Smartbuy issue dated February 2, 2011

Smartbuy Business Line

G A D G E T S

|

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A U T O |

L U X U R Y

www.blsmartbuy.com

Suzuki Kizashi Driving Maruti’s first luxury sedan Page 7

+

Samsung ST600 reviewed BlackBerry Bold 9780 tested

WHAT’S HOT this week

Team Smartbuy Editorial Anushya Mamtora anushya@thehindu.co.in

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala ketaki@thehindu.co.in

Mahananda Bohidar mahananda@thehindu.co.in

S. Muralidhar muraliswami@thehindu.co.in

Design Bryan Gaughan aqua@thehindu.co.in

Balakrishnan designkbala@thehindu.co.in

Advertising Contact R. Diwakar ramdiwakar@thehindu.co.in

Pocket storage Buffalo MiniStation

Web Advertising Contact N. Amarnath amarnath@thehindu.co.in

www.blsmartbuy.com Become a fan of our Facebook page: BL Smartbuy Follow us on Twitter

This pocket-sized hard drive from Buffalo is USB 3.0 equipped, for faster transfer speeds up to 5 GBps. The plug and play device is compatible with both PCs and Macs, and requires no external power source.

The MiniStation is also energy efficient, reducing power consumption and battery usage during periods of inactivity. Its backup utility will create a copy of all your files, so you never have to worry about your data getting lost. Take your pick from glossy black and white.

500GB: Rs 4,200 1TB: Rs 6,500

Cover photo: S. Muralidhar

‘QWERTY’ fun!

Dual delight Motorola Milestone XT800

Nokia X2-01

The Android 2.1 powered XT800 is the first phone in the Milestone series to feature a dual mode (CDMA/GSM) and dual SIM, making it compatible with practically any network. The display is a large 3.7-inch FWVGA touch screen, with a resolution of 854x480. The 5-megger camera features a dual LED flash, digital zoom and autofocus, and is also capable of 720p HD recording – which can be transferred via an HDMI slot.

Rs 31,999

The latest Nokia is the X2-01, which offers you a full physical QWERTY keyboard. The budget handset comes with a VGA camera, Ovi Life Tools, push e-mail and one-key access to social networking apps. The internal memory is just 55MB but can be expanded up to 8GB with an additional memory card.

The handset comes in five colours - Red, Deep Grey, Silver, Lilac and Azure.

Rs 4,459

Smartbuy

2

February 2, 2011

‘Scan’dalously good! Plustek OpticSlim 2600 Plustek introduces OpticSlim 2600, flat-bed scanner for easy use at home and small offices. The OpticSlim 2600 comes with five one-touch action buttons including Copy, OCR, E-Mail, Custom and PDF to integrate with the bundled software. The OpticSlim 2600 is capable of scanning A4-size documents at an optical resolution of 1200 dpi. You can plug it in the USB port of your computer or laptop to transfer the scans.

Rs 3,450

Smartphone splash Samsung Wave II

Winds of change MSI WindPad 100W The WindPad 100W Tablet PC features the Intel mobile platform processor and a 10.1-inch touch screen which supports multi-touch gestures. The tablet runs on MSI’s proprietary WindTouch user interface and features dual cameras. The WindPad 100 comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office Starter 2010. It integrates a number of frequently used applications like MSI’s EasyViewer photo management software, Windows Multimedia Center that can be used for MSN, Skype and IE, and a web phone.

Rs 34,990

Smartbuy

3

February 2, 2011

The Wave II is the fifth phone by Samsung to feature its proprietary ‘bada’ OS, and is powered by a 1GHz processor. The 3.7-inch LCD display is ideal for watching movies, gaming or simply browsing through photos, and is encased in a seamless aluminium body.

It also features Quicktype by T9, which offers a Swype-like texting experience.

You can also record and view videos in HD, and get snapping with the 5-meg camera with LED flash. The phone comes with 2GB of internal memory expandable up to 32GB. Rs 20,900

CAMERA review

Product photos: R. Ravindran Test photos: Ketaki Bhojnagarwala

Samsung does a double take!

Ketaki Bhojnagarwala he Samsung ST-550 was a revolutionary point and shoot with its dual-view LCDs, which made shooting self portraits really easy. Recently, Samsung launched two further models in the ST series, the ST600 and ST100. We get the ST600 on our test bench to find out whether it’s worth the upgrade.

