The New F430 Spider

Kerry Joyce prefers to blur the lines between contemporary and classic forms. “I guess you could say I’m a chameleon in terms of the styles I do,” the Los Angeles–based interior designer says of his eponymous furniture collection, which DessinFournir of Plainville, Kan., produces. “I create modern pieces for a modern house and traditional pieces […]

French designer Philippe Starck describes his designs as an attempt to bring poetry and surprise to the otherwise mundane. If not poetic, his design of Duravit’s new headquarters and design center in the Black Forest town of Hornberg, Germany, is certainly surprising. The building’s facade, a mixture of glass and stainless steel panels, serves as […]

For those not fortunate enough to call La Jolla, Calif., home, the beachside community’s Hotel Parisi (858.454.1511, http://www.hotelparisi.com) has added extended-stay apartments to its collection of elegant guest rooms. Just steps away from the beach, the Parisi Apart units feature full-size granite kitchens and baths, and range in size from 420 to more than 2,000 square […]

Rowers seem to be overlooked as a travel demographic, but Randonnee Tours (204.475.6939, http://www.randonneetours.com), an outfit that arranges self-guided trips, now offers excursions for skilled scullers. Randonnée’s packages include rowing sessions at clubs in Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle, while allowing time for other pursuits in each city. Rowers can select a starting date from now through […]

In the early 1920s, Ohio glass manufacturer Edward Libbey commissioned noted architects George Thomas and Wallace Neff to build, respectively, a private golf course and Spanish Colonial–style clubhouse in a rural valley northwest of Los Angeles. By the time filmmaker Frank Capra selected the same valley for his depiction of Shangri-la in 1937’s Lost Horizon, […]

The image of the Sporting Gentleman has remained firmly embedded in the human psyche for eons. While it is unlikely that this universal figure of genteel virility was with us in our salad days of hunting and gathering (though certain members of the tribe may have acquired a reputation for style when handling the flint-tipped spear), […]

  LA AURORA SAPPHIRETo those who consider tubos—cigars protected in metal, glass, or wood tubes—an ideal gift, La Aurora has produced what may be the ultimate offering. The company, the oldest cigar manufacturer in the Dominican Republic, has created a distinctive line of perfectos enclosed in metal tubes shaped in the same symmetrically tapered style […]

If nothing else, readers of Alain Ducasse’s encyclopedic Grand Livre de Cuisine (Les Editions d’Alain Ducasse; http://www.alain-ducasse.com) will acquire a heightened appreciation for the complexity and artistry of the master chef’s creations. The massive tome (1,080 pages, $250) is the first of the four volumes in Ducasse’s compendium to be translated into English. (The other […]

Wine and generosity of spirit go well together, as Auction Napa Valley’s barrel tasting, held this past June at the Trinchero Family Estates winery, has demonstrated. There, well-groomed gentlemen and ladies of refinement entered the winery, nonchalantly bearing their empty Riedel vessels; hours later, they emerged into the glare of sunlight somewhat unsteady, somewhat disheveled, […]

  BARNETT VINEYARDS CABERNET SAUVIGNON RATTLESNAKE HILL ESTATE 2002Despite its somewhat menacing name (particularly for ophidiophobes), Rattlesnake Hill appears to be anything but a nest of percussive vipers. The undulating rows of grapevines that follow the curves of the rock-strewn slope, which is situated more than 2,000 feet up the side of Napa Valley’s Spring […]

The nauseatingly sweet scent of crushed sugarcane lingers in the air on a sweltering morning at Industrias Licoreras’ Escuintla processing plant. Wheels, hoses, presses, and blades move, wash, mash, and chop the cane into what the beverage company’s master blender, Lorena Vásquez, passionately refers to as miel virgin, or virgin honey. The caramel-colored juice is […]

There is something very fishy about Laurent Tourondel’s past and present. As a youth, the Frenchman worked in restaurant kitchens in his native country, often serving as a poissonier, or fish chef. “I like the challenge of fish, and the variety of fish,” he says. “You’ve got to get good product, and it must be […]

The nebbiolo grape is the force behind Piedmont’s most revered reds, Barolo and Barbaresco, but Barbera, the region’s most widely grown grape, increasingly is the source of exceptional wines. The 2000 vintage of Piedmont reds is a rarity, offering both quantity and quality across the varietals. The region is home to thousands of wineries, many […]

Like all of us as we mature, old vineyards have acquired a well-weathered depth of character. Driving past acres of trellised, cordoned vines in any wine country on earth, one glimpses occasionally that singular field that breaks the measured monotony of endless, uniform rows. These vines are as individual as aged human faces. Gnarled, twisted, […]

“Tasta, tasta! Snufia, snufia!” Giorgio Romagnolo whispers insistently to his white hound in the Piedmontese dialect of northern Italy. (“Taste, taste! Sniff, sniff!”) “Cerca, cerca!” (“Search, search!”) We are deep in the woods in the dark of night. Nose to the ground, Romagnolo’s dog, Diana, flashes like an apparition in and out of the undergrowth. […]

George Bennett, an ambitious immigrant from Bandon, Ireland, arrived on Oregon’s southern coast in 1873. Within a year, he had settled in a small village at the mouth of the Coquille River and renamed the community after his hometown in County Cork. Indeed, the area’s dank climate and windswept sand hills were not unlike those […]

Now here is a pleasant view: Rising steeply just across the road from my balcony at the Hotel Jagdhof in Neustift, in the Austrian Tirol, is an Alpine meadow, a broad expanse of deep green dotted with wildflowers. Sheep and goats move slowly across its slope, grazing on the spring grass. From somewhere below comes […]

