24th Annual Best of the Best

On the afternoon of November 26, 1922, a small group descended a flight of 16 steps that led below ground to a plain stone-and-plaster wall bearing a seal. One of the men pried a stone loose and inserted a candle inside. “At first I could see nothing,” he later recalled. “But presently, as my eyes […]

Rossi Navi is not as well known as many of its yacht-building counterparts in Europe. But with the delivery of Numptia last July, the 30-year-old Italian yard emerged as an industry leader. The 230-foot yacht, Rossi Navi’s largest to date, is a towering testament to the yard’s prowess in building boats that are beautiful both […]

At 120 feet, the 120SL is the grandest vessel in the Azimut Grande series, a line of 100-plus-foot planing yachts with which the Azimut-Benetti Group bridges the gap between custom and semicustom yacht building. Like the rest of the collection, the 120SL features exterior styling by longtime Azimut designer Stefano Righini. Carlo Galeazzi, who also […]

Tilli Antonelli, who founded the Pershing yacht company in 1981, made a splash last April with the debut of the inaugural model from his new brand, Wider. With the Wider 42, the industry veteran and his dream team of engineers and designers have successfully redefined the weekend-cruiser category.   Equipped with a pair of optional […]

Since mobile mp 3 players took over the world—namely Apple’s iPod, whose first-generation device launched in 2001—audiophiles have scoffed at the thought of a pocket player providing genuine high-fidelity sound. Using these personal devices with Apple’s stock earbuds makes matters worse, and spending a few hundred dollars on upgraded earbuds only goes so far—none have […]

Dave Wilson has a clear goal when designing his loudspeakers. “I try to make my speakers sound like the real thing,” says the founder and lead engineer of Provo, Utah–based Wilson Audio, which began shipping its new model, the Alexandria XLF, in January. But achieving this goal is not entirely dependent on the design of […]

Not since the 2008 release of Pioneer’s fabled Kuro Elite plasma TV has a display panel hit the market with such a refined picture as that of the new Elite LCD TV. After Pioneer shut down its plasma business in 2009, Sharp Electronics, which acquired a stake in Pioneer in 2007, took over Pioneer’s Elite […]

When Marwan Rizek, president of Cameo Kitchens and Fine Cabinetry, decided to update the front display at the company’s Toronto showroom, he resolved to fill it with the kitchen of tomorrow. The result is Fusion ($250,000 as shown), a compelling kitchen design that utilizes new technologies to foster perhaps the oldest human social activity: bonding […]

Last year’s arrival of Bisazza Bagno, a new bath division from the Italian mosaics company Bisazza, introduced unprecedented artistry to the room that needed it most. The company’s first two collections feature rich materials, unusual shapes, and ornate mirrors, lamps, and other accessories that would be just as desirable in a living or dining room. […]

It was not D-Day, but it was a complicated maneuver covering three continents and six time zones. On January 12, Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 opened simultaneously in all 11 Gagosian Gallery spaces around the world, a feat of unprecedented ambition for a private art gallery. The New York, London, Athens, Paris, Geneva, […]

At last count the Range Rover Evoque had collected more than 100 motoring awards. They include a pair of automotive Oscars: North American Truck of the Year for 2012 (selected by a panel of 50 American and Canadian automotive journalists) and Top Gear’s Car of the Year. Even China’s Sohu.com and Guangzhou Daily have honored […]

The Aventador LP 700-4 is as ferocious as its namesake, a Spanish bull that performed in a notoriously violent fight in the early 1990s. It is big and imposing and no gentle giant. Powered by a new 6.5-liter V-12 engine that churns out 700 hp at 8,250 rpm, and 509 ft lbs of torque at […]

For drivers old enough to have experienced the original M5, BMW holds special significance. That car’s small, trunk-mounted M badge struck terror in the hearts of Porsche and Ferrari owners; the prosaic, pugnacious German sedan redefined the limits of four-door performance. Umpteen iterations later, the M5 remains true to its mission, even as the sports-sedan […]