T

Look and feel For those of you familiar with the ST550, you’ll immediately notice the change in the size of the front LCD, which has been upgraded from 1.5-inches to a more convenient 1.8-inches. The front LCD can be activated either by pressing the dedicated button on top of the camera, or by tapping it when the camera is turned on. We had to tap the screen a few times to get it to turn on though.

The rear LCD is a large 3.5-inch display, and is touch enabled – which accounts for its size. There are no physical controls on the rear. The play button is located on the outer right hand corner, which is actually really convenient.

The lens is a 27mm wide angle Schneider Kreuznach, with a decent 5x optical zoom.

Storage is in the form of micro SD or micro SDHC cards – a little inconvenient if you’ve been using regular SD cards on other cameras. There’s also the provision for a mini HDMI port – since the camera supports 720p HD video recording.

One major drawback is the lack of a micro USB port – you have to connect up the camera through Samsung’s proprietary cable. The only advantage to this is that you

can charge the camera directly through a wall socket – without having to bother about taking out the battery and putting it in a separate charging case.

Controls All of the controls, except zoom, are touch-based. The rear LCD is pretty informative, and displays all your data as you’re shooting so you know exactly what settings you’ve enabled. At the top left corner there’s a button to activate the different modes. There is a dedicated Program Mode, but there’s not much that you can do with it. For example, you can adjust white balance, ISO and exposure, but not shutter speed and aperture. There’s also a Smart mode which recognises your scene automatically.

Apart from that there is the usual line-up of scene Macro shot: Image looks washed out and not much detail visible

Smartbuy

4

February 2, 2011

modes which you can choose from, including Portrait, Fireworks and Beach/Snow. Unfortunately, in Scene modes you can’t adjust any settings apart from Focus Area, so the camera decides all manual functions on its own.

All the controls are displayed as icons, so in order to know which icon represents what function, you have to slide your finger across them for the information to pop up. However, if you’re just browsing through functions and your finger stops at a particular icon, it gets activated automatically, so it’s a bit of a pain to go back and forth. We must say that the touch sensitivity was excellent though, and made navigating menus really smooth and intuitive.

Front camera Activating the front camera brings up a list of settings specific to it, so you don’t have much control over manual settings. There’s a Smile shot, where a Smile icon appears when you press the shutter down halfway, and is a good indicator of when you should display your pearly whites for the lens.

There’s also a Jump shot, which is a pretty cool feature.

When you press the shutter, the front camera displays a countdown, at the end of which there’s an indicator of when you should jump. The camera then snaps three consecutive images of you, so you usually end up with one shot mid-air. It’s a really fun and innovative feature, which should appeal to the younger crowd.

There’s also a special kids mode, which displays cartoons to encourage the child to pay attention to the camera and even generate a few smiles. The Couples shot automatically snaps a photo when two heads are in the frame,

Jump shot: One of the fun features you can use with the front LCD

and this worked really well.

Results I tested the Macro and Night modes, which I consider to be two very good indicators of a camera’s performance.

The macro function let us get really close to the subject, but the results were slightly washed out and the colours tended to bleed into each other. We would have liked the option to adjust exposure in Macro mode, but the ST600 doesn’t offer this option.

The Night mode showed a lot of noise (grain) in the images, and didn’t pick up ambient light very well. Results

were mostly blurry, and the photos tended to take on a reddish-orange hue, which is reminiscent of what we got with older digicams.

The camera does offer dual image stabilisation – Digital Image Stabilisation and Optical Image Stabilisation.

There are a number of image effects you can apply to the photos – we especially liked the Vignetting, Fish Eye and Negative effects – which are really fun ways to jazz up your photos.

The battery life of the camera was really poor though, and we could take just about 60 frames before it was completely drained out, so we’d advise carrying an extra

battery.

Our verdict The ST600 is definitely a unique camera, but for users who already have an ST550, there’s not much that the new one offers in terms of an upgrade. We’d recommend it mainly for the younger generation who want a fun camera, but it is not very suitable for someone looking to buy a ‘prosumer’, as it doesn’t really score with its image results.

