Indulge for Feb 2012

February 2012

An Ode to Italian Craftsmanship Exclusive excerpts and pictures from Fendi’s handbook on fine Italian craftsmanship

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New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune*

2 | mint Indulge | September 2011

The price is right

Made in Alba

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How the online auction market is shaping up and a calendar of selected international auctions

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The Pio Cesare family’s hand-crafted Piedmontese wines have arrived in India

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editor’s note

Contents Indulge February 2012

4| Interview

Viva Italia

I

t might seem like an odd time to talk about Italian craftsmanship.

Between Papa Berlusconi, the economy and that cruise ship captain, the Italians haven’t done themselves any favours lately. The country is, Augusto told me a few months ago in Rome, a complete and utter mess.

Augusto runs a bed and breakfast in Rome, a stone’s throw from the Risorgimento tram station and the walls of Vatican City. Before deciding to open Quod Libet, a small, clean and cheerfully painted establishment hidden away inside a massive old, shabby stone building with a spectacular bakery in the basement, Augusto used to be a member of Alitalia’s cabin crew.

His travels, perhaps, have turned him into the yoga-loving, Goddenouncing, capitalism-hating, Berlusconi-loathing hotelier who seems somewhat gruff on the outside, but has an unmissable frisson of good cheer hidden away somewhere deep inside him. It bubbles up via the occassional smile, before vanishing again when he dismisses the new prime minister—“Super Mario” Mario Monti—as just another stooge of the banking industry.

But despite all his pessimism, there are some Italian things even sceptical young Augusto will not dismiss: “Go here and here and here,” he said, marking shopping

disctricts out on a big map of Rome with a ballpoint pen. “You will get very good clothes and bags and...”

And that list is not a short one.

For all their troubles, the Italians are still some of the world’s most exceptional craftsmen. From cars to bicycles to leather goods to suits to liquers, the Made In Italy tag usually symbolizes high quality, heritage, and a price to match.

When Fendi sent us the second edition of the The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian Hand Making Ability to review in January, everyone in the Indulge team agreed that we had to run an excerpt.

This month’s issue features exclusive excerpts from the book.

Readers will notice that the language of the excerpt is somewhat unique.

This is, in fact, the English— translated from the original Italian perhaps—that is synonymous with several continental European brands. Flip through the product catalogues of companies that make Swiss watches, Italian luggage or German instruments and you’ll read the same lilting prose. It has a certain emotion and honesty to it that more than makes up for the grammatical quirkiness.

We hope you enjoy it.

SIDIN Vadukut issue editor

12| Cover Story

Panerai’s Milvin George speaks about the brand’s association with the India Art Fair and the brand’s future plans for India

An ode to Italian craftsmanship.

Excerpts from The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian Handmaking Ability

6| Watches

Tag Heuer leaps from haute horlogerie to haute joaillerie with the Formula 1 Lady Yin Yang

21| Automobiles

Columns

7|

8 |

Joel Harrison on whisky cocktails Madhu Menon on cooking meat right

Auctions

9|

Saffronart’s Nish Bhutani talks about the online trading platform and emerging trends in the art scene

10| Auction calendars

from Saffronart, Sotheby’s and Christie’s

A look at the Quattroporte Sport GT S, the fifth generation Quattroporte from the house of Maserati

Craftsmanship

17| A look into the

making of the iconic Tod’s Gommino shoes

18| How a Zegna suit goes through 500 hands before hanging in a store

22| Milestones

Pio Boffa, the owner of Pio Cesare winery, talks about the 131-year-old family business

On the cover: Staff at work at a Zegna manufacturing facility.

Cover design: uttam sharma Cover image: Ermenegildo Zegna

Issue editor: SIDIN Vadukut; Editorial coordination: Pradip Kumar Saha; Design: abel robinson, Uttam Sharma, Venkatesulu. Mint editorial leadership team: R. Sukumar (Editor), Niranjan Rajadhyaksha (Executive editor), Anil Padmanabhan, Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Priya Ramani, Nabeel Mohideen, Manas Chakravarty, Monika Halan, Shuchi Bansal, sidin vadukut, Jasbir Ladi, Sundeep khanna. ©2012 HT Media Ltd, All Rights Reserved

interview

India is the Market Where We Sell the

Most Expensive Watches Priyanka Parashar/Mint

On the sidelines of the India Art Fair, Indulge caught up with Milvin George, managing director, Middle East, Turkey and India, Officine Panerai— the Italian luxury watchmaker.

George spoke about the brand’s association with the India Art Fair and plans for India. Edited excerpts:

How has your experience been here?

For us, India is the market where we sell the most expensive watches.

And we have shown our commitment by opening offices here in Delhi.

We are also looking at a boutique in Mumbai and other projects. We know there is potential here. We know the return could be high, but again, it depends on how the Indian economy is connected with the world economy.

But we are very optimistic and think that India will be one of the countries with China, Brazil and other such fastgrowing economies, which will be the driving force of the world economy.

By pradip kumar saha

T

pradip.s@livemint.com

ell us something about the brand’s legacy.

We are an Italian brand, and Swiss-made. We were founded in 1860 by the Panerai family in Florence and so we have the Florentine heritage and culture. Our founder, Giovanni Panerai, owned a workshop in Florence where we did a lot of repair for watches.

We also had a collaboration with the Italian navy and made professional instruments for them like torpedo timers and several other underwater naval instruments and gadgets such as torches and wrist compasses.

In 1936, at the request of the Italian navy, we made the prototype of the Radiomir. And in 1938, we produced the first watch for the navy—the Radiomir, with a 47mm luminous dial, making it easy to read underwater in the dark, and a hand-wound mechanical movement supplied by Rolex.

Between 1938 and 1991, we produced fewer than 300 watches and supplied exclusively to the navy.

So till 1991, you did not make watches for the public at all?

No, we started making watches for civilians only after 1991. Before that, we catered only to the Italian navy. It was kept a secret.

What is Panerai’s USP? First, we do not follow any trend.

Panerai is a big watch, with a clear luminous dial, which can tell you the time very simply. So there is a simplicity in design. We did not stop there. We developed our own movement. Being a part of the Richemont group (which purchased Parerai in 1997), we were able to have our own manufacturer and were able to have our in-house movement.

We have a series of movements— automatic movement, mechanical hand-winding movement, etc. In the automatic segment, we have (watches with) three-day power reserve and 10day power reserve.

On the mechanical handwinding side, and these are watches that collectors love a lot, we have watches with 60-hour power reserve up to eight-day power reserve. And, of course, there is the tourbillon movement, the most complicated mechanical hand-winding movement.

So you know, we have done movements up to that level, where a brand can claim its legitimacy in watchmaking.

How has your association been with the India Art Fair? You have been supporting it for the past three years.

I think, for us, it is the ideal platform to connect with the customers. There is a common ground between people who buy watches or

04

INDULGE | February 2012

be careful about the fact that we are a very niche brand and, therefore, don’t have enough supply. So we will have to evolve in that niche segment, which sometimes is not found easily in different cities.

Now I think India is reorganizing its distribution network a little bit. More malls are coming up. This is all work in progress and we would like to be a part of that evolution in India.

collect them and appreciate the art of watchmaking, and people who also appreciate fine art and design. India Art Fair is about that today.

We would like to show the customer that making a watch is an art.

We are not here to sell. We are here to appreciate art with our customers.

How does India figure in your brand strategy?

We have been here for over 10 years now. We are present in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and, in the future, we also have plans to expand further.

The Indian customer today is well-travelled with a keen eye for luxury products. Fine watchmaking is something we know the Indian customer understands, especially the male customer.

There are obstacles in reaching more customers, but we also have to

all in the image: Panerai’s Milvin George (above). The watchmaker was long associated with the Italian navy, making precision instruments and watches exclusively for it till 1991.

(Below) a photo from the 1940s of an Italian navy commando wearing a Panerai.

For us, India is the market where we sell the most expensive watches. And we have shown our commitment by opening offices here...

What are your plans for India?

In the immediate term, we are planning a boutique at the Taj Mahal hotel, Mumbai, in collaboration with a company called Lifestyle Trading. The concept of the boutique is influenced by the sea. Different elements like vintage yachts, lot of steel, teakwood and bronze. The boutique will also have a VIP lounge and a collectors’ club.

What will be your distribution pattern?

We would like to maintain the exclusivity and the rarity factors of the brand. We are a very exclusive brand.

We don’t have enough supply. We are pretty much controlled by the limited production and, therefore, we have to be careful with that. We have to be very close to our customers because they know us very well today. You have to find a way to appease the customers and what better way than providing them with the exclusive experience by having a stand-alone boutique like the planned Panerai boutique in Mumbai or shop of shops in various cities or corners in some stores. We have two corners in Delhi, one each at South Extension and DLF Emporio mall with Johnson Watch Co. and a third one is at the Taj Krishna hotel in Hyderabad with Helvetica. We are also retailed in multi-brand showrooms in Connaught Place with Johnson Watch Co., Express Mall in Chennai with Helvetica and at Taj Mahal hotel with Dia in Mumbai. We would like to be in a strong watch-making environment, where the customer is, so we cannot be

in any shop. We have to be among the watchmaking brands.

