earthy paint. The “hotel with no name” prides itself on being a showplace for all things Oaxaca, such as the custom carpentry and vintage books in the biblioteca, the handmade robes and locally sourced botanical products in the guest rooms, or the extensive collection of small batch mezcals in the restaurant that focuses on classic Oaxacan food.

If you’ve had enough of old mansions masquerading as hip hotels, a trip beyond the city limits, to the new-build Casa Silencio (casasilencio .com) is a must. The owners of popular mezcal brand El Silencio tapped architect

Alejandro D’Acosta to build this brutalist compound in the mezcal heartland just southeast of the capital city. You might think a stay at a mezcaleria-hotel would be filled with boozy misadventures—and given the extensive tastings on offer, you’d be half-right—but the property sets out some serious luxuries too, from the six loft-style rooms decorated with copper lamps, distressed leather furniture, and woodburning fireplaces to the dinners served family style at the grand table carved from a single slab of basalt. Mezcal is as much a way of life as a spirit here. If sipping is more your idea of immersion, there’s also a plunge pool with views of the mountain.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK It’s a given you’ll be eating mole in Oaxaca, so start with the best at Restaurant Alfonsina (alfonsina.mx), run

by Chef Jorge Leon Leon. The five-course tasting menu at this restaurant is nothing if not exquisite, but there’s also an appreciable sense of humility here: Leon opened the 

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restaurant right in his family home outside of Oaxaca city, and his mother, Elvia, runs the front of the house, passing out fresh tortillas from her comal.

Another master of the mole, Enrique Olvera of Mexico City’s Michelin-starred Pujol, is behind Criollo (criollo .mx), arguably Oaxaca’s most acclaimed restaurant since its opening in 2016. Along with Chef Luis Arellano, Olvera has created something more akin to an experimental lab than a restaurant, where the region’s ingredients are fine-tuned to the nth degree.

The six-course tasting menu changes daily with ingredient seasonality, but you can count on produce-driven dishes with a contemporary twist no matter whether you find tamales or tostadas on your plate. If you’re as stuffed as a chile relleno by the end of the meal, not to worry: Criollo has opened a two-bedroom residence with a private courtyard for overnight stays.

As much as one may be tempted to give in to nightly mole urges, it’s worth taking

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a break from the heavy sauce for a meal at Hierba Dulce (hierba-dulce.com).

The plant-based restaurant located in a colonial house in downtown is driven by mayora Georgina Cruz’s mission to make classic Oaxacan dishes using only locally produced organic ingredients, cooked without sugar or oil in an inclusive environment. They call it “healing food” made in a “decentralized kitchen,” and it’s as delicious as it is honorable.

And mercifully, amid the vegetable tacos and nopales, you’ll find an incredible flight of mole sauces—seven of them in total, served with earthy, natural mushrooms.

To indulge in Oaxaca’s native spirit and top export—mezcal—make a beeline for Mezcaloteca (mezcaloteca.com). The mission of this “mezcal library” is to inform as well as satiate: The purveyor offers more than 100 different maguey distillates, all of which the highly knowledgeable mezcal masters can tell you about in exhausting detail during private tastings. Once you’re an expert (or at least a bit tipsy), you can make an educated decision on which bottle to take home as a souvenir.

While Oaxaca may be synonymous with mezcal, it wasn’t until recently that the pervasive cocktail trend reached the city. Among the most inventive mixology spots in town is Selva (selvaoaxaca .com), an intimate bar nestled atop a restaurant in the Centro.

The vibe is speakeasy-in-thejungle, with touches of Art Deco style serving as a backdrop for potted agave plants. The drinks are suitably inventive—and heavy on the mezcal—especially the namesake cocktail, Selva, which is brimming with Oaxacan references: spicy with chile poblano liquor, earthy with fresh herbs, and smoky with that elixir you know and love. u

Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top Left: Criollo/Araceli Paz; Casa Silencio; Selva; Criollo/Araceli Paz

Clockwise from left: Regional ingredients at Criollo, a Selva cocktail, a Criollo meal, and Casa Silencio.

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Courtesy Hacienda de San Antonio/Davis Gerber (2)

Hacienda de San Antonio in Comala, Colima, is spread over more than 5,000 acres and has been lovingly restored (opposite).

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THE HACIENDA EXPERIENCE

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Discover a different side of Mexico at one of the country’s historical and inimitable estate hotels.

n Mexico, the search for a more authentic travel experience leads inland from the country’s coasts, toward the high country of Colima, the jungle-shrouded flatlands of the Yucatán, or the cobblestoned streets of a colonial town in Sonora. Each of these distinct destinations— and many others throughout the country—is home to a historic hacienda that has been reborn as a hotel.

Storied yet still largely off the radar, the best

BY BRUCE WALLIN

examples of these hacienda hotels offer a quintessential Mexican travel experience.

“It’s the epitome of sense of place,” says Zachary Rabinor, founder and CEO of the luxury travel company Journey Mexico.

“You’re staying and eating in a setting where history took place. The architecture, the materials, the people—it really gives you a next-level depth of the destination.”

Mexican equivalents of French chateaux or English country-house hotels, the haciendas are typically sprawling estates that date

anywhere from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Rabinor notes that the word hacienda derives from hacer, the Spanish verb for “to make or do,” and the estates were once factories and local epicenters of political and social life. “These were the royals, the aristocracy, and you see that in the grandeur of the main house,” he says.

Following are three hacienda hotels where the sense of grandeur is most pronounced—and the sense of place is unmistakable. 

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Hacienda de San Antonio Strike up a conversation with your server or guide at Hacienda de San Antonio, and chances are, he or she isn’t the first family member to have worked at the estate. In fact, many of the staff represent second-, third-, or even fourthgeneration employees of the hacienda, some dating back to its origins as a ranch and coffee plantation in the late 1800s.

Spread over more than 5,000 acres in the shadow of the 12,595foot Colima Volcano, the hacienda and adjacent ranch were acquired in 1980 by the British financier Sir James Goldsmith. He, his heirs, and a handful of top designers and architects gradually and lovingly restored the estate into what is today Mexico’s most magical hacienda hotel.

The fairytale setting—complete with Alice in Wonderland–inspired garden sculptures, a checkerboard-tiled swimming pool, and a 120-year-old

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aqueduct made from black volcanic stone—is anchored by a bougainvilleadraped main house. Inside are 25 guest suites and a collection of club-like rooms: one with a chessboard, another lined with books, another with a pool table leading to a speakeasy-style bar.

Meals are at an elegant indoor-outdoor restaurant serving food sourced largely from the ranch, where, true to its origins, the hacienda produces and raises everything from coffee and cheese to honey and cattle.

The sprawling ranch also serves as a stage for horseback rides, ATV excursions, standup-paddleboarding sessions on one of two lakes, and even hot-air-balloon and skydiving adventures. The latter take off from the hacienda’s airstrip, which can accommodate private flights from Guadalajara, Manzanillo, and other nearby cities. haciendadesanantonio.com 

Courtesy Hacienda de San Antonio/Davis Gerber (6)

Comala, Colima

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Chablé Yucatán

Mexico’s most modern hacienda resort can be found about 30 minutes outside of Mérida, on a 19th-century henequen plantation that has been transformed into a haven of both wellness and indulgence.

The plantation’s former processing room today houses Ixi’im, a fine-dining restaurant where rough stone walls frame a floor-to-ceiling glass case filled with rare tequilas. You can sample from the tequila collection—said to be one of the world’s largest—at Ixi’im’s bar, which is made from the factory’s old machinery, or with a hand-rolled cigar at the clubby Sikar Bar across a parklike lawn.

Retiring to one of Chablé’s casitas and villas— the smallest spanning more than 2,000 square feet—feels like settling into a hacienda all your own. Each has a private pool and the natural

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privacy afforded by towering tropical foliage.

The hacienda’s main house now serves as a reception center, while various outbuildings include a destination-worthy spa that hosts multiday wellness journeys rooted in Mayan healing traditions. There’s even a nine-hole “wellness golf course,” which one group at a time can reserve for two hours—and play barefoot at their own pace.

Mérida is high on the list of Mexico’s culinary meccas, and Chablé highlights the region’s rich legacy with Mayan cooking classes where you can learn to craft sikil p‘ak, a savory salsa made from pumpkin seeds and tomatoes. Much of the resort’s produce comes from on-site organic gardens, which are also popular with the property’s free-roaming herd of white-tailed deer. chablehotels.com

Courtesy Chable Yucatan/Kenny Viese (2). Opposite: Courtesy Hacienda de los Santos (3)

Chocholá, Yucatán

Hacienda de los Santos Alamos, Sonora

Alamos is hard to get to—and all the better for it. Located in the Sierra Madre mountains, about an eight-hour drive south of Nogales, Arizona, Mexico’s northernmost colonial city is a smaller, quieter, and less touristed alternative to San Miguel de Allende. At the heart of the cobblestoned town, just a few blocks off the Plaza de Armas, sits Hacienda de los Santos, an elegant patchwork of colonial mansions and a former sugar mill that an American couple purchased, restored, and connected over the course of 24 years.

Linked by stone bridges, arches, garden paths, and secret hallways, the structures now house 34 guest suites decorated with

an incredible assortment of antiques and artworks, many depicting religious figures or scenes (thus the hotel’s “of the Saints” name). The owners also added a chapel to the property, modeled after the first mission of northern Mexico (which is now located across the border in San Antonio, Texas).

Discovering the hacienda’s many nooks and crannies—and swimming in its various tiled pools—is enough to keep you occupied for days. Alamos, however, is worth exploring, not simply for its charming town square but also for the hiking and equestrian trails, rivers, and silver mines in the surrounding Sierra Madres. haciendadelossantos.com u

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Cast of the Day

Fishing with a fly rod is an artful immersion, one that brings you to pristine and dramatic locales and connects you to prized fish in impactful ways.

BY SHAUN TOLSON

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Photo Credits

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ne of life’s quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful,” writes Norman Maclean in his seminal A River Runs Through It. The novel reads like an autobiographical elegy about fly-fishing on the Blackfoot River in Montana. Maclean’s eloquent prose is as lyrical as it is true when describing the act of casting with a fly rod, which is why many anglers, once they’ve discovered the sport, choose only to fish that way. Whether wading through cool, spring-fed creeks and streams or perched on drift boats gently floating down swift-moving rivers, fly-fishermen are as connected to the natural world around them as they are absorbed in a pursuit of rhythmic perfection.

While you can fly-fish almost anywhere, there are a handful of truly spellbinding places where the fishing is sublime and the experiences are transformative. Best of all, those locales are home to both private clubs and public lodges that can serve as gateways to unforgettable casting—and catching. 

Photo Credits Courtesy Tributary

Casting for trout in one of Tributary’s seven ponds in southeast Idaho

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Idaho’s Snake River, and South Fork Lodge (right) along its banks.

THE AMERICA WEST Floating down the South Fork of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho, a guide points out a swirling stream a few yards from shore.

From his position near the center of the river, the angler casts his line and lands a surfacefloating fly in the ideal spot. Moments later, a large brown trout breaks the surface of the water. “Get it!” the guide shouts. The fisherman pulls back hard on the rod to set the hook, secures the stripped line under his forefinger at the base of the rod, and settles in to fight the fish.

“It’s a process-driven pursuit,” says Oliver White, the general manager of South Fork Lodge (southforklodge.com). “And the pinnacle is to catch a big trout on a dry fly.” The 36-room lodge, which includes six threebedroom A-frames and two five-bedroom cabins, is accented by vintage fly-fishing books, prints, and other mementos that Jimmy Kimmel—the lodge’s co-owner—has collected over the years. In the bar area, guests will find a vintage Evel Knievel–themed pinball machine, circa 1977, which is a nod to Knievel’s famous attempt to jump the Snake

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River canyon in a steam-powered rocket in 1974. (It also serves as Kimmel’s homage to the daredevil he grew up admiring.)

Despite the establishment’s warm and character-rich ambiance, superlative hospitality, and delectable cuisine, the South Fork Lodge’s most compelling trait is its location. “The proximity to the river is what makes it so special here,” Kimmel says. Considering that the South Fork flows for more than 60 miles—with 5,000 trout swimming in it per mile—it’s hard to argue.

“It’s not a technically difficult river and it’s not a hard river to fish,” Kimmel explains. “If you come here—whether you are a beginner or an expert—you are going to catch some trout.”

The diverse and abundant fly-fishing opportunities that exist in this section of southeast Idaho on the South Fork, Henry’s Fork, and the Teton River are what ultimately lured angler Matt Eastman away from Park City, Utah.

“There are so many different rivers. You can chase the [insect] hatches all summer and always have somewhere epic to fish,”

says Eastman, who serves as the director of recreation at the private community Tributary (tributaryidaho.com). “That’s the beauty of fishing around here. You’re in a magical place catching these amazing fish.”

Members who belong to Tributary, located in the historic small town of Driggs, can easily secure guided charters on any of those rivers through nearby Teton Valley Lodge (tetonvalleylodge.com), and as Eastman acknowledges, either Tributary or the lodge can provide all the necessary gear.

Additionally, members can fly-fish even closer to home on any of the club’s seven ponds, which range in size between 2 and 4 acres, and all are home to brook, rainbow, and cutthroat trout.

“It’s like walking through your own private sanctuary,” Eastman says of the protected, 500-acre fen that makes up part of the club’s 1,500 total acres. “You walk out your backdoor and you’ve got a chance to catch a 10-pound trout. You might be five minutes from your home, but you’ll still feel far away from everything.”

Courtesy Homewaters Club (2). Opposite, From Left: Adam Barker; Courtesy South Fork Lodge

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA Many of America’s foremost anglers and authors have declared the heart of the Keystone State the epicenter of American fly-fishing. More than 86,000 miles of rivers, streams, and creeks flow through Pennsylvania, almost 16,000 of which are designated as wild trout fisheries. At the HomeWaters Club (homewatersclub.com), a members-only, fly-fishing haven with 10 miles of private and protected water, fisheries are spread out across five distinctive creeks and streams. “That’s one of the biggest things we offer our members, the advantage to fish sections of streams that are not heavily pressured,” says Mike Harpster, the club’s director of membership. “It makes a world of difference in the quality of the fishing.”

With that protection (and the fact that the club will allow its sections of creeks and rivers to rest as many days as they’re fished), the club’s private fisheries are teeming with brown and rainbow trout that can easily grow beyond 24 inches in length.

For some HomeWaters Club members, those trophy fish are a significant draw, but as Harpster reveals, the club attracts avid fly-fishermen who are motivated by a variety of factors. “First, they want to catch a fish, and then a lot of fish or a big fish.

Eventually it just becomes about how they fish—they learn that they like to fish a certain way,” he says.

The majority of the club’s members live within a half day’s drive of the club and newcomers can be outfitted with rental equipment and a guide to teach the sport and ensure quick success. Regardless of ability level, all HomeWaters Club members enjoy the same feelings of exclusivity. “Any day that a member goes out to fish,” says Harpster, “they feel like they own the river that they’re fishing on.”

About 60 miles southeast of HomeWaters, another system of renowned creeks and rivers is waiting to be fished by the guests of Allenberry Resort (allenberry.com). The property is a 10-minute drive to LeTort Spring Run and 30 minutes from Big Spring Creek, which are both limestone, spring-fed creeks providing an ideal habitat for trout. “LeTort Spring Creek has a reputation for being such a difficult fishery,” says Dusty Wissmath, a longtime fishing guide who teaches fly-fishing classes at Allenberry. “The water is gin clear and the fish are easily spooked, but the payoff can be quite large—literally— with some amazing trout.” To catch native Eastern brook trout, guides who work for Relentless Fly Fishing (relentlessflyfishing .com) in nearby Shippensburg bring guests to faster-moving streams in higher elevations.

Flowing right along the back of the resort’s property is Yellow Breeches Creek, a heralded, limestone creek that is ideal for beginners and anyone wanting to wade and cast steps from their rooms. You can fish with dry flies for both trout and smallmouth bass during the summer. “It’s similar to fishing for trout on a bigger river,” Wissmath says. “Bass require the same techniques, but we’ll use popping bugs, dragonfly, or damselfly imitations.” 

Rainbow trout

Spruce Creek, which flows through the HomeWaters Club property

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RODS Saltwater sportfishing requires extraheavy action rods with the backbone to handle large, deep-water species. Rods in the rugged, high-performance XLH70 Series from (1) Signature Fishing Rods come with a tapered cork grip. You can add custom handles, guides, and decorative designs (like an inscription of your name or favorite phrase). From $430; signaturefishingrods.com Bamboo rods (your grandpa probably had one) for stream fishing are enjoying renewed popularity. They offer flexibility with delicate line and loop control. (2) R.L. Winston Rod Company has been making beautiful split-cane bamboo rods since 1929. Each rod can take up to a year to build. From $3,250; winstonrods.com REELS (3) PENN International VI Reels are made using aircraft-grade aluminum with an anodized finish to protect again saltwater corrosion. The go-to reel for biggame fishing, Penn’s two-speed, quickshift system makes it easy to retrieve line in high gear, then drop to a powerful low gear when fighting strong fish. From $530; pennfishing.com The holy grail of fly reel performance with space-age good looks is the (4) Lamson Force SL Series II. Weighing in at a lean 2.8 ounces, this the lightest machined reel on the market. It offers the highest possible ratio of retrieve rate to reel weight, picking up line at a speedy 9.64 inches per turn. $600; lamsonflyfishing.com CLOTHING For stream fishing, (5) Simms G4Z waders are a favorite of professional fishing guides for their mobility and durability. Features include a three-layer GORE-TEX Pro Shell upper, a four-layer GORE-TEX Pro Shell lower, and patented compression-molded stocking feet for comfort and improved boot fit. $1,000; simmsfishing.com For deep-sea fishing, you’ll want light-weather rain gear or a windbreaker.

The breathable fishing jacket (6) AFTCO Anhydrous 2.0 3L is made from the latest

ultralight, high-tech fabrics rated 30K waterproof with a double dry cuff. The company was established in 1958 by biggame tackle pioneer J.C. Axelson. $395; aftco.com SHOES While sailing the Long Island Sound in 1934, Paul Sperry slipped on the deck of his boat and fell overboard. It was an aha moment. He immediately developed a boating shoe with a nonskid sole and the iconic Sperry Top-Sider was born. One of the brand’s newest designs, the (7) Sperry Gold Cup Billfish PLUSHWAVE Boat Shoe features a dual-density midsole and lightweight comfort. $175; sperry.com Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard, a passionate fly-fisherman, partnered with old-school, Oregon-based boot maker Danner to rework the entire line of Patagonia’s fishing boots so they fit and feel like great hiking boots. (8) Patagonia Foot Tractor Wading Boots are made from waterproof leather with sticky rubber soles, felt soles, or aluminum bar–reinforced soles for an extra secure grip in slippery stream beds. From $500; patagonia.com ACCESSORIES Many outfitters provide the gear you will need—including poles, a fishing license, bait or flies, and, in some cases, a complete set of rain gear. But you’ll want to upgrade your personal kit with wellmade essentials like (9) Kaenon polarized sunglasses (from $100; kaenon.com); a Wallaroo Shelton hat ($55; wallaroohats.com) with back-of-the-neck coverage and 50+ SPF; and an ultralight metal, wide-mouth trail series (10) Hydro Flask water bottle (from $45; hydroflask.com). To keep essentials dry, Watershed bags are low maintenance, rugged, and extremely waterproof. They have been tested by the US Navy to 100 meters submersion without any leakage.

Manufactured in North Carolina, they’re built for everything from social outings to serious outdoor adventures. From $155; drybags.com

—Irene Rawlings

From top: The Delphi Club; Bahamian Flats; bonefish

Courtesy The Delphi Club (3). Opposite All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer (10)

THE BAHAMAS Great Abaco Island is arguably the bonefishing capital of the world. Just to its east, on a smaller cay, you’ll find the residence club Baker’s Bay (discoverylandco.com), where fishing for bonefish and permit in the surrounding flats and shallow waters is, as Director of Real Estate Sales Geoffrey Jones describes it, a mix of hunting, stalking, and fishing.

“The bonefish action is really what Abaco is now famous for,” he says. “Bonefish is the most electric, exciting, and strong fish—pound for pound—of any fish you’ll ever catch.”

About 10 percent of Baker’s Bay members own their skiffs, but the majority of club members will hire local guides to take them to any number of prolific fishing spots around the 120-mile-long island. According to Jones, those members don’t have to travel far, as the club has its own accessible flat.

But catching fish in that flat can require a bit more skill than in other areas. “They see a lot of [artificial] flies all the time,” he says, “so they’re smarter than most fish.”

However, anglers at Baker’s Bay don’t even need a skiff to have a successful day fishing. “You can actually walk down the beach with a fly rod and fish for bonefish and permit,” Jones says. In fact, permit, which weigh up to 50 pounds, are quickly becoming the fly-fishing trophy fish in the Bahamas.

“You might only catch four or five in a year,” he says, “so your heart’s racing [when you spot one] because the fish are about 10 times the size [of bonefish] and they’re much more particular about how they approach a fly. They have very good eyesight and they’re really skittish.”

At The Delphi Club (delphi-bahamas.com), a boutique bonefishing club on the eastern shore of Great Abaco (about 30 miles south of Baker’s Bay), bonefishing is what attracts 95 percent of guests, but permit fishing is on the rise. “It’s the holy grail of fly-fishing,” says Robert Ford, The Delphi Club’s managing director, who purchased the property with a small group of friends after enjoying it years earlier as a guest. The stately, two-story main guesthouse boasts an infinity pool steps from a secluded white-sand beach.

The lodge has two new carbon-fiber Hell’s Bay boats, increasing the size of its fleet to six shallow-drawing skiffs.

As Ford acknowledges, those boats “let you get into places that most people can’t.” Great Abaco is famous for The Marls, a sprawling expanse of shallow water punctuated by wilderness flats and mangrove stands that for years existed as an epic spot for bonefishing. Although Hurricane Dorian damaged the northern part of the Marls four years ago, Delphi Club guides continue to fish in the south as well as rely on a network of more secretive spots. “We have these little niche areas where not many people go, so they get less pressure,” Ford says. u

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6 Countries, 30 Days, 1 Private Jet

Flying directly to remote locals on a TCS World Travel cross-continental adventure is about the journey as well as the destinations. Warning: You may never be able to fly commercial again.

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here are parts of the world most tourists never get to see. Places where nothing looks familiar. Where the experiences are unique and extraordinary because they are simply unimaginable. Private jet expeditions allow for this type of global exploration, taking passengers from bustling cities to remote tropical regions. Such globe-spanning itineraries are trending, with double-digit increases in bookings since 2019, as people feel the need to make up for time lost during the pandemic’s forced isolation. Filling this void of first-time experiences in remote locales is TCS World Travel, a pioneer of jet expeditions and air cruising for more than 30 years.

“If it’s easy to get there, our guests have been there,” says TCS Communications Director Becky Youman. “We fly to destinations that otherwise have no direct flights, places our guests can’t get to any other way.” TCS loyalists attest to booking these trips to reach places less traveled, “like Borobudur in Indonesia,” said one couple on their sixth expedition with the company. “Everyone goes to Bali!”

If there is no luxury option at a certain destination, the private jet tour operator determines whether it’s worth visiting anyway. “TCS is not just about luxury,” says Youman, “but also culturally stimulating experiences and globally important things to do. It’s for people who are curious about the world.” One such location that fits this bill is Borneo. “The hotel is threestar, but we go for the orangutans,” she says. TCS sends a staff four to five days in advance of the group’s arrival to vet the accommodations and excursions. The team works to elevate the experience the best way possible, ensuring, for example, that the hotel’s breakfast offerings are served to TCS standards, upgrading the bathroom towels, and replacing the toiletries with highend bath, hair, and skincare products.

Destinations are monitored throughout the expedition and the itinerary can change as needed. When the DMZ Tunnel Tour between South and North Korea was no longer available, TCS secured an alternative option to view the DMZ from above in a gondola and included new choices for exploring South Korea if the gondola experience was of no interest to some guests.

Indeed, some opt not to join the group and prefer, for example, to have a spa treatment at the hotel or work out in the gym. The itineraries allow such flexibility and the expedition leader is the consummate organizer. 

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Courtesy TCS. Opposite: iStock

BY DEBORAH FRANK

Borobudur temple in Central Java, Indonesia

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From top: Traditional Bhutanese mask in Thimphu, Bhutan; three guanacos in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia, Chile; a monk in Chimi Lhakhang, a temple in Punakha, Bhutan.

Top right: An orangutan in Borneo.