Love: Jump shot feature, good touch response Hate: Average results, high price tag Rs 19,990

ketaki@thehindu.co.in

Decoding Jargon Digital cameras nowadays are offering a bunch of features which were unheard of until a few years ago. We take a closer look at the three most commonly used features on digicams, to give you a short explanation of how they work Smile Detection

High Dynamic Range

It’s been some time now since not just smartphones but cameras too have adopted ‘smart’ features. One of the earliest of these was ‘Face Detection’ followed by ‘Smile Detection’.

While a couple of digicams got it right, some others were quite inaccurate with the technology and the algorithm that the companies embed in their Smile Detection softwares vary from one to the other. But here’s a generic lowdown on how this feature works.

The software tracks the facial symmetry of the subject and marks certain parts of the human face that would most accurately indicate a change in symmetry when we smile or frown.

These points are most commonly the corners of our mouth and our eyes. When we smile, the camera recognises the change in position of these virtual points and automatically triggers the shutter to take a picture while we are flashing those pearlies.

The term stands for the difference between the brightest and darkest points in a photograph. The higher the range, the better the contrast and colours in the photograph clicked. A couple of softwares offer this option during post-processing but a some cameras now allow you to do it right when you are clicking the picture.

While using a digicam in bright sunlight, we tend to under-expose and increase the exposure if there’s too little light available to get a better shot. But in both cases, some details are always lost as a result of tweaking the exposure levels. HDR imaging retains these details when you click a picture by capturing three shots of the same image with three varying exposure levels. The software then combines all three images and saves it as one that has captured the best of all three differently exposed photographs. One of the best times to use the HDR features would be shooting during sunset/sunrise to

Smartbuy

5

February 2, 2011

capture the varying degrees of light and dark in the frame.

Geotagging Geotagging is the process of adding geographical information to various media, such as photos, videos, websites, etc. In order for geotagging to work with photography, the camera must have an inbuilt GPS, or a slot to attach an external one. Manufacturers like Nikon and Sony have embedded geotagging software in their cameras. Geotagging allows users to find out the exact location of where an image has been photographed. The location is displayed as a geographical coordinate along latitudes and longitudes. For JPEG images, the geotag data is not visible in the photo itself, but can be read by computers or scanners. For cameras that don’t have GPS, websites such as Flickr and Panoramio allow you to attach the picture to a map, and then display the geographical location.

SMARTPHONE review

Is BOLD..err... better?

Photos: S.S. Kumar

Mahananda Bohidar hen the second in the BlackBerry Bold series, the Bold 9700 had made its debut, it won over most BlackBerry users with its peppy processor, brilliant screen, excellent keyboard and trackpad. However, in the BlackBerry Bold 9780 (Bold 3), RIM has retained most of the features of its predecessors, and added a few perks which include a better OS, more RAM and an excellent camera. With all this packed in, is the BlackBerry Bold 9780 going to be your boardroom weapon of choice?

Switching on this BlackBerry is way too reminiscent of waiting for your aged PC to boot up. A slim progress bar is displayed on the screen, and it takes a good few minutes for the phone to start up. Even aged business phones like the Nokia E63 takes lesser time to boot up.

The look and feel is typically BlackBerry – solid, sturdy body that almost feels chunky in your hands, exuding its ‘executive smartphone’ aura despite BB trying hard to break away from that image.

W

What’s different The design is unfailingly similar to its predecessor, the BlackBerry 9700. You have the same buttons on top, however on this version they aren’t touch sensitive, but clickable – nonetheless they are quite convenient to use.

The one on right is a mute button to silence a call or that annoying alarm every morning and the one on left is meant to lock/unlock the smartphone. One observation was that while using the contoured buttons on the left bezel to adjust the volume, either in the middle of watching a video or during a call, there was distortion on the screen space right next to the controls. The body has two customisable convenience keys on either side.

Ours was programmed to be Voice Commands and Camera. As part of sprucing up the user interface, the BlackBerry OS 6 has now added two customisable bars to the home screen. The broad notification bar at the top is now demarcated into two; the top letting you access network and connectivity settings and the bottom indicating the profile you’ve chosen on the left, notifications in the middle and a quick search option on the right.