What is your customer profile? What is the male-female ratio?

The customer can be anywhere from 21-25 to 60-65 years of age. We are a luxury technical sports watch brand. But we also have some very classical pieces. So we have a good mix of young and old patrons.

Talking about the gender profile, because of the original DNA of the brand, as we were associated with the Italian navy, we are perceived as a masculine brand by default. But, of course, today, you have women who also prefer big watches with fine movements.

What are the things you would like to change in India?

The first thing that immediately comes to my mind is not directly linked to the customer. It’s the environment that the customer should be shopping in—the infrastructure. I hope to see more premium retail space in major cities in India. I think this is lacking.

What’s also important is to be able to connect more directly with the customer. That can be done through various occasions and events like today’s. It can also be done through selling directly to the customer if we have our own shops. These are the key things, really. And, of course, we would like to see more support from retailers.

You don’t have a brand ambassador.

Any plans for having one?

Yes, that’s correct. We don’t have a brand ambassador. We are involved with a gentleman called Mike Horn, who is a South-Africa born Swiss explorer and adventurer. He is on a five-year journey around the world right now. He is a well-known activist for the environment. We don’t have a plan to get a Bollywood celebrity on board. We want all of them to wear Panerai (smiles).

Does the slowing global economy hurt your future plans?

We have been through 2008-09.

With Panerai, what we felt in those years is that because of the crisis, we were able to fulfil the demand better.

As a brand, we work under a waiting list. You probably have to wait a couple of months before you get the watch. We understand the market well. We have a clear product strategy and have a good distribution network.

So, if things go sour with the world economy, I think it also could be an opportunity for us to readjust a little to review our strategies. But I would not say it will be something that will affect us directly because we operate in a very niche segment. Frankly, we don’t see a negative impact. So chances are that we will meet the demand better (smiles).

You are owned by the Richemont group that houses more than a dozen luxury brands such as Cartier, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, JaegerLeCoultre, IWC among others.

What is the nature of the in-house competition?

I would say it is a friendly competition. We all belong to the same group. The group has made many things possible for us as a brand and we appreciate that. There is a general understanding of how we should cooperate with each other. We compete, but it is a friendly competition. A healthy one to be honest. Something that we are proud of…that we can be together and still strive to do the best we can. I

Profile

Timing it Right

Panerai launched four watches in India during the India Art Fair 2012 in New Delhi. The company sells through select channels in Delhi and Mumbai.

RADIOMIR 3 DAYS PLATINO

RADIOMIR 3 DAYS ORO ROSA

RADIOMIR 3 DAYS ORO BIANCO

Movement: Hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.3000 calibre, executed entirely by Panerai, 16 lignes, 5.3mm thick, 21 jewels, Glucydur® balance, 21,600 alternations/hour. Incabloc® antishock device. Power reserve three days, two barrels. 160 components Case: 47mm, 18K polished white gold with removable wire loop strap attachments (patented). Winding crown personalized OP Bezel: 18K white gold Back: See-through sapphire crystal Dial: Brown, with luminous Arabic and Roman numerals and hour markers Crystal: Plexiglas®, 2.8 mm thick Water resistance: 100m Strap: Panerai personalized alligator strap and large-size 18K white gold buckle Reference: PAM00376 Price: €19,900

MOVEMENT: Hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.3000 calibre, executed entirely

by Panerai, 16½ lignes, 5.3mm thick, 21 jewels, Glucydur® balance, 21,600 alternations/hour. Incabloc® anti-shock device. Power reserve three days, two barrels. 160 components CASE: 47mm, 18K polished pink gold with removable wire loop strap attachments (patented). Winding crown personalized OP BEZEL: 18K polished pink gold BACK: See-through sapphire crystal DIAL: Brown, with luminous Arabic numerals and hour markers WATER RESISTANCE: 100m STRAP: Panerai personalized alligator strap and large-size 18K polished pink gold buckle.

REFERENCE: PAM00379 Price: €17,800

LUMINOR COMPOSITE 1950 3 DAYS Movement: Hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.3000/1 calibre, executed entirely by Panerai, 16½ lignes, 5.3mm thick, 21 jewels, Glucydur® balance, 21,600 alternations/hour. Incabloc® anti-shock device. Power reserve three days, two barrels. 160 components Case: 47mm, brown Panerai Composite.

Bezel: Brown Panerai Composite, integrated into the case Back: See-through burnished sapphire crystal Device protecting the crown: (protected as a trademark) Brown Panerai Composite Dial: Brown with luminous Arabic numerals and hour markers. Small seconds at 9 o’clock Water resistance: 100m Strap: Panerai personalized leather strap and large-size Panerai Composite buckle. Supplied with a second interchangeable strap and a steel screwdriver Reference: PAM00375 Price: €9,400

Movement: Hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.3000 calibre, executed entirely by Panerai, 16½ lignes, 5.3mm thick, 21 jewels, Glucydur® balance, 21,600 alternations/hour. Incabloc® antishock device. Power reserve three days, two barrels. 160 components Case: 47mm, platinum with removable wire loop strap attachments (patented). Winding crown personalized OP Bezel: Platinum Back: See-through sapphire crystal.

Dial: Brown, with luminous hour markers.

Water resistance: 100m Strap: Panerai personalized alligator strap and large-size white gold buckle Reference: PAM00373 Price: €29,900

watches

Time Facets of

T

he Formula 1 Lady Yin Yang is perhaps the most opulent watch Tag Heuer has ever made. Recently, the brand has launched a number of highly complicated timepieces targeted largely at the male audience. Last year’s Mikrotimer and Mirkograph were both ingenious pieces that pushed the limits of precise mechanical measurement of time.

But the Yin Yang is a feminine piece with which the brand leaps from haute horlogerie to haute joaillerie. Announced in Geneva in January, the watch is available only by request. TAG Heuer informs us that they are now taking orders.

By sidin vadukut

sidin.v@livemint.com

highlights:

136g of 18K white gold 234 baguette cut diamonds 245 brilliant cut diamonds 7.36 carats Price: R61 lakhs

Dial Yin Yang is the main theme of Tag Heuer’s reboot of the Formula 1 collection this year.

And in this flagship piece, the design is constructed into the dial using two baguette cut diamonds, 198 brilliant cut diamonds and 47 brilliant cut black diamonds. Note the Tag Heuer shield at the 12 o’clock position set in stone.

Case The case has a diameter of 32mm, which makes it perfectly sized as a dress watch. The bezel is inlaid with 28 baguette cut diamonds and 12 baguette cut black diamonds.

Bracelet Constructed from 18 karat white gold and black ceramic, inlaid with 192 baguette-cut diamonds.

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INDULGE | February 2012

column

joel

harrison

drinks consultant

Mixing Drinks

W

hen mass production of liquor was first being developed back in the 19th century, it took a while for the manufacturers to really nail their art.

Sometimes the spirits being produced were, let me put it this way, quite awful.

The only way to mask the substandard nature of the drinks was through making cocktails and thus the art of mixing drinks was born. It was around this time that several eminent bartenders, such as ‘‘Professor” Jerry Thomas of New York and, later, Harry Craddock of London’s Savoy Hotel, found themselves at the forefront of cocktail-development, influencing the early landscape of an art which today is known as ‘‘mixology”.

Both men wrote passionately on the subject and Thomas’ The Bartender’s Guide-How To Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion, originally published in 1862, is widely acknowledged as the first attempt to document mixology in its earliest guise. Assuming the role of head bartender at the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, Thomas travelled across the world, collecting and documenting recipes and mixing

techniques to be tried out on the New York glitterati. His signature cocktail— the Blue Blazer—shows off not only the focus on individual elements of the drink, but also the extreme showmanship he had become known for; in making the drink, he created an arc of flaming whisky which was passed between two tankards. Not something I would recommend trying at home. Well, not while the wife is watching at any rate...

It is men such as these who have inspired me to have a go at mixing cocktails at home (without burning my house down, of course), and, for the last few months, I’ve been choosing a different drink to mix each week, inviting friends over to try my wares. This achieves three goals. Firstly, it invites community between my friends. Secondly, I get to use some of the liquor that rarely gets touched at home, and, thirdly, I can practise making my cocktails, with little shame if it all goes wrong. At least that is the plan.

However, a word of warning: When making a cocktail at home, I would steer away from using my best whisky. Johnnie Walker Blue Label is a blend that has been crafted by the master blender using some of the finest, rarest and oldest whisky available in Scotland. This in itself is a wonderful construction. You don’t need to do a lot more to it than pour it over ice, if you wish, in a large tumbler and sit back after work while trying to ignore the rumblings of your family business for five minutes.