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Every detail is considered, down to the distribution of local currency that’s handed out as pocket money upon arrival at a destination. (At the very end of the expedition, TCS collects any remaining foreign currency and donates it to UNICEF.) Each excursion is filled with exclusive entries, access to places off the beaten path, and unique experiences like riding a rickshaw through the bamboo forest and the district of Sagano in western Kyoto, or meditating at the home of a Zen master famous for the politicians and businessmen who visit him regularly. A travel photographer documents the entire trip and offers tips to those interested in improving their photo-taking skills. In crowded cities like Yogyakarta, Central Java, police escort the TCS caravan to avoid traffic tie-ups.

Little surprises are around every corner, such as the open-top Jeep-style cars that

drove guests to a Buddhist temple site, or the horse-drawn carriages used to explore a local village. An overnight in luxurious tents in Leh, Ladakh, also known as Little Tibet, was a wonder. Dinners are performances set for visiting dignitaries, showing a country’s culture and arts, such as geishas in Kyoto, storytelling puppeteers at the exclusive Amanjiwo near Borobudur, whirling dervishes in an ancient underground cistern in Istanbul, or a Beatles cover band in London at a venue overlooking the Thames and Tower Bridge. It’s about indulging in immersive experiences while expanding one’s knowledge of the world. And above all, forging authentic connections.

“The locals make the difference,” says COO Elisabeth Nelson. “Part storyteller, part scholar, part expert organizer, the guides are our local connection—and guests appreciate the introduction.”

iStock (4). Opposite, Clockwsie From Top Right: Courtesy TCS; iStock (2)

2024 EXPEDITION CALENDAR At TCS, more than 500 staff members work on a trip and planning has already begun for 2026 itineraries. But if you’re ready to travel now, visit tcsworldtravel.com for itinerary details on expeditions from Patagonia to Africa to Bhutan.

TCS’s Airbus A321

What Makes a Private Jet Expedition Worth the Splurge

Japan’s bamboo forest

A geisha in Kyoto

Taking an air cruise is similar to a sea cruise with its all-inclusive, no-need-to-think-about-tipping fee and multiple destination ports. Unlike ocean liners where guests check into their staterooms, unpack, and settle in for however many days, hopping on and off a plane involves much maneuvering, which makes it ever more important to travel with an experienced outfitter.

PRE-FLIGHT PLANNING WITH A TRAVEL CONCIERGE TCS World Travel assigns a dedicated guest services manager to assist with trip details, supply packing lists, and help prepare all necessary documents, such as renewing passports, obtaining visas, and organizing special requests.

Some guests are interested in pre- and post-trip excursions and may have other requirements that need advanced notice. A 10-hour layover, for example, at a final destination before flying home commercially may be just enough time to hire a private driver and guide to explore one more locale. TCS will make sure only the best are booked and the company excels in ensuring safety, jumping through every possible hoop to keep its guests secure. Private jet owners may also utilize TCS itineraries via its custom travel team that will organize trips for those who want to fly their own jets. 

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CARBON FOOTPRINT SAVINGS The impact of flying on the environment is a growing concern. With this in mind, TCS conducted a study to figure out what commercial flights were needed to spend the same number of nights in each destination of a 24-day journey. The numbers stacked up in favor of private jet travel in that 10 extra days, 11 more flights (including six overnights with no direct connections), and 39 hours more flying time were required with commercial airlines to replicate the TCS itinerary. Plus, the new Airbus A321 that TCS flies burns 30 percent less fuel than a Boeing 757.

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From Left: Courtesy TCS; iStock

NO LUGGING LUGGAGE With only two or three nights at a destination, the thought of packing and unpacking may be reason enough not to go. But traveling light and using compression cubes are game changers, in addition to the fact that TCS schleps your bags: Your luggage is in your room before you arrive and picked up when you leave. Packing a large suitcase and the smaller carry-on that TCS supplies turns the larger suitcase into your “closet,” with the smaller one functioning as an overnight bag. A Tumi luggage set with pre-attached tags is a gift from TCS and helps them seamlessly transfer your belongings from one hotel to another. The wheeled carry-on with matching backpack is sent before the trip begins and contains two TSA-approved locks, a universal adapter, a flashlight, a rain poncho, antibacterial spray, insect repellent wipes, and KN95 face masks.

Once onboard the plane, a Tumi duffle awaits at your designated seat to be used as necessary.

Buddhist stupas in Ladakh, India

PERSONAL SPACE ONBOARD TCS’s new Airbus A321 is operated by Titan Airways, based in London. It holds 52 passengers with a passenger-to-cabin crew ratio of 6.5 to 1, plus a chef and dedicated physician who accompanies every excursion. Boarding each flight, the crew welcomes you “home,” a fitting salutation that becomes more apropos with each stop. As the trip progresses, your designated leather flatbed seat becomes a familiar pod with your personal items laid out along with a drink and snack to your liking. In-flight entertainment and news is provided on personal tablets.

Plus, live presentations about the next destination are given by invited trip experts and historians.

Executive Chef Annie Song sets menus beforehand but changes it up and tailors it to guests’ tastes—according to Song, guests “want to come home to the jet and eat comfort food, after tasting local dishes and eating, for example, curry every night when in Delhi. They’re over it by the time they’re back onboard, so I try to do a nice mix.” Ingredients are ordered six weeks before a trip to avoid supply chain issues, but sometimes the best-laid plans are toppled. “It’s kind of like a Top Chef challenge,” says Song. “I’ll arrive [to a destination] and they’ll say, ‘We don’t have your chicken, we don’t have this, we don’t have that.’ So I ask, ‘What do you have?’

And I have to black-box challenge it. It’s fun and stressful at the same time.”

Supplies, altitude, and oven limitations aside, Song prides herself on preparing restaurant-quality food. “It has to be something that’s not going to dry out,” she says. “A piece of tuna is not ideal; cod is preferred because it’s a fatty fish.

If I cooked a ribeye in there, it would be tough, so it has to be a tenderloin. You just have to design the menu with that in mind while accommodating everybody’s desires. You’ll never see someone happier than when I’m serving a tray of mini burgers.” Song does try to highlight the local delicacies on the dessert trolleys.

“Empress cookies are a favorite. They’re a tradition in Korean culture,” she says. u

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Boston-based REGENT’s Viceroy seaglider prototype

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Electric Seaplanes Prepare to Launch Emissions-free flying from a watery runway may be the next smart aviation move.

BY FRANK VIZARD

Courtesy Regent (2)

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our next flight may start with a trip to the shore instead of the airport, if a new breed of aviation pioneers succeeds in resurrecting seaplanes, borne aloft by electric motors, as an environmentally friendly mode of travel.

Most of the amphibious aircraft in use today are floatplanes that use slender floats mounted like feet under the fuselage for buoyancy. Aircraft designers, however, are finding inspiration from the past, looking to flying boats with hulls purposely designed for flotation. In the 1930s, for example, the Boeing 314 Clipper was the last word in luxury in transoceanic air travel. Then World War II and the proliferation of long land runways around the world made seaplanes largely redundant. Today, however, high

airport development costs, a changing climate, an emphasis on zero emissions, military interest, and new technical approaches are fueling a resurgence.

Perhaps the most innovative among amphibious aircraft under development and the most likely to see service soonest prefers to be known as a seaglider. During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union developed a cross between a plane and a boat, known as the ekranoplan by the Russians and the Caspian Sea Monster by Western analysts due to its enormous size. The ekranoplan flew using a wing-in-ground effect (WIG), a cushion of air that forms between the wings and ground during low-altitude flight. WIG greatly reduces drag, allowing heavy loads to be carried over long distances, and it is especially effective over water, as there are fewer obstacles in the flight path. However, only one missile-launching ekranoplan was

ever built, due to cost and design difficulties.

That fly-low-and-fly-fast mantra is being embraced today, but with a twist. From Boston-based REGENT (regentcraft.com), an electric seaglider uses WIG but marries it to latter-day hydrofoil tech like that used by catamarans racing in America’s Cup. With its V-shaped hull, the emissions-free seaglider gets underway like a traditional boat. As it speeds up for takeoff, the hull rises out of the water using a set of hydrofoils. This means a lot less energy is required to get airborne.

The hydrofoils retract after takeoff and then descend again for landing.

REGENT, which stands for Regional Electric Ground Effect Nautical Transport, says a prototype will begin testing in 2024 with in-flight service expected the following year. The expected range for its 12-passenger Viceroy model is 180 miles at a cruise speed of 180 mph from eight motors. The Viceroy 

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The sport-class Icon A5 with fold-up wings. At left from top: Elfly’s prototype; Jekta’s 19-passenger tourism seaplane; Harbour Air’s floatplane.

is 57.5 feet long and has a wingspan of 65 feet. The 3-year-old company has even bigger plans with a 100-seat Monarch model to follow: Hawaiian Airlines has already put in an order. REGENT, in fact, says it has over $8 billion in orders for 400 seagliders and sees its seagliders fulfilling a number of roles, ranging from tourism to ferry service.

Brittany Ferries, for example, plans to use seagliders as ferries between France and England by 2028. Critically, from a timetable standpoint, the seagliders are being classified as boats to speed up the certification process.

Meanwhile in Europe, electric amphibious aircraft are under development as well. In Switzerland, Jekta (jekta.swiss) is building a 19-passenger electric seaplane with tourism expressly in mind. Jekta envisions its

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PHA-ZE 100 (Passenger Hydro Aircraft Zero Emission 100) amphibious aircraft whisking customers to remote islands by late 2028. A VIP configuration has a salon with couches and seats for four. Jekta says it will build batteries into the wing so they can be swapped out for a fast turnaround time. The PHA-ZE 100, which has a top speed of 155 mph and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet, will be able to land on traditional runways in the event of rough seas.

Honeywell is supplying the required avionics and aeronautical systems.

In Norway, Elfly Group (el-fly.no) envisions electric seaplanes as a perfect way to link the country’s many islands. Twin electric motors atop the Noemi (no emissions) fuselage provide a top speed of 155 mph and

an approximate 120-mile range. A ninepassenger model is being developed in addition to a more luxurious, six-seat VIP configuration. A large cargo door makes it suitable for freight roles as well as an air ambulance. The overall design is inspired by past Mallard and Twin Otter amphibious planes. Elfly plans to launch a prototype in 2025. A fleet of 15 is planned for 2030 to serve a country with 450,000 lakes and more than 1,000 fjords. Elfly thereafter hopes to expand to other shorthop markets. Norway now requires all domestic flights to be electric by 2040.

Floatplane operators, meanwhile, do not intend to be left behind at the dock. Harbour Air Seaplanes (harbourair.com), the longtime operator of floatplanes between Vancouver

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Right: ICON Aircraft; Harbour Air Seaplanes; Jekta; Elfly.

Opposite, Courtesy Renderings From Left: General Atomics-Aeronautical Systems, Inc.; Aurora Flight Sciences

FPO

and Victoria in Canada’s British Columbia, is flight-testing electric motor conversions for floatplanes. Among innovative new designers is Icon (iconaircraft.com), which makes the sport-class Icon A5 with fold-up wings, a propeller aft of the cockpit, and a clever angle-of-attack indicator that makes it easier to fly. Some older amphibious aircraft retain a high profile: The Hawaii Mars II, dating from 1945, is still flying as a firefighting water bomber, dousing California wildfires with 7,200 gallons of water per mission.

It would be naïve to suggest that the renewed interest in seaplanes doesn’t include a military/political bent. Ongoing tensions with China have increased interest in islandhopping, runway-independent amphibious aircraft. Lockheed Martin is investing in REGENT with the aim of developing a military variant of a seaglider for possible use by US Marines and special operations forces. “We believe that REGENT seaplanes can bring tailored solutions to the future battlespace,” says Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. WIG-style aircraft are appealing for yet another reason: They are generally able to operate below enemy radar while avoiding easily targeted locations like traditional airfields.

Meanwhile, DARPA (darpa.mil), the research arm of the US Defense Department, has tasked General Atomics (ga.com) and Aurora Flight Sciences (aurora.aero), a Boeing subsidiary, to develop the

WIG-style Liberty Lifter seaplane, akin to a C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane, which can fly 6,500 nautical miles, carry 100 tons of material, and land in rough seas while also being able to operate like a traditional aircraft up to 10,000 feet.

The General Atomics design is particularly radical in that it uses a twin-hull design, while the Aurora concept is more along the lines of a traditional flying boat. Aviation

Activity on the military side suggests that seaplane development is to be well-funded going forward, with likely spillover effects for civilian craft. buffs may recall the massive 1947 WIGeffect Spruce Goose developed by Howard Hughes for a similar mission. The plane flew for about a mile before being mothballed. The US Air Force Special Operations Command is also considering how to add removable flotation devices to existing cargo planes for resupply of forces on remote atolls.

The US military has been enviously eyeing the ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft in service with Japanese air and sea rescue defense forces. The large ShinMaywa US-2 can operate in rough seas with swells of nine

feet and is nearly twice as fast as a helicopter and has a longer range. An amphibious aircraft like the ShinMaywa could perform reconnaissance and anti-submarine tasks similar to the legendary PBY Catalina Flying Boat effectively used in World War II. Such a move would likely mean resurrecting a class of ship known as seaplane tenders from that era. This would mark a sea change in attitudes—the US military largely lost interest in seaplanes in the 1950s when a jetpowered seaplane capable of carrying nuclear missiles was canceled because submarines proved operationally more effective.

All this activity on the military side suggests that seaplane development is to be well-funded going forward, with likely spillover effects for civilian craft. Meanwhile, the biggest amphibious aircraft since the Spruce Goose has already taken wing in China. The AG600 Kunlong is seen by China as a flexible tool for island-hopping in the South China Sea. The AG600 Kunlong is currently the largest seaplane in the world with a wingspan comparable to a Boeing 737 passenger plane and able to carry as many as 50 passengers. The Russian Navy is opting for a jet-powered amphibious aircraft, called the Beriev Be-200 Altair, with a top speed of 422 mph, a 72-passenger capacity, and a range of 2,000 miles that can be configured for multiple roles ranging from firefighting to reconnaissance. The first deployment is in the Caspian Sea. Another sea monster has emerged. u

Rendering of DARPA’s Liberty Lifter in action

DARPA’s Liberty Lifter

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Lamborghini Revuelto 2023

Porsche 356 1948 Lamborghini Countach 1974

Porsche 911 E 2.4 1972–1973

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Lamborghini Urus SUV 2018

Reasons to Celebrate

Legendary automotive marques stand the test of time.

Courtesy Lamborghini. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Bottom Left: Lamborghini (2); Porsche (2)

BY BRETT BERK

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he gas-powered automobile has been around for nearly 140 years, and many of the most venerable names in the industry—Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Cadillac, Rolls-Royce, Bentley—have been producing luxurious vehicles for over a century. Longevity is relevant, as cars are an extremely labor- and cost-intensive product; a new model can require six years and a billion dollars in investment. Today’s test of the times for carmakers is the auto industry’s shift to electric vehicles (EVs)—expected to make up 40 percent of American new vehicle sales by the end of the decade. Start-ups like Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian bring fresh products and perspectives to the category, while heritage automakers are rolling out an onslaught of battery-powered vehicles, attempting to reassert their dominance. Their august reputations offer mainstream consumers brand familiarity and confidence as they prepare for this profound change.

For two marques celebrating significant anniversaries—60 years for Lamborghini and 75 for Porsche—we take an in-depth look at the storied brands, both their origins and their futures. 

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Lamborghini LM002 1986

Lamborghini Countach 1974

LAMBORGHINI Founded in 1963 as a challenger brand, Lamborghini took direct aim at Italy’s most revered sporting marque. “Ferruccio Lamborghini wanted to do something better than the leader of the market, which was Ferrari,” says Federico Foschini, Lamborghini’s chief marketing officer.

Ferruccio, having founded a profitable tractor company during Italy’s post-WWII economic boom, was, like other successful businessmen, seeking out symbols to showboat his new wealth—and bought a Ferrari. But he found himself dissatisfied. “He was a customer, and he was not happy. He was not treated in a fair way, in his opinion, by Ferrari. So, he decided to build this car on his own,” says Foschini. “He was a visionary, a man that wanted to fulfill his dream by being the producer of the car he was dreaming of.”

This unique positioning gave Lamborghini a certain drive, to create products that created or defined fresh categories. “I think that our heritage is giving us this kind of attitude of looking forward to challenge the status quo, to be unexpected, and to create something that at the moment of the launch is something that is beyond any other product,” Foschini says.

The Miura of 1966 was thus the first-ever “supercar” (the term was reportedly invented by a British car journalist to describe the model), featuring a sensually curvaceous body and outrageous acceleration from a roaring V12 engine mounted sideways behind the passenger compartment. The Countach of 1974 defined

the sharply creased, doorstop-shaped “wedge” aesthetic, as well as the maximalist addition of strakes, vents, wings, and scoops that dominated supercar design for decades after.

The LM002 of 1986 was the first super-SUV, a leather-lined four-door, all-wheel-drive vehicle with an explosively potent motor, presciently forecasting the luxury sport ute craze of our contemporary era—one capitalized upon by Lamborghini itself with its Urus SUV of 2018, which has singlehandedly doubled the brand’s annual production.

The limited-edition Sian of 2019 was the marque’s first production hybrid. Just this year, it unveiled its first electrified production supercar, the Revuelto, which is also the world’s first V12-engined, plug-in hybrid High-Performance Electrified Vehicle (HPEV). This will be followed by Lambo’s first fully electric vehicle, a four-seat Gran Turismo called the Lanzador, slated for 2028.

Like most other manufacturers in the ultra-sport/luxury category, a fuller range of electric vehicles will follow. “Everybody at Lamborghini is looking at the future,” Foschini says. “Already today, our customer base is very young, 40–45 years old on average, which is very low for our category. But the fan base is even younger, because now, for the kids, Lamborghini is the brand to be because it’s so futuristic, so extravagant, that they find it is very similar to what they’re doing daily on their iPads and gaming consoles.”

Courtesy Lamborghini (3). Opposite: Courtesy Porsche (3)

Lamborghini Lanzador 2028

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Porsche 924 Turbo 1981

Porsche Cayenne 2002

Porsche 944 Turbo 1985

PORSCHE As well-known as the 75-year-old German sports car manufacturer is for crafting engaging, unique, novel, and precise vehicles—like the famed 911, which is itself celebrating 60 years in production—it’s less known that founder Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was a widely respected automobile designer well before launching his own company.

This includes his early efforts at building hybrid gasoline/electric vehicles at the start of the 1900s, and consultations on cars from other notable Teutonic brands in the decades after, including work for Mercedes and Audi.

It also includes his participation with the WWII-era German government on race cars and military vehicles, and on the first Volkswagens, an attempt to provide affordable transportation for the German populace.

“We are proud of our heritage. It is the foundation for a successful future,” says Oliver Blume, chairman of Porsche’s executive board. “We associate our heritage with innovation and progress, and continually add extraordinary new moments to the unique Porsche story.”

Porsche’s first production vehicle, the two-door 356 sports car, was based on

a souped-up version of the VW Beetle’s atypical rear-engine design. Available for 17 years beginning in 1948, the model was imported into the United States, ultimately helping expose Americans to the joys of racy European vehicles.

To follow this long and influential run, Dr. Porsche’s son, Ferry, designed a successor, aiming to create a spirited sports coupe that could still act as a practical family car. To this end, the rear-engine 911 sported a big front trunk and a pair of child-sized rear seats.

Vintage 911s remain among the most desirable vehicles in the collector car universe, appealing to as broad a range of demographics (and bank accounts) as the model offered during its run, from bare bones to luxury, basic to track-prepped. The 911 constantly innovated to maintain its pinnacle prominence, being among the first sports cars to experiment with removable targa roof panels, front and rear aerodynamic spoilers, turbocharging, and four-wheel drive.

In the 1970s and ’80s, Porsche attempted producing more affordable vehicles, like the diminutive, rectangular, mid-engine 914 and the sharp, swoopy front-engine 924

and 944 sports coupes. This yielded derision from brand loyalists, who saw apostasy in any deviation from the rear-engine 356/911 formula. But the greatest ridicule was reserved for the egg-shaped, V8-powered 928 of 1977, a big, luxurious coupe that was intended as a replacement for the 911. (Internal corporate maneuvers prevented that from occurring.)

A similar sense of betrayal mounted when the brand released its first SUV, the Cayenne, in 2002. But its growing fleet of SUVs are so good, so Porsche-like, and so popular (they currently represent 60 percent of the brand’s global sales) that even Porschephiles have embraced them. Likewise with the Taycan, the brand’s first fully electric vehicle, a slightly insectoid four-door sedan or five-door wagon.

As the marque moves further into its electric future with a forthcoming batterypowered Macan compact SUV and a two-seat coupe and convertible, as well as a hybrid 911, it’s certain that all Porsches will retain the brand’s precise, compelling, and aspirational magic. “Seventy-five years of Porsche stand for pioneering spirit, passion, and dreams,” says Blume. “We are celebrating together with people who are inspired by dreams.” 

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Auto Collect

To mark 60 years of the 911, Porsche Design presents a collection of rare editions.

TIMEPIECE Chronograph 1 – 911 S/T To purchase this limited-edition watch, interested parties must first buy the new 992-generation 911 S/T car. The coordinating watch model is distinct among Porsche Design Chronograph 1s for its glass bead– blasted titanium case and bracelet with included quick-change leather strap in black or cognac brown, for the Heritage version. The green and red markings on the face harken back to the green gauges of Porsche racing cars and the 60 in red references this year’s milestone anniversary. To further enhance the connection between car ($291,650) and timepiece ($13,500), owners may customize their metallic finishes (Brilliant Silver, Dark Silver, or Black) so both match. On the case back is the engraved edition number (between 1 and 1,963) that matches the one engraved on the car’s golden dashboard plaque that also reads “60 Years of the 911.” porsche.com

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GAMING CHAIR RECARO x Porsche Gaming Chair Pepita – Ltd. Black with a gray headrest and red side stripes, this 60Y Porsche 911 Collection version of the RECARO Exo Platinum will be limited to 911 chairs. The edition marries the craftsmanship of RECARO racing seats with the distinct look of Porsche. Embroidered on the front of the headrest, in the same location as it is in Porsche cars, is the Porsche crest. $2,500; porsche-design.com SUNGLASSES P’8966 Titanium, ultralight aviator-style sunglasses are available in blue or gray and limited to 911 units, each with a laser-engraved edition number. Another subtle distinction of the release, which is based on the Porsche Design Flowing Titanium Series, is “60Y 911” written at the right temple. $610; porsche-design.com

SNEAKERS Retro and Heritage 60Y 911 by Puma One rooted in the past, and one in the present, these Porsche Design shoes embody the 911 then and now. The light blue Retro edition (just 1,972 numbered pairs will be made) calls back to the 911 S 2.5 from 1972 with that cool color exterior. Red stitching and the number 56 for the car’s starting number on the heel add contrast, and the Porsche grille badge adorns the tongue of the sneaker. The gray, leather-and-suede Heritage version references the new 911 S/T, lined in cognac-brown fabric like the car interior. The 63 is for the birth year of the car, as is the limited-edition number of 1,963 pairs. $160; shop.porsche.com —Jennifer Ashton Ryan

100 Years of BMW Moto

A private motorcycle and automobile museum stands as a testament both to one collector’s devotion to BMW motorcycles and to the longevity of the centennial brand.

From Left: Courtesy BMW; Jonathan Pozniak. Opposite: Courtesy Porsche (4)

A

fter World War I, BMW was banned from producing airplane engines. In response, the company began manufacturing small industrial engines, including a flat-twin, or boxer-style engine, as a portable industrial motor. In the early 1920s, other German companies began using that engine in their motorcycles, and in 1923, BMW introduced its own motorcycle, the R32. With a 494 cc, horizontally opposed two-cylinder engine with a driveshaft instead of a chain, the R32 boasted a top speed of 58 mph, and began BMW’s motorcycle history.

A hundred years later, when the manufacturer wanted to showcase the R32 for its 2023 centennial celebration, BMW found that its own collection, limited to two early motorcycles, lacked an appropriate version.

So it reached out to Peter Nettesheim, the owner of the largest private collection of BMW motorcycles in the world. Answering the call, Nettesheim provided the brand with a 1925 model. He didn’t mind; he still had seven R32s in his collection, the largest in the world. BMW itself now has three, thanks to Nettesheim.

A walk through Nettesheim’s collection at his home in Long Island, New York, is like traveling through a motorcycle time warp. Onehundred-year-old R32s stand next to vintage bikes from the ’50s and late-model BMWs.

In addition to his R32s, however, Nettesheim owns a copy of every production BMW motorcycle made between 1923 and 1970, with an additional 45 examples of post-1970 productions, including a recent BMW R nine T. To call Nettesheim an avid collector would be a terrible understatement. His current collection is around 105 motorcycles, with several more in various stages of restoration.

Nettesheim’s collection comes from a love of mechanics more than a love of riding.