One niggle with this new interface is that when you decide to call a number and start typing the digits, it automatically reads only the alphabets or the keys you typed and does an in-menu search. The search function itself is pretty quick and accurate but we don’t know why this should be the default function the moment you start typing something when there’s already a Quick Search icon on the home screen itself. A long press of the BlackBerry button continues to prop up the application switch screen but it looks much slicker than it did on the BlackBerry OS 5. With the new OS you have an integrated Messages folder apart from one exclusively for texts. This folder can hold your IMs, BlackBerry messages as well as text messages. The Browser on the Bold 9780 is a new WebKit browser which is a definite improvement on the older web apps on BlackBerry devices. The translucent bar at the bottom that housed icons like Contacts, Messaging, Calendar etc is now designed to display a different bunch of icons as you swipe through Favourites, Media, Downloads, Frequent and the last one propping up all the apps available in the handset.

The optical trackpad is smooth as ice and the tiny, sweeping keys are really comfortable for frequent use.

However, the trackpad is a little more sensitive than it was on the Bold 9700 and it’s easy to overshoot the icon you would want to scroll up or down to.

Smartbuy

6

February 2, 2011

Multimedia When you launch the Camera app, five small icons at the bottom of the screen offer you the choice to glance at the pics you have already taken; you can adjust the Flash setting and change from one shooting preset to another.

You can even turn on the GPS feature from this panel and the smartphone will begin to detect your geographical location so you can ‘geotag’ your pictures later.

A notch above its predecessor, the Bold 9780 has a 5-meg camera (Bold 9700 had a 3.2-meg clicker) with close to 10 different pre-structured modes to choose from.

We took action shots of kids playing in a room and some portraits in low-light and both came out pretty well. Video recording however is restricted to standard definition video on this handset. This is a bit of a bummer because even relatively low-end handsets in the market offer 720p recording these days.

A lot of smartphones just about last a working day with your regular amount of voice calls, but the BlackBerry Bold 9700 had a long-lasting battery and this has evidently been carried over to the Bold 9780. We used it for about two days with very high talktime usage.

Our verdict If you already have a BlackBerry and want to upgrade your handset, then the Bold 9780 is definitely a decent option.

But for those who already have a Bold 9700, it might help to keep in mind that the ‘enhanced experience’ offered is just a notch better.

Love – Great camera, comfortable keypad Hate – Limited upgrades, boot-up time Rs 27,990 mahananda@thehindu.co.in

AUTO focus

Photos: S.. Muralidhar

Sign of good things to come for Maruti?

S.Muralidhar or many of us, buying a car from Maruti is a bit like shopping for our daily groceries at the neighbourhood ‘kirana’ store. Just like the latter, the former too is tried, tested, trusted, cost-effective and pretty much like an addiction. Many of us choose both simply by word-of-mouth referrals and are often more than satisfied with our choice despite other options being available.

But, would we also go to the ‘kirana’ store if we wanted to buy gourmet cheese and wine?

Maruti wants to pull off the automotive equivalent of that kind of a retail coup!

After being the driving force and the dominant choice for a generation of Indians seeking affordable personal mobility on four-wheels, Maruti wants to offer a seriously capable luxury sedan for those seeking an upgrade.

The Suzuki Kizashi is Maruti’s first foray into the sporty luxury segment, though it is not the first time that it will be launching an import (completely built unit) in the Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh category. The not so successful Grand Vitara was its first foray in that price category.

Maruti Suzuki is convinced that it has got it right with the Kizashi, with good reason too. Since its introduction in markets like the US, Australia and New Zealand, barely a year ago, the Kizashi has won considerable acclaim and has been rated at the top in terms of safety – a 5-star US

F

NCAP rating by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Design The Kizashi is unlike any other Maruti…oops…Suzuki. In terms of design, while Suzuki engineers have drawn inspiration from elements in our everyday lives, there are really no specific design similarities that have been carried

forward from any of Suzuki current vehicles. Yes, there are few hints of the SX4 in places, but it is pretty much unique from every angle. Yet, the Kizashi seems to be unmistakably Suzuki.

The Kizashi’s exterior design is aggressive, though it is intrinsically simple. Very European in character, the Suzuki sedan’s swooping curves at the front and rear, and the straight lines on the sides make it attractive from most angles. The wrap around headlamp design with dualprojector lamps and the radiator grille, with its lines dipping to from an over-sized airdam, are clearly the most attractive features of the Kizashi’s front.