For a cocktail, certainly a whisky cocktail, you’ll need a lower-end blended Scotch (J&B Rare or Johnnie

Walker Red Label) or a straight American bourbon (Jim Beam). You could even use some Indian whisky such as Bagpiper or 8PM. If you’re looking to play with a gin martini, for example, look to use very good gin, as this is where the majority of the flavour will come from. Beefeater or Tanqueray 10 are my choice and always worth picking up at an airport while travelling. You can always justify it as a gift for the wife!

The first cocktail I chose to get to grips with is super-easy: The Whiskey Sour, a fantastically refreshing drink, especially in the summer heat.

Firstly, and this is about as difficult as it gets, you’ll need to make some sugar syrup. An easy job and vital to many cocktails: take around half a litre of water and bring it to a boil. Add Thinkstock photo

sugar, twice as much as water, and stir until the sugar dissolves completely.

Let it cool. This can be stored in a closed bottle in the refrigerator for a couple of months. Longer than my chocolate stays in there, that’s for sure!

From here, making the Whiskey Sour is easy. Cut half a lemon in to quarter segments and squeeze into a cocktail shaker. On top of this, add 25ml of sugar syrup, a dash of orange-flavoured Angostura bitters (another cocktail cabinet must) and 50ml of Jim Beam American bourbon whiskey. The next bit is optional: an egg white. This will add a creamy texture to the cocktail and a wonderful, cappuccino-style frothy head to the drink, but is not vital. The next bit is vital, however. Add lots of ice to the shaker. Put the top on and shake it well, being careful to hold the lid! I have often let the showmanship of making a cocktail take over from the seriousness of the role, only to find the lid coming loose and, seconds later, wearing the cocktail all down my shirt. Not funny at all.

Once the cocktail has been given a good ol’ shake, strain it off into a large tumbler full of ice. Hey Presto! You have one delicious, beautiful and refreshing drink, which will seriously impress your friends. Honestly, once you start making them, you won’t be able to stop!

All you need to do now is expand your cocktail making skills and you’ll be the most wanted man at any party in India! Just don’t go throwing flaming whisky around. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I

Joel Harrison is a drinks writer and consultant and co-founder of the website Caskstrength.net Respond to this column at indulge@ livemint.com

iStockphoto

Apart from the Whiskey Sour, these are some of the easiest and most popular whisky cocktails.

Sazerac

Manhattan

Method: Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and stir until the sugar cube has dissolved. Rinse a tumbler glass with absinthe by pouring a small amount into the glass, swirling it around and discarding the liquid. Strain the drink from the mixing glass into the tumbler glass and serve.

Method: Pour all the ingredients into a mixing glass, add ice cubes and stir well. Strain into martini-style glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Ingredients: > One sugar cube > 40ml American rye whiskey > 3 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters > Lemon peel > Absinthe

Ingredients: > 40ml of American bourbon or rye whiskey such as Jim Beam > 20ml of sweet vermouth such as Martini Rosso > Three dashes of bitters such as Angostura > Maraschino cherry for garnishing

Note: Use Scotch instead of bourbon and you get Rob Roy.

Old Fashioned

Ingredients: > 50ml of American whiskey or Scotch whisky. > One sugar cube with a dash of Angostura bitters on top > Zest of one orange (thin slice of the peel) or lemon Method: Although the recipe is simple, this should take time to construct properly.

Add the ingredients to a tumbler glass with ice cubes, stirring until the sugar cube has dissolved. Add more ice as it melts. Serve with orange zest.

Whisky Mac

Ingredients: > Equal measures of Scotch whisky and ginger wine Method: This one is as easy as it can get. Pour the whisky and ginger wine into a wine goblet. No ice is required. Can be served hot by adding some hot water.

Cocktail recipes by Joel Harrison.

February 2012 |

INDULGE

07

column iStockphoto

Meaty Treat

E

veryone likes meat dishes that come out juicy and tender, but so often we’re disappointed by both home food as well as restaurant dishes that don’t achieve this, and yet, few cookbooks address the how, and, even rarer, the why. Instead, you read instructions like ‘‘cook till tender”. What does that even mean? Cooking chicken breast till tender is very different from cooking chicken leg, and that’s different from cooking leg of lamb. Not understanding the cooking process leads to making dishes where some of the meat is cooked but dry and fibrous, while other pieces are just fine.

It’s difficult to lump all ‘‘meat” into one category because they’re different beasts (pun unintended), and obviously a chicken is not a goat which is not a pig, and so on. So let me tell you a bit about what meat is, and what kind of cooking methods work for different cuts.

When you look at a cut of meat, you’re really looking at a specific combination of water, protein, and fat. The protein is in the form of the bundles of small muscle fibres, and, if you look closely at raw meat, you will see the ‘‘grain” running in lines. Cutting your meat ‘‘against the grain” i.e., perpendicular to the direction of the meat fibre makes meat more tender because it releases muscle tension.

There is also protein in the collagen of connective tissues that connects muscle to muscle, muscle to bone, and bone to bone. If you remember biology lessons from school, you may know them as fasciae, tendons, and ligaments. (After you’re finished reading this column, spend some time on Wikipedia.)

The fat surrounding the muscle tissue is responsible for providing energy to muscles when the animal is alive, and it also provides a tonne of flavour to cooked meat.

As you can probably figure out from looking at your own body, some muscles are larger and tougher than others. Feel your quadriceps (outer thighs) and see how much larger they are than your biceps (unless you’re Salman Khan). Muscles that are worked more often and support more weight become tougher and have more connective tissue

08

INDULGE | February 2012

madhu

menon Chef

and fat. Lean ‘‘white meat” muscle (like chicken breast, which has almost no fat or collagen) cooks a lot faster than fattier ‘‘dark meat” cuts (like chicken leg). But tougher cuts are more flavourful when cooked properly (remember: fat is flavour). To get tougher cuts tender, the collagen in the connective tissue has to be cooked till it breaks down and gets converted to gelatine, which also holds on to the moisture from the meat. Larger animals have different ratios of water, protein, and fat than smaller ones. Isn’t this turning out to be fun?

As you can see from all the science-y stuff, cooking all parts of the animal the same way is clearly not ideal. If you’re cooking a chicken curry and you throw everything into one pot, you will either have perfectly cooked chicken breast and undercooked chicken legs, or juicy chicken leg pieces and dry, stringy chicken breast.

What is a cook to do? (Simple; keep the breast pieces separate and add them 10 minutes late into the dish.)

Lean meat like chicken breasts, lamb chops, and tenderloin are better suited to dry cooking methods over high heat like grilling, sautéing, and pan frying.

Because they have less fat (fat is an insulator and slows down heat transmission, and so does bone), they cook quickly. Overcooking can dry them out and make them tough, stringy, and unappetizing.

Take a typical boneless chicken breast, for instance.

It’s easy enough to tell when it’s cooked. Toss one into a heated steel pan with some oil and cook till it turns white halfway up. Then flip, and cook it till the meat is white all around. Stop the cooking. The meat is done.

If you feel like sacrificing some meat for science, take another breast, and this time cook it for a few minutes more. Taste both and you’ll notice the difference.

Now let’s talk about the tougher cuts. These include legs, shoulders, cheeks, and necks of animals. These need to be cooked using the ‘‘low and slow” method, i.e. a combination of low heat and long cooking times.

The process of breaking down the connective tissue in these cuts takes time, and it can’t be rushed. But it rewards you with tasty, succulent and flavourful meat when you’re done. These cuts are best suited for wet cooking methods like stewing and braising, or slow roasting in an oven.

Unfortunately, novice cooks often think that cooking on high heat for a shorter time will give you the same results as cooking on a low heat for a longer time. This is not true and will usually give you dry, tough meat.

(Don’t be too hard on yourself. I too thought so many moons ago.) So if the recipe says ‘‘simmer for 1 hour” and you decide to instead turn up the heat to high and boil the living hell out of your meat for 20 minutes, you will kill it. In fact, the ideal temperature of the cooking liquid is 80° Celsius, which is below the 100° Celsius boiling point of water.

Cooking the meat in rapidly boiling water will overcook the outer surface of the meat well before the collagen has time to break down, and that’s why you’re getting dry meat in your curry. Overcooked meat looks grey, not pink. (As an aside, ‘‘well done” is a most misleading term for doneness of meat. It should be renamed to ‘‘dry as leather” but it may be too late for that battle.)

The ‘‘low and slow” method can still result in overcooked meat if you cook too long. While the connective tissue needs a temperature of 80° Celsius to dissolve into gelatine, muscle fibre starts losing its juices at 65° Celsius. So cooking past the stage where it easily separates when pressed with a fork is not a good idea. If you want to reduce the sauce to thicken it, remove the meat, reduce the sauce, and then put the meat back in.