The son of a Mercedes-Benz truck dealer, Nettesheim learned his passion for all things automotive as a child. His photo collection shows him standing by a car as a child, watching his father work under the hood. While Nettesheim enjoys riding his motorcycles, he’s more enamored of the restoration process. A machinist by nature, he has restored all of his classic motorcycles; when a part isn’t available, he simply makes one. His three-story garage, if you can call a facility that stores more than 100 motorcycles, plus more than a dozen cars, a garage, includes a full machine shop, computerized BMW manufacturing equipment, and enough tools to break down and rebuild a fleet of motorcycles—or pretty much anything that can be broken down and restored.

The collection is a testament to his brand devotion. The motorcycles are arranged as museum exhibits, albeit functional, registered, and rideable exhibits, with a vast assortment of BMW memorabilia as well. Lest you think he’s simply a biker with an obsession, he also owns

10 classic Mercedes-Benz cars (including a pristine and gorgeous 1956 300 SL gullwing), nine BMW automobiles, a 1968 VW Beetle, four BMW Isettas, and two Porsches. All are in immaculate, if crowded, condition.

The original R32 generated a whopping 8.5 hp. Fast forwarding from 1923, BMW’s current R 1250 RS carries on the basic architecture of the R32. Although most current BMW motorcycles sport four-cylinder engines, the R 1250 RS, like its spiritual ancestor, the R32, has a boxer two-cylinder engine and shaft drive, but the similarities end there. The R 1250 RS carries a 1,254 cc motor, and puts out 136 hp, driving it to speeds of over 124 mph. No more manual snack or fuel mix adjustments; the electronic fuel injection and engine monitoring systems handle all that for the driver, along with traction control, ABS braking, and even a USB charging port. Not to mention clutchless shifting between second and sixth gears, keyless starting, and even tire pressure monitoring systems. A taut adjustable suspension, with Dynamic and Road settings for sportier or more comfortable handling, provides a sporting ride. Stability control and traction control operate seamlessly, backing off throttle response as the only sign they’re operating if you get in over your head in a corner. Add in heated grips, along with heated seats, and you have a thoroughly modern motorcycle that can comfortably cover hundreds of miles in a day—and for many more years to come. u —David Bertan

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Stellar Wine Cellars

Vintages displayed in grand cru style enhance the tasting experience.

Below-ground Spiral Cellar in London

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Courtesy Kitchen Architecture

BY JORGE S. ARANGO

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LONDON Architecture: Simon Astridge, saaworkshop.com Interior Design: Kitchen Architecture, kitchenarchitecture.co.uk Square Feet: 372 (entire kitchen) Bottle Capacity: 1,500

Space commands a premium in the city. This showroom kitchen at Kitchen Architecture in Putney’s Lower Richmond Road, located in a converted supermarket basement, provides a template for maximizing wine storage in tight quarters. “We deliberately wanted the space to be dark, a moody bar vibe,” says Kitchen Architecture’s Managing Director Paul Brivati, who synced with the urban environment by deploying polished concrete floors, black concrete wall panels, and a sleek black Bulthaup kitchen. Of the cellar itself, he says, “You do need to dig a very big hole to accommodate the cellar”—about 8.5 feet—“and if you are close to a neighbor, there is party wall permission to be considered.” Besides conserving space, the beauty of the system, Brivati says, is that “there is no mechanical ventilation with Spiral Cellars (spiralcellars.co.uk).

The temperature is controlled by the ground and one cold-air pipe in and a warm-air pipe out.”

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Courtesy Kitchen Architecture. Opposite: Courtesy Greg Natale (2)

Highlights: Below-ground Spiral Cellar accessed via a trap door with descending staircase; shuttering surrounding a waterproof triple liner and concrete modular shell; natural cooling system

NEAR MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Architecture and Interior Design: Greg Natale, gregnatale.com Square Feet: 110 Bottle Capacity: 607 Highlights: An adjacent bar and lounge; elegant, brass-trimmed sliding glass doors; custom brass wine shelving

When Greg Natale was refurbishing this home for clients, he says, “They wanted a cellar that really emphasized and focused on theater, much like the surrounding interiors and property. The home is incredibly moody, using a palette of dark timbers, brass, leathers, and richly bright colors.” Natale, who pulled overarching design cues from that quintessentially elegant Art Deco style, says, “It is definitely maximalist, while still keeping clean lines, which is really what this home

is about.” The principal cellar is off a corridor that leads to the bar and lounge, all of it trading on the high-glass swank of extravagantly deployed polished brass. A winewrapped lounge accommodates additional bottles in ebony-stained wooden storage bins. Natale ramped up the glamour with a Kelly Wearstler chandelier, a Covet House brass table, and a pair of classic, mid-century, brass-finished Harry Bertoia chairs with black leather seats and backs. 

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Architecture: PUNCH, puncharc.com Interior and Cellar Design: CellArt, cellart.com Square Feet: 1,500 Bottle Capacity: 1,692 Highlights: $300,000 thermal glass door installation; $100,000 LED lighting display; particularly strong in US cabernet sauvignons, such as Sine Qua Non and Screaming Eagle

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Courtesy CellArt (2). Opposite: Courtesy Smiros and Smiros Architects/Durston Saylor

COLORADO

“The client is a wine producer himself and asked us for a chic, rustic aesthetic,” says Jonathan Primeau, founder and president of Canadian-based CellArt, known for projects conceived from the eye of a conceptual artist. Working from architectural plans drawn up by PUNCH in Las Vegas, CellArt’s Head of Creation Dominique Légaré conjured a clean, modern alpine vibe, swathing the doubleheight interior with locally sourced birch that was sealed with natural oils. (“The client wanted no chemicals used,” says Primeau.) Légaré juxtaposed the timber envelope with custom imported Italian furniture, a glamorous crystal chandelier, a spiral staircase leading to a mezzanine lounge, and a tempered glass fireplace that seems to float in the middle of the room. “We could have maximized the space even more, but quantity was not the point,” says Primeau, noting a trend in private cellars: “The more expensive the project, the fewer the bottles, which allows us to be more artistic.”

LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK Architecture and Interior Design: Smiros & Smiros Architects, smiros.com Square Feet: 300 Bottle Capacity: 1,000 Highlights: WhisperKOOL Phantom 8000 FD temperature and humidity control; built-in humidor with a Cigar Oasis Plus 3.0 system for 1,000 cigars

Jim Smiros has worked with these clients on at least 10 projects over the last 20 years, including residences in London, Moscow, and Miami Beach.

This primary home, a late-1800s, Queen Anne–style building on a larger estate, has undergone several updates and renovations, including this conversion of a little-used dining room into a handsome wine library.

“They wanted a sort of smoky mood,” says Smiros, reflecting on the palette his firm chose for the space, which

is finished with a charcoal gray silk rug, gray suede armchairs with walnut bases, and a ceiling the color of platinum. The cozy yet sleek room is enveloped by refrigerated wine storage and a built-in humidor— behind a walnut door at left—all gleaming with polished nickel trims set within walnut casework. The Chesneys limestone fireplace has a custom herringbone brick firebox and, above it, a painting by Italian artist Valerio Adami. 

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HILL COUNTRY, TEXAS Architecture and Interior Design: Clayton Korte, claytonkorte.com Square Feet: 1,405 Bottle Capacity: 4,000

On a secluded river bend at a 3,000-acre ranch is a devoted oenophile’s private Aladdin’s cave of wine. Fermented beverages have been stored in caves for centuries, and when Brian Korte came onto the job, the client had already begun excavation. “We’re inherently taking advantage of the subterranean context,” Korte says. But, because heat can filter in and humid conditions underground are not optimal, Korte designed an insert of sprayed-on concrete sculpted by hand to look like natural limestone, then built an easily disassembled (if needed) interior envelope of ebonized raw white oak and Douglas fir paneling, storage, and a bar— the latter with a salvaged, live-edge, cedar slab top milled locally. This and a small seating area and bath occupy the front end of the 70-foot-long tunnel, while the back end’s cellar features the owner’s own heirloom Mission table and chairs.

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Courtesy Clayton Korte (2). Opposite: Courtesy Genuwine Cellars (2)

Highlights: Two separately cooled zones (lounge about 70 degrees; cellar about 55 degrees); custom pendant lighting; board-formed concrete bulkhead entrance; custom suspended bath vanity with a sandblasted stainless-steel sink; wine collection highlighting California and Italy

HAMILTON, CANADA Architecture: Basal Master Builds, basalmasterbuilds.com Interior and Cellar Design: Genuwine Cellars, genuwinecellars.com Square Feet: 165 (both cellars together) Bottle Capacity: 462 (both cellars) Highlights: 35-foot bar between cellars; lounge area; custom-engineered, climate-control system (kept at 58 degrees); sealed glass wall and door system; humidor cigar lounge

“From the outside it looks like a commercial industrial building,” says Shaila Queau, senior design director at Miamibased Genuwine Cellars. In fact, “it” is an airplane hangar next to her client’s home.

“He has a huge car collection and wanted a space to showcase his top 100 cars. And he wanted the upper level to look like a nightclub.” To wit: architectural wall panels mimicking the starry night interiors of a Rolls-Royce, seating fashioned from

bisected Lamborghinis, a custom poker table, and a stripper pole. Flanking a bespoke, 35-foot-long bar made of precious stone and high-gloss, black-and-white cabinetry are two 82-square-foot wine cellars. Elsewhere there is a humidor room with storage for more than 2,000 cigars, punctuated by blue-lit water columns generating nonstop bubbles. To complete the passion project: a red lacquer piano and three scarlet Ferrari motorcycles. 

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MIAMI Interior Design: Focus Wine Cellars, focuswinecellars.com Square Feet: 120 Bottle Capacity: 430

Wine at this residence is a multidimensional journey, explains Osman Gurer, founder of Toronto-based Focus Wine Cellars. “When hosting dinner parties, the homeowners often lead their guests from the dining room to the cellar,” he explains. “Here, they personally select a bottle for the meal. After dinner, the experience can extend to enjoying additional wine selections at the bar or during a movie in the adjacent home theater.” Gurer was asked to create a cellar “that resembles a jewelry box” and responded with this glass cube illuminated by changing colored lights. “The design of the wine cellar mirrors the palette and style employed throughout the rest of the house: white marble floors, black lacquer frames, and brass door handles. All are cohesive with the overall design of the residence.”

ST. LOUIS Architecture: Peter Rose + Partners, roseandpartners.com Interior Design: Heather Wells Inc., heatherwells.com Square Feet: 290 Bottle Capacity: 1,800 Highlights: An adjacent bar and interior courtyard; custom wine racks with stainless-steel fins; one wall of French wines (including a few rare Domaine Romanée Contis), another of Californians and Champagne, a third stocked mostly with Italians and a few Spanish Riojas

The owners of this cellar in the tony St. Louis suburb of Ladue have highly sophisticated tastes and an important art collection. Their contemporary, poured-concrete manse peddles an understated, but unquestionably luxurious aesthetic. They asked designer Heather Wells to create “a cool speakeasy space with a wine cellar right off a bar and theater,” she says. Wells installed tumbled nero marquina marble floors, bronze-framed glass doors overlooking a courtyard, and air-conditioning that enters through a slatted, stained-wood ceiling. Of course, furnishings go toe to toe with the quality of the art: a BDDW bronze-based, maple-topped tasting table surrounded by Merwyn chairs by Sebastian Herkner, and an Hervé van der Straeten lacquered Twist console in shades of oenophile-appropriate merlot, red, and aubergine. “The cellar is not for aging,” says the husband, “but for drinking wines. So mostly they are ready.” A votre santé!

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Courtesy Images, From Top: Focus Wine Cellars; Heather Wells/Joshua McHugh. Opposite: Courtesy Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars/Tucker + Hossler Photography

Highlights: Acrylic display storage for easy label identification; adjustable colored lighting; chandelier designed to highlight the collection’s four most valuable bottles (all French grand crus); backlit onyx countertop

The Art of Cellaring

TOOLS FOR SUPERIOR SERVICE

A conversation with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ head winemaker Marcus Notaro, and his picks for reliable wine service tools.

What is the most important thing to remember about cellaring wine?

The biggest key is a steady temperature, whether it’s 50 degrees or 60 degrees. When you have fluctuations, the wine expands and shrinks. Think of it in terms of breathing. The more often it takes that breath, the faster it’s going to age. Make sure to keep the bottles away from sunlight.

Do all wines benefit from cellaring over time?

It depends. Consistent temperature helps preserve all wines, but various types mature at various ages. I look at wine in three different zones: very young like sauvignon blanc or Beaujolais nouveau, 6- to 8-year-olds that are still youthful with primary fruit and still some oak, and those destined for longer-term cellaring, 20 or 30 years.

How important is humidity control?

Humidity is a nuanced component.

If you’re keeping something for a long time, you want to maintain the integrity of the corks, so they don’t dry out. That becomes important in a dry place like Arizona, for example.

What about decanting? Are you a fan?

There are different reasons for decanting. You decant—or double decant—younger wines so there’s more oxygen intrusion, which helps bring out the aromas and flavors in the wine.

With older wines, you potentially have sediment. Make sure to stand the bottle straight up for a day or two before opening so the sediment settles at the bottom, making it easier to separate the clean wine from the sediment. It’s less about aerating the wine because it’s already well integrated.

If you’re not going to finish a bottle, the Coravin Pivot+ can aerate wine as you pour a glass, but then inserts inert gas into the bottle to keep the wine for up to four weeks. $150; coravin.com A double-pronged cork extractor, the Cheer Moda Ah So Wine Opener can remove older or drier corks without splitting or crumbling. The stainless-steel Excalibur version comes in a black case. $40; cheer-moda.com The Durand combines the Ah So twopronged system with an old-fashioned corkscrew, making it efficient for older, fragile corks and further ensuring against cork disintegration during removal. $135; thedurand.com The mouth-blown Riedel Cornetto Single Decanter offers just enough surface area for optimally airing younger wines without over-oxygenating delicate older wines. $400; riedel.com The barely perceptible waves on the rim of the Riedel Performance Cabernet/Merlot Glass help enhance aeration, especially for complex, tannin-high reds, by putting the taste of fruit forward. $90/pair; riedel.com u

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FURNISHINGS

Bella Brazil

When Brazil’s furniture-producing state of Rio Grande do Sul hosted Salão de Gramado, the country’s best home designers and firms showed up with these standouts, including a few from the region’s top factories.

BY JORGE S. ARANGO

The Alanis dining table from Sierra looks more like a sculpture topped with a piece of glass than functional furniture. The base is made of tauari, a Brazilian oak genus similar to American white oak. It comes in seven finishes, with optional tops of wood or stone, dare you choose to obscure the dynamic, sculptural base. $11,880 (base only); sierrafurnituremiami.com

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Madelustre is a lighting firm out of Garibaldi, near Porto Alegre. Like many furniture firms, it draws on the local, abundant resources of wood and expertise in the craft of caning, which goes back centuries. The caning gives this floor lamp a lovely, organic diffused light. The company expects to have US electrical certification approval by early 2024. From $900; madelustre.com.br

Sierra, one of Brazil’s most prominent producers of luxury furniture, introduces Montblanc, a retro-looking chair made of a metal frame (available in a stainless, gold, or onyx finish) and upholstered seat and back roll available in fabric or leather. $2,380–$3,350 (chair), $1,980–$2,480 (ottoman); sierrafurnituremiami.com

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

The Laguna lounge chair from Uultis elegantly mixes the company’s specialty materials, which include teak, chinaberry, or tauari woods (tauari only comes painted), four caning options (natural, walnut, black, or mixed black/ gold), nine metal finishes, and any leather or upholstery from their catalog. From $1,880; available through 2modern.com or incollect.com

Gaia Arquitetura e Design created the Amparo buffet for J. Marcon, another major Brazilian furniture company. It has a mid-century feel, with legs made of solid eucalyptus wood. The cabinet, made of various laminates, features cane-fronted doors and “sits” in the cradle of the legs. From $3,300; jmarcon.com.br

Vulkan Artefatos started off by producing concrete table and chair tops for major Brazilian designers such as Ronald Sasson. The firm now produces its own line of cast concrete accessories, including trays, vases, bath accessories, and scented candles. $30–$150; vulkanartefatos.com.br

Dédalos Movéis is well known for its love of biomorphic shapes.

The Michelangelo I and II coffee tables are the latest expression of that predilection. The top of the larger (I) table is made of cast fiberglass concrete, while the smaller table is Nero Marquina marble. Both have lacquered columnar legs and can work separately, but the combo is especially handsome. From $915 and $520, respectively; dedalos.ind.br 

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The “rib” lounge chair known as the Costela was designed in the 1950s by Austrian architect/designer Martin Eisler, in partnership with Italian-born designer Carlo Hauner for their Brazilian furniture firm. Mempra’s version, the Costela 469, has a steel frame, bentwood ribs, and either upholstery or leather. $985–$1,200 (ottoman sold separately); mempradesign.com

Wamovel introduces the Paládio table, a reworking of its Paris Panama table. The base is carbon steel laminated with either walnut or oak veneer. The top, which must be ordered separately, is a handsome, dark marble quarried in the state of Espíritu Santo on Brazil’s mid coast. Ordering and pricing information available through the factory; wamovel.com.br

Studio Marta Manente introduces Bendita, an embracing indoor/outdoor wing chair that’s sculptural and curvaceous. Made of nautical rope handwoven over an aluminum frame, the design can be customized in various materials and colors. $5,210; 1stdibs.com

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Frankly Frankfurt

Ten favorites unearthed in Frankfurt, Germany, at the latest Ambiente, the world’s largest consumer goods show.

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

Bloon Paris has introduced its Bloon seat. Inspired by Swiss massage balls, its ergonomic design ensures that your posture will be dynamic and flexible, discouraging the stiff positions that often cause back pain. Available in two sizes, in a range of colors and fabrics. $250–$970; bloon-paris.com 

Cindy Valdez’s Berlin-based company Migration of Matter has created an organically striking collection of vases and tableware (a lot of it customizable). The asymmetrical shapes and colors reminiscent of sand dunes are digitally designed, then produced through 3D ceramic printing, and finished by hand. $30–$165; migrationofmatter.com 

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British company Ruark launched the R410—a 1970s-inspired, all-in-one device for listening to music from a variety of audio sources. Inspired by a modern take on 1970s style, engineered from sustainable wood, and equipped with two tweeters and two mid-bass drivers for superior sound, the Bluetooth player features a RotoDial, streams music, plays FM radio, and has multiple inputs to accommodate external vinyl and CD players. From $1,630; shop.ruarkaudio.com

Sogara yuzen papers look like Japanese paintings, and are quite complex to produce because of their many colors (sometimes 20), each silk-screened by hand. Carta Pura imports three sizes (26 by 12.5 inches to about 26 by 38 inches) that can be framed as art or used as covers for books, photo albums, boxes, or other projects. About $45–$75; cartapura.de

Made of metal with a bronze finish and ethically crafted in small batches in India, each Galina pitcher from California-based Be Home is gracefully curvaceous and unique. The pieces measure 11.5 inches tall and require handwashing; they are part of a larger collection of aged bronze serveware and bring an elegant silhouette to any dining table. $115; behome.com

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Vista Alegre has introduced a home cosmetics line in collaboration with world-renowned perfumer Stéphanie Bakouche, which includes soaps, scented sprays, and candles in three scents: Innocence (fig, jasmine, white iris, sandalwood), Mystère (rose, lily of the valley, jasmine), and Pouvoir (cognac, cork, oak, amber, vetiver). $50–$995; vistaalegre.com

Il Giardino di Corten has made forging Corten steel into an art form, creating kitchens, outdoor showers, changing rooms, saunas, and garden structures from the material. One example is La Stanza Che Non C’è (The Room That Isn’t There), an infinitely configurable Finnish-style sauna that accommodates up to eight people. Pricing varies depending on customization. ilgiardinodicorten.it

German silver manufacturer Robbe & Berking offers this unique cutlery box containing a silver-plated or sterling silver service for six, including six forks, spoons, knives, and coffee spoons. The knife blades are available in a “frozen black” diamond-like carbon coating or in a marble look. Choose among the firm’s various cutlery patterns. $4,126– $9,534; robbeberking.com u

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

The Synergy series of portable lighting from Scandinavian company Kooduu is a multitasker to end all multitaskers.

The LED lamp, powered by rechargeable batteries, has four levels of dimmable illumination, a built-in Bluetooth speaker, and a recess at the top that functions as a drink holder or an ice bucket. Available in three sizes. $175–$305; kooduu.com

This trio of stone tables designed

by Roderick Vos for Dutch company Pols Potten uses ancient Chinese building techniques and a glaze with an iridescent coating that mimics a phenomenon known as thin-film interference—the rainbow effect on water when oil sits on the surface.

Shown here with Pols Potten’s Oily range of products. $215–$350; polspotten.com

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A-LIST ASPEN

Taking fashion to new heights in the chic Colorado mountain town.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN RUSSO STYLING BY CAT WENNEKAMP

On her: RETROFETE Nora coat, $1,298; retrofete.com LEVI’S western denim shirt, $80; levi.com FUSALP Ancelle turtleneck sweater, $360; fusalp.com OLIVER PEOPLES x BRUNELLO CUCINELLI Moraldo sunglasses, $700; oliverpeoples.com DAVID YURMAN sculpted cable hoop earrings, $775; davidyurman.com On him: DALE OF NORWAY waterproof Fongen sweater, $450; us.daleofnorway.com MONCLER sunglasses, $375; moncler.com TAG HEUER Carrera watch, $6,200; tagheuer.com

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On him: BELSTAFF Tundra jacket lightweight shearling, $1,995; belstaff.com SER.O.YA Dale turtleneck, $198; seroya.nyc OLIVER PEOPLES x BRUNELLO CUCINELLI Moraldo sunglasses; $700, oliverpeoples.com On her: BRANDON MAXWELL The Briar jacket, $2,495; brandonmaxwellonline.com CORDOVA Soelden sweater, $298; cordova.co ASPENX VUARNET Plateau sunglasses, $235; aspenx.com

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GIORGIO ARMANI jacket and trousers, price upon request, and sweater, $2,165; armani.com OLIVER PEOPLES x BRUNELLO CUCINELLI goggles, $760; oliverpeoples.com

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SOLID & STRIPED The Blythe swimsuit, $155; solidandstriped.com ASPENX VUARNET Ice Round sunglasses, $300; aspenx.com DAVID YURMAN sculpted cable hoop earrings, $775, and pure form stack rings in sterling silver, $550; davidyurman.com

Shot on location at RESIDENCES AT THE LITTLE NELL

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GIORGIO ARMANI sweater and pants, price upon request, and Phoebe Plaid cashmere shawl, $2,310; armani.com

Shot on location at THE LITTLE NELL

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GIORGIO ARMANI vest, jacket, and ski pants, price upon request; armani.com SMITH Boom sunglasses, $180; smithoptics.com

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On him: BOGNER Vinzent jacket, $686; farfetch.com

On her: PERFECT MOMENT Houndstooth Polar Flare down jacket, $590, and sweater, $420; perfectmoment.com HALF DAYS ski pants, $275; halfdays.com MONCLER Terabeam goggles, $410; moncler.com UGG Quilted Performance gloves, $82; ugg.com

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ASPENX PRADA Map down jacket, $3,950; aspenx.com BOGNER Tim ski pant, $890; bogner.com VINCE plush cashmere knit gloves, $125; vince.com

GIORGIO ARMANI Neve overalls, $2,225; sweater, boots, and accessories, price upon request; armani.com SMITH Boom sunglasses, $180; smithoptics.com

BOGNER Sammi overall, $1,200, and balaclava, $290); bogner.com ALO Alosoft turtleneck, $78; aloyoga.com MONCLER Wrapid shield sunglasses, $380; moncler.com LM FALL/WINTER 2023 131

ASPENX PRADA jacket, $3,350; aspenx.com ERIN SNOW Kris racer suspender pants, $700; erinsnow.com MONCLER Wrapid shield sunglasses, $380; moncler.com

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DOLCE & GABBANA faux fur coat, $8,445; dolcegabbana.com CORDOVA Badia ski suit, $1,340; cordova.co OLIVER PEOPLES x BRUNELLO CUCINELLI goggles, $760; oliverpeoples.com JACOB & CO diamond earrings, price upon request; jacobandco.com

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BELSTAFF Circuit vest, $350; belstaff.com JACK VICTOR beaudry wool, silk, and cashmere mock neck sweater, $278; jackvictor.com AG JEANS Tellis Performance, $215; agjeans.com TAG HEUER Carrera x Porsche RS 2.7 watch, $3,400; tagheuer.com

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NOUR HAMMOUR Tamara leather coat, $1,650; nour-hammour.com AG JEANS Zuri turtleneck, $258; agjeans.com MONCLER, Pilot sunglasses, $380; moncler.com HERMÈS Birkin bag, price upon request; hermes.com

Shot on location at ASPENX MOUNTAIN CLUB

JACK VICTOR beaudry wool, silk, and cashmere mock neck sweater, $278; jackvictor.com

STELLA MCCARTNEY top, price upon request; stellamccartney.com AKAILA REID gold and diamond earrings, $9,400; akailareid.com TIFFANY & CO double row necklace in yellow gold with diamonds, $39,000, T1 narrow diamond hinged bangle in rose gold, $13,800, and wide bangle, $26,000; tiffany.com RITIQUE diamond gold solo band ring, $2,990; ritique.com

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Three Times a Charm

Skiing the Big3 in Alberta, Canada.