At the rear, the aggressive design language continues and the Kizashi gets over-sized tail-lamps with circular inner elements. The bootlid sports an integrated spoiler and dual exhaust ends spout out of the large rear fender.

The design of the chrome exhaust ends seem to have been inspired by the Suzuki Hayabusa. But, if you are going to expect a throaty Lambo-like exhaust note, you’ll be disappointed. They are only tail-pipe ends and serve more as aesthetic add-ons.

Interiors The Kizashi is the sixth world strategic model from Suzuki and together with its predecessors, this new flagship sedan too reflects considerable maturity in the design philosophy of this Japanese company.

Smartbuy

7

February 2, 2011

The observation is strengthened when I step into the Kizashi’s beige dominated interiors. Bright and airy, the Kizashi’s interiors exude a lot of upmarket aura. Perforated leather seats, which are 10-way power adjustable and also offer three-position memory, smart key entry and a keyless push start system, are all standard. The dashboard design of the Kizashi is simple and symmetric. There are ample storage options provided in the centre console and door panels. Integrated music system with seven speakers and automatic climate control are also standard fitment.

The seats with neatly stitched perforated leather are comfortable and provide considerable thigh and lumbar support. The squabs for the front seats are also adjustable for better lumbar support. Steering wheel with tilt and telescopic adjustment also gets integrated scroll wheels for controlling the music system, receiving incoming calls and the cruise control.

There are a number of luxury elements that the Kizashi has been given. Fine touches like the stitched leather door trim inserts, rear aircon vents, the pollen filter, the soft polished chrome door handles, leather bound steering wheel and the quality of plastic used all around is clearly much better than what you are used to seeing in Maruti cars. There are even steering mounted paddle shifters in the automatic variant, just like the Honda Civic.

However, there are a few features lacking that might pull down the upmarket feel in the Kizashi, especially for buyers who already own a car in the D segment and are looking for a change. For one, a sunroof option could have been given. LED turn indicators, real wood trim and more interior colour themes could be the other features that buyers would miss in the Kizashi.

Performance I drove the Kizashi in and around Udaipur with a fair mix of city roads and the brilliant highway leading up to Mount Abu. The Kizashi is being offered with a 2.4-litre (2,393cc), four-cylinder, DOHC, petrol engine with variable valve timing. The engine generates a peak power of 178 PS @ 6,500 rpm, which is oodles of power from a Suzuki car that weighs just a shade under 1.5 tonnes.

Stamp on the throttle and the Kizashi accelerates in double quick time. Power delivery is very linear and almost 80 per cent of the peak power is already being routed to the wheels by the time the clock hits 4,000 rpm. During my test drive the car effortlessly hit speeds of up to 180200 kmph. I drove both the 6-speed manual transmission and the automatic – continuously variable transmission (CVT).

I found the manual to be a delight to use. The short throw, slick-shifting gearbox is enjoyable and has a long range available in each gear with adequate power still on standby in each slot, except at peak speeds. In CVT, there was a tendency for the power to get choked off and taper within a shorter band and the shifts took longer than the more nimble automatics available in the segment. The paddle shifters were handy and the overall drive feel in the automatic is also praiseworthy.

Suzuki engineers have worked a lot on the Kizashi’s NVH package, keeping noise and vibration low. Though they have managed to isolate much of the vibration from the passenger cabin there is a certain amount of noise that did tend to seep through at high speeds.

The ride itself is again eye-opening for a Suzuki car.

With a rigid steel chassis and a supportive suspension set up, the Kizashi’s ride quality is clearly oriented towards making it a driver’s car.

The Kizashi offers excellent straight line stability and though you may hesitate to throw it around corners at very high speeds, it is pretty capable of handling those manoeuvres even at

speeds that you will usually expect only European cars can handle. The Yokohama tyres shod on 17-inch wheels offers good road grip and the steering offers pretty precise control. The suspension set up is reinforced MacPherson-strut at the front and multi-link at the rear.

The Kizashi has won accolades for its safety features and Maruti Suzuki is not skimping on the amount of safety that has been packed into this sedan. You get six airbags, ESP (electronic stability programme) with traction control, ABS with EBD and Hill Hold Control in the CVT variant.