Oh dear, I just started getting into the good stuff and I’ve already run out of space. Don’t worry, future columns will delve in more detail into various cooking methods. Consider this a primer on meat, and be sure to email me with questions. And look out for the next column where I take a break from meat and talk about cooking vegetables right. I

Madhu Menon is a chef, restaurant consultant and food writer.

Respond to this column at indulge@livemint.com

Auctions

This is the Right Time to

Start Collecting Art Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint

participants would know in case the bidding value rises, and, with that, our commission. People can also keep track of the bid history so one can see the bids made before and after them. There is a lot more transparency in terms of information.

Another thing that I will like to add is that in case of a physical auction, where all the things have to be brought to one particular location, there is no possibility of frequent auctions. The online model gives us that opportunity. Like now, we are doing about two auctions every month.

Also, we are experimenting with a new format that is called capsuled auctions, which has turned out to be very successful. There is no reserved price in this format and the bidding starts from R5,000, even for works that might be worth R30-40 lakh.

But online auctions might also throw up some new challenges.

What about hoax bids?

Of course, to maintain the integrity of an auction and, from a seller’s prospective, to be certain that the bids made are serious, we do have a certain qualification process. So anyone can register for an auction but they have to be approved in order to bid. For that, we go through some reference checks, fact checks just to make sure that the bidder is qualified as serious about bidding in an auction.

Also, besides doing the online marketing, emailing, etc., we also do some events where people can come and view the artworks if they so desire. A lot of people are content with visiting the website and getting the information, but we do have galleries in Mumbai, Delhi, New York and London for people who want to come and see the artworks.

And we also have printed catalogues in case they want them.

We have also come up with innovations such as mobile phone applications for iPhones, BlackBerrys, and iPads. So people can now see the artwork on the go and get all the information they need on their smartphones.

By Pradip Kumar Saha

I

pradip.s@livemint.com

n the “About us” note on its home page, Saffronart, the global art auction house, calls itself “committed to serving the growing community of Indian collectors, while also creating a cultural bridge to India for both the global Indian diaspora and the international community at large”.

With its online art auctions finding their way in a case study by Harvard Business School, the 10-year-old company has undoubtedly come a long way. Nish Bhutani, COO, calls it “a platform for all kinds of arts and collectibles”. In 2010, Saffronart did six auctions, and, in 2011, 13.

This year, Bhutani says, many more auctions are planned. With gallery spaces in Mumbai, Delhi, London and New York, the auction house is a storehouse of a range of art, information and advice. Indulge

caught up with Bhutani who spoke to us, among other things, about the emerging trends in the art scene.

Edited excerpts: Tell us something about Saffronart.

We are a platform for all kinds of arts and collectibles. We have done auctions in Indian art, Western art, watches, fine jewels and books.

This year, we are going to add some more products. Any kind of unique, aesthetic objects that are difficult to come by, those are the objects we specialize in.

How does the concept of online auction work?

The online model of auction is where the auction is done over the Internet. There are major advantages of online auction.

The first being the convenience it provides in terms of location or the time zone of the people participating in an auction. For

example, in case of a physical Broad categories auction, there are a lot of of artworks at limitations. People have to Saffronart: reach the given location at a • Sculptures certain time and that limits • Paintings the number of participants.

• Drawings Online auction takes this • Paperworks barrier away. You can have a • Rare books lot more people participating • Digital art across locations and various • Installations time zones.

• Prints and The other big advantage photographs of this model is that one can provide a lot more information to the prospective buyers in order to make them more aware and confident about their purchase.

Like during an auction, we provide information such as prices, the kind of work that has gone in for auction before, etc. Make sure people know about other charges such as our commission, the shipping to the address bill and things like that.

Also, prices are updated in real time as the auction goes on, so the

How do you decide on artworks for auctions?

Let me take you a step back.

The auction market is a secondary market, which means it is a resale market. The primary market is the galleries that source the artwork directly from the artists. So the sourcing for the auction is done from previous collectors. They can be individuals, institutions, art dealers or even people who look at art as an investment option. We almost never source artwork directly from the artist.

The other thing that one needs to understand is that the artists we feature should not be undiscovered or at the very beginning of their careers. They must have some kind of a track record and must have established themselves through shows in galleries. They should be artists who have sort of established themselves in the primary market.

Then we look at a number of objective things regarding the desirability of the artwork. There are objective measures such as what is the provenance, the history related to the artwork? Who has done the artwork? Is there any documentation of it? Is the artwork coming from reliable sources? So we look into matters like that.

Then there are other matters we look into like what is the surface and the matter of that artwork? Is it oil on canvas or water colour on paper?

What kinds of bids were made in past auctions for artworks that were alike? That gives us an idea of whether a particular piece of art will work well in an auction, and how do we price them.

Next, we look at the condition of the artwork. Has it been kept well?

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Auctions

Global appeal: (Clockwise from left) Saffronart galleries in New York, Mumbai and London.

Are there any marks or stains on it?

And then there are some nonobjective measures such as the aesthetic quality of the artwork. Will it be appealing and desirable for the buyers?

The last thing we look into is the overall composition of a particular auction. There may be auctions based on certain themes or it may be based on a certain period.

What are your revenue figures?

See, our business model is very simple. Like any other auction house, we work as intermediaries or consignment agents. We sell the art and then earn commission accordingly. But in terms of actual hard numbers, as a private company, we don’t reveal the numbers.

Tell us about the profile of your buyers.

The buyers are from the following categories: They could be successful entrepreneurs. That could range from people running huge corporations or running small but very successful businesses.

There are certain business families.

We also have senior partners from private equity or law firms. And then senior executives in large corporations. Those are four broad categories.

Could you give us some names?

No. Because of confidential reasons, I can’t share the names with you. But they are mostly high net-worth individuals or, in some cases, institutional and corporate collectors. Roughly, 60% of our customers come from India. And around 80% of our overall buyers are of Indian origin. Hong Kong, Singapore, Middle East, the UK, Europe, those are the major countries.

Tell us about how the industry, as a whole, is performing, given the economic pressures.

In India, there was a strong boom

Roughly, 60% of our customers come from India.

And around 80% of our overall buyers are of Indian origin.

Auction calendar March 2012 March 2012 Saffronart

Spring Online Auction of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art Saffronart will host its annual Spring Online Art Auction of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art in March. This auction catalogue will bring together a carefully selected range of historically significant masterpieces and contemporary works of art, all competitively estimated, for both seasoned and emerging collectors.

Venue: www.saffronart.com

INDULGE | February 2012

Sayed Haider Raza’s Village With Church ‘‘One of the most significant paintings by Sayed Haider Raza ever to appear in the market—Village With Church from 1958—will be among the highlights of Sotheby’s March 2012 Asia Week sales in New York. The painting was purchased by John D. Rockefeller III from the landmark 1958-59 exhibition Trends in Contemporary Painting In India and remained in his historic collection until 1994. Village With Church represents the apex of Raza’s early period and is estimated to sell for $1.5-2.5 million.”

Venue: New York

20 March Christie’s

The Doris Weiner Collection ‘‘This sale is composed of over 400 lots of exceptional sculpture and paintings from Gandhara, the Himalayas, India and South-East Asia. In addition to Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, there are two single owner sales— Auspicious Treasures for Scholars and Emperors: Selections from the Robert H. Blumenfield Collection and Luminous Perfection: Fine Chinese Mirrors from the Robert H. Ellsworth.

Both sales come from passionate scholars and legendary figures in the field of Asian art.”

Venue: Rockefeller Center, New York

21 March Christie’s

South Asian Modern And Contemporary Art Venue: Rockefeller Center, New York

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19 March Sotheby’s

Auctions between 2004 and towards the end of 2008 when the industry, like most others, was hit by the financial crisis.

Subsequently, there was a dramatic impact on the market. But I must say, the market has recovered quite well since then. It hasn’t recovered uniformly, it has done quite well for the modern artists, but for some of the younger contemporaries, well, they haven’t performed that well.

Also, the art market, in general, has performed differently in different parts of the world. For instance, in some countries, it has outperformed the equity markets over the last few years. Unfortunately, in case of India, they have lagged the equity markets post the financial crisis.

But for the longer term, I think the prospects are great. And this is the time to start collecting.

What are the emerging trends?

One of the trends that I can see in the industry is that a lot more people are growing comfortable with buying in auctions, particularly in online auctions. For example, in 2010, we did six auctions. In 2011, we did 13, and this year, we are planning many more. Again, we find that in smaller auctions, with lower price ranges, and the new format of auctions in which there is no reserved price, more people are participating. At the end of these auctions, we are finding new sets of bidders.

The other thing that the art market needs over time is a broader customer base so that it is not reserved for the elite few and more and more people can participate.

Initiatives such as the recently held India Art Fair will help in that cause.

You know, I see we are at the early stage of that trend and I see more and more people participating in such events over time.