Enjoying Nordic activities in Stowe, Vermont.

Dining in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

These are the things winter is made of.

Photo Credits Courtesy SkiBig3/John Price

BY DEBORAH FRANK

Mt. Norquay, one of Canada’s SkiBig3 resorts

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BANFF, ALBERTA, CANADA SkiBig3 Resorts

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

I

f skiing and riding the best resorts in North America is a bucket-list goal, then the Canadian Rockies must be on your list. Known as “the Last of the Wild Places,” Banff National Park was established in 1885 after railway workers stumbled onto a thermal hot spring. Today, the UNESCO World Heritage Site features the SkiBig3 (skibig3.com) resorts of Mt. Norquay, Banff Sunshine, and Lake Louise Ski Resort. With a total of 7,748 acres of skiable terrain, the three mountains and two alpine towns of Banff and Lake Louise offer a multitude of reasons to visit this 2023/24 season and beyond.

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LAKE LOUISE SKI RESORT As one of last season’s World Cup Alpine Skiing hosts, it’s no surprise Lake Louise is the reigning champion of Canada’s Best Ski Resort in 2022, and again in the spotlight as it secures its 11th consecutive nomination to the 2023 World Ski Resorts awards. It was also nominated for World’s Best Freestyle Resort. Its Summit Chairlift offers breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountains and drops off riders at the top with three ways to get back down: navigating the front side of the mountain, delving into West Bowl’s 420 acres of freeride terrain, or exploring the Back Bowls of this 4,200-acre wilderness. But pro skiers and snowboarders aren’t the only ones who can enjoy the snow here.

The quad Juniper Express Chairlift whisks beginners and low-intermediates to five dedicated blue trails in six minutes, with a second-phase upper extension coming in 2024/25. Two more new chairlifts are expected in 2025/26, one for a new Learning Area and one that will expand even more the intermediate and advanced trails. The resort is also home to the iconic Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (fairmont .com), located on the edge of the emerald lake and surrounded by soaring mountain peaks and Victoria Glacier. The hotel dates back to 1911 and is a gem among the other jewels in Fairmont’s collection of properties in Canada’s Western Mountain Region.

Courtesy Images, From Top: SkiBig3/Reuben Krabbe (2); SkiBig3/Grant Gunderson; SkiBig3/John Entwistle. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top: Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise; SkiBig3/Reuben Krabbe; iStock

Banff Sunshine

Mt. Norquay

MT. NORQUAY Banff is about a two-hour drive west from Calgary International Airport with the region’s oldest ski resort and hometown hill, Norquay, a first stop. If you’re seeking a challenge, Mt. Norquay offers some of the steepest terrain available at SkiBig3, with a vertical drop of 1,650 feet. The resort also recently enhanced its glading across the mountain for more tree skiing and powder stashes. But its biggest news is The Norquay 100 Vision plan in honor of its 100th anniversary in 2026. The plan promises significant upgrades for a more accessible and environmentally sustainable resort, such as replacing its chairlift built in 1946 with a two-station gondola and creating a wheelchair accessible series of summertime Via Ferrata routes, among other enhancements. The initiative hopes to restore sensitive wildlife habitats and decrease Norquay’s built footprint. The mountain is already powered by 100-percent renewable energy, running its chairlifts and day lodges on a mix of wind and low-impact hydropower since April 2021.

Downtown Banff

BANFF SUNSHINE If you want to say you skied the Continental Divide between Alberta and British Columbia, get to Banff Sunshine. The views from the top are as magnificent as skiing and riding the 100-percent organic snow that falls annually up to 30 feet. The resort farms the snow drifts with more than 18.5 miles of fencing to reduce water usage and the farmed snow is then wind-blown around the mountain to create a base.

Sunshine also boasts five terrain parks that progress from beginner to expert and a seven-month ski season from November to May, one of the longest in North America. Spring skiing here means warmer weather, powder days, extended lift hours, and the possibility of skiing in the morning and golfing in the afternoon, if you consider yourself a multisport athlete.

For nighttime fun, the Banff Gondola offers a one-of-a-kind, immersive experience through digital effects, lights, projections, and original soundscapes high above the town. Called Nightrise, the multimedia show transforms Sulphur Mountain into a mesmerizing storytelling of the Indigenous peoples of the Stoney Nakoda Nation. It’s an inspiring perspective not to be missed. 

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STOWE, VERMONT Edson Hill

T

he town of Stowe is busier than ever now that Epic Pass is accepted at the mountain, and many who come for Alpine skiing and snowboarding are finding other ways to avoid the congestion. “People are discovering us by taking the turn up Edson Hill Road to check out our Nordic Center, and they get hooked,” says Allison Casey, event sales and marketing manager for Edson Hill, a 22-room boutique hotel about a 12-minute drive from Stowe Mountain’s base. “Initially, our guests may come to go downhill, but once on-site, we’re finding a lot are trying crosscountry skiing for the first time, and increasingly fat-tire biking throughout the winter.”

Edson Hill’s Nordic Center is housed in a historic barn next to the property’s horse stables. It’s quintessential Vermont with a cozy lounge and outdoor firepit for apres ski sessions. Snowshoes and cross-country skis are available to rent, along with Nordic ski lessons and guided snowshoe tours. The 38-acre property sits on the Catamount

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Trail network, which is a 300mile backcountry ski trail that spans the length of Vermont, from Massachusetts to Quebec, with difficulty levels ranging from easy to strenuous on groomed and ungroomed trails.

A winding road travels up the hill from the Nordic Center, around a fishing pond, and toward the Manor House. Built as a private residence in 1940, Edson Hill was established as an inn 10 years later. In its

heyday of the ’50s and ’60s, the owner’s Bogner ski model daughter created an upper-crust, celebrity party scene with her model friends that made Edson Hill the exclusive spot to be and be seen. “The tavern was always busy and the Nordic Center was really popular,” says Casey. “That fell off after her family sold the place, and for a few decades, it was just the typical, tired bed & breakfast.”

Its current owners are three Boston families who purchased the property in 2014 after spotting it on one of their annual family ski trips. They brought it back from its worn 1980s aesthetic with a total redesign.

In an effort to preserve the iconic history, co-owner Susan Stacy, of Boston-based interior design firm Gauthier-Stacy, established a modern residential feel with a mix of contemporary and antique pieces, some found on the property and others she curated.

The Manor House features seven guest rooms, the Dining Room restaurant, and the Tavern bar. “We have a casual approach to hospitality,” says Casey. “No

formal front desk, no lobby. The living room welcomes visitors.

We’re inviting people into our home rather than into our hotel.”

Four hillside cottages built in the ’80s add 15 more suites, and throughout the property every single guest room is decorated differently. “They’re not necessarily themed but they’re individually designed,” Casey says. “This was all Susan Stacy’s vision and style, and it really sets Edson Hill apart.”

Edson Hill may not have all the amenities one might expect at a mountain resort, like hot tubs and a spa, but it does offer relaxation, serenity, and lots of charm. When it relaunched in 2016, Edson Hill was Stowe’s best-kept secret for a hot minute.

Now, the patio off the living room requires reservations way in advance, as it’s the only restaurant in the area that offers outdoor covered dining.

And the menu is simple, showing off the local ingredients organic to Vermont. “It’s not fussy,” says Casey, “and it’s going to be the best meal in town.” edsonhill.com

Courtesy Stowe-Edison Hill (4). Opposite: Courtesy Vail Resorts (4)

Nordic activities abound at Edson Hill.

BEAVER CREEK, COLORADO Top Mountain Dining

A

s home to the most dedicated learning terrain in Colorado, Beaver Creek Mountain’s Signature Parks Collection for beginner and intermediate skiers offers ideal trails and open spaces for working on skills, even advanced and expert skiers and riders can be found here experimenting with new moves.

Accompanying the 200-acre Red Buffalo Park, located at the mountain’s highest elevation, and Haymeadow Park with its beginner gondola and magiccarpet lifts is the expansion of McCoy Park introduced last season. Its 250 acres mimic advanced groomed and gladed trails in an accessible bowl setting. McCoy even has a snowshoe and cross-country area along with a new warming hut, Eaton Haus, offering never-before-seen views of the Colorado Rockies.

Dining at the mountain has also been elevated with the resort’s three cabin experiences taking on new culinary concepts.

For resort members only during the day, Beano’s, Zach’s and Allie’s open to the public at night with a snow cat–pulled, open-air sleigh ride from the base of Beaver Creek Village to each venue. Nestled in a mountain meadow that was once a lettuce patch and home to the pioneer farmer and restaurant namesake Frank “Beano” Bienkowski, Beano’s Cabin serves perfectly grilled Colorado game paired with an extensive wine list. Antler chandeliers light up the vaulted ceilings while a stone hearth and blazing fire offer a warm welcome upon arrival. An open kitchen design spotlights the mouthwatering

dishes. Zach’s Cabin, perched on the mountainside above Bachelor Gulch, is all about sharing Alsatian favorites, such as fondues and oysters.

Allie’s Cabin has a rustic elegance with a cozy bar and floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.

It serves Northern Italian fare in a relaxed atmosphere; guests like to linger after a meal to enjoy the ambience with an aperitif before catching the next late-night sleigh back down to the village.

If a meal in the village is your preferred option, it’s worth getting a reservation at Citrea, located alongside the ice rink. Combining Colorado ingredients with modern interpretations of Mediterranean dishes, it’s the perfect place to unwind for Zach’s Cabin

après. Just try not to fill up on the warm home-baked breads or delicious array of appetizers before the meal arrives. For lunch, Slopeside Lounge is a great option, as its location at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain streamlines access back to the lifts after you’ve reenergized with a good meal. And, of course,

there’s what Beaver Creek Village has become famous for, Cookie Time, when heaping trays of warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies are served complimentary at 3 p.m. in the Centennial and Haymeadow Base areas, marking a sweet end to an ideal day crushing it on the slopes. 

Allie’s Cabin

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G E A R

U P

On your next ski trip, try an equipment delivery service to demo new brands and pack your luggage with other essentials.

models and brands can be helpful.

For those times, booking with Black Tie Ski Rental Delivery makes smart sense. They will hand deliver you a sample of skis

“We focus on great customer service,” says Prichard, who got the idea to start the delivery company while working at a ski shop. “Country singer and songwriter Alan Jackson was staying in the penthouse unit of the hotel with a ski shop that my business partner, Joe Sternberg, and I were working at. Jackson requested that we fit him and his family with ski gear in his unit so as not to be bothered with the general public trying to get autographs and pictures of him in our shop. The fitting went great, we all got big tips, and that was the lightbulb moment for us!” blacktieskis.com

Briggs & Riley Torq Extra-Large Trunk Spinner is the brand’s largest travel trunk with wheels, perfect for packing bulky jackets, sweaters, helmets, and ski and snow boots. Its three-layer Makrolon polycarbonate material stands up flawlessly to dents and dings while remaining lightweight and flexible. Cinchdown garment panels keep wrinkles to a minimum when packing silk underlayers and such.

Extra storage can be found in the hinged front door. This year the company celebrates its 30th anniversary as an iconic American travelware brand and continues its lifetime guarantee on all products sold. $730; briggsriley.com u —D.F.

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Courtesy Images From Top: Black Tie; Vail Resorts; Briggs & Riley

No matter how nice it is to ski with your own equipment, bringing the gear with you on a trip can be a hassle. And when you’re thinking of new purchases, demoing new

and snowboards based on your ability, performance, and interest, then be on call for any required service, exchanges, and returns.

Best of all, Black Tie makes sure you are receiving the top models available. “Our shops are all locally owned,” says co-founder Ian Prichard, “and we give the owners and managers of each location the freedom to test and select the equipment best suited for their market. It is just another area that sets us apart.” For the 2023/24 season, Black Tie has partnered with Bode Miller’s Peak Ski Company to make available for rent Peak’s new high-end skis at every Black Tie location.

2023 Bentley Bentayga EWB

Driving the extended lap of luxury in British Columbia.

BY MARK HACKING

Courtesy Bentley Motors (3); top right, istock

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t’s been close to eight years since Bentley introduced its first sports utility vehicle, the Bentayga.

Since that time, the SUV lineup has expanded to include V12and V8-powered examples, a praiseworthy hybrid model, and a high-powered Speed variant. The various iterations of the Bentayga combine to account for 44 percent of Bentley annual sales around the world, so it’s a genuine staple of the entire fleet.

In introducing its latest variant, the Bentayga Extended Wheelbase (EWB), the brand is going even more upscale. In fact, Bentley representatives refer to the EWB as the natural successor to its discontinued executive sedan, the Mulsanne, which was produced from 2010–20. What this means, really, is the creation of a new class of vehicle: the executive-class SUV. As you might expect from that label, the Bentayga EWB stands at the very pinnacle in terms of design and engineering.

This version of the Bentayga is powered by the brand’s twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which generates 542 hp and 568 lb-ft of

torque. Even though it’s saddled with a curb weight of around 5,500 pounds, the SUV has enough engine to sufficiently move things along nicely. The run from 0–60 mph takes about 4.5 seconds and the top speed crests at 180 mph.

Although these are impressive figures for such a large vehicle, straight-line performance is not important here. Instead, the goal for the engineers at Bentley was to create a nextlevel version of luxury and sheer size without negatively impacting driving dynamics.

The plan worked. The wheelbase of the EWB is seven inches longer than the Bentayga V8, but the turning circle is tighter due its rearwheel steering. This system aids in slow-speed driving and parking, and brings increased stability at freeway speeds.

Speaking of stability, electric, active anti-roll bars at all four corners add a surprising degree of agility. The electrified ride—combined with the all-wheel drive system, a Torsen center differential, and an open rear differential that’s brake actuated—combine to create a silky smooth SUV that still, somehow, manages to corner in an entirely surprising way.

The drive from Vancouver to Whistler along the Sea-to-Sky Highway is unquestionably scenic. But things became more exciting when the SUV hit the epic Duffey Lake Road, which begins just north of Whistler and runs east-west. The road itself is a mix of fast corners and elevation changes, all set against a stunning backdrop. From behind the wheel, the big vehicle proved to be engaging and well-mannered, handling the faster corners with outright pace and grace. From the back seat, it was an entirely different experience, but no less enthralling. The optional Airline Seat can be adjusted in 22 different ways and has an automatic body temperature sensing system (so it triggers heating or cooling when needed most) and automatic postural adjustment (with no fewer than 177 different pressure points).

With the seat working its magic, the expansive sunroof open, and the optional 20-speaker Naim audio system cranking, everything was right with the world. When you take this fact into account, the starting price for the Bentley Bentayga EWB, ringing the register at $229,625, seems a genuine bargain. bentleymotors.com u

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Do It Like an Olympian

In preparation for the 2026 Winter Olympics, hit the slopes where the greats have competed.

Photo Credits

BY LARRY OLMSTED

Whistler, British Columbia

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Photo Credits istock

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ver since the 2010 Games in Vancouver, Winter Olympic fans have faced a drought of enticing western travel destinations. Events in Russia, South Korea, and China took place at less-inspired resorts, built just for the quadrennial competition.

In 2026 the Olympics return to one of the world’s most beloved venues, Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo, now paired with Milan, as the event has grown significantly since it was held here in 1956. Other changes afoot include the debut of Mandarin Oriental’s firstever mountain resort in Cortina, the Cristallo, immediately the town’s top choice. Among things that remain the same, the women’s downhill race will once again be held on the iconic Olympia delle Tofane course, which was built for the ’56 Games and has hosted a World

Cup downhill nearly every year since. In cinematic history, the same run was the location of a 007 chase in the 1981 Bond film For Your Eyes Only. The 1.4-mile course hits grades of 65 percent and for more than half a century has allowed ski fans to live out their Olympic (and James Bond) fantasies—and now it will again.

While Italy remains a top vacation destination, it isn’t the only place skiers and snowboarders can relive the great moments of Olympic history. Several venues not only allow you to tackle the same slopes raced in the Games but have other uncommon and fun Winter Olympics offerings: bobsledding, speed skating, Nordic skiing, and even biathlon. Upping the ante, there are several resorts where you can actually spend a day skiing or riding with former Olympians and get a deep insider immersion, perfect for families.

To combine a luxury ski vacation with Olympic memories, these are some of the best places you can go this winter.

Deer Valley’s corduroy runs are for skiing only; no snowboarding allowed (left); ice skating at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City.

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Clockwise from left: The Lodge at Blue Sky, Auberge Resorts Collection, is a private retreat outside of town; a spa treatment room at The St. Regis Deer Valley; a suite at Goldener Hirsch, Auberge Resorts Collection

Courtesy Images, From Top: The St. Regis Deer Valley; Auberge Resorts Collection (2). Opposite, From Left: Courtesy image, Eric Schramm/Deer Valley Resort; iStock.

Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah No Olympic venue combines as many remaining facilities with such a broad choice of luxury lodging and recreational skiing as greater Salt Lake City. Resort town Park City is home to the Utah Olympic Park, which offers tours and includes an extensive museum, ski jumping facility, bobsled, luge, skeleton runs, and a private ski mountain where today’s US Ski Team athletes train. You can ride a fourperson bobsled piloted by a professional, many of them former competitors. At the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake, you can take a rare two-hour Learn to Curl session, or lace up skates and tackle “the fastest ice on Earth,” the speed skating track that saw the most Olympic records ever.

For skiers and snowboarders, the choices are outstanding. In 2002 the skionly resort Deer Valley hosted the slalom races, freestyle moguls, and aerials, and all except the jumps align with ski runs currently open to the public. Deer Valley

has the nation’s best slate of top-tier, ski-in/ ski-out luxury hotels: The St. Regis Deer Valley (marriott.com), Montage Deer Valley (montage.com), Goldener Hirsch, Auberge Resorts Collection (aubergeresorts .com), and Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley (steinlodge.com). Most uniquely, the resort partners with all of these hotels to offer an extensive Ski With a Champion program that features half- ($1,400) or full-day ($2,400) private skiing for up to six guests with multiple Olympians, including Jillian Vogtli (the first woman to throw a cork 720 in the Olympics); twotime Olympian and champion freeskier Kaylin Richardson; three-time Olympian Kris “Fuzz” Feddersen; bronze and silver medalist Shannon Bahrke; two-time Olympian, Hall of Famer, and 37-time World Cup winner Trace Worthington; and seven-time Paralympian Chris Waddell, the winningest monoskier in history.

On the other side of town sits America’s

largest ski and snowboard area, Park City Mountain Resort, which hosted the men’s and women’s giant slalom and several snowboarding events. The 2-year-old, hightouch Pendry Park City (pendry.com) is ski-in/ski-out from Canyons Base Area, and ultra-luxe The Lodge at Blue Sky, Auberge Resorts Collection (aubergeresorts.com), sits outside of town but has its own transportation and ski-in/ski-out lounge.

The Lodge also participates in the Deer Valley Ski With a Champion program.

Take a day trip to Snowbasin, which has no on-site lodging but is one of the best, and least crowded, large resorts in the nation, and has hosted most of the major Alpine races, including the downhill, super-G, and combined. It was in the latter that an emerging star, 24-year-old Bode Miller, picked up his first Olympic medal, silver. He got another a week later at Deer Valley and would become the winningest male skier in American history. 

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The largest ski resort in North America is also the most recent Olympic venue to be constructed on the continent (2010), built in the era when preserving facilities for future public use became a priority of the Games. As a result, the resort has one of the best Nordic Centers anywhere, purposebuilt for the Olympics, and one of the few places in North America you can try biathlon with actual rifles (some spots substitute air rifles), a humbling experience that immediately and clearly illustrates the difference between amateurs and world-class athletes. The Whistler Sliding Centre was also kept as a permanent fixture; there, you can bobsled, luge, or try going headfirst on a skeleton sled—a real adrenaline rush.

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Snowboarders should stop at Cypress Mountain, a new resort near Vancouver that was built for the Games to host the snowboarding events. All Alpine ski races were held at Whistler, on slopes that remain open today. In addition to ripping down these steep trails, the resort offers a Ski or Ride With an Olympian program that includes more than a dozen Canadian legends, including four-time Olympian (and one-time Olympic coach) Rob Boyd, and several athletes who competed here in 2010, such as ski cross gold medalist Ashleigh McIvor.

The program is full-day-only for up to four people ($1,150, or $2,500 for a gold medalist). Standout lodging options include Four Seasons Resort Whistler (fourseasons.com), Fairmont Château Whistler (fairmont.com), and Nita Lake Lodge (nitalakelodge.com). 

From Top: iStock; courtesy Image, Tourism Whistler/Justa Jeskova. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top: Nika Lake Lodge; Four Seasons Whistler/Christian Horan; Tourism Whistler/Guy Fattal

Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia

Clockwise from top: Nita Lake Lodge resort and spa; the Summit Suite at Four Seasons Whistler; British Columbia’s spectacular views. Opposite: Biathletes practicing target shooting; sledding at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

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Clockwise from top left: Speed skating at James C. Sheffield Speed Skating Oval; Eastwind Lake Placid welcomes guests in its lounge; ice skating on the lake at The Point.

Much Olympic history came out of the 1980 Games (Lake Placid also hosted in 1932) and remarkably, more than four decades later, you can still visit all four venues: the Jumping Complex, Mt Van Hoevenberg (sliding and Nordic), Whiteface Mountain (Alpine skiing), and Olympic Center (skating). You can still skate where the “Miracle on Ice,” the US hockey upset over the USSR, occurred, or rent speed skates for the oval where Eric Heiden won an unprecedented number of individual golds, setting four Olympic records in the process. Skating history is especially rich here—it’s the same ice where Sonja Henie put figure skating on the map with her gold medal performance way back in 1932. Likewise, when you ski the slalom and giant slalom courses, you will be on the same runs where

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legend Ingemar Stenmark took home his golds. Bobsled and skeleton rides are offered, as well as access to the ski jumping towers.

Plus, all the venues are close to one another.

In the Northeast, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine get most of the attention, but Whiteface Mountain quietly boasts the highest vertical on the East Coast, along with an impressive 96 trails and 12 lifts. However, the Olympic trails are not well marked, so to recreate them on your own, the men’s downhill combined Cloudspin and Niagara; the women’s was on Upper Skyward; the men’s GS raced down Upper and Lower Parkways; the women’s down Upper and Lower Thruway; and both slalom races took place on Approach and Wilderness.

There are no big hotel brands such as Four

Seasons or The Ritz-Carlton here, but you will find exceptional boutique resorts: the 11-room The Point (thepointresort.com) built by the Rockefeller family and about an hour drive to the mountain; the 30-room, Arts & Crafts–style Lake Placid Lodge (opalcollection .com) that’s in town; and just up the road from it, the 94-suite Whiteface Lodge (thewhitefacelodge.com). If you prefer a mix of Scandinavian, Bohemian, and mid-century modern aesthetics, check out Eastwind Lake Placid’s (eastwindhotels.com) Lushna Suite by the Chubb River, featuring a sitting area, writer’s nook, loft bed, and private deck. For simple retro in the center of town, room 621 in the historic Grand Adirondack Hotel (grandadirondack.com) offers views of the bobsled run lit up like a zigzag in the night sky.

From Top: iStock; Courtesy Eastwind Lake Placid/Lawrence Braun; Courtesy The Point.

Opposite, Courtesy Images, From Left: Badrutt’s Palace/Reto Guntli; Palisades Tahoe/Jeff Engerbretson

Lake Placid, New York

More to Consider Palisades Tahoe, formerly Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe, California, was the first US host of the Winter Games, in 1960, and has maintained the men’s and women’s downhill trails.

Switzerland’s St. Moritz is generally considered the birthplace of the ski resort and remains one of the toniest destinations in the Alps, home to the famed Badrutt’s Palace (badruttspalace.com) hotel as well as the Kulm Hotel (kulm.com), Carlton Hotel (tschuggencollection.ch), and Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains (kempinski.com). Yet despite Switzerland’s rich ski history and being home to the International Olympic Committee, St. Moritz is the only place in the country where the Games have been held, in 1928 and 1948. Perhaps the most famous

Olympic connection remaining is the Olympia Bob Run, the oldest bobsled track on Earth and the only one that is natural, hand-carved again from scratch every season. The 75-second public rides hit speeds up to 80 mph. Likewise, when British visitors saw the local passion for toboggans and decided to build a separate course for themselves, they created an entirely new sport. Skeleton became such a hit that it was added to the Winter Olympics for the first time in St. Moritz and the famous Cresta Run has been going strong ever since.