In terms of position-

Photo: S. Muralidhar

ing, the Kizashi is longer and wider than the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic. Its wheelbase is the same as that of the Civic, but longer than the Corolla. Though this does not necessarily translate into more legroom at the rear, the back benchers in the Kizashi will still have a fairly comfy ride. Dimensionally, the Kizashi will be between these two Japanese competitors and the big boys of the luxury car market, including cars like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.

Bottomline Undoubtedly, the Kizashi is going to change Maruti’s image as a car maker and it will also have a considerable rub-off effect on its other cars. Maruti Suzuki may not be able to clock big sales numbers with the Kizashi, but its impact will still be felt both by the company and its competitors.

However, since the Kizashi is an import, Maruti Suzuki is not going to enjoy the benefit of the kind of pricing

power it enjoys with its other cars. Unfortunately for Maruti this could mean that it will be forced to either out-price the Kizashi or it could mean that the company will have to deviate from its fundamental principle of offering excellent value for money with its cars.

The Kizashi is due to be launched hours after this issue hits the stands. I expect the Kizashi to be priced in the Rs 13 lakh to Rs 16 lakh price band. At this price band, it will be able to take on the competition in the entry-luxury segment with its feature list and will also be great bang for the buck.

For Maruti, the Kizashi is a good sign, literally (that is what the name means in Japanese), and it could well be the harbinger of more premium cars to come from this brand, which had for years been serving us small

cars. A transformation that is akin to going from daily bread to ‘haute cuisine’.

“Hello, is that Ramu kaka? Can you please add two slices of Camembert and a bottle of Chenin Blanc to my grocery list?” muraliswami@thehindu.co.in

MELANGE luxury redefined

Fragrant Brit Warm spices and citrus notes for ‘her’ and juicy mandarin and wintery spices for ‘him’ – Burberry’s Valentine’s offering for the couple in love is the Brit, cased in a classic Burberry check bottle.

Available at Parcos.

Rs 4,240 (Women) and Rs 3,580 (Men)

Montblanc twins

Eye to eye Gucci’s eyewear collection for 2011 impresses with its modern and timeless design for men and women. From aviators with rubber inserts to butterfly silhouettes, the range is exhaustive and fun to choose from. Head to Gucci stores for your own.

Price on request

This sterling silver coated rollerball pen with a blue-grey translucent lacquer and the iconic diamond is the latest from Montblanc’s stable. For fountain pen lovers, there’s also this gorgeous one in black precious resin, teamed with a hand-crafted gold-plated nib. Available at Montblanc boutiques.

Price on request

For the leggy lass With leather straps and black grosgrain band, gold and silver colour hardware and 4-inch heels to stand tall, Fendi’s newest Leather Grosgrain sandal is a winner in its two-tone hues and ladylike shape.

Available at its boutique in New Delhi.

Rs 35,058

‘Exception’ ally yours Waterman’s new range of pens in India is the ‘Exception’, which boasts of style quintessential to the brand. While The Marks of Time and Precious Metals are limited editions and available on request, Night & Day-Ideal and Slim range are displayed at select stationery and lifestyle stores.

Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000 (Slim) and Rs 32,000 to Rs 50,000 (Night & DayIdeal)

Smartbuy

11

February 2, 2011

All in a man’

FASHION for him

t i h c t Ma

y x Se ettes u o ilh

! p u

Alfred Dunhill

S

Etro

Burberry

While the ‘fitted’ and slim look was a rage last year, 2011 will see men taking on a more relaxed avatar with oversized casual shirts for summer and oversized coats and jackets for winter Paul Smith

Gucci

The volume of the top is contrasted with the slim trousers. From Burberry to Gucci to Ermenegildo Zegna, the elegant fitting trouser is a common feature in casual as well as formal wear.

Some are highcuffed, others with just the perfect pleats and can be teamed with oversized coats or snug fit tops

Smartbuy

12

The briefcase style bags can hold on for a while in your wardrobe. What’s in this year is large totes and holdalls in classic browns, beige and black. Sling one on when at work or play

For a relaxed day out, strap on some suave sandals

Gucci

February 2, 2011

s wardrobe!