Thirdly, I see more Indians starting to collect art that is not Indian. You know, in every culture, we see people first start collecting art that belongs to their cultures and, then, over time, they diversify to other cultures. I think, for the Indian art market, that time has come.

What will be your five tips for someone who is starting to collect art?

To start with, I would say, do your research, do your homework.

To understand what you like and don’t like. Also, understand where the artist is coming from. What their background is, and their thoughtprocess while creating certain works of art? So that’s one.

Second, I will suggest seeking advice and information. Advice can come from various sources. One can visit the galleries and speak with the gallerist. One can also go to various websites and read about the artist.

Then there are independent art advisers as well who can help out if one is serious about building a collection.

Third, I will say buy from a credible source. Don’t just buy from anyone. So don’t get tempted when someone, whom you don’t know much, happens to offer you a very attractive price. Because you don’t know whether that person has checked the authenticity of the artwork or evaluated the conditions properly; whether there has been any restoration work done on that particular work of art. So it’s safer to go with an established gallery or auctioneer.

Fourth, I would say that one should develop one’s own taste. Of course, that will only happen over time. Because art is a very subjective thing, so what one person likes may be not liked by someone else.

And finally, take good care of your art collection. Keep it safe from harsh weather conditions. Don’t let children play crayon all over it. I

Auction calendar april 2012

April, 2012 Saffronart

Men’s Sale: 24-hour auction Saffronart’s inaugural Men’s Sale will feature a selection of luxury and limited edition products for men. The catalogue will include items such as jewelled cufflinks and money clips, fine watches, pens and accessories, sports memorabilia, important publications and a vintage automobile. The auction will feature up to 80 lots, with prices ranging from $100 to $100,000.

Venue: www.saffronart.com

19 April Sotheby’s

The collection of Suzanne Saperstein ‘‘Carefully assembled over the course of two decades and housed in her celebrated Beverly Hills estate Fleur de Lys, Saperstein’s impressive collection comprises mainly 18th century French furniture and decorative arts, with important examples by some of the most celebrated cabinet makers of the era. The items on sale will be on exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning 14 April.”

Venue: New York

24 April Sotheby’s

An Eye for Opulence: Art of the Ottoman Empire ‘‘The single owner sale will comprise a broad selection of works across a variety of media, spanning more than 400 years of Ottoman art from the 15th to the 19th century. In addition to Iznik ceramics, manuscripts, silverware, decorative arts and textiles, the sale will also include a number of European paintings and Turqueries, reflecting artistic exchanges between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, and the West’s fascination with the ‘‘exoticism” of the Ottoman court. Comprising 254 lots, this private collection is estimated to realize in excess of £3.5 million.”

Venue: London

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An Ode to

Fendi has just released the second edition of The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian Handmaking Ability, which is available now through select Fendi stores. First published in December 2010, the directory is an indulgent, quirky, intimate, quintessentially Italian look at some of the finest craftsmen in Italy.

Selected excerpts from the directory’s collection of 180 pen portraits of Italy’s finest.

Italian Craftsmanship Write to us at indulge@livemint.com

The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian HandMaking Ability Author: Vittoria Filippi Gabardi and Cesare Maria Cunaccia Publication: Mondadori Electa Pages: Two volumes of 200 pages each Languages: Italian and English Price: $60 Where to buy: Through select Fendi stores and online

These excerpts are taken from the English translation of the original Italian book. The language used by the translators has been kept as such.

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Artigiano Scarpaio Antonio Via Roma, 2 - 55042, Forte dei Marmi (LU) +39.0584.82364 info@artigianoforte.it

BOOTS

Artigiano Scarpaio Antonio Giampaolo exits his workroom and pulls his glasses off his nose. He wears a green T-shirt that matches the trimmings of the shop, a few square meters in the heart of Forte dei Marmi. All around are shelves packed with colored booths, shocking pink, olive, dark brown, sand, violet, black, turquoise, suede and leather, sandals, mocassins, and men’s shoes… In the Seventies he starts working at the shoe factory owned by the father of his fatherin-law Antonio, one of the best craftsman in all of Versilia, after whose name the shop is called.

Giampaolo enters the premises of Via Roma only in 1998: here he takes measures, every shoe is modelled over the feet and legs of the client who chooses material, color, type, he can indulge in creating boots according to his desires. Antonio’s boots are completely handmade… …The Saudi princess as well as the capricious socialite, duchesses and bobo, are all devoted and habitual clients, in their closets, Antonio’s boots multiply… …The boots’ fame burst through

word of mouth. There’s a waiting list, your turn is not up before two months. Today Giampaolo produces around a thousand boots in a year… …Success grows but he doesn’t move, he doesn’t expand. “Maybe if my son had followed me I would have grown bigger, but since I work alone, I can’t, craftsmanship would suffer.” He resists, stays in Forte dei Marmi, who knows why.

BICYCLES

Abici Anglo-Saxon worIdly wisdom says: “Sometimes good thinking makes more money than work”. And in Iower Padana, trust us, a lot of time is left to thinking. Giuseppe Marcheselli, Stefano Seletti and Cristiano Gozzi, thirty-year-old friends, are eating pumpkin torteIli and drinking good lambrusco at a small restaurant in Viadana. They

chat about their passion for bicycles and fantasize of creating one that combines the past and modern technology. After a while they find old catalogues in a local craftsman’s shop and decide to give it a try: they design the prototype with a starting fund of fifty thousand euros, reproduce the original moulds of tubular tires and junctions, study the colors of motorcycling design of Italy in the fifties. In 2006 Abici sees the light, carrying a vintage and

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cover story

cover story

An Ode to

Fendi has just released the second edition of The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian Handmaking Ability, which is available now through select Fendi stores. First published in December 2010, the directory is an indulgent, quirky, intimate, quintessentially Italian look at some of the finest craftsmen in Italy.

Selected excerpts from the directory’s collection of 180 pen portraits of Italy’s finest.

Italian Craftsmanship Write to us at indulge@livemint.com

The Whispered Directory of Craftsmanship: A Contemporary Guide to the Italian HandMaking Ability Author: Vittoria Filippi Gabardi and Cesare Maria Cunaccia Publication: Mondadori Electa Pages: Two volumes of 200 pages each Languages: Italian and English Price: $60 Where to buy: Through select Fendi stores and online

These excerpts are taken from the English translation of the original Italian book. The language used by the translators has been kept as such.

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Artigiano Scarpaio Antonio Via Roma, 2 - 55042, Forte dei Marmi (LU) +39.0584.82364 info@artigianoforte.it

BOOTS

Artigiano Scarpaio Antonio Giampaolo exits his workroom and pulls his glasses off his nose. He wears a green T-shirt that matches the trimmings of the shop, a few square meters in the heart of Forte dei Marmi. All around are shelves packed with colored booths, shocking pink, olive, dark brown, sand, violet, black, turquoise, suede and leather, sandals, mocassins, and men’s shoes… In the Seventies he starts working at the shoe factory owned by the father of his fatherin-law Antonio, one of the best craftsman in all of Versilia, after whose name the shop is called.

Giampaolo enters the premises of Via Roma only in 1998: here he takes measures, every shoe is modelled over the feet and legs of the client who chooses material, color, type, he can indulge in creating boots according to his desires. Antonio’s boots are completely handmade… …The Saudi princess as well as the capricious socialite, duchesses and bobo, are all devoted and habitual clients, in their closets, Antonio’s boots multiply… …The boots’ fame burst through

word of mouth. There’s a waiting list, your turn is not up before two months. Today Giampaolo produces around a thousand boots in a year… …Success grows but he doesn’t move, he doesn’t expand. “Maybe if my son had followed me I would have grown bigger, but since I work alone, I can’t, craftsmanship would suffer.” He resists, stays in Forte dei Marmi, who knows why.

BICYCLES

Abici Anglo-Saxon worIdly wisdom says: “Sometimes good thinking makes more money than work”. And in Iower Padana, trust us, a lot of time is left to thinking. Giuseppe Marcheselli, Stefano Seletti and Cristiano Gozzi, thirty-year-old friends, are eating pumpkin torteIli and drinking good lambrusco at a small restaurant in Viadana. They

chat about their passion for bicycles and fantasize of creating one that combines the past and modern technology. After a while they find old catalogues in a local craftsman’s shop and decide to give it a try: they design the prototype with a starting fund of fifty thousand euros, reproduce the original moulds of tubular tires and junctions, study the colors of motorcycling design of Italy in the fifties. In 2006 Abici sees the light, carrying a vintage and

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Abici Via Garibaldi, 61 – 46019 Viadana (MN) +39.0375.781882 www.abici-italia.it – info@morefactory.it

retro aesthetic but with no nostalgia.