Ferrari purists seldom are followers of soft-top fashion, preferring the marque’s rigid berlinettas and their beautiful flowing forms to the canvas-roofed spiders. However, Ferrari’s latest mid-engine marvel, the 458 Italia, has morphed into a convertible without the fussy fabric flying buttresses of its predecessors. The 458 Spider features a folding aluminum hard top that transforms […]

On Barbados’s Platinum Coast, One Sandy Lane reigns. Designed by Larry Warren, the local architect who also built the legendary Sandy Lane hotel nearby, One Sandy Lane is an ultraexclusive enclave centered on a regal 100,000-square-foot edifice housing just eight villa-style residences. The homes came on the market last fall (seven have sold), and prices are […]

Since their introduction nearly 14 years ago, destination clubs have become popular with affluent travelers looking to vacation in, but not own, multimillion-dollar homes worldwide. But with the economic downturn came the faltering of the nascent industry; some clubs filed for bankruptcy, and members took large investment losses on their membership deposits. Those troubles, however, […]

Space is at a premium in London, relegating many establishments, spas included, to the dark and dank confines of the city’s basements. Not so at the Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane, which reopened last year following a two-year, $200 million renovation. Set in a steel-and-glass aerie that architect Eric Parry describes as looking […]

With its lush volcanic coastline, Kauai has long been the Hawaiian island of choice for hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts. However, with a few exceptions—including the two Princeville courses near Hanalei—golfers have traditionally found more fertile ground amid the many world-class layouts on Maui and the Big Island. And while the new Golf Course at […]

Chef Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas, partners in the wildly experimental Chicago restaurant Alinea, devised an even more daring concept for Next, a shape-shifter whose menus are inspired by a specific time and place and change completely every 14 weeks or so. In its first year, Next has re-created itself around themes ranging from Paris […]

A year after chef Christopher Kostow won three Michelin stars at The Restaurant at Meadowood (707.967.1205, http://www.meadowood.com), he made a surprising move: He closed for three months and rethought everything.   First, the dining room. “The style of food was jarring with the style of the room,” Kostow says. So when the restaurant at the […]

Typically, single-malt Scotch is aged in ex-bourbon barrels and used sherry casks. But in 1994, Glenmorangie—the best-selling single malt in Scotland—began releasing the results of experiments with additional aging in different barrels for already-matured single-malt whiskies to enhance their flavors. Under the direction of Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s master distiller and head of whisky creation, a […]

From the ages of ancient Sumeria and classical Greece to the present day, human beings have treated wine as everything from a religious totem to an art form. The mystic and romantic connotations we have attached to this beverage throughout history make it easy for us to forget that it is fundamentally an agricultural product—albeit […]

Though white wines of epic grace and beauty come from such regions as Alsace, the Rhône, Austria, Germany, California, and Oregon, nowhere does the Chardonnay grape develop the combination of sensuality and soulfulness that one finds in fruit from Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. Connoisseurs in particular associate the Côte de Beaune with white wines that merge […]

Although Calistoga is home to what is perhaps Napa Valley’s most fabled and historic vineyard, the region was only very recently approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau as an American Viticultural Area, or AVA. First planted with Riesling and Zinfandel in the 1880s, the Eisele Vineyard is one of the rockiest […]

In the minds of most enthusiasts, Médoc is the cradle of Bordeaux. After all, this important region on the Left Bank of the Gironde River is home to four of the great châteaux that received First Growth rankings in the definitive 1855 classification: Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux, and Château Mouton Rothschild. Its prominence […]

After struggling for years as a fiction writer, Jonathan Kellerman struck gold with When the Bough Breaks, the first of his novels starring Los Angeles psychologist-turned-detective Alex Delaware. Kellerman too trained as a psychologist, but today, 27 years after Bough, he has 75 million copies of his books in print worldwide. His works include 34 […]

If there is proof that big things come in small packages, it is the Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story Maduro ($6.75), a diminutive figurado measuring only 4 inches in length, with a ring gauge of 42/49. This cigar is a muscular bear hug of a smoke, packed with bursts of burned oak, ground espresso beans, […]