The swagger is unmistakable, the tuck is perfect and the sturdy belt has just the right number of studs. Men’s fashion ante is right up this year what with all the renewed confidence to stick to what the doctors have prescribed, and well, dabble with some personal experiments. No, this is not a rule book, just some hottest trends spotted in 2011’s menswear collections from the best of brands. Sexy silhouettes, new designs, appealing colours and fun accessories… we have got’em all!

Sexy scarves and silky pochettes are a must have for the fashion savvy male.

The ramps saw plenty of scarves knotted up stylishly at the neck and paired with fitted jackets or informal shirts, and it got tied to the holdall too

Team Smartbuy

Minutiae Silk shirts to scarves and pochettes to belts, the elegant paisley and patchwork designs seep into menswear too

Classic Colours Etro

The reds and the yellows may come out during spring, but the dominant palette this year are classic dark shades of charcoal black, deep blue and deep purples, grey in all its shades and natural whites

Adjustable elastic ankle straps give pants a sporty feel

Gucci

Stand collars are in for jackets and coats, detachable collars too!

Burberry

7 For All Mankind

Etro

Smartbuy

13

February 2, 2011

TASTER’S choice

Love wine? Buy your own vineyard!

Photo: Bloomberg

Photo: Bloomberg

Elin McCoy or his 50th birthday two years ago, Phil Asmundson, Vice Chairman of Technology at Deloitte LLP, flew to Argentina for a vacation and ended up buying a vineyard.

As a long-time wine collector, making his own was a secret dream. During harvest in March or April, he’ll fly down from New York to pick Malbec grapes and play cellar rat. Asmundson bought three acres of land in the Uco Valley for just under $200,000 from Vines of Mendoza, a five-year-old company in Argentina that sells parcels of prime vineyard acreage, plants them to owners’ specifications, then manages caretaking and winemaking. Owners can participate as much or as little as they wish. The 87 so far come from 7 states and 9 countries.

“There aren’t many passions that are made easy to do,” says Asmundson. “This was turnkey.”

The other deciding factors? He loves the country’s signature Malbec grape, and was persuaded that the wines could be “really great quality” because Vines of Mendoza has the help of well-known winemaker Santiago Achaval.

When the deal was final, he and his wife celebrated with bottles of Salentein Primus Malbec ($45) from Argentina and Heitz Trailside cabernet ($80) from Napa. Vines of Mendoza sent him a case of unmarked wines to taste, and used his notes for the style of wine he wanted to make.

F

Luxury resort On a freezing December day, I caught up on the latest developments with co-founder Michael Evans, 45, bronzed from days in vineyard sun, at Manhattan’s Topaz Thai restaurant. Over a spicy salad lunch, he clicked through drawings on his laptop of the company’s new luxury resort, opening in 2012, where vineyard owners like Asmundson can stay while playing vintner, and tourists can be part of the wine lifestyle.

Lots of glass, local stone, a tiny wine blending lab,

courses on Argentine wines - it looked like ambitious high-end Napa with South American cowhide flair and a breathtaking snow-capped Andes backdrop. What started in 2005 as a way for Evans to afford his personal vineyardowning dream, has expanded into a range of ventures.

“I alternated between working in wireless technology and politics, but was also passionate about wine,” he said.

Exhausted by the John Kerry presidential campaign, he was vacationing in Argentina when he was introduced to Pablo Gimenez Riili by a bookseller in Buenos Aires. The two became business partners and in 2006, after looking at 76 pieces of land, they settled on 1,000 acres accessible only by horseback in the Uco Valley, near top wineries Bodegas Salentein and Clos de la Siete.

Financial crash They ran up credit card debt and tapped friends, family and angels for $5 million in costs and $500,000 in legal fees, and started offering three to 18-acre parcels in 2007.

More than 50 of the total 100 sold quickly, but all stalled in 2008.

“You don’t know how hard it is to sell a $200,000 vineyard when the financial world is crashing,” Evans said. In 2010, though, they unloaded another 25. Planting 1.3 million vines, building a winery, and more has cost another $15 million.