It still allows visitors to try their hand at practice runs. The ice rink at the Kulm Hotel hosted figure skating and is open to the public, while the same is true of hockey, which was split between still open ice rinks at the Palace Hotel and Suvretta House. All the Alpine

races were held at Corviglia, one of three mountains surrounding the town.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, aka “The Big One,” never hosted the Olympics, but it is one of the world’s most desirable ski resorts and has a couple of connections to the Games for visitors. The resort’s longtime ambassador, Tommy Moe, was the first American ever to win two medals in a single Winter Olympics, at Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994, with gold in downhill and silver in super-G. Today he partners with the ski resort to offer the Tommy Moe Olympic Day Experience (from $1,170 for half-day, from $1,520 for full-day), but the unique twist on this ski-with-an-Olympian experience for up to five people is that it is offered either within resort boundaries or in the adjacent backcountry (full-day only, from $1,605). u

Views of Lake Tahoe from the slopes of Palisades Tahoe (left) and of St. Moritz from Badrutt’s Palace.

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British Columbia, Canada

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Heli Raisers

Courtesy CMH Heli-Skiing/Brodie Smith. Opposite: Courtesy CMH Heli-Skiing/Grant Gunderson

That only the best, most extreme athletes can go heli-skiing is a myth. Expertly trained guides read the snow, assess conditions, and can give you an addictive powder experience that for lift-served runs is an exception rather than the rule.

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BY LARRY OLMSTED

he worst day of heli-skiing is better than the best day of resort skiing” is a cliché refrain often heard from devoted fans of the sport. “It’s like the first run of a truly epic day after a big storm, except heli-skiing is like that every run, all day—and each run is twice as long and uncrowded as it would be in the resort,” says former Hedge Fund Manager Mike Keating. In skiing, size does matter, and a typical heli area is more than 100 times the size of a conventional ski resort. On a holiday weekend, the busiest resorts can attract more than 20,000 skiers, while most heli areas see about two dozen. To put that in perspective, if you could buy out Aspen Mountain and were the only person skiing, that scene would still be more densely crowded than many heli-ski lodges.

But ultimately, it’s about powder, skiing’s holy grail.

Fresh snow still closes stores in some ski towns so owners can chase it and draws resort skiers and riders like moths to a flame, so that even huge mountains can quickly get “skied

out.” The whole raison d’être for heli-skiing is deep, fresh, unbroken powder just for you, run after run, from morning until it’s time to quit.

“Everyone should get a taste of heli-skiing, because you find perfect conditions that you just never get at a regular resort,” says Tommy Moe, the first American to medal twice in a Winter Olympics.

While the world is full of great ski trips, the true bucket list fantasy is heli-skiing, and the main roadblocks are ability level and price. Advances in skis and the expansion of heli operators into less-aggressive terrain have opened the playing field, so upper intermediates can give it a go. Safety equipment, especially airbag backpacks, have dramatically improved (all needed gear, including fat skis and packs, are typically included for the day). For fuel costs, price tags remain daunting, yet the quality of the experience is so addictive that some repeat heli fans warn newcomers not to try it unless they are prepared to dish out year after year for the rest of their lives (it is that hard to go back to lift lines). But, if you are ready to see what it’s all about, these are the best places to go. 

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From top left: Bella Coola Heli Sports catamaran; a room at Eleven Revelstoke Lodge; Bella Coola’s Eagle Lodge; dinner is served at Eleven Revelstoke Lodge; heli-skiing in British Columbia.

The birthplace of heli-skiing in the 1960s, British Columbia remains the sport’s epicenter with the biggest operators, the oldest operators, and the most operators— about three dozen of them, each with their own huge, exclusive, permitted skiable terrain.

Almost all trips are based at purpose-built lodges, often reached by helicopter, and are self-contained for the duration of your trip, so even the most luxurious lack the non-skiing options you’d find in top ski towns—like full-service spas and restaurants.

Nearing 60, CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer Adventures was the world’s first commercial heli-ski operator and today is the largest, with 11 destinations in different parts of British Columbia. In addition to experience with everything from guiding to lodge cuisine to hospitality, the company has logistics down to a science and its scope allows it to offer more options for more skiers and riders, with one-, four-, five-, six-, and seven-day options as well as terrain that ranges from relaxed to double-black

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expert. These include Powder Intro trips for first-time heli-skiers; small-group skiing; private groups (where your party gets its own helicopter); and exclusive lodge takeovers where you get everything to yourselves.

CMH’s 11 resorts total over 3 million skiable acres, far more than every ski resort in North America combined. The flagship product, the Signature Trip, is up to seven days, with an average guarantee of up to 100,000 vertical feet. All-inclusive trips (except alcohol, spa treatments, and airfare) average from $1,650/ person/night; cmhheli.com A five-time winner of the World Ski Awards’ World’s Best Heli-Ski Operator, Bella Coola Heli Sports is known as British Columbia’s veteran luxury operator, guiding small-group trips based out of two lodges, two ranches, or off a 138-foot catamaran that accesses 3.55 million acres of otherwise untouched coastal ranges, including first descents. All five options include round-trip private air charter from Vancouver for easy access, and packages are all-inclusive with

terrain suitable for strong intermediates and up. Five-day packages from $1,650/person/ night; bellacoolaheliskiing.com In 2022, luxury outdoor experience company Eleven bought the former historic Explorers Society hotel in Revelstoke and turned it into the Eleven Revelstoke Lodge, with nine rooms, a rooftop lounge, a hot tub, a fireplace, a sauna, and a full restaurant serving creative local dishes and cocktails. This is an exception to the typical remote, lodge-based heli-skiing in British Columbia, and good for those who prefer a hotel-style experience in the heart of a charming Victorian ski town—one surrounded by famously deep powder.

Eleven has partnered with Kingfisher Heliskiing, an experienced local heli-ski company known for its personalized trips, with groups capped at 12 to enjoy 300,000 acres in the Monashees. Because it is more hotel-style, lengths are up to guests with a minimum of three nights. From $2,911/ person/night; elevenexperience.com

Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top Left: Bella Coola Heli Sports/Eric Berger; CMH Heli-Skiing/Steve Seeley; Bella Coola Heli Sports/Eric Berger; Eleven; Courtesy Eleven. Opposite: Courtesy Artic Heli-Skiing/Fredrik Schenholm.

British Columbia, Canada

International Multiday heli-skiing vacations are the norm in Alaska and Canada, but in almost every place else, from the Alps to Japan to New Zealand, heli-skiing is a one-day or even one-run experience added onto a “regular” ski trip. There are some notable exceptions, which tend to skew more adventurous and/ or luxurious.

Iceland and Greenland have been emerging as heli destinations and both have good operators offering multiday destination trips. Iceland-based Arctic Heli Skiing has been offering weeklong Greenland trips for two decades, based out of the Hotel Kulusuk on the east coast, with access to the deep fjords and scenery the country is famous for.

There is a max of 16 guests (ski groups of four or less) per week and all-inclusive seven-day

packages are $14,665/person (not including airfare). The company also offers four- and six-day packages in North Iceland, known for its “summit-to-sea” runs, with included down-day activities using high-end gear, such as hot springs visits, whale watching, ski touring, fishing, and more. From $9,765/ person/four nights; arcticheliskiing.com Elemental Adventure is a global heli-ski operator best known for its pioneering of private, yacht-based heli-skiing (charters only, no group trips). But Elemental also offers lodge and hotel-based packages in unlikely places, including India, Iceland, Albania, and Turkey, which it calls “Heli-Skiing’s New Frontier.” Iceland packages from $9,720/person/four nights; eaheliskiing.com

Closer to home, there is one notable, multiday operator in the Lower 48, and it’s one of the nation’s oldest. For 47 years, Ruby Mountains Heli has been guiding in the little-known Ruby Mountains of Nevada, near Elko. While Ruby flies under the radar, it’s a first-rate operation with access to high-alpine glaciated bowls as well as shorter, wooded runs that are great for first timers; the company offers shorter packages, wonderful food, and it’s the easiest heli vacation spot to get to.

Ruby 360 Lodge takes a maximum of 16 guests and has 200,000 skiable acres, stateof-the-art skis and gear, and snowcats in case the weather is too bad to fly. The lodge is nicer than most and feels like a private mountain home with handcrafted meals. From $5,950/ person/three nights; helicopterskiing.com 

Arctic Heli Skiing’s summit-to-sea run in North Iceland.

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From left: Tommy Moe’s Tordrillo Mountain Lodge; Chugach Powder Guides; inside the lodge and skiing Tordrillo Mountain.

Opposite: Valdez Heli-Ski Guides.

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Courtesy VHSG. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top Left: Tordrillo Mountain Lodge/Brandon Cole; Chugach Powder Guides/Adam Clark; Tordrillo Mountain Lodge/Brandon Cole; Tordrillo Mountain Lodge/Wes Wylie

Alaska On the surface, options in Alaska look similar to Canada, with many lodgebased trips, but the skiing itself is very different. British Columbia mountains are more rounded, and most trips start in bowls above the tree line, then drop into the woods and are often more than half gladed. Alaska mountains are sharper and more jagged, generally steeper (often much steeper), and you rarely enter trees at all. The landscape is more what you see in extreme ski movies, with chutes and exposed cliff bands, and runs are long and exposed. This typically caters to higher abilities, those who can readily ski black and double track trails at big-mountain resorts, with virtually no upward limit— there is terrain as extreme as you can imagine. There is less-advanced skiing, but not as much as in British Columbia, and Alaska is often a follow-up trip for strong skiers who have tried heli-skiing elsewhere and seek something bigger. Also, because of weather and daylight, the Alaska season runs later—March and April are still prime—which is good for those spending a season building toward a dream trip.

The gold standard of Alaskan heliskiing is the Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, co-founded and co-owned by Olympian Tommy Moe, who sometimes personally guides. A luxury operation, Tordrillo has two different lodges on-site, the main one with individual guest rooms and two, twoperson cabins, and the luxe, eight-person Judd Lake Lodge for group takeovers with its own chefs and a private helicopter. Both lodges offer cross-country skiing, fat-tire biking, and snowshoeing, and all are Saturday to Saturday, seven-day packages. Tordrillo’s permits cover a mind-boggling 1.2 million acres (North America’s largest ski resort has less than 8,200 lift-served acres) that average 600 inches of snow, with views of Denali, the continent’s highest peak. The lodge has made a reputation for its Kings and Corn program, combining summer skiing with world-class fly-fishing for the largest salmon species, King (Chinook). The daylight is so long you can get in a full day of skiing and full day of fishing in the same day, and this has become a holy grail trip for dual skiing and angling junkies. $18,000/person/five nights for winter trips; tordrillomountainlodge.com

Chugach Powder Guides is another venerable Alaskan outfit that is unusually based out of the state’s largest ski resort, Alyeska, so guests can stay in a resort hotel, mix in resort skiing, and enjoy a greater variety of cuisine and experiences. It is also easily accessed by car from Anchorage, Alaska’s main gateway airport, with no remote flights. CPG has 25 years of experience and offers snowcat skiing as a powder backup for Alaska’s infamously uncertain weather, which can ground choppers.

The flagship product is a four-day trip, perfect for combining with Alyeska, including hotel lodging. From $7,750/person/four nights; chugachpowderguides.com Another very well-known company with a long track record is Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, founded in 1993 by World Extreme Ski Champion Doug Coombs and known for a high guide-to-guest ratio and longtime veteran staffers. This is the Alaska terrain people see in movies: knife-edge ridgelines, glaciers, long runs blanketed in deep snow. The Tsaina Lodge is less remote than most, with a bar and restaurant so popular that locals make long drives to enjoy it. From $8,750/person/ six nights; valdezheliskiguides.com 

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Telluride Helitrax, Colorado

Entry-Level Excursions

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Day heli-skiing at top resorts.

eli-ski trips are expensive, often remote, and for first timers, almost always intimidating. That’s why it can be wise to go heli-skiing for a day or two before committing to a week in an off-the-grid lodge. Several top destination ski resorts have quality, on-site heli-skiing operations offering full-day (and sometimes half-day) trips. One big advantage of this is flexibility with weather. If the flights are grounded, you can just ski at the resort and often push the heli back a day or two. This is also well suited for families or groups where not everyone wants to heli-ski, or for people who just love the amenities of a great ski town.

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TELLURIDE HELITRAX, COLORADO Telluride is one of the best ski resorts in the world, with terrain for every ability, a great town, and a wonderful variety of dining and lodging. Telluride Helitrax, which has been operating for more than 40 years, has access to 200 square miles in the San Juans—more than 60 times the size of the resort. A typical day is six runs totaling up to 14,000 vertical feet. $1,875/person; helitrax.com

Courtesy Images From Top: Telluride Helitrax/Kane Scheidegger; Sun Valley Heli Ski; Ski Portillo. Opposite: Courtesy Telluride Helitrax/Jeff Cricco

SUN VALLEY HELI SKI, IDAHO Sun Valley was America’s first destination ski resort and has been regularly rated No. 1 by SKI Magazine. Sun Valley Heli Ski accesses 750,000 acres, which is, by far, the largest heli terrain in the Lower 48. The company offers a full-day rate ($1,800/person) and half-day privates for groups of up to four ($6,000/group); sunvalleyheliski.com

Telluride Helitrax, Colorado

HIGH MTN HELI-SKIING, JACKSON, WYOMING The world-famous Jackson Hole Mountain Resort lives up to its nickname, “The Big One.” But the only thing here bigger than the number of skiable acres at the resort is the heli-skiing area. High MTN has been going into the Tetons since 1974, with full days averaging six runs and 15,000 vertical feet. $1,900/person; heliskijackson.com WHISTLER HELI-SKIING, BRITISH COLUMBIA If you’re going to be a resort-based heli operator in British Columbia, it might as well be at the largest resort in North America: Whistler/Blackcomb. Whistler Heli-Skiing has been flying since 1981 with access to 432,000 acres and offers a wide variety of packages that include four or six runs and can accommodate blue-run intermediate ability levels. From $1,035/person; whistlerblackcomb.com

Sun Valley Heli Ski, Idaho

AIR ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND Heli-skiing in Europe is different, and Air Zermatt offers single descents on long, epic runs from high peaks surrounding the picturesque town of Zermatt, each accompanied by a mountain guide. The most popular run is Monte Rosa, from 12,600 feet with a long descent across a glacier. There are many other custom options, and when they are not heli-skiing, Air Zermatt is the region’s medical rescue specialist and Europe’s top emergency mountain pilot training center. $500/descent; air-zermatt.ch PORTILLO, CHILE Portillo is the world’s premier “summer” ski resort, and sits in the heart of the Andes, the planet’s second-highest mountain range. The heli terrain is big, comparable to Alaska, and sold by the single run ($360 first, $230 each additional) right from the resort. skiportillo.com u —L.O. Portillo, Chile LM FALL/WINTER 2023 161

White Desert’s Echo Camp in Antarctica

An Ice Odyssey

The sole lodging option accessing Antarctica’s vast, unexplored interior launches its most luxurious, otherworldly base camp yet.

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he long-awaited space tourism boom, as it stands, has yet to fully take off. A backlog of high-networth adventurers still anticipate piercing through the world’s atmosphere for a glimpse of the extraterrestrial. Meanwhile, deep in remote Antarctica, the galactic-themed Echo Camp offers an otherworldly preview of life beyond Earth on Mother Earth.

Echo, launched in December 2022, is the third Antarctica lodge from White Desert, a pioneering eco-luxury tour operator run by British polar explorer couple Patrick and Robyn Woodhead.

Having braved biting Antarctic storms in makeshift tents and dwindling supplies on their early personal expeditions, the venturesome duo sought to draw travelers to the White Continent beyond the typical cruise ship routes, but knew comfort would be a prerequisite. Today, the carbonneutral company is the only one to provide commercial private jet service to Antarctica (via Cape Town) and is the continent’s sole luxury lodge outfitter. 

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Courtesy White Desert

BY TRAVIS LEVIUS

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team members from nearly 20 nationalities during the season) to the camps and bases.

The takeoff for the five-hour flight marks the last time until the return that guests see a dark night sky, and enjoy internet access.

Flights pass Antarctica’s pristine and brittle white coastline and interior mountain ranges before finally landing on Wolf ’s Fang Runway. An adapted ice truck awaits to transport Echo guests on a five-minute ride to a surreal scene of carbon-composite bubble pods in one of Earth’s most remote areas.

In a late-December safety briefing, Patrick Woodhead shared that Echo Camp’s location, on Queen Maud Land, “is like the ‘dark side’ of Antarctica. Where you’re going is the least explored. We have mountains all around us that no one has ever climbed before, and you

Underground adventures can be arranged with visits to nearby crevasses that feel like descending into frosted hollow caves. can’t really get there by ship unless it’s a supply vessel.” Echo is bookended by two massive, hike-able brown rock formations protruding from glaciers, part of the Henriksen Nunataks.

Several miles ahead to the left reveal a row of vertiginous, jagged peaks, which break the boundless horizon of white. The sight of this untrammeled landscape is all the more dramatic through Echo’s series of curved, floor-to-ceiling glass panels in every residential and communal pod.

Echo hosts up to 12 guests among six Sky Pods, semi-ensuite bubble accommodations offering modern comforts with a dash of retro-futurism. Each unit is heated and equipped with one or two beds, a lounge area, ample storage space, and a washroom.

There are no bad viewpoints from any accommodation, allowing one to marvel at the landscape from the comfort of their bed.

The communal portal, collectively known as The Cosmos, is Echo’s central hub. Its starfish-like layout comprises a dining room, a bathroom, and a shower pod with water supplied by melted snow, and two glamorous, art-filled lounge areas. Curated details abound: The main reception’s circular floor and centered bench depict a map of Antarctica, with the heightened bench mirroring the continent’s polar plateau region where the South Pole sits. Bronze sculptures from Cape Town–based Stanislaw Trzebinski range from sci-fi-hero–resembling characters to abstract sea organisms. Among assorted curios—fossils, crystals, contemporary chess board pieces—the most striking item is the boulder-sized installation from Los Angeles– based British artist Anthony James, housed in the Observator Pod. Made of glass, steel, and LED lights that yield trippy, shifting geometric shapes with an infinity effect, it’s one in-house feature that can compete with the stirring, lunar-like vistas surrounding the camp. Also in the muted, jewel-toned Observator Pod is the bar stocked with spirits (including the Antarctic-themed Shackleton Whisky) and a television/media console where guides conduct presentations.

In the rear of the main hub is the dining room, where all meals take place.

It’s impressive for food from South Africa to be flown into the remotest, coldest slice of the world to feed discerning guests and staff, yet still execute excellent, restaurantquality dishes day after day. Zach Abrahams, a young Capetonian chef who helped cook at Whichaway Camp in previous years, ran Echo’s food program last season. Breakfasts were cooked to order, and (no-choice) lunch and dinner menus were family-style platters and artfully plated dishes covering a wide range of cuisine, from fish tacos and Greek lamb–filled pitas to Indian thali feasts and pan-seared duck breasts. Leafy salads and greens appeared farm-fresh even a week into the trip. Accompanying the knockout food 

Courtesy White Desert (5)

Instead of emulating the 20th-century, explorer-chic look of White Desert’s debut flagship camp, Whichaway, and 2021’s Wolf ’s Fang (now used primarily for transit), space age–inspired Echo looks to the future: six black ellipsoid Sky Pods and a commander unit–style hub surrounded by snow-dusted nunataks and boundless icy white terrain. The place could double as a stylish lair for a scene in Star Wars, or any sci-fi space blockbuster.

Echo’s direct inspiration came from moonlanding astronaut and former White Desert guest Buzz Aldrin, having shared with the Woodheads that their slice of mountainous Antarctica reminded him of the lunar landscapes he once explored. Echo is now the most luxurious base for onward excursions to coastal emperor penguin colonies in Atka Bay and the geographic South Pole—two of White Desert’s flagship destinations reached via a refitted Basler BT-67. Like its sister lodges, Echo is a modular, leave-no-trace camp that vanishes until operating season (late November to early February) with utmost consideration of the fragile environment.

Every White Desert journey begins in Cape Town. Mandatory safety and orientation briefings are held in a rotating list of Cape Town’s premier luxury hotels, and provide an opportunity for guests to meet other excited guests from around the world, whether those on the ultimate seven-day South Pole & Emperors track at Echo or Whichaway Camp, or those spending just three hours on Antarctic land with The Greatest Day package. The briefings also double as a baggage inspection, ensuring everyone’s armored with soft-sided bags full of thermal, wool-lined, waterproof, and windproof gear to combat Antarctica’s often inhospitable temperatures and gusts. Whenever Antarctica’s temperamental weather is clear enough to fly and land safely on the thick blue ice of Wolf ’s Fang Runway, the White Desert team provides the transfer time to arrive at Cape Town’s private jet terminal to board either an intimate Gulfstream G550 or the gargantuan Airbus A340-300, with the latter also shuttling staff (there are 85

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Courtesy White Desert (2)

The draw is not only the camp but access to the great Antarctic outdoors.

program was a four-bottle South African wine list, with each white or red pour complementing the meals to great effect.

The draw of Echo is not only the camp itself but the access to the great Antarctic outdoors. Polar-suited and -booted guests have several near-camp guided activities at their disposal, like fat-tire biking for miles along snow-packed hills and ice fields or skiing along a trusted loop. One of the most exhilarating options are the Nunatak Summit hikes, where guests scale low-rise mountaintops up to stunning panoramas as white-feathered snow petrels glide past; it’s even more exciting to return groundside by not hiking back down, but by abseiling off of a sheer rock wall. Packing cramponcompatible boots is necessary for ice climbing, another adrenaline-pumping option where ice particles break like glass at every spiked step along walls of bluish frozen water.

Underground adventures can also be arranged, subject to safety conditions, with visits to

nearby crevasses that feel like descending into frosted hollow caves.

Echo guests on the South Pole & Emperors track enjoy White Desert’s ultimate itinerary, combining penguin colony encounters and landing on the fabled 90° South, reached by fewer than 500 tourists per year. Reaching the penguin colony along Atka Bay is straightforward, with an ultrascenic 2.5-hour ride toward the coast on the upgraded Basler twin turbo-prop plane.

The sight of several thousand of the world’s largest adult and baby penguin species— chirping, belly sliding, feeding, waddling, slumbering—amid a backdrop of towering ice formations is an unforgettable one, sure to provoke pure joy.

Accessing the Earth’s underbelly, by contrast, is a tad more complicated.

Acceptable weather has to align in unison between three different locations—Echo Camp/Wolf ’s Fang Runway, Dixie’s Camp (a fuel depot with spartan tented

accommodation), and the South Pole itself— in order for pilots to fly safely, so timings and dates are always subject to change.

Once clear, it’s a five-hour flight to Dixie’s Camp (based 83° South) to refuel, followed by two hours to reach the main attraction.

Perched on the endless flat of the High Polar Plateau, the South Pole is a mindbender—the only direction is north; the summer sun’s unyielding glow does little for the -13°F or colder climate; and one can travel through all the world’s time zones in a single spin. Save for the famous, flag-lined South Pole marker and official Geographic South Pole signage, the land is mainly dotted with research hubs such as the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, and international satellites and telescopes pointing toward the same heavens that several space-bound vessels plan to reach.

Thankfully, experiences like Echo Camp provide ethereal, unworldly pursuits while humans further determine how to consistently escape the stratosphere. white-desert.com u

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Have a Steak ... Tomato

Chefs with Michelin-rated accolades are redefining fine dining, and they’re doing it with plant-based cuisine. The bold question being posed to patrons: Can you overhaul the way you think about vegetables?

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hen Chef Daniel Humm was 10 years old, his parents took him to the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris to see Claude Monet’s Water Lilies.

Since 1927, the museum has housed eight of the artist’s massive oil-on-canvas panels that, at the time of their creation, were seen as something quite radical. The paint didn’t always reach the very edge of the canvas; the compositions were landscapes without the sky overtly depicted in them. “I cried,” Humm says of the experience. “I didn’t know if I was happy or I was sad, but it deeply moved me.”

Art as a language that can mine the depths of another person’s emotional landscape has been enmeshed in Humm’s 20-plus-year career as a chef. At Eleven Madison Park, the Manhattan restaurant rated with three Michelin stars for more than a decade, Humm made a name for himself by inventing emotionally provoking

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haute cuisine experiences. In a 2015 fourstar New York Times review, critic Pete Wells wrote: “I decided to imagine that the fondue came straight out of Mr. Humm’s upbringing in Switzerland, because it worked on my senses with the deep, soulful pull of a childhood memory.”