The bicycle is real and super contemporary: entirely handmade, wireless, counter pedal breaks, auto-reflector tires, satin-metal handlebar and mudguards and leather seat. A brand new bicycle, linear and clean, with no marks or frills, produced with craftsmanship in every detail. In a few years Abici has revolutionized the concept of a bicycle transforming it into a cult object, exhibited and sold in the world’s best design stores, heId at home as a piece of furniture.

Completely and proudly made in Italy. For this reason, in 2009 Fendi SeIleria decided to create, for an Abici that goes under the name of Amunte—Lover—a back basket in substitution of the chest (which can be unfastened and used as a luxurious beauty case) and a front basket as well, in leather and goat fur, the GPS navigator case and all the covers in leather including the thermos one.

CHOCOLATE

Antica Dolceria Bonajuto “We like to go back” is not an advertising claim, it’s the work philosophy that marks this little shop in Modica, near Ragusa, where chocolate is still produced in an ancient way. Pierpaolo Ruta incarnates the sixth generation of an antique and prestigious dynasty of “ciucculatari” (chocolate makers) and is willing to preserve everything as he inherited it: the founder of this antique pastry shop was, in 1880, the father of his grandmother. He prepared delicacies, mostly of Arab and Spanish origin that can still be tasted, like ‘mpanatigghi or nucatoli, biscuits stuffed with dried figs, almonds, quince jam and honey. But the protagonist of the shop, included

by Eurispes in the list of 100 Italian eminences, has always been chocolate. His luck? Not having met industrialization. Arriving in Sicily with the Spanish domination, this chocolate is still prepared in a very similar way of how the Aztec, the ancient Colombian inhabitants of Mexico, did. It’s a low temperature procedure, no use of cocoa butter or other fat different from the cocoa seeds; the temperature of this process permits the conservation of an unaltered scale of aromas that would otherwise be lost. The structure of the chocolate of Modica is unique because its sugar crystals are intact, exactly like Xocoalt, the chocolate of native Mexicans. It’s always been a popular food whose task was to give energy, and it was often used as popular medicine as well. Today, Pierpaolo Ruta’s primary passion is to go to select

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Fendi Largo Goldoni – 00187 Roma +39.06.334501 www.fendi.com

personally the best cocoa quality in their regions of production, a passionate backward path he keeps alive in respect of his chocolate.

To have the guarantee it remains, as Leonardo Sciascia said, “of unreachable flavor, because who tastes it believes he’s gotten to the archetype, to the absolute, and that chocolate produced elsewhere, may it be the most celebrated, is just its adulteration, its corruption.”

Leather goods

Fendi Fendi Sellaria is from another time.

You watch and touch the bags of this eminence of handicrafts and you enter the realm of handmade, where the most skillful craftsmen take care of each and every step of the process. The raw material is Cuoio Romano—Roman Leather:

Antica Dolceria Bonajuto Corso Umberto I, 159 – Modica (RG) +39.093.2941225 www.bonajuto.it – info@bonajuto.it

Rubelli San Marco, 3877 – 30124 Venezia +39.041.2584411 www.rubelli.com – info@rubelli.com

the best calf ’s skin to be found, treated naturally, the softest. You observe how a bag is produced and you’re taken away from consumer fast shopping, boor and generalist.

You meet luxury that doesn’t exist anymore, that of ancient mastery and knowledge, that of quality.

Every bag of Fendi Sellaria is a unique piece and it takes at least twenty four hours to create. The beginning point is bottalatura:skins are locked inside a barrel where they are turned in order to be softened and there’s no stamping on their grain. Just to give them a uniform look, accentuate craftsmanship work and different nuances of color.

Regarding the realization, a model of the bag is drawn on paper and this sketch is then used to create shapes. Kkin is hand-cut over the shapes’ profiles. Lining is made of linen. Single-pieces are then strictly hand-sewn one over the other. Skin is holed with an awl in order to let the needle sew up the different parts with oil thread. This stitching process goes back to the technique of medieval shoes and it is a very important step that requires Carthusian ability and great physical strength. For sewing smaller parts, instead, craftsman needs hammer and pliers. Each part is hand-glued.

Straps, handles, shoulder belts, everything. Watching a process of this kind makes one think of art.

Craftmanship and handiwork art of things that stay for life. Like the one of past times, as today there are no more.

fabric

Rubelli Reassemble four late eighteenth century looms to work soprarizzo by hand, a kind of chiseled velvet, ancient and luxurious, typically Venetian, in which cut thread’s warp pattern is higher than the curled one. Rubelli did this too, a factory that has been producing damasks, jacquard, lampassi and silks for five generations, extremely refined and sumptuous fabrics that furnished the world’s most famous theaters such as La Scala, whose boxes are adorned with Impero style Rubelli damasks. Rubelli’s are the fabrics of Royal Houses, of castles and embassies, of museums and holy vestments, so special creations

cover story as to be requested for colossal movies like Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes, Dangerous Liaisons, Marie Antoinette, Casanova, The Tourists. While entering the historic Palazzo Corner Spinelli on the Canal Grande, among eighteenth century stuccos and frescos, you can admire the factory’s archivemuseum that includes 6000 textile documents, half of which regard fabrics produced at Rubelli’s since its establishment in 1858. Rubelli is an icon of made in Italy and over the years it expanded acquiring Italian brands such as Lisio and Bises and international companies such as French Dominique Kieffer and Donghia Inc., an American factory specialized in the production and distribution of high level fabrics, furniture and accessories. After more than a hundred and fifty years, Rubelli remains up to date matching craftsmanship with an avant-garde production system; in the Cucciago division, close to Como, seventy specialized employees produce around half a million fabrics per year; the production cycle include thread-storage, preparation of textures and warps, warping, weaving, verification and quality control. Machinery is computerized; the jacquard loons are of the latest electronic generation. Since 1987 technical fabrics are also produced with fireproof fibers for hotels, cruise boats and public buildings, as well as highly resistant outdoor fabrics. Technology and tradition together with prestige and excellence.

SUITS

Brioni It was the first in the world to bring men’s fashion on the catwalk. It was 1952 and Brioni was the Dolce Vita dressmaker of the times when Cinecitta walked along the Roman blazon, voluptuous years of rigorous elegance, where every shot stolen in the streets contributed in defining the trend of an era. When tailor Nazareno Fonticoli decides to open

a shop in Rome with entrepreneur Gaetano Savini he chooses to name it after the jet-set-attended Adriatic archipelago, that is Brioni, intending to dress that world, aiming to glazed magazine covers, to regal elegance and to red carpets. And since “nomina sunt omina” (Latin for destiny lies in the name), that mission soon becomes reality. From Italian films to Hollywood the steps are very few: in 1954 Brioni opens its first shop in New York. Clark Gable, John Wayne, and Henry Fonda wear Brioni, the Italian style conquers America. Suits are custom made “to be one of a kind,” personalized upon the desires of the client who wants a different suit in fabric, details and accessories.

Brioni builds its fame on quality and craftsmanship. The guaranty of uniqueness, the unmistakable style, and a service oriented on a personal relation with the client are the winning guiding lines that cannot be renounced by Brioni’s expertise.

Every single product—from suits to sport jackets, from jeans to shoes, from skirts to pochettes, from ties

in Friuli from 1897”: Orazio, the progenitor, a sotan, a farmhand with nothing, built a distiller in his cellar. The Noninos produce grappa and they do it their own way, called the Nonino Method of Production, handcrafted, rigorous, expensive: it distills pomace right after fermentation, at the same time of vintage, creating a grappa of excellent quality. In the Nonino distilleries there are sixty-eight uneven steam alembics that, during harvest, distill twenty-four hours a day. These traditional copper distillers were created by Benito, the man who, on December 1, 1973, with his wife Giannola revolutionized distillates inventing a grappa from the pomace of one single grape variety (the Picolit), finally making spirits a more noble product. Before, grappa was a poor distillate that farmers drank to warm up and was made from pomace of different varieties. With the creation of the Grappa Monovitignoa (single variety) everything changes, and the Noninos elevate grappa to the same condition of whiskey and cognac, appreciated throughout the world. The “revolutionary” Benito is surrounded and sustained by the women of his life: wife Giannola and daughters Cristina, Antonella and Elisabetta. The family is the soul of the firm. In the “distillation Temple”, in Ronchi de Percoto, native town of the Noninos, the five distilleries go by the name of Benito and of his four beautiful women, alembics are named after his nephews. All united by the same passion, “spontaneous, unyielding and contagious,” for the family firm, art, and culture. For a grappa that, more than spirit, can be called soul.

FELT

to foulards—is created just and only in Italy. Keeping faithful to this philosophy valorizing a global primate, this is the challenge for the present and the future. To go on with innovation, Brioni has pushed the limits of tailoring techniques to its extremes, working with the highest skill every fabric, fiber or leather, proposing very bold finishes. The capacity of keeping such traditional heritage with no uncertainties passes through an almost religious repetition of gestures, a liturgy that lingers generation after generation; timeless gestures, jobs, ancient rituals. To allow such continuity, in 1985 the firm invested on training founding the Scuola Superiore di Sartoria Nazareno Fonticoli (Superior Tailoring School Nazareno Fonticoli) which represents the internal workshop of well doing.