There are hundreds of wineries in the Mendoza region, but on my first trip in 2001, there was no wine bar in Mendoza city where you could taste the best. So Vines of Mendoza opened The Tasting Room in March 2007, then a retail shop and wine bar in the city’s Park Hyatt hotel in 2008. They started a wine club, with a warehouse in Napa and recently added a downloadable insider’s guide to the region on the Vines of Mendoza website.

Mid-life crisis Judging from the emails I receive, the owning-a-vineyard

Smartbuy

14

February 2, 2011

fantasy is especially popular among wine lovers in midlife crisis mode looking for a life-change. There are now dozens of projects catering to them. In Oregon wine country near McMinnville is just-launched Hyland Vineyard Estates, a 154-acre project where winemaker Laurent Montalieu is offering homesites with already planted vines he’ll manage for $700,000 to more than $1 million.

Planned communities of home-plus-vineyard are also being sold in Portugal’s Alentejo and France’s Languedoc regions. Evans sent me a barrel sample of Vines of Mendoza’s first wine, a blend of owners’ Malbec grapes, which will be released in March. It was smooth and balanced with lots of dark fruit and earth flavours, though it certainly wasn’t the best Argentine Malbec I’ve had.

“It’s not only people with 3,000 bottle cellars who buy, says Evans. “These are investment bankers, doctors looking for participatory vacations.” And, of course the chance to make wine they’d like to put their name on.

They also include restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and a Napa vintner. London-based Nick Smith originally bought in for investment but says owning his three acres has turned him into a passionate wine buff.

That’s the spirit!

Just after Christmas I received a holiday e-mail from Evans, who was back home in Mendoza with his chocolate Labrador, throwing meat on the grill for friends at his regular Sunday asados (a barbeque gathering). He sent a beautiful photo of sunrise over the company’s vineyards in Mendoza. Outside my door was a foot of snow. I remembered a comment from Asmundson, whose wine, from bought grapes, is now in barrel and will be bottled in 2012, in time to serve at Thanksgiving.

“When I think about my vineyard, I smile,” he said. “I just wish I’d bought five acres.”

(The author writes on wine and spirits for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

BEVERAGE launch

From France, with love

A pink dress for Rose

Aspri Spirits brings yet another iconic wine brand to the Indian palate, Maison Albert Bichot from France.

Some interesting picks from its portfolio is the Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons Blanc Domain LongDepaquit, a tangy and wellbalanced Chardonnay that goes great with grilled chicken and Pommard Clos Des Ursulines Pinot Noir with the nose ranging from fresh mushrooms to sweet spices, leather and raspberry. The deep purple hued Chateauneuf-du-Pape is generous and powerful and pairs well with red meats, game and cheese, and Chateau D’Orson Cotes du Rhone Rouge is fruity and fresh and a barbeque party favourite.

Available at leading hotels, restaurants and select wine outlets across India.

Rs 1,799 to Rs 9,000

Revamped in a pink pastel Ice Jacket and matching Paint Box with pretty birds on tree tops, Veuve Clicquet Rose makes a pretty picture. Designed by artist and illustrator Pierre Marie, the jacket keeps the wine at ideal temperature for two hours and the paint bucket has two outdoor plexi flutes in one half and the other can be used as an ice bucket.

The Rose itself is soft, round and fresh with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and fruity roundness of Pinot Meunier.

Price on request

Happy ‘Grouse’

Icy, frosty, Remy!

Scotland’s favourite The Famous Grouse whisky has launched The Snow Grouse in India, made from grain spirit and matured in oak casks, ‘creating a light, delicate and vanilla sweet whisky with a uniquely smooth taste.’ Best when served ‘seriously chilled’, which goes against the traditional Scotch whisky norm, the Show Grouse has a chilled taste sensation and comes across as smooth and silky with flavours releasing in the back of the mouth when frozen to -18 degrees C. Rs 2,000 (700ml)

Remy Martin has unveiled its REMY iceBOXX for shot lovers in India bringing in a novel way of savouring cognac.

Champagne cognac lovers can enhance the smoothness of the delectable Remy Martin VSOP Cognac by sipping it at -18 degree C, refreshingly frosty out of the iceBOXX. Bursting with notes of vanilla, peach and orange, the beverage can be enjoyed neat or with ‘fruit nectar’. Available at select bars and clubs.

Price on request

Smartbuy

15

February 2, 2011