The restaurant’s eight-course dinner menu, featuring dishes such as caviar Benedict and butternut squash with bone marrow, earned him the coveted No. 1 ranking on the 2017 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. His work both epitomized and shaped the fine dining world’s perception of luxury itself.

“I wanted to win awards, I wanted to be the best,” Humm says. And yet at the top of the mountain, what he felt was lost.

“Everyone kept asking, ‘Now what?’ And the question became problematic for me because I didn’t have an answer.”

By March 2020, he didn’t have answers and he didn’t have money. With $3 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy amid the pandemic, Humm turned Eleven Madison Park into a community kitchen and began delivering meals to people in need.

For 18 months, he got an up-close look at food insecurity and, in the process, began thinking creatively about Eleven Madison Park for the first time in years. “I knew that I had no interest in reopening the same restaurant,” he says. “I had changed, and the world didn’t need a new version of a butterpoached lobster.” It was time to create his version of a landscape with no sky. It was time to tell an emotional food story with cucumber, melon, and smoked daikon.

When Humm reopened Eleven Madison Park (elevenmadisonpark.com) in June 2021, he did so with the somewhat radical declaration that the restaurant would be solely and exclusively vegan—a delineator associated more with tofu, avocado, and nutbased “cheeses” than fine dining.

“People have been cooking plant-based food for thousands of years. That’s not a new idea. But it is a new idea in a Michelin-star environment,” Humm says. “It challenges our idea of luxury. Does a meal need caviar and Kobe beef to be luxurious? Or are these things old ideas and they’re actually flawed in a way that has to be recreated?” 

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Ark/Zane Kraujina; Sapid/Bertille Chabrolle; Eleven Madison Park; Ark/Brett Lavender; Chenot/Stefania Giorgi

BY BROOKE MAZUREK

Clockwise from top left: Sourdough crumpet at Ark; strawberries at Sapid; celtuce lettuces at Eleven Madison Park; tomatoes at Ark; vegetable parmigiana at Chenot Palace Weggis

Powers Irish Rye

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Lavender’s crumpet at Ark

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Two months after Humm’s announcement, Chef Alain Ducasse, who has earned 21 Michelin stars over the course of his career, opened Sapid (sapid.fr)—an eatery in Paris where 95 percent of the French cuisine served is reimagined with vegetables. In a country synonymous with cream sauces, butter, foie gras, and veal, Sapid uses animal products strictly as seasoning.

“A plant-based recipe demands probably more work to exhilarate its subtlety,” says Ducasse, who has been a proponent of plant-based cuisine for decades. In the mid-1980s, when he was entrusted with the reins of Le Louis XV in Monaco, Ducasse created an entirely vegetarian menu called Les Jardins de Provence that still exists today. Only difference: “We sell five times more of that menu than we did 40 years ago!” he says.

The star-wattage of chefs like Ducasse and Humm inevitably casts a spotlight on other plant-based kitchens. Places like Seven Swans (sevenswans.de) in Frankfurt, which opened in December 2019, was added to the 50 Best Discovery list in 2022. Fu He Hui (+86.21.3980.9188) in Shanghai, which opened in 2014, was named the Best Restaurant in Mainland China in March 2023.

Chef Alexis Gauthier, who opened London’s Gauthier Soho (gauthiersoho.co.uk) in 2021 to “help form a new plant-based future of food,” will open two outposts in London this year.

When Chef Brett Lavender decided to co-create and helm the Green Michelin Star award–winning restaurant Ark (restaurantark .dk), in Copenhagen, it was “hard to convince professional chefs that working in a plant-based restaurant wasn’t career suicide,” he says. For more than 20 years, Lavender had cooked in some of the world’s great restaurants, his path taking him from England to Japan to Australia, New Zealand, and eventually Denmark.

“I’d seen a lot, done a lot, worked in a lot of places, and plant-based was one thing I had never tried.”

The draw for him lay in the challenge. Lavender could continue making killer chicken stocks at top restaurants or do something different. “It was about cooking food that could compete with the other restaurants in the city, and it just so happened to be plantbased,” he says.

The conceptual process was like staring at a blank part of the map and embarking on an off-roading expedition. There weren’t recipes for where Lavender wanted to go. “When you solely concentrate on maximizing the flavors you can get from vegetables, nuts, and seeds, you choose fermentations and off-cuts and foraged items that you would have never thought of using because you previously had bones or an amazing scallop to make a sauce,” he says. “As soon as you lose all of these products, you have to be really imaginative and creative.” How do you get as much flavor from mushrooms and carrots as you would a beautiful oyster?

Not being vegan himself is precisely what allowed Lavender to develop a menu where vegetables were handled the way meat and seafood would have been. He began to see his ingredients in an entirely new light, an experience he hopes to bring to patrons.

From sourdough crumpets topped with charred Marabel

Courtesy Images, From Top: Sapid/Bertille Chabrolle; Ark/Brett Lavender. Opposite Page: Courtesy Chenot/GG Archard

White asparagus at Sapid

Squash blossoms and tomato risotto at Chenot Palace Weggis

potatoes, wakame, turnips, dill, and grapefruit caviar to BBQ blue oyster mushrooms with umami glaze—what Lavender, and other plant-based fine dining chefs, are asking clients to do is forget what they thought they knew about vegetables. To dismiss the experience, says Ducasse, would be to “[miss] the pleasure of being surprised by new tastes, new textures, new pairings of ingredients ... a fundamental reason for dining: living a novel experience of eating.”

There are environmental implications, too. And yet there wasn’t really a way to extract himself from the web of life that fine dining is embedded in. “I’m not running around with a T-shirt that says, ‘Save the Dolphins,’” Lavender says. “One of the things that came from doing this restaurant is that I’ve become conscious about the planet.

It’s not sustainable, the path we’re on. I think it’s inevitable that we have to eat plant-based [food] more often, and that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to become a vegan and a hippie or the negative connotation of: ‘I’m a man and don’t you just understand I want to eat a steak?’ That’s not what it’s about anymore. It’s about education.”

From its food to its furniture, Lavender’s restaurant puts sustainability at the forefront of everything. Off-cuts are turned into powders and garnishes, spent wine is repurposed in sauces, and most supplies are within a two-hour drive or deliverable by bike. Ark co-owns its mushroom farm. Eleven Madison Park sources roughly 60 percent of its ingredients from Magic Farms in upstate New York, while the other 40 percent are shipped in—a figure that climate scientist Paul West says is still healthier for the environment than locally sourced steak.

“In terms of the restaurant industry or the food system in general, the biggest things we can do as individuals is change what we eat and what we waste,” says West, whose work at Project Drawdown is focused on stopping climate change as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. Approximately one quarter of all the greenhouse gas emissions in the world stem from our food system, and about half of that impact comes from clearing forests to expand the amount of land used for livestock and feed.

“A small steak probably has way more impact than all of the veggies that are served in a restaurant [on a given] night—it’s at that order of magnitude,” West says. But if the concept of climate change still feels abstract, what isn’t abstract is personal health. Several studies have shown that eating more plant-based food can lower the risk of heart failure and dementia.

For Chenot Palace Weggis (chenotpalaceweggis.com), a wellness retreat in the heart of the Swiss Alps, plant-based eating is a central pillar in a weeklong detoxification process that essentially clears the rust from the battery that is the human body. For seven days straight, guests are served different plant-based menus designed by Executive Chef Ettore Moliteo. The food is beautiful, and staring at it you’d have no idea that it is pointedly missing proteins and amino acids. It’s a fast-mimicking diet without the juice-cleanse deprivation feeling.

“We aren’t promoting just plant-based diets. We are in support of having a variety of foods including animal protein,” says Dr. George Gaitanos, Chenot’s chief operating and scientific director. “But we know this [plant-based detox] is a fantastic medicine, the best thing you can do for your body together with exercise.”

This fall, Chenot will release a cookbook featuring 184 recipes.

The book will retail for $45, substantially lower than the $6,000 cost of doing the Chenot detox program in Switzerland, or the $1,000 cost of dinner for two at Eleven Madison Park. There’s clearly a price to pay, and the question fine diners have to ask themselves is: “Is it worth it?”

Chef Eyal Shani, who made headlines for the $24 single tomato he serves at his restaurant, Naked Tomato (nakedtomatonyc.com) in New York, certainly thinks so. “Three hundred meters west of us they sell the simplest T-shirt for $1,000. The cost to produce a tomato is the same as this T-shirt. So how is [our price] wrong?”

After all, he rations, it’s about something far greater than even the vegetable itself. “It is eating the divine intention of the tomato and it cannot be measured.” 

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In the nearly two decades since Chef Yann Nury arrived in New York from France to work with restaurateur Daniel Boulud, he’s launched a private event culinary collective (yann-nury.com) that counts top global luxury brands among its clients. While the immersive food experiences Nury shapes aren’t exclusively vegan, get him started on the subject of vegetables and he’ll quickly spiral down the rabbit hole of what

makes each one a real wonder. “I think it’s our duty as chefs to educate others, to share with them what makes a particular artichoke better,” he says. Meat has a grading system. “You go to a supermarket and there’s Choice, USDA Prime ... but if you look at a tomato, how do you know what you’re getting?” From his atelier loft in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, Nury outlined what to look for in four of his favorite veggies.

TOMATO

POTATO

Harvest Window Mid-August to midSeptember. If it’s a very hot September, you can get tomatoes through October.

Harvest Window Spring and early summer; they can be consumed year-round, as they can be cellared for up to two years.

Where to Source Stay local and shop at the farmers market. If there aren’t tomatoes there, they are likely not in season.

Favorite Way to Prepare Washed, cooked in salted water until very tender, smashed with a metal bowl, roasted in olive oil until crispy on both sides, and finished with sea salt.

Favorite Way to Prepare Boil in salted water for 10 seconds, peel, slice thinly, and season with olive oil and sea salt.

Most Luxurious Tomato In Porto Ercole, Italy, the tomatoes grow in the remaining volcanic soil across the island. They’re really special, very sweet.

Most Luxurious Potato In Fäviken, Sweden, we went to a covered market and there was this incredible potato with very thin skin. The dirt was still wet. It just really called to me. We boiled them and served them with the local grass-fed butter I bought at the market.

ASPARAGUS

ONION

Harvest Window Three months tops: April, May, and into June.

Harvest Window Spring onions (or green onions) are at their peak in late spring. They are fresh with no outside skins and have a four- to five-week season when they’re in their prime. Traditional onions are harvested at the end of summer, during which they develop different colored skins.

Where to Source Green ones can be found at local markets. The white ones will have to be imported from France, Germany, or Austria.

Favorite Way to Prepare For the white ones (or extra-large green), cut off the bottom quarter and peel the remaining bottom portion. Soak asparagus in ice water for at least 15 minutes. Cook a few minutes in salted water (much longer for the white ones). Roll them in melted butter, season with salt and pepper, cover in grated Parmesan, and bake in the oven until golden on top.

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Why It’s Inspiring Onions are rarely an ingredient that’s the star of a dish, but they can become the star. For example, there’s this very simple, twoingredient dish I had once: onions cooked slowly and covered with a bit of onion stock and Parmesan cheese, then baked in the oven until crispy on top.

Most Luxurious Onion Roscoff in Brittany, France, has the greatest onions in the world. The combination of the soil, climate, and weather; I really enjoy their color and vibrancy. u —B.M.

Courtesy Yann Nury/David Chow (4)

Chef Yann Nury’s Produce Guide

Clockwise: Sweet corn lobster roll; peeled tomatoes for use in a dish; grilled asparagus poached in vermouth with a caviar sauce and chive blossoms; striped bass with artichokes and new onions.

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Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Surf Air/Chad Slattery; Auberge Resorts Collection (2); Crown Point Vineyard; Surf Air; Auberge Resorts Collection (4)

Surf Air (top left and bottom right) has partnered with Auberge Resorts Collection to offer VIP access to properties like The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos and the Santa Ynez Valley.

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California Connection

New hospitality options—and a private jet partnership—are bridging the gap between two of California’s most storied wine-making regions.

BY AMANDA EBERSTEIN

N

apa Valley has long been synonymous with California wine country. Although relatively small in size— stretching 35 miles from top to bottom and just 5 miles across at its widest point—the bucolic destination 90 minutes north of San Francisco is widely considered to be the most renowned wine-growing region in the United States, as well as one of the most diverse in the world.

Today—165 years since the area’s first commercial winery was established—Napa is home to more than 40 different grape varieties and 475 physical wineries, as well as world-class hotels, resorts, and restaurants, five of which are Michelin-starred.

Despite the region’s pitch-perfect Mediterranean climate and ideal topography, Napa grows only 4 percent of California’s total wine harvest. And in recent years, another Golden State region has emerged to complement the original: Santa Ynez Valley, an equally picturesque and pastoral stretch above Santa Barbara on the Central Coast. The historic ranching and farming community—an area of 5 square miles bookended by the San Rafael Mountains to the north and the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south—had

been quietly producing high-quality wines before bursting into the public’s collective consciousness in 2004 as the setting for the hit film Sideways. Still understated, the destination boasts small-batch, family-owned vineyards (known for pinot noir, cabernet, chardonnay, and syrah) and quaint towns such as Solvang, the quirky, sun-soaked hamlet noted for its traditional Danish-style architecture, and Los Olivos, an old ranching village that is now home to more than 30 tasting rooms tucked within Victorian buildings in a five-block radius downtown.

As Santa Ynez has grown in visibility, it seems natural that connections would improve between the two regions. Previously, the three options to travel between the Central Coast and Napa were to drive (over 330 miles and at least 5.5 hours by car, more if taking the scenic coastal route), fly commercially from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, or hire a private plane. Another point to consider: Santa Ynez has long been dotted with boutique bed-and-breakfasts but had no big-name hotels. Now, a partnership between Surf Air (surfair.com)—an LA-based regional air service that offers both chartered and ondemand flights—and Auberge Resorts Collection (aubergeresorts.com) assures that guests can easily enjoy the best of both worlds. 

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Courtesy Images Counter-Clockwise From Bottom Left: Auberge Resorts Collection (3); Crown Point Vineyard/Lauren Maeve McIntire

The impetus for this venture is the opening of The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, Auberge Resorts Collection, a buzzy new property in Los Olivos that is being billed as the region’s first-ever luxury hotel. Located at the site of a former 19th-century stagecoach stop, Mattei’s is revered as one of the Santa Ynez Valley’s most beloved social hubs and historic landmarks. Now, under new ownership and Auberge’s management, the original craftsman-style structure—which houses a restaurant, bar, and coffee shop—has been meticulously restored, while the surrounding 6.5-acre property has expanded to become a 67-room resort. “We were inspired to purchase Mattei’s to preserve the historical significance and its relationship to the valley for future generations,” says Brian Strange, a longtime resident who bought the property with his wife, Shamra, in 2015. Overseen by AvroKO, the bright, newly constructed guest rooms, suites, and cottages feel airy yet cozy, with exposed-beamed ceilings, four-poster iron beds, indoor/outdoor fireplaces, and Pendleton blankets. The tavern itself remains a time warp—much to the delight of locals, who frequent the spot as often as visitors— with original wood flooring, a roaring stone fireplace, and walls covered in black-andwhite photos depicting life in the Wild West.

A spa will open next year.

The Surf Air partnership—priced from $25,000 for two people and fully customizable—begins with two nights at The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern. There is plenty to do that isn’t wine-related, from paella making to olive oil tasting to painting lessons underneath Mattei’s iconic water tower.

Oenophiles will want to venture off property, as tailored itineraries include visits to some of the area’s most exclusive wineries. At Crown Point Vineyards, guests explore the expansive grape fields on John Deere utility vehicles and then take a barrel-room tour and taste awardwinning, cabernet-based wines. Meet-theMaker experiences include one-on-ones with talented producers (themed options, such as an all-female maker tour, can be requested).

For on-site dining, Mattei’s Tavern serves elevated Californian cuisine and has a wine list featuring 50-percent local options.

Clockwise from top left: The bar at Mattei’s Tavern and double beds in its guesthouse; a cheese and charcuterie plate at a Crown Point Vineyards wine tasting; the patio of the Palomino Suite at Stanly Ranch.

At the end of their stay, guests take a 10-minute drive to the Santa Ynez Airport— an airstrip surrounded by idyllic farmland and rolling hills—to meet their plane from Surf Air’s private fleet. A breezy, 75-minute flight up the coast to Napa delivers them directly to their final destination: the year-old Stanly Ranch, Auberge Resorts Collection. A stark contrast to Mattei’s historic feel, the strikingly contemporary Stanly spreads out over 700 acres. “Our vision was a harmonious balance between modern comforts and environmental stewardship, creating a destination that captures the essence of California’s wine country intertwined with the natural beauty of Napa’s surrounding landscape,” says Bob Shemwell, principal architect at Overland Partners. The 78 freestanding cottages and suites—comprising 135 guest accommodations—have been built to blend into the terrain, with sleek furnishings, open layouts, and floor-to-ceiling windows that slide open onto private terraces with fire pits and vineyard views. The dining options similarly pay homage to the land, incorporating local farms and makers to highlight the best of the region’s seasonal bounty.

The property’s crown jewel is the Halehouse spa and wellness center, where in addition to classic massages and facials, guests can experience more innovative offerings such as therapeutic bodywork and energy healing. The massive restoration and recovery area comes complete with a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, a Himalayan salt room, and a 400-squarefoot undulating cedar sauna that has quickly become the resort’s most Instagrammable feature. Wine takes center stage during visits to celebrated, cult collector–level vineyards and top restaurants in the region. On property, take pasta-making and craft cocktail classes utilizing house-made juices and herbs freshly picked from Stanly’s garden.

Ed Gannon, general manager at The Inn at Mattei’s Tavern, says, “We are elevating the quintessential California road trip and offering something for every type of traveler.” As is the case with California’s wine country, these days it’s easier than ever to enjoy both sides. u

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Copalli Rum Distillery in Punta Gorda, Belize. Opposite top and bottom left: Glenora Distillery in Nova Scotia produces single malt whiskies. Opposite right: Accommodations at Copalli Rum. Opposite bottom right: Gin and more at The Distillery in London.

In the Spirit

Craft distilleries are offering a behind-the-scenes introduction to their process, with a place to rest your head.

Courtesy Copalli Rum Distillery. Opposite, Courtesy Images Counter-Clockwise From Bottom Left: Glenora Distillery (2); Copalli Rum Distillery; The Distillery/Justin Gardner

BY SHAUN TOLSON

T

oday, the process of distillation is as romanticized as it’s ever been.

So much so, in fact, that distilleries around the world are providing enthusiastic visitors with a glimpse behind the curtain, offering indepth tours and guided tastings, all of which deliver insight into the intricacies of the craft. Some distilleries even offer overnight accommodations—lodging perfect for the consumer who wants to feel truly immersed in the process.

“If I had to live my life over,” actor and vaudevillian W.C. Fields once said, “I’d live over a saloon.”

Here, we explore an even better reality, spotlighting five distilleries where you can make yourself comfortably at home. 

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WHISKEY AND MORE Journeyman Distillery Three Oaks, Michigan

In 2010, the middle section of the defunct Featherbone Factory in southwestern Michigan was transformed into a work area where a more modern (and far more romanticized) product is now meticulously crafted. In that space resides the Journeyman Distillery, which opened its doors in 2011 and today bottles 25 different distilled products, nine of which are whiskey.

A full day at Journeyman Distillery can provide quite a drinking journey, albeit one that never moves off Main Street. Guided distiller’s tours that span 90 minutes, for example, include a tasting of a dozen spirits, not to mention a couple of sips drawn straight from barrels resting in the warehouse.

It’s also easy to get lost in the two-page cocktail menu at the distillery’s restaurant, Staymaker, where 50 libations are listed, not including five spirits tasting flights, each with a distinct focus.

Fortunately, the 12-year-old distillery offers a trio of lodging options. Larger groups stay at The Flat, a 7,000-square-foot, loftstyle residence that’s accented by exposed brick and timber beams, boasts a private courtyard and entertaining space with a billiards table, and features five bedrooms. Slightly smaller parties will prefer The Journeyman Farmhouse, a four-bedroom residence with an open floor plan and wood-burning stove situated just around the corner from the distillery.

Finally, there’s the two-bedroom bunkhouse located steps from Main Street—an avenue that, according to Journeyman’s founder Bill Welter, includes saloons and other buildings that have survived since the 1800s. “There’s a tremendous amount of history, charm, and just the feeling of stepping back in time a little bit,” he says. journeyman.com

fourth building, called Brookside, which features eight modern guest rooms and is appropriately positioned parallel to a brook that flows through the property.

According to Lauchlin MacLean, president of Glenora Distillers Ltd., the chalets stand out most for their privacy and the views they can offer looking out over the glen. But there’s something to be said for

staying in one of the inn rooms, especially since they provide easy access to a main patio that offers views of the stills through the main production building’s giant windows.

“You can go out at 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning,” he says, “and as the sun’s coming up, you can have your coffee on the patio and watch the beginnings of a new distillation day.” glenoradistillery.com

SINGLE MALT WHISKIES Glenora Distillery Nova Scotia, Canada

Although Canada is best known for its blended and rye whiskies, there are standouts in other categories too. Glenora Distillery, for example, located in northern Nova Scotia, produces award-winning single malt whiskies crafted in a style similar to the light, easy-drinking Speyside expressions that are distilled at Cragganmore and Craigellachie in Scotland. Such comparison not only reflects the distillery’s deep Scottish roots, but also the source of its stills, which were exported to Canada from Glasgow during the 1980s.

Across an expansive estate of almost 700 acres, the Glenora Distillery offers four distinctive styles of guest accommodations—a nine-room inn, which is attached to the distillery and hospitality complex; six standalone chalets positioned on the hillside above the distillery; Glenview, a lodge made up of five traditional guest rooms; and a

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GIN AND MORE

Courtesy Images From Top: Copalli Rum Distillery; Beam Suntory. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: Journeyman Distillery; Glenora Distillery/Perry Jackson

The Distillery London, England

There’s no shortage of reasons why spirits enthusiasts would venture down Portobello Road in London’s Notting Hill neighborhood, at least not if their destination is The Distillery, a producer of craft spirits that was founded in 2011 and later moved into its current four-story location at the corner of Talbot Road. Those digs were once The Colville Hotel, and while most of the defunct hotel’s guest rooms no longer exist, the top floor is home to a trio of overnight rooms that guests can reserve. Not surprisingly, they come in handy given the extensive gin- and cocktail-focused classes and experience that The Distillery provides.

From masterclasses on classic gin cocktails to The Ginstitute Experience—an in-depth, threehour journey into the history of gin,

as well as the art and science behind its creation—The Distillery is like the Wonka Factory for alcohol. The Chronicles of the Martini, for example, is a 90-minute guided session into the classic cocktail, which is advertised with an important footnote: “Please arrive on time and sober,” the website advises, “as there is quite a bit to get through and several drinks to be drunk.” Similarly, The Distillery’s James Bond Experience is a five-course dinner, where each plated course is paired with a prominent libation connected to author Ian Fleming and his famous character.

“It’s a generous portion of drinks,” says Jake Burger, The Distillery’s master distiller, “so having a room next door is certainly convenient for many people.” the-distillery.london

RUM Copalli Rum Distillery Punta Gorda, Belize

Staying on-site at a distillery may provide a distinctive experience; however, most of the time, those overnights won’t feel like a luxurious resort getaway. Such is not the case on the southernmost region of Belize where Copalli Rum is created. The organic and sustainable distillery, which covers about 114,000 square feet, is part of a larger 16,000-acre estate that also includes an organic farm, protected rainforest, and the Copal Tree Lodge, which is home to 16 suites and one family villa.

During the day, resort guests can tour the distillery, which is located less than a mile down the hill from the lodge, and while they’re there, they can also sample the brand’s three expressions through guided tastings and cocktail classes. Back at the lodge, guests can also sip their way through more than a dozen cocktails that highlight the rum. Standouts include the Old Fashioned 2.0, made with cacao rum and vanilla syrup, and the Spicy Mayan, which spotlights Copalli’s rested rum and farmgrown allspice leaves. copaltreelodge.com

SCOTCH Bowmore Cottages Islay, Scotland

Like the spirit itself, the history of Scotch whisky is layered and complex. Those who love Scottish single malts are drawn to the drink for its flavor and are at least marginally influenced by the longstanding tradition behind it.

Those who appreciate its history—and who also enjoy the distinct peatiness of most Islay Scotches—will want to spend at least a few nights in one of the Bowmore Cottages.

Varying in size from one bedroom to six, the distillery’s half-dozen cottages date back to the 1800s and previously served as homes

for some of Bowmore’s workers, and even its owners. Distillery House, for example, is a four-bedroom residence that once belonged to the Mutter family, who bought the distillery in 1837. Recently renovated, each cottage features furnishings that reflect the black-andcopper influences found inside the distillery, while custom upholstery and other soft accents sport Bowmore’s official Tartan plaid.