Brioni Via Barberini, 79 – 00187 Roma +39.06.4620161 www.brioni.com – info@brioni.com

DISTILLATES

Nonino It is obtained by distilling the peels of grapes, de-wined and fermented.

It is often colorless; the smell is sweet and sharp, the taste burns. It has an alcoholic grade that varies from thirty-five to sixty degrees and is usually drunk in tulip-shaped glasses. Call it spirit or grappa, the name can only be applied to distilled pomace of Italy. “Distillers

Nonino Via Aquileia, 104 – 33050 Percoto (UD) +39.0432.676331 www.nonino.it – info@nonino.it

If Borsalino makes us think of a hard and fascinating, sentimental and irresistible man it is indeed because of Humphrey Bogart.

Borsalino A crumpled trench coat, a cigarette in one hand and a Borsalino on the head. Around, a smoky room, maybe an airport enveloped in fog. He looks at you, says you’ll always have Paris. If Borsalino makes us think of a hard and fascinating, sentimental and irresistible man it is indeed because of Humphrey Bogart. If it recalls gangsters and detectives with magnetic gazes it’s because of Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo.

Whether you want it or not, Borsalino translates life into a movie set, gives a Hollywood allure even to a chat in a bar by the sea. Most likely, Giuseppe Borsalino didn’t think it would turn out this way. In 1857, after opening a millinery in a courtyard in Alessandria with his brother Lazzaro, after beginning to produce the first felt headgears with a contrasting or ton sur ton band, he didn’t imagine that the hat that carries his last name would become synonym of hat. He produced three hundred hats a day with the help of one hundred and thirty employees. “U siur Pipen”, as his fellows from Piedmont called him, was a simple man, a traveler with incredible hands: “His were the most skilled hatter hands ever seen,” strong and most sensitive, able to feel the slightest imperfection.

Borsalino hats, handmade with the best materials, maintain unaltered the craftsmanship from its beginnings: the production process is made of fifty steps of work and takes seven weeks for the creation of a true Borsalino. From the most traditional model, that of Casablanca, to Panama Montecristi, another Borsalino icon, the straw one with the black band, made by interweaving Toquilla palm leaves, the one carried by Teddy Roosevelt during the construction of the Panama canal. The company today exports throughout the whole world, from Asia to the United States, a thousand different types of hats, all with the same elegance and everlasting style. The hint of a bow and... chapeau!

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MARMALADES

Azienda Agricola dei Marchesi di San Giuliano Via S. Agostino, 5 50124 Firenze +39.055.2399931 www.maechesidisangiuliano.it - info@ maechesidisangiuliano.it

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Design

Italdesign Giugiaro It was carved in his DNA that Giugiaro sooner or later would design something. His grandfather painted frescos in churches, his father painted with oil and is not just by chance that he attends an artistic high school and a design evening course. When he’s sixteen he draws a series of caricatures of cars for the end of the year school show. Fiat’s chief manager sees it; a few months later Giorgetto is sitting in the Special Cars Stylistic Studies Office. He works at Fiat for some years, but it’s through Nuccio Bertone that Giorgetto becomes Giugiaro: only twenty-one and in charge of the style center. He passes to the automobile firm Ghia and designs the De Tomaso Mangusta and the Ghibli Maserati, which was, among many, Peter Sellers’ and Jean Paul Belmondo’s car. All the rest is history, he has designed so many automobiles, prototypes, design objects, furniture, accessories, that is impossible to believe that one life was enough. In 1968 he founds his company: Italdesign Giugiaro creates more than two hundred car models for fifty million cars built by the most important firms in the world. He invents the Alfa Sprint, the first big production car. He designs Passat and Golf, the car that overturns the fate of Volkswagen clearing it from the production of the Beetle. Then, among many, he designs Seat Ibiza and Daewoo Matiz. In collaboration with Fiat, he designs the Panda and the Punto.

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of car design, he gives himself a unique Ferrari, with “prominent wheels and close-fitting bodywork.”

In 1999, in Los Angeles, he’s awarded designer of the century. He designs trains, yachts, telephones, sewing machines, consumer goods, packaging, corporate identity, food.

Incredible shapes are born in his mind, in his pencil drawings lies the evolution of the European motor industry. In 2010 he presents Emas, an environmental car the size of a city car but with the capacity of a D-segment one. In the same year the company, run by Giorgetto and his son Fabrizio, joins the Volkswagen Group inaugurating a new strategic partnership era. As a child he didn’t want to design cars, he wanted to be an artist. Far-sighted as usual, he was right.

INDULGE | February 2012

Azienda Agricola dei Marchesi di San Giuliano “Us poor deserve our part of richness, and this is lemon juice.”

Paraphrasing the Nobel Prize Eugenio Montale and thinking of the Sicilian citruses grown in the lands between Catania and Siracusa, you arrive directly to the San Giuliano manor farm. You start to run between the rows of lemons, grapefruits, oranges, mandarins, clementines, and blood orange, fifty full acres. At the end, as a natural flow, you enter the workshop where Fiamma di San Giuliano, in the beginning of the Eighties, produced the first marmalades. Entirely homemade, with no preservatives or thickening whatsoever. They still continue to be made in the same old way: all is handcrafted, from fruit harvesting to cooking and labeling. An artisanal recipe: the San Giuliano marmalades are Ecocert Italia certified, since both fruits and sugar are organic.

The product respects the rules of the Biological Disciplinary of the European Community: control of infesting weeds is dealt with no chemical pesticides but with mechanical tools; fertilizers are strictly organic, pruning needs a lot of handwork, harvesting is done by hand. The agriculture ecosystem lives in perfect balance. Thanks to these procedures, the San Giuliano oranges are the real ones, orange shaped, one different from the other, lively colored and with an unmistakable flavor: tasting their red pulp is like drinking the entire Sicily. Today in San Giuliano they produced biscuits with pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds and, needless to say, citruses. Among recipes indicated on their website there are oven baked apples with mandarin marmalade and a Bavarian cream with orange marmalade. The ultimate goal is always the same: quality. “The rule is marmalade yesterday and marmalade tomorrow, but never

Sartoria Cesare Attolini Via Nazionale delle Puglie, 42 – 80013 Casalnuovo (NA) +39.081.8444411 www.cesareattolini.com – info@cesareattolini.com

Italdesign Giugiaro Via AchilleGrandi, 25 – 10024 Moncalieri (TO) +39.011.6891611 www.italdesign.it – info@italdesign.it

marmalade today,” the Queen of Hearts would say in Alice in Wonderland. Had she tasted these, she would’ve changed her mind.

tailoring

Sartoria Cesare Attolini Vincenzo Attolini began the activity in Naples in 1930, as prime cutter at the London House in via Filangieri. Soon, owner Gennaro Rubinacci noticed the skills and talent of his collaborator.

Pioneer of the “mappina” coat, he broke the trend of the formal and rigid English coat with a new way of dressing: a de-structured coat, with no internal lining, lighter and more comfortable to wear. Vincenzo Attolini was the first to introduce the “small boat” pocket, to sew buttons closer to each other on coat’s sleeves, symbols and signs of a Neapolitan style immediately recognizable. He managed, with his suits, to give men a different image, renewed, casual.

The history of the artisanal workshop continues with his son Cesare, then with nephews Giuseppe and Massimiliano, always going after a perfect balance of fashion, research, elegance, tradition, and memory of the past. A perennial motto: to make a good suits “needle, thread, thimble and scissors” are enough. The firm grows and turns to international markets: once six employees, now one hundred, never forgetting the base, the essence and the willingness, a craftsmanship that distinguishes these tailors in the world, tailoring as art form could be asserted. Vittorio De Sica, Clark Gable, the Duke of Windsor-like yesterday, today still: famous people, willing to hazard, go to the Neapolitan tailor’s shop to have their own dress created, and then they wait in their own living rooms in Paris, New York, Lon- don, Tokyo, for the same tailors that take the first, the second fittings, choose the finishing touches, suggest new cuts, new ideas, colors-images that seem to come from the legend on Lord Brummell, or from a chronicle of prince Jusupov in his palazzo in Saint Petersburg. A suits that carries the carefulness of details, from first cut to eyelets. The selection of fabrics is led today by Giuseppe and Massimiliano Attolini. I

craftsmanship

THE TOD’S

The price of Tod’s suede Gommino loafers start from R21,000.

GOMMINO

In the late 1970s, Tod’s launched a new product which, in due course of time, became the Italian luxury shoemaker’s signature shoe. From finding the perfect leather to being delivered at a boutique, the Gommino goes through as many as 100 steps and 2,000 craftsmen.