For watch fetishists whose tastes run toward the bizarre, Harry Winston’s annual Opus projects never fail to arouse. For each of the past five years, the company has enlisted an avant-garde independent Swiss watchmaker to produce a timepiece that challenges watchmaking conventions. This year’s Opus V, of which Winston will make 100 priced at $107,000 […]

Pens may not require the intricate technical mechanics of fine Swiss watches, but manufacture Girard-Perregaux (877.846.3447, http://www.girard-perregaux.com) believes that both of these everyday objects should be works of art and craft. Through a partnership with Italian pen manufacturer Montegrappa, the watchmaker recently introduced a limited collection of writing instruments that pays tribute to its three-bridge […]

Watches have become so large these days that Cartier (800.227.8437, http://www.cartier .com) decided its most massive model, the 38 mm Pasha de Cartier, was looking underfed. While creating its new Pasha 42 ($13,900 to $47,900), the company beefed up more than just the case. The 42 mm watch features a new movement—the 8000 MC made […]

A wardrobe staple of Ivy Leaguers in the 1950s, the colorful and coarse Harris Tweed wool sport coat eventually lost its cachet when its popularity with the upper crust led to a deluge of lower-priced knockoffs made from inferior materials. Over the past five years, however, upscale clothing makers—including Attolini, Belvest, Borrelli, and Oxxford Clothes—have […]

Soon after Polish immigrant Sam Kwiat arrived on Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century, he began peddling loose diamonds and discovered his knack for identifying high-quality stones and selling them to the burgeoning audience of downtown jewelers. Kwiat later became one of the first suppliers to establish his business in what would […]

“Hublot,” Jean-Claude Biver declares with all of the vehemence that he can muster, “is like a sick man on his deathbed!” Then Biver, the new CEO of Hublot and an executive who has demonstrated an ability to cure ailing companies, pantomimes the resuscitation and recovery of a sick patient who goes from being in a […]

Fashion imitates art at Dolcepunta’s New York showroom, where a gilded picture frame showcases a colorful silk necktie that has been turned inside out, butterflied, and pinned to reveal the numerous hand folds and stitches executed by company founder Rolando Scapellato. More than just an illustration of the complexity of fine neckwear construction, the display […]

On a March evening in 1930, Woolf Barnato, heir to a South African diamond fortune and chairman of Bentley Motors, was attending a dinner party aboard a yacht moored near Cannes, France, when he presented a preposterous wager. Conversation at the soiree had turned to a rival automotive manufacturer’s claims that its latest model was faster […]

Driving any Ferrari is a glorious experience, but make it a spider, drop the top, and motor to a speed that is almost too fast, and the exhilaration approaches ecstasy. Ride that topless spider beneath a Michelangelo sky in mother Italy, through the wine, cheese, and ham regions around Parma and in Piedmont, with insistent […]

The public had yet to catch a glimpse of Speed, Style, and Beauty, the exhibit that ran from March through early July at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, before the controversy began. The MFA’s management had expected people to talk, but some critics took issue with the subject matter’s even appearing in the museum. After […]

City streets, interstates, and showrooms abound with two-seaters masquerading as racecars built for the street. They are only perpetuating a myth, for tailpipes the size of toilets, a turbo or two, stiffer shocks, large and largely faux spoilers, and dabs of carbon fiber trim do not a racecar make. Even factory applications of F/1 technology […]

Everyone agreed that the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO was a lovely car with an intriguing history. “A Who’s Who of racing had driven it,” says Paul Russell, the auto restorer who revived the Alfa Romeo that is the subject of “Alfa Tale” in this month’s issue. “It had been raced by the Rodriguez brothers, Roger Penske, […]

Sipping a cocktail while lounging in the Patio de Caballos at the elegant Hacienda La Boticaria Hotel near Seville, Spain, BMW board member Burkhard Goeschel gestures toward a new bronze BMW M6 parked nearby. “You can easily become addicted to this vehicle,” Goeschel says as the car crouches low over its 19-inch spoked alloy wheels, […]

Early in Jack Smith’s writing career, the Philadelphia Inquirer dubbed him “Our man on the macho beat” for his coverage of the French Foreign Legion, pro football, and lion taming, and for surviving a three-round bout with then–light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks. Since then, Smith has become better known for his observations on the world […]

Born in the wake of the 1961 Palace Revolt at Maranello, the Breadvan is perhaps the most instantly recognizable Ferrari—for both its quirky name and radical silhouette. This legendary car will be auctioned by Christie’s on August 18 in Monterey and will carry a presale estimate of $3.5 million to $5 million.   Giotto Bizzarrini […]

The action of the chassis, the sound in your ears, and the feedback through the steering wheel make a ride aboard the Virtual GT racing simulator (www.virtual-gt.com) far more than just a video game. The simulator, which is shaped like a racecar and is about the size of an executive desk, utilizes a 27- or 37-inch […]

Few vantage points offer a finer view of Scotland’s mist-shrouded mountains and lakes than does a seat aboard Loch Lomond Seaplanes’ (+44.1436. 675030, http://www.lochlomondseaplanes.com) Cessna Turbo Stationair T206H. Launched in the spring of 2004, the optimistically named seaplane charter service leads airborne tours to the country’s golf courses, single-malt distilleries, fishing glens, castles, or all […]

Although Wes Selvidge has owned Sunken Treasure for a decade and has shown it at Lake Tahoe’s annual Wooden Boat Week for each of the last five years—winning the People’s Choice Award in 2003—he knows little about its history. Selvidge acquired Sunken Treasure in 1995, after the Placer County sheriff’s dive team fished the 14-footer […]

When developing the Eclipse 500, Eclipse Aviation CEO Vern Raburn envisioned his aircraft and other very light jets, with equally low purchase prices and operating costs, serving as the basis for an air taxi system that would utilize the thousands of regional and local airports throughout the United States. “What air taxis are about is […]