The cottages require a minimum three-night stay; however, the distillery acknowledges that most cottage guests

book their accommodations for an entire week. After all, Bowmore is conveniently located at the heart of Islay, positioned less than 30 minutes from all eight of the other working distilleries on the island. Should you book yourself a stay, make sure to visit the distillery’s visitor center bar, where cottage guests are offered a complimentary whiskyand-chocolate tasting, one highlighted by the pairing of Bowmore 18-Year with confections crafted by the Oban Chocolate Company. bowmore.com u

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Silkie Irish Whiskey cocktails

by Sliabh Liag Distillers

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Irish Whiskey Mixes It Up Modern takes on the age-old spirit lure the promiscuous tippler with artful expressions.

BY FRANK VIZARD

Courtesy The Ivory Peacock/Carl Bellavia. Opposite: Courtesy Sliabh Liag Distillers

A

ny bar with steps leading down into it is promising. At this particular one, you’ll find the steps toward the back of The Ivory Peacock, a New York City gin palace perched between Manhattan’s Flatiron and NoMad districts. Reach the bottom and the prize is Ploume, a private, subterranean room with the air of an illicit speakeasy. It’s the dark wood, classic tin ceiling, and velvet wall hangings setting the vibe, vying with the large, illuminated bar dominating one side of the space in the semi-darkness.

On this particular night, Ploume is devoid of any liquor except strategically spaced, golden-hued bottles of Powers Irish Rye (powerswhiskey.com). Positioned for their American debut, the bottles (readily identified by a distinctive, diamond-shaped label with green borders) fill three long shelves that run behind the bar and in front of a lineup of equally sized framed mirrors.

Powers traces its Irish lineage to a 1791 distillery in Dublin, but its rye whiskey, a variant historically ignored on the Emerald Isle, makes a new “expression” indicative of a broader move by Irish whiskey purveyors.

They’ve set aim at the globally adventurous imbiber, a remarkable initiative for a liquor formerly on the verge of disappearing. While old-school Irish whiskey lovers might have expected to sample a dram straight up, the focus here fills the cocktail glass. Behind the Ploume bar are nine of the city’s most illustrious mixologists, challenged to work

Powers Irish Rye into creative concoctions of their own devising. Powers Irish Rye is both sweet and spicy with hints of cinnamon and orange peel, characteristics that lend themselves to cocktails. While all their creations are appealing, one perhaps defines the evening: a mix of Powers Irish Rye, Starlino Rosso Vermouth, and Starlino cherries called The Irish Built Manhattan.

While the 19th century was the golden age of Irish distilleries, the 20th century was not kind to Irish whiskey. American Prohibition, war, revolution, and trade restrictions

effectively reduced Irish whiskey to a handful of operations that nevertheless remain among the most well-known worldwide. To some extent, Bushmills, Jameson, and Powers mirrored the strife the country experienced in those days.

Single-malt specialist Bushmills (bushmills .com), the oldest licensed distillery in the world (1608), was deemed a Protestant whiskey, as it was made in the north of Ireland under British control. Today’s bestselling Jameson (jamesonwhiskey.com) was a Catholic whiskey made south of the border

in the Republic of Ireland, while Dublinbred Powers somehow inhabited a neutral, nonsectarian cosmopolitan space. Jameson and Powers would eventually merge operations for survival.

Today, Ireland is rediscovering its Irish whiskey heritage with an all-island approach that boosted Irish distillery operations from four in 2010 to 40 in 2023, creating a billion-dollar industry with the lion’s share exported to the United States. Teeling (teelingwhiskey.com) took the first giant step, opening its distillery in Dublin in 2015 and creating a whiskey operation that has grown in reputation and popularized Irish distilleries as travel destinations. Acquisitions of existing brands by larger corporations have brought new resources to Irish whiskey, further changing the game. Diageo purchased Bushmills in 2005, and then sold it to Proximo Spirits in 2014. Tullamore D.E.W. (tullamoredew.com) was acquired in 2010 by Scotland’s William Grant & Sons and afforded a new distillery in the brand’s traditional home in the Irish Midlands.

Most significantly, the homegrown Irish Distillers Group (irishdistillers.ie) based in Midleton, Cork, far to the south, has evolved to encompass brands such as Jameson, Powers, Knappogue Castle, Method and Madness, Redbreast, Spot, and Midleton Very Rare, and now operates under the corporate umbrella of French drinks powerhouse Pernod Ricard.

Alongside the growth of the biggest players, the spread of artisanal operations with distilleries in the Irish countryside blossomed—led by Dingle (dingledistillery.ie), which opened a distillery in the small town 

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Ireland is rediscovering its whiskey heritage with an approach that boosted distillery operations from four in 2010 to 40 in 2023, creating a billion-dollar

of the same name in Kerry in the west of Ireland. These distilleries have strong origin and sense-of-place stories, including The Shed Distillery (thesheddistillery.com), located near the small village of Drumshanbo in the northwest county of Leitrim, that lends its name to not only a whiskey but a wellreceived, blue-bottled gin that graces five-star hotels like Ashford Castle in nearby Mayo.

Irish whiskey, the “e” added to differentiate it from Scotch whisky, was once principally a blend made from single grain and single malt whiskey as well as single pot still, with malted and unmalted barley as a key ingredient. Irish whiskey is typically triple distilled rather than double distilled like Scotch for a lighter, smoother taste. The rule is that single malt Irish whiskey, admittedly riding the coattails of Scotch single malt’s success, is made exclusively from malted barley. Single grain Irish whiskey is made with a cereal other than barley, such as corn. (American whiskey is generally made from corn, rye, or wheat.) Meanwhile, Irish whiskey “bonders,” like the award-winning J.J. Corry (jjcorry .com), founded in 2016 in Clare by Louise McGuane, source from different distilleries to create their own special blends.

Surging in popularity in Ireland is a single pot still style, like that made by Redbreast (redbreastwhiskey.com), created primarily from a mash of malted and unmalted barley, distilled in copper pot stills and matured in oak casks. The origin of single pot still dates to at least as early as 1785, when it emerged as a means to avoid an English tax on barley. Visit the Horseshoe Bar at the legendary Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, for example, and you’ll discover the main focus is on pot stills, an expression the famous bar deems to be a

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truly Irish style of whiskey. These whiskies typically offer sweetness with wonderful spice notes from the pot still and incredible mouthfeels from the unmalted barley.

Such is the variation in Irish whiskey today, lending itself to the descriptive language used to communicate about wine. This kind of description is a far (but still relevant) cry from the days of Irish playwright and publican John B. Keane (1928–2002): “I love the first powerful, violent impact of a glass of whiskey when I throw it back in me and when it hits the mark below.”

In Ireland, rules are made to be bent, however, with different styles sometimes blending together. For example, Uais (pronounced “oosh”), named for a fourthcentury High King of Ireland and made by Galway’s very eco-conscious Ahascragh Distillery (ahascraghdistillery.com), is a triple blend of 25 percent single pot, 25 percent single malt, and 50 percent grain.

“Good blends can be greater than the sum of their parts,” notes James Doherty of Sliabh Liag Distillers (sliabhliagdistillers .com), pronounced “Slieve League,” in Ardara, Donegal. The only solid rule may be that Irish whiskey must be made in Eire, the island’s name in the native Gaelic language.

Although the exact age of Irish whiskey distilling has been lost in the mists of time, the word “whiskey” derives from the Gaelic uisce beatha (pronounced “ish-ca baa-ha”), which translates to “water of life,” the cheeky implication being that Irish whiskey was on hand to toast the beginning.

Many of the newer Irish distilleries are embracing the country’s pre-revolutionary past, the before and after marked by the Easter Rising in 1916 against English

rule, and bringing those old flavors into the present. A key element in the taste sensation is the choice of cask. While American bourbon barrels are a mainstay in the aging process, Irish whiskeys such as Writers’ Tears Single Pot from Walsh Whiskey (walshwhiskey.com), still matured in Spanish sherry casks, impart a velvety smooth, spicy taste. Tullamore D.E.W. has an expression finished in Caribbean rum casks that’s particularly suited to tropical cocktails. A single pot still from Method and Madness (methodandmadnesswhiskey .com) is finished in Japanese chestnut casks.

The Green Spot Wine Geese series from Spot Whiskeys (spotwhiskey.com) is finished in Canadian pinot noir wine casks from Quails’ Gate winery, founded in 1908 by emigrant Richard Stewart from Kildare in Ireland. Sometimes, these expressions are in search of a memory. Dark Silkie, explains Doherty of Sliabh Liag Distillers, “is the taste of an 11-year-old me sneaking into the kitchen in the morning to get my grandad’s cold pipe from the night before and walking around the house like Popeye. I can recall vividly the sweet tobacco, almost baked apple aroma overlaid with an ashy, smoky kind of warmth.”

The practice lends itself to smaller, limited releases and is a boon to promiscuous taste seekers in search of a unique experience no matter the manner of the glass. That Irish whiskey proves very adaptable to different occasions, situations, and moods may be its greatest strength.

There’s no wrong way to drink it.

“I always say drink it whichever way you like it,” advises a barman at the Shelbourne.

“Especially if you’re the one paying for it!”

Sláinte! 

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Walsh Whiskey; Powers Irish Rye; Sliabh Liag Distillers (2)

industry with the lion’s share exported to the United States.

Powers Irish Rye being served at Ploume in Manhattan

Walsh Whiskey barrels Sliabh Liag Distillers in Ardara, Donegal

Silkie Irish Whiskey by Sliabh Liag Distillers

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Luck of the Irish

Courtesy Shelbourne Hote/Barry Murphy (5)

The Horseshoe Bar is where to have your first Irish whiskey in Ireland.

If you decide to have your first Irish whiskey at the source, there’s no better place for a proper indoctrination than the Horseshoe Bar at the iconic Shelbourne Hotel across the street from the landmark St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. The Shelbourne opened its doors to guests in 1824, so the long list of luminaries who have stayed there includes everyone from President John F. Kennedy to the Rolling Stones. At the curved, brass-trimmed Horseshoe Bar, Irish political leaders and literary figures of past and present have regularly rested their elbows on the white marble top.

The Horseshoe Bar conducts whiskey tastings to educate palates to various styles of Irish whiskey. A tasting flight may include Green Spot, a Bushmills 10-yearold single malt, and a 12-year-old Connemara peated variety, capped off by Midleton Very Rare, described by many as “the pinnacle of Irish whiskey.” The Shelbourne also conducts more targeted tastings of the different

expressions of Midleton and its premium competitor, Redbreast. The bar uses special, conical-shaped tuath (“tu-ah”) glasses to enhance the aromas of Irish whiskey.

It’s recommended first-timers add a drop of water to help open up the whiskey’s aromas and flavors.

Water is a controversial topic. There are always “experts” around to suggest water and ice are sacrilege but if that’s how you like it, then enjoy it that way. But be advised that chilling the drink with ice will decrease the aroma and ultimately could affect your experience tasting the whiskey.

An oft-suggested compromise is one cube only.

And lastly, for Irish coffee—a popular drink invented

by Irish chef Joe Sheridan in 1943, at Foynes Airbase in Ireland to warm cold, wet, transatlantic seaplane passengers—the Horseshoe Bar prefers Powers Gold for its ability to stand up to the powerful taste of coffee. theshelbourne.com u —F.V.

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REAL ESTATE

The New Good Life

Long-term trends kicked off by homebuyers’ decisions made during the pandemic center around three broad priorities: working remotely, living in stable and tax-friendly markets, and finding a unique, possibly generational, property.

BY IRENE RAWLINGS

Las Catalinas on Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast.

Opposite from left: Year-round homes in southern Maine and Aspen, Colorado, are in demand.

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Courtesy Images, From Left: James Nadeau LandVest Christie’s International Real Estate; The Feldman Group/Jeremy Swanson. Opposite: Courtesy Las Catalinas

PRIORITY #1: LOCATION Work from your vacation home.

For many, remote work is here to stay, disrupting the decades-long flow of people to large urban areas. According to 2022–2023 Top Ten Issues Affecting Real Estate by The Counselors of Real Estate, more than 50 percent of the workforce will work remotely or in a hybrid manner in the future. This has been coined as “The Great Decentralization,” a nickname as applicable stateside as it is abroad.

From 2019–2022, Spain saw a 25 percent increase in US buyers, according to the 2023 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices European Summer Market Report. And the trend continues. The coastal resort town of Málaga is transforming into a tech haven with Google, Bombardier, Siemens, and Oracle now calling the city home. “The typical buyer is younger and trendier with a tech background,” says Bruno Rabassa, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Spain. The island of Mallorca, with its meandering coastline and laid-back lifestyle, has long been a popular vacation spot. “As people recognize the newfound possibility of remote work, they want to turn their dream of living in Mallorca into a reality,”

says Michael Breithaupt of Coldwell Banker Select Real Estate. The island offers diverse properties in all price ranges from charming village houses to luxurious waterfront villas and modern apartments.

In Colorado, Gary Feldman, founder of the Gary Feldman Group at Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s International Realty and a realtor in the Roaring Fork Valley for 38 years, is selling homes to upper-level corporate execs who have been skiing here, and are now deciding to move here permanently. “In addition to Aspen and Snowmass Village, the Basalt/Carbondale markets have experienced remarkable sales,” he says. Home prices in Aspen can top $4,000/ square foot. To increase pricing flexibility, he advises looking at some of the smaller communities down valley where you can still find homes in the $1–$3 million range.

On the East Coast, in southern and Seacoast New Hampshire and southern Maine, James Nadeau of LandVest Christie’s International Real Estate says, “Overall demand for year-round homes continues to outpace the supply of available ‘desirable’ inventory.” He credits the quality of life, the perception of a

“more stable climate” location when compared to other parts of the United States, and greater economic opportunities. In addition, New Hampshire has no personal income tax and recent laws have phased out interest and dividend taxes.

Luxury home sales in Costa Rica are up 36 percent (year-over-year) through the first six months of 2023. Daveed Hollander, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker Costa Rica, attributes the trend to the country’s recent “digital nomad” residency status.

The pedestrian-friendly beach town of Las Catalinas on Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast recently announced the groundbreaking of the first single-family, year-round residence in the El Prado neighborhood—for a Houston couple who’s been vacationing here for 10 years. “Before the pandemic, the town of Las Catalinas had only a few full-time residents. During the pandemic, Las Catalinas launched a long-term rental program. Many of these long-term renters fell in love with the town and became owners,” says Diana Cascante, director of design, construction, and development at Las Catalinas. 

Villas in the Athens Riviera, Greece Offers a Golden Visa; Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Athens Properties

The Residences at Montage Cay, Bahamas montagecayresidences.com

DEVELOPMENTS TO CONSIDER The Strand in Turks and Caicos Turks and Caicos Sotheby’s International Realty

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A property in tax-friendly Naples, Florida.

Opposite, clockwise from top left: Cregg Castle, Ireland; a Georgian estate and its lush courtyard.

PRIORITY #2: SAFE, STABLE, AND TAX-FRIENDLY A refuge from chaos.

In the global turmoil caused by the pandemic and current geopolitical uncertainty, homebuyers are looking for secure, taxfriendly havens—real estate markets that are consistent and predictable. Mauricio Umansky, founder and CEO of The Agency, a high-profile brokerage with over 95 offices in 10 countries, says, “The desire for stable real estate markets with favorable tax laws has been a significant consideration for buyers and investors over the past year.” In the United States, he sees many buyers relocating to tax-friendly cities like Miami, Palm Beach, Naples, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Denver.

Internationally, many of the hottest markets are in the Caribbean for tax reasons, the stability of the market, and convenient flights to the United States.

Jim Bernard of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Bahamas Real Estate says: “The Bahamas welcome foreign investment and non-Bahamians are eligible to apply for a Permanent Residency Certificate with an investment of $750,000.” In addition, the country has no capital gains taxes, personal or corporate income tax, or inheritance/estate tax. Heather Lightbourn-Peterson, a broker and owner at Coldwell Banker Lightbourn

Realty, notes that “many buyers receive tax benefits in their home country by being a resident here in the Bahamas.”

Portugal has become a favorite of overseas buyers thanks to its status as one of the most peaceful countries in the world, plus its mild weather, advanced healthcare, and an emphasis on sustainability and ecofriendly home design. Michael Vincent, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Portugal Property, notes that the country’s Golden Visa program, popular with buyers from the United States, is on track to be extended through December 31, 2024.

COUNTRIES TO CONSIDER Croatia Christie’s International Realty Remington Realty

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Cayman Islands, Coldwell Banker Island Affiliates; Luxembourg, Coldwell Banker Hestia Group

The Netherlands, Christie’s International Realty R365; Switzerland, Zurich Sotheby’s International Realty

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Right: Inigo/Kristy Noble (2); Premier Properties Ireland. Opposite: Courtesy Sun Services/Jon Kreider

PRIORITY #3: HISTORIC CONNECTIONS Own a work of art.

“One of the things that COVID brought to the fore was the importance of home,” says Ruth Kennedy Sudduth, vice chair of LandVest Christie’s International Real Estate, “and the sense of wanting something special has accelerated in the past years.” Her practice has been dominated by architecturally significant houses: a lovely shingle-style home in Vermont, a storied estate in Islesboro, Maine, and in Boston, a property featuring interiors and exteriors designed by glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. She calls them “one-off pieces of art” and notes that the homeowners are buying not only a slice of history but “a story

well told.” An important note: Architecturally significant landmark properties tend to appreciate more like a work of art than like the average standard-built house.

From the moment she studied medieval history at Trinity College Dublin, Helen Cassidy of Premier Properties Ireland has been drawn to castles. Now an auctioneer and real estate agent in rural Connemara, she specializes in the sale of castles. “I deal in dreams,” she says, noting that “it takes great courage to purchase an old ruin of a castle, but the rewards are worth it.” Her listings are mainly in the West of Ireland, which she calls “a well-kept secret.”

Prices range from $350,000 for a 13th-century fixer-upper to more than $2 million for a fully restored fortress.

Tansy Butler Biggs, head of sales at Londonbased Inigo (an estate agency for Britain’s historic homes), is seeing more people drawn to solid and established buildings that, perhaps, remind them of the homes in which they grew up. “Believe it or not, we also have buyers who are inspired by literature … or media … with Jane Austen or Bridgerton spurring a desire for a Georgian home,” she says. Inigo’s listings range from thatched cottages (around $600,000) to stately manor houses (around $1.9 million). 

HOMES TO CONSIDER An Apartment on the Grand Canal in Venice, Romolini Immobiliare, Christie’s International Realty

An Estate in Scotland That Comes With a Title, Savills Dumfries

An Early Frank Lloyd Wright, franklloydwrightsites.com; a converted watermill in Bordeaux, Le Figaro Properties

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Under Construction

JACK’S BAY Eleuthera, Bahamas

EDITION RESIDENCES Edgewater, Miami

LES BORDES ESTATE Loire Valley, France

Surrounded by nature, Jack’s Bay will have two golf courses—the already existing, Tiger Woods–designed, 10hole Playground course and the first Nicklaus Heritage Championship course (scheduled for completion in 2025). Built on a soaring bluff, the Nicklaus course will reward accuracy.

The 55-story glass tower (EDITION’s first independent collection of fullservice residences) will have 185 one- to four-bedroom condos with enormous windows framing views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline, plus serene and sophisticated interiors by Studio Munge.

Established in 1987 by Baron Marcel Bich as one of the most elite private golf clubs in Europe, Les Bordes Estate debuts Cour du Baron: 89 stone-and-timber homes designed by Michaelis Boyd Architects (of Soho House fame).

PERKS: Twenty-four beachfront and ocean-view homesites. Vertical family membership through its Founder’s Program. Stretches of white-sand beaches, a spa village, tennis courts, a marina, a family Sports Pavilion, and numerous dining venues. From $1 million; jacksbayclub.com

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PERKS: A cinema, fitness center, yoga studio, and cabana-lined bayfront pool. The 24-hour concierge team arranges everything: grocery shopping, in-home spa services, dinner reservations, private-jet travel. Tri-level penthouses with private rooftop pools and gardens. From $2.9 million; www. editionresidencesedgewater.com

PERKS: Three- to seven-bedroom homes.

Private terraces, pools, and pergolas.

Choose the rustic-chic furniture package for a completely turnkey experience.

Six Senses Spa Loire Valley launches in 2026. By-invitation golf on the tree-lined Robert von Hagge–designed Old Course or the Gil Hanse–designed, heathlandstyle New Course. From $1.5 million; lesbordesestate.com

All Images Courtesy Listed Residence

SIARI, A RITZ-CARLTON RESERVE RESIDENCE Nayarit, Mexico

CABOT CITRUS FARMS Brooksville, Florida

THE TREADWELL New York

Set within an 800-acre private enclave of old-growth jungle, volcanic cliffs, and a three-mile beachfront on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, Siari will include 39 fourand five-bedroom open-air residences (inspired by nature and ancient Mexican culture) designed by Mexico City–based Bernardi + Peschard Arquitectura.

The Cabot Collection introduces its first US property—three unique golf courses (opening January 2024) and a residential community (on 1,200 acres) on Florida’s central-west coast. A collection of 36 twoand four-bedroom cottages (along the golf courses, fronting Main Street, or at the edge of green space) has just launched.

Clean-and-simple Florida vernacular with shaded verandas, high ceilings, and plenty of natural light.

On a tree-lined Upper East Side block, the 26-floor, Art Deco–inspired building has 66 residences (studio to three-bedroom, many with terraces) offering city and river views.

PERKS: Deep-slip marina and yacht club, 18-hole Tom Fazio Golf Course, glass meditation house, star-gazing observatory, and miles of jungle hiking, biking, and running trails. At water’s edge, a private beach club stocked with watersports gear. From $5 million; siariresidences.com

PERKS: Tennis and pickleball courts, a pool and fitness complex, five-stand clay shooting range, a bowling alley, restaurants, a speakeasy, and a kids’ club and treehouse.

From $1.79 million; cabotcitrusfarms.com

PERKS: Meticulously landscaped courtyard with lounge seating, al fresco dining, and a built-in gas grilling station. A meditation room, fitness center with a wellness garden, training room for personal fitness, steam room, and sauna. Private meeting rooms with sound-absorbing materials and integrated AV for video conferencing. From $1.1 million; thetreadwell.com u

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The Spirit of Form

French painter FABIENNE VERDIER’s lifelong quest to understand energy and movement took her from France to China in search of the master painters martyred during the Cultural Revolution.

What she discovered comes to life in her works.

BY BROOKE MAZUREK

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Courtesy of the artist.

Mutation, 2016, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 721/2 x 160 in.

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Though the paint is dried, the movement is alive. Like petrified wood, death and life are suspended in a state of exquisite forever.

D

uring her first meeting with the teachers at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 1984, the artist Fabienne Verdier was handed paper, an ink stone, and a brush.

“Paint a tree,” she was asked. “We’ll see your level, what we can teach you.”

At 22 years old, Verdier had journeyed from France to China’s Sichuan province in search of the last living masters of traditional Chinese painting—the keepers of culture and technique thousands of years old.

“I was interested in movement and spontaneity,” says Verdier, who attended École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. “But this sort of thing wasn’t taught in France and my professors suggested I go to Asia where I might find this approach, this way of manipulating the paintbrush to represent the spirit of the living through the energy of the stroke.”

Standing before her new teachers in China, Verdier found herself straddling two worlds. “For us Europeans, if we want to paint a tree, we take our sketchbook, do a

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study, and imagine a composition.” For the old Chinese masters, the expectation was to capture the spiritual essence of the tree. “To paint the spirit of the tree you have to become the tree. You have to imagine the sap’s surge and capture with your paintbrush this sap’s push toward the light.”

When Verdier asked for a few weeks to complete the assignment, the Chinese teachers laughed. “OK,” they told her.

“You’re starting over.”

In order to immerse herself in the ways of the East, Verdier had to undo the ways of the West. “I had to dismantle all of whom [I’d been before] so that I could find a broader field of perception where there were no longer boundaries between me and the world.” She had to learn how to close her eyes and find the tree within.

To listen to Verdier speak is to intuit her 10 years in China and the 30 that have followed as part of a process of becoming whole. To look at her work is to experience the wholeness viscerally. Large-scale, abstract paintings are characterized by gestural brushstrokes made using enormous, vertical brushes that fuse the East and West. In her Walking Painting Series, bolts of black acrylic reach across carefully prepared canvases— their essence unmoored yet contained, harmonious yet tension-filled, dark yet electric, fluid yet fixed, strenuous yet delicate.

The paint holds the shape of many things: lightning, tree branches, a snaking river, the chasm of a quaking earth, and the energy force that courses through all these things.

Below: Voice Breath Column III (Edith Wiens Class 12.2014), 2014, oil pastel arches on vellum, 311/2 x 241/2 in.

Opposite: Ti Ricorda Il Primo Amor, 2020, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 831/2 x 54 in.

Though the paint is dried, the movement is alive. Like petrified wood, death and life are suspended in a state of exquisite forever.

In late September, Verdier was home in Vexin, north of Paris, where she works from a studio designed around the brushes that hang from the ceiling. She has kind, patient eyes and tufts of gray hair, and as she spoke about where this moment in life currently finds her, it became increasingly easy to see nature itself peering through her being. The lines on her face, poised and generous, were like the ones that wise oaks age into. Stillness emanated from the inside out. 

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Courtesy Waddington Custot and the artist. Opposite: Top left, © Benjamin McMahon; bottom right, courtesy Waddington Custot and the artist.

Erkhes, Эрхэс - Mongol Galaxie, 2022, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 72 x 531/8 in.

Opposite: Fabienne Verdier in her studio

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© Laura Stevens. Opposite: Courtesy Waddington Custot and the artist.

What is present in your art and life right now?

It’s curious, I feel I’m in a sort of shock in the face of the unprecedented violence of our societies. Barbarism, wars, the suffering of people. The exhaustion of our little planet. And for the painter that I am, it’s about becoming resilient and acting for the living. This is where I want to give all my strength, as if it were an inner necessity. After these long past years of confinement, after the whole COVID period and working in the studio around death for my last exhibition, Le Chant des Étoiles, I currently aspire to paint a kind of rebirth—like a wild desire to capture with my paintbrushes the sacred part of life. I’m currently absorbed in the creation of triptychs whose two-sided panels can open or close like the wings of a butterfly.

How is the circularity of life and death alive for you?

There is no real death. We are beings in constant transformation and it’s something extraordinary. When I became interested in the subject of death, it was through Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece. In it, there is a panel of the resurrection where an unexplained and extraordinary aura of light is behind Christ, and this Christ is being consumed and disappearing. It was the body undergoing transformation toward death and changing into light, luminous energy. So, I began to reflect on this transformation of the human body.

Scientists tell us we are of stellar essence, that we are stardust and beings of light. I listened to an astrophysicist once who spoke of the death of stars. He said that when stars are very old, they can no longer resist their center of gravity. They collapse in on themselves and by collapsing, they implode.

While imploding, depending on their physical matter, an extraordinary aura of light emerges.

From this aura of light, the microparticles of matter melt into nature and there’s no real death of stars, as from this accumulation, new stars are born. I found this very beautiful—to imagine a body of work, new icons in painting, that compare human death to the death of a star.

What were your most formative early experiences with art?

Visits to the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris as a child. My father moored his houseboat on the quay below the museum. Every weekend was devoted to discoveries: Jean Tinguely’s machines, Niki de Saint Phalle’s women, Takis’ installations, Yves Klein’s blue monochrome backgrounds, Lucio Fontana’s notches, and so many other things that fed my childhood imagination.

How does your creative process unfold?

For each series of paintings, the genesis always lasts two or three years between the first contemplations. There are initial draft writings, sketches, research in my notebooks, workshops, and an almost scientific research process to see how this subject has been addressed over the centuries. I want to see how our generation can bring a new perspective to the topic. It’s always a long birthing process.

What about the actual painting itself?

A painting begins by creating a background.

By background, I mean a vibrating pigment field. For the series I’m currently working on, I start with layers of very luminous silver or aluminum, then apply random deposits of glazes in the most transparent colors possible, using fine silkscreen printing screens. My aim is to optimize the refraction and vibration of light on the color pigments, so that they can vary once the work is hung on the wall, as the day’s light changes.

How integral is daily ritual to all of this?

One really has to step aside from the life of the world and society, and lead a life that is very ordinary, with extremely ascetic hours. There are hours of rituals, work, meditation, and contemplation that nurture the moment when I’ll grasp the clouds of paint and strike the form. To attain that mastery, it’s immense work.

Your father was an artist.

He was the artistic director at an advertising agency. He made that commercial with Salvador Dalí: “Je suis fou du chocolat Lanvin!”

[I’m mad about Lanvin Chocolates!].

When did you realize you wanted to become an artist yourself?

At around 15 or 16 years old. That’s when my father said to me: “Painting is serious, let’s see if it’s what you really want to do.” We went to the garbage dump, picked up some old iron pots, brought them home and he said, “You paint them. Lock yourself in a room and we’ll see what the results are in a few days.” He must have thought I’d give up, but months later I was still trying to paint those pots.

He realized there might be some hope and allowed me to enroll in art school.

Westerners had rarely traveled to the Sichuan province since 1949. What compelled you to go?

It was the era of conceptual art in the ’80s, and there wasn’t much instruction for painting anymore. There was one drawing teacher, however, who detected a certain vitality in my line. I wanted to capture birds in motion, and he suggested I take up animal painting.

I spent my days looking at stuffed animals in the windows of the Museum of Natural History. I began to immerse myself in books on Chinese and Japanese painting, where I saw that painters had achieved great vitality with just a few brushstrokes. My teacher told me that they didn’t teach that here and that I should go to Asia. And that’s when I decided to study in China.  LM FALL/WINTER 2023 199

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subject. It’s as if I, Fabienne Verdier, become the tectonics of the mountain, I become the turbulence of the air, I become the subject that I am painting. It’s a great liberation of the ego, a great freedom.

In China, did you ever sense that you’d been there before? Did any of it feel familiar?

No, the education was very challenging. For centuries in the West, we’ve been taught to construct the world through the vanishing point, the Euclidean way of thinking. In Asia, I discovered that in the act of vertical painting, the point becomes a vertical gravitational point between heaven and earth. It’s a painting of flow.

A painting of flow because the canvas is on the ground instead of an upright?

Yes. Jackson Pollock was one of the first to understand this in his drippings. There was a vertical flow of material, and when he set up his canvases [horizontally], he felt a cosmological composition very much in harmony with the forces of the universe.

In their brushes, the Asians invented a kind

of reservoir inside. So, when you infuse energy into the brushstrokes vertically, the brush works like a waterfall in the high mountains: It’s a constant gravitational flow and in this flow, you can convey the universal energy that brings life to all forms.

What I find most fascinating in the act of painting is when suddenly my body, the body of the brush, and the axis of gravity become one. At that point, something happens. A force between the powers of the earth and the sky.

There’s something at that moment that is beyond me.

One of the giant brushes in your studio has bicycle handlebars attached to it. Why? I didn’t feel free enough with the traditional Chinese brush, so gradually I modified it. I began to realize that my body itself was in the way when I started wanting to paint vortices and swirling, centrifugal forces. Suddenly with the handlebar, I was no longer painting with the involvement of my body. [In this way], I discovered a third dimension in the energy of the brushstroke. We were no longer on a two-dimensional plane.

Courtesy Waddington Custot and the artist.

What were some of the greatest lessons you learned there?

I hadn’t realized that I was entering a very harsh, totalitarian system just 10 years after the Cultural Revolution. And so, I found myself even more confined at 22 behind the [barred] windows of a small office that the school had transformed into a student room for the only foreigner they had at that time. There, the old Chinese masters taught me introspection.

That is, I was alone with myself, and I couldn’t easily go outside alone to paint reality, nature. I had to close my eyes and learn this introspection.

In the West, there is man and there is nature. The traditional culture of the ancient [Chinese] masters tells us that man and nature are one, that there is no difference. The universal energy that is around you and that you want to paint ... it is in you. It is in the river, it is in the tectonics of the mountain, it is in the movements of the wind, it is everywhere. You are part of this same universal energy, so if you close your eyes, take your brush, and paint this universal energy, it runs through you. When I think about it, it’s as if I’m melting into the

Are there any artists currently inspiring you?

I have great admiration for the 14th-century Russian painter Andrei Rublev, who fought all his life in a time of total barbarism to try to depict universal love in his icons. When we look at his Madonnas, we feel, across all cultures, a sense of peace and a fullness of what our humanity can be—all on one small piece of wood. It’s not a rich art. It’s very simple. To express an inner experience through a brush of three goat hairs ... I find that intriguing.

What lies ahead for you in 2024? What do you look forward to?

I live so much in the present moment. If you are fully in the present moment, you are everything you have been, and within you is already everything you will be. u This interview was translated from French to English. It has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Left: Deh, Vieni Alla Finestra, 2020, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 72 x 531/8 in.

Above: Polyphonie 1, 2015, pigment ink and varnish on canvas, 351/2 x 707/8 in.

Opposite: Aiguilles de Bavella, 2022, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 461/2 x 701/8 in.

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What’s Next SHOP

This sterling-silver dinner service (right) was inspired by original sketches from American artist Donald Judd and crafted by the artisans of French heritage brand Puiforcat in partnership with the Judd Foundation. Each piece is a work of art. From $6,000 (small bread plate) to $22,000 (serving bowl); puiforcat.com

Artisan blacksmith shop Heart & Spade Forge in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains specializes in individually hand-forged carbon-steel cookware. $825 (three-piece baker set), $1,000 (three-piece skillet set); heartandspadeforge.com Based in Maine with sustainability in mind, Sea Bags upcycles boat sails into handy totes. Each bag is unique, including designs for a new collection salvaged from the racing yacht Tiziana, previously owned by the late Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli.

From $160; seabags.com Officine Universelle Buly scented matches

Puiforcat dinner service

Take accessorizing to the next level with Monogrammed Tennis Balls. Each set of three is stamped with a name or initials and comes in a clear, bronze-topped tube designed

by Anya Hindmarch. Balls available in white or yellow. $43; anyahindmarch.com

is said to be reminiscent of halcyon summer days—a welcome effect on a foggy London morning. When in town, visit the shop for a hot-towel shave; you may find King Charles III sitting in the next barber chair. From $30; truefittandhill.com

FRAGRANCES

Book a session with the scent master at Kaori (in the vaulted cellar of Ogata, a Michelinstarred Japanese restaurant in Paris) to assemble a personalized incense. Or buy one of the premixed fragrances, including sweet-smoky Ogata, which perfumes the entire building.

Formulated in a French laboratory, Officine Universelle Buly sells scented matches ($14) that fill a room with fragrance in one fell swoop. Available in eight different scents (Retour d’Egypte is an elating mix of jasmine, amber, and musk). You can release the same eight fragrances with one of the brand’s alabaster-in-a-porcelainbox perfume diffusers ($75). buly1803.com London’s oldest gentleman’s barber, Truefitt & Hill (granted its first royal warrant by King George III in 1805), launches a new collection of shaving creams and lotions. The line, called Mayfair,

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Assouline Travel From Home Candle Collection

Scent master reservations: reservations@ogata.com. From $535; ogata.com The Travel From Home Candle Collection created for Assouline by renowned perfumer Jérôme Epinette was inspired by the publisher’s best-selling Travel Series Collection. Like the books, the scents transport you to exotic paradises and winter wonderlands—from Ibiza to Gstaad. $80; assouline.com

Courtesy Images, From Top: Puiforcat/Donald Judd; Assouline/Charles Roussel; Buly. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top: Phaidon/Francesco Lagnese; Estate of Rodney Smith; Phaidon; Harper Collins (2); Harper Collins/Ecco

Replacements was started in the attic of founder Bob Page’s home in 1981. Now the business takes up a 500,000-square-foot warehouse and is the world’s largest retailer of fine china, crystal, and silverware. Buy a complete dinner service or just a few pieces to complete a set of vintage Georg Jensen flatware. replacements.com

BOOKS Blue and White Done Right: The Classic Color Combination for Every Decorating Style (above) takes readers on a global tour of knockout blue-and-white decor by some of the world’s top designers who’ve used fabrics and wall coverings by the legendary Schumacher (founded 1889). Styles range from traditional to boho to modern to chinoiserie chic. $55; phaidon.com Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith (top center) features 200 surreal and elegant photographs (chosen by Paul Martineau, curator of photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum) created by acclaimed and iconoclastic fashion photographer Rodney Smith. $65; shop.getty.edu The Atlas of Car Design (top right) surveys the world’s greatest cars—over 650 of the

most revered (and occasionally reviled) models. The edition is packed with images, period photography, and original advertising. $150; phaidon.com Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque is a big-hearted book of stories from one of the first families of whole-hog barbecue. Buy it for the family recipes, from cracklin’ hush puppies and skillet cornbread to baby back ribs and backyard brisket. $38; harpercollins.com Love Is a Pink Cake from London’s wildly successful Violet Bakery (owner Claire Ptak made the wedding cake for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) shares recipes for 75 homestyle yet elegant creations like poached pear pavlova and, yes, the recipe for Harry and Meghan’s lemon-elderflower cake. $35; wwnorton.com

The source material for Italy Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by Italia comes from Italy’s hot spots—ritzy rooftop bars overlooking the Colosseum and hidden speakeasies only known to locals—to feature signature creations by prominent mixologists.

Gorgeous die-cut cover. $23; cidermillpress.com The biography TwentiethCentury Man: The Wild Life of Peter Beard, written by Christopher Wallace, tells of the late artist, wildlife photographer, and conservationist, exploring the social and cultural scenes in which he moved and taking a critical look at the lasting impact of his work. $33; harpercollins.com 

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What’s Next FOOD & DRINK

RESTAURANTS Recently opened in La Jolla, California, Paradisaea combines vibrant tastes—coconut shrimp basted with harissa-lemon marinade; West Coast oysters topped with passion fruit sangrita; a jalapeño Caesar salad that packs a spicy punch. For dessert there’s a fruit Creamsicle and chocolate-mousse-filled ice cream topped with devil’s food cake. paradisaea.com The Grill Room, an upscale, kosher-certified restaurant, opens at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Expect a classic New York steakhouse experience— dark wood, aged steaks perfectly cooked, and all the classic sides, complemented by a nice list of Israeli wines. thegrillroom.co.il

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Golden Poppy

Everyone is talking about the 82seat Golden Poppy, Dominique Crenn’s new Martin Brudnizki– designed Paris restaurant inside the colorful La Fantaisie hotel.

California pescatarian–inspired cuisine includes line-caught sea bass ceviche, abalone tacos with kimchi and avocado, and caviar-topped Parker House rolls. goldenpoppy.com Helmed by Colombian chef Miller Prada, the kitchen at London’s Humo centers on a 13-foot-long grill and serves up dishes such as trout marinated and smoked in juniper, and Orkney scallops grilled on French oak. humolondon.com Just in time for ski season in the Italian Alps, Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler opens in

a South Tyrol, turn-of-the-20thcentury villa, once part of the historic Moessmer woolen mill.

Enjoy the alpine-inspired, downto-earth cuisine Niederkofler perfected at his three-Michelinstarred St. Hubertus. The “Cook the Mountain” tasting menu may include mountain ramen with chanterelles or venison in a salsa of fresh pine needles and fermented gooseberries. ateliernorbertniederkofler.com Chef Mike Lanham’s popular, long-running pop-up Anomaly has a permanent home in San Francisco’s Lower Pacific Heights. The everchanging, 11-course tasting menu continues its bent for modernist-meets-whimsicalmeets-molecular cuisine. Maybe

Humo

prosciutto panna cotta with garlic rice and mint granita, or Ora King salmon with sunchoke and dill paired with wine or sake. anomalysf.com Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo debuts Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac, a nod to the original restaurant on the property in the 1920s, but with a contemporary, sea-forward Mediterranean menu. Highlights include tarragon-infused lobster lasagna, sea bream tartare and caviar cannelloni, and a dessert trolley of sweet treats by in-house pastry chef Patrick Mesiano. metropole.com In its first location outside Rome, Roscioli lands in New York with a series of tasting menus. The most-buzzed-about bites: Calabrian cherry tomato burrata panzanella; polpetti (meatballs) with mushroom broth; pasta classics like cacio e pepe and amatriciana.

Wine pairings include pours from Tuscany and Basilicata.

Tastings and classes offered in the wine-lined, cave-like cellar. rosciolinyc.com

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Paradisaea/John Dole; Golden Poppy/Maki Manoukian; Humo; The Grill Room. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top Left: Rum Room Miami Beach/DeepSleep Studio; Branca Room/Sarah Eli; The Irish Exit; Handshake Speakeasy; Branca Room/Sarah Eli

Paradisaea

Rum Room Miami Beach

The Branca Room

The Irish Exit

BARS Near the Miami Beach Convention Center in South Beach, Rum Room Miami Beach has a tropical, 1920s Florida ambiance and a big selection of rums. Try the jamón serrano croquettes, wild fish crudo, and black truffle corn tamales from the tapas-style food menu. rumroommiamibeach.com The Dead Rabbit, one of the world’s most celebrated pubs and renowned for its strong Irish coffee, opens The Irish Exit at Moynihan Train Hall, adjacent to Penn Station. On the menu: Irish whiskey, Guinness, boilermakers, and, of course, Irish coffee. irishexit.com A marble-topped bar, vintage bentwood chairs, and a charming

back patio contribute to the Parisian café atmosphere at Toronto’s new Bar Pompette.

The wine menu leans toward easy-sipping European selections, the sophisticated cocktail menu is contemporary with several nitro-infused drinks, and there’s a short menu of shareable plates from sister restaurant Pompette.

Live jazz on Sunday evenings. pompette.ca Find Dallas’ The Branca Room at the back of Chimichurri Argentinian Bistro & Bar, or you can enter from the alley (look for the glowing red light above a door). The bar makes its own amaro and vermouth, an exacting process that results in flavors not found elsewhere. thebrancaroom.com

Tirza Wine Bar in Tel Aviv’s ultra-hip Florentin neighborhood serves more than 200 labels, many by the glass. But the theme here is wine and bread, so don’t miss the highly seasonal small bites (charred corn or beef fat bruschetta) by superstar chef Raz Rahav from the celebrated OCD restaurant. tirzatlv.com The team behind Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy launches a second Handshake (a cocktail “laboratory”) in a secret location within the same hotel (the NH Collection Mexico City Reforma). Get the password from the doorman.

Sit at the bar to watch the mixology magic happen. handshake.bar 

Handshake Speakeasy

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What’s Next FOOD & DRINK

The Black Swan

The Bonnie Badger

Henne Kirkeby Kro

STAYING FOR DINNER

Attached to seasonal progressive restaurant ōkta, the eight-suite Tributary Hotel (tributaryhotel.com) in Oregon’s Willamette Valley keeps tables for its three-hour, 10-course dinners open for overnight guests. La Colombe d’Or (la-colombe-dor .com) in St-Paul-de-Vence, France, serves unfussy Provençal food (Picasso, Matisse, and Miró ate here); a stay at the 25-room

hotel guarantees a normally hard-toget dinner reservation. The Black Swan (blackswanoldstead.co.uk) in North Yorkshire, England, has a Michelin star, a 12-course tasting menu, and nine cozy bedrooms a short walk away. In Scotland’s East Lothian golf country (22 courses nearby), The Bonnie Badger (bonniebadger.com) serves natureto-plate cuisine and has 13 ensuite rooms.

Hidden in the heathlands of Denmark’s West Jutland, Henne Kirkeby Kro (hennekirkebykro .dk) has two Michelin stars, Nordic-inspired dishes, and nine bedrooms with Hästens beds. In the tiny Swiss town of Fürstenau, Casa Caminada (casacaminada.com) serves food from local producers (check out the cheese cellar) and maintains stylishly rustic guest rooms.

LAST CALL These pubs ease the end of the night with on-site accommodations.

The Loch & The Tyne (lochandtyne .com) in Old Windsor, England, looks and feels like a proper pub, though with the best beef burgers and a guitarist covering ’80s hits on Sundays, plus book one of two posh guest rooms upstairs (bottom left). The Inver Restaurant & Rooms (inverrestaurant.co.uk), on the shores of Loch Fyne on Scotland’s west coast, is a single-story, whitewashed cottage with open fires and candlelight. The simple menu could be poached langoustine, homemade mayonnaise, and a slab of homemade bread. Overnight in the property’s standalone bothies with inroom nightcaps. The Dundas Arms pub (butcombe.com) in Berkshire, England,

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nestled between the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon canal, is straight out of The Wind in the Willows. The food is simple and hearty; eight bedrooms are available on-site. The Norseman (norseman.ie), in the heart of Dublin’s Temple Bar, has more than 20 brews on tap (more by the bottle) and elevated pub food such as oak-smoked Irish salmon; find five rooms upstairs. Hotel Lilien (hotellilien.com) offers 18 unique rooms over a cocktail bar and billiards room in New York’s Catskills. The establishment has the air of a 19th-century summer house, furnished in vintage wood and rattan pieces with rocking chairs on the porch and Wes Anderson–esque charms. 

Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top Left: The Black Swan; Henne Kirkeby Kro/Anders Schoennemann; The Bonnie Badger/Marc Millar; Loch & Tyne. AdobeStock

Skirt the restaurant reservation waitlist by booking a room with the in-house hotel.

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What’s Next FOOD & WINE

From Jordan Winery in Healdsburg, California, their Curated Collection offerings include virtual tasting kits and food-pairing suggestions for full-size bottles of the 2019 cabernet and 2021 chardonnay, for example. From $110; jordanwinery.com

Frog Hollow Farm (280 acres and certified organic) has thousands of trees growing heirloom varieties like Princess Time peaches, Goshen Gold apricots, Royal Tioga cherries, and exotics such as Arkansas black apples.

Gift boxes and baskets ship nationwide, or procure from a Bay Area CSA pickup. froghollow.com Fabrizia Lemon Baking Company has perfected its limoncello cookies, truffles, biscotti, blondies, and whoopie pies. The secret is the family’s small-batch limoncello from sweet and mild Sicilian lemons. From $12; fabrizialemonbakingcompany.com Terry Black’s BBQ ships Central Texas–style pit BBQ favorites such as pork ribs, beef ribs, brisket, and sausages nationwide.

Feasts come fully cooked, only needing reheating. From $95, for Texas brisket chili with beans; terryblacksbbq.com

Organic wine from grapes grown on King Charles III’s Highgrove Estate include sparkling English rosé ($43) or Atlantique Blanc ($15). Threebottle wicker hamper ($130). highgrovegardens.com

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Mirzam crafts bean-to-bar chocolates from ingredients grown in Dubai. The singleorigin chocolate bars come in 100-percent dark chocolate or with additions like saffron and rose brittle or figs and star anise.

From $9/bar, $44/box; mirzam.com

TOP SHELF Bold spirits with a feminine touch.

Milam & Greene was created in 2017 by founder Marsha Milam, veteran master distiller Marlene Holmes (a 27-year Jim Beam alum), and master blender Heather Greene to release Milam & Greene Single Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($57; milamandgreenewhiskey.com). From ardent whiskey connoisseur and collector Julia Macklowe, the Macklowe American Single Malt Whiskey ($290; themacklowe.com) is pure Kentucky—from the grains to the water to the distillation and aging process in American oak barrels. Mezcal Doña Vega ($50; mezcaldonavega.com) is organic, small batch, and produced in a little town outside Oaxaca by a fifth-generation mezcalera. Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle Iteration No. 25 ($230; laurent-perrier.com) comes from a venerable French Champagne house in Tours-sur-Marne, now overseen by the fourth generation of de Nonancourt women. u —Irene Rawlings

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Ladera Patisserie; Jordan Vineyard & Winery; David Clifford; Highgrove Estate/Robert Smith

Prizewinning jams and preserves from Ladera Patisserie include raspberry rose and white peach; or try Meyer lemon and eucalyptus marmalade—a 2020 gold medalist at the British Dalemain Marmalade Festival.

From $18; laderapatisserie.com

TOGETHER, W E T R AV E L I N G O O D C O M PA N Y.

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ATLAS ALWAYS INCLUDED:

Expedition Guides + Enriching Experiences, Gratuities, Culinary + Wine Tastings, Unlimited Wines + Spirits, and more.

SECOND GUEST SAILS FREE PLUS BONUS SAVINGS OF UP TO $4,000 PER STATEROOM Contact your Travel Advisor or our Voyage Specialists at 844.442.8527 BONUS SAVINGS OF UP TO $4,000 PER STATEROOM ($2,000 PER GUEST) APPLIES TO NEW BOOKINGS MADE BY DECEMBER 31, 2023. BONUS SAVINGS VARIES BY EXPEDITION AND SUITE OR STATEROOM SELECTED AND IS COMBINABLE WITH SECOND GUEST SAILS FREE. SPECIAL OFFERS AND INCLUSIONS ARE CAPACITY CONTROLLED AND MAY BE CHANGED OR WITHDRAWN FROM ANY VOYAGE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY. FOR FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS, CONTACT YOUR PREFERRED TRAVEL ADVISOR OR ATLAS OCEAN VOYAGES. © 2023 ATLAS OCEAN VOYAGES. SHIPS’ REGISTRY: PORTUGAL 2742_09.29.23