Write to us at indulge@livemint.com

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1. Shapes and parts are cut from the leather.

This step can involve cutting by hand of up to 35 pieces.

2. The trademark 133 rubber pebbles are fixed on the sole.

3. After they are fixed, the rubber plate is stitched to the sole.

4. The shoe is given proper shape, sewn and hand brushed in order to give the finish.

5. The shoes are packed and shipped.

February 2012 |

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craftsmanship

The Zegna Suit In Trivero, Piedmont, Ermenegildo Zegna turns wool into cloth and at the artisanal suit factory at Stabio—on the Swiss side of the Italian border— the cloth becomes a suit that consists of 100 pieces.

With a starting price of R1.09 lakh, a Zegna suit passes through the craftsmanship of more than 500 hands before landing at a Zegna store.

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1. Bales are opened to collect the finest natural fibre.

2. Thread is then made by spinning the yarn, which has been combed many times in order to obtain a clearer, more uniform and regular fibre.

3. A fabric collection is created after research through fabric archives.

4. Workers string the dyed yarn onto a machine, handling the yarns one by one to create the warp.

5. Looms weave the threads into fabric but there is no automatic way to set up the loom—someone has to position each of the 6,000 knots on the beam.

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craftsmanship

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6. The fabric is checked for quality.

7. The fabric is then cut and proportions are defined based on measurement to ensure a custom-tailored fit.

8. After choosing a style that fits the customer’s physique and suits his needs, the pattern is made.

9. The fabric is sewn and draped honouring the unique personality of each fabric, the functionality of the various parts of the garment, and the right elasticity of each seam.

10. The sleeve unit is examined to fix any problems other hands may have left.

11. Suits are then ironed to ensure perfection.

12. All finishing touches are given by hand, stitch by stitch, down to the sewing of the inside label that bears the customer’s name.

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milestones Priyanka Parashar/Mint

Pio Boffa on

Family Business

By Pradip kumar saha

1972-73. And the next generation is already into the business. My sister’s son has been working with me for the past 11 years. And my daughter, only 14, will eventually decide whether to continue the family tradition.

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pradip.s@livemint.com

or five generations, the Pio Cesare family has been producing traditional Piemontese wines in its ancient cellars—some of the walls of which date back to the Roman Empire period—in Alba, Italy. Owner Pio Boffa was sipping leisurely on a soda at New Delhi’s Hyatt Regency during a break from meeting a group of journalists when we caught up with him for a chat. He spoke to Indulge about his brand’s legacy, his efforts to keep traditions alive at the 131-year-old winery and the launch of the brand in India.

Edited excerpts:

history Pio Cesare, my maternal greatgrandfather, was an entrepreneur with interests in different fields. His first name was Cesare and his last name Pio. In old days in Italy, they used to put the last name first. He started making wine as a hobby in 1881, and the wines he made were given mainly as gifts to friends and customers of his other businesses.

Very soon, he realized that winemaking was his only passion and sold off the other businesses.

That’s how it all started.

He was also one of the first to promote his wines outside Italy and actually export them.

After his death in the beginning of the 20th century, my grandfather, only 22 then, took over the business.

He looked after the business till my father, an engineer, married his only daughter and took over during World War II. My father had to give up his job as the managing director of a big firm in order to take care of this small family business. He continued to do so till he passed away in December 2000.

I represent the fourth generation.

I started working with my father in

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Storehouse of history: Pio Cesare’s warehouse in Alba, Italy.

On wines of the region The wines of Piedmont—Barolo and Barbaresco—have been produced in that region for more than 2,000 years.

But their style was different. Only in the second half of the 19th century was there some sort of a revolution in the style of winemaking. My greatgrandfather, with other families of the region, was instrumental in bringing about that change. They were at the heart of the revolution that shaped the winemaking industry the way it is known now.

On the brand’s legacy We haven’t changed our identity at all. I am proud to say that even 131 years after the company was founded, the business is still with the same family. We have retained the name of the brand through the course of the century.

Having said that, we are proud to represent a tradition that has been carried on for over a century.

Tradition, for us, is to be able to reproduce year after year, vintage after vintage, the same quality of wine that the family has produced over the course of history. We have the same label (shows a bottle of the Barolo) for the past 131 years.

We haven’t changed it at all. For the simple reason that we don’t want the people who love our wine to go to

Pio Cesare makes the following wines: Single vineyard selection • ‘‘Ornato” Barolo • ‘‘Il Bricco” Barbaresco • ‘‘Fides” Barbera d’ Alba • ‘‘Piodilei” Chardonnay Classic red wines • Barolo • Barbaresco • Nebbiolo • Il Nebbio • Barbera d’ Alba • Dolcetto d’ Alba • Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese • Langhe Freisa White wines • Gavi • Arneis • ‘‘L’Altro” Chardonnay • Moscato d’Asti

a restaurant and discover that this wine is different from the last dram they had. If you look at the great wines of the world, you will find that they have an identity and we don’t want to change ours.

It might sound easy but it is very difficult to maintain. Because the climate has changed dramatically in the past five-six decades. The configuration of the soil has changed. The clones that are used for the production of grapes are evolving with the continuous change in the weather conditions.

Therefore, if we apply the same methods that were applied those days in winemaking, ageing, and other processes, the style of the wine will change…even if our vineyards remain the same.

So it is important for us to research the technicalities of how we can guarantee the same style and taste in every bottle of Pio Cesare year after year. We are dedicated to adapting our methods (of fermenting, ageing, choice of oak, etc.) in order to synchronize with nature to produce the same kind of wine.

On the winery We are a small winery. We produce only 40,000 cases a year, which is fewer than half a million bottles a year. The family owns around 70 hectares of vineyards at different strategic locations in the Barolo and Barbaresco regions. The vineyards are on top of hills. It reduces the yield but ensures maximum concentration. We take great care in using only south-facing vineyards that have maximum elevation.

We export to 52 countries. India is the 53rd in the list. About 78% of our output is exported.

On his beginnings and association with the brand I was the third and the youngest child. Our home used to be above the cellars. My grandfather lived with us. At lunch and dinner, every single day, he and my father used to talk business—wine, type of grapes, involvement of the family, and other such things. And it just started. I always had this idea of continuing the family tradition. Even while growing up, I had no other thoughts.

I remember after finishing school at 16, my father said, “Okay, go to the seashore for three days.”

milestones “Three days only?” I protested.

“Yes,” he replied. “Because you are going to California after that and will stay there for a month.”

All my dreams of partying with young girls by the sea came crashing down.

He said after that, I would have to go to Mondavi for two-and-ahalf months and learn how they make wines and market them. So in 1972, I spent three months in California, working during the harvest for Mondavi Winery with Robert Mondavi’s sons. This turned out to be the experience of my life though I was a bit disappointed at the beginning.

After returning, I joined the university, and, at the same time, the business.

I am the only one among my siblings who has the pleasure of continuing the family tradition.

And I hope the tradition continues through my nephew and my daughter.

On the pressure of selling the brand In Piedmont, the average size of the property is around 1-10 hectares. It means that there are a lot of small growers, small properties. There are a lot of small-time farmers who grow their own grapes and make their wines in different quantities.

But there are no big conglomerates like in other wine-producing areas of the world. There has always been more focus in keeping the unique image of the house alive than on its extension.

Yes, in the 1950s to 1970s, there was this tendency of conglomeration. Small wineries were sold to big ones. But later, people became more aware of what they were drinking. Nobody wanted a wine that is produced the world over. People wanted to drink

a wine that bore the signature of a particular area.

Yes, we have been approached to sell. And we have always said no.

But there was a time when I was younger and I was tempted. My curiosity was mainly to obtain the value of our company. But I wasn’t tempted to sell.

Preserving identity: Pio Cesare’s Gustava estate in Grinzane Cavour, Barolo region.

I spend around 200 days on the road... I do it with the same spirit as my great-grandfather did. He would pile up a couple of barrels on his horse and cross the Alps to sell them in Paris.

On his passion towards winemaking What else can I do if I can’t make wine? I spend around 200 days on the road. So I can give a face to the label— one of the oldest in the region—and show our commitment and loyalty to our customers… To make people understand that behind the label, there is a human being, his passion; there is a family and its commitment.

I never talk business, prices, numbers, or finance. I only talk about the style of the wines in the region, the differences in the nature and climate, the types of ageing. What else can I do? I can’t sit behind a table, crunch numbers and think about making profits all the time.

Of course, we need to make profit. But the entire profit goes into the brandbuilding and promotion. I keep flying to different countries each day of the week and that doesn’t make money, but I do it for the future. I do it with the same spirit as my great-grandfather did. He would pile up a couple of barrels on his horse and cross the Alps

to sell them in Paris. Now, I am selling the same wine in Delhi. This is what makes us unique.

On the India launch India is one market that every producer is eyeing today. The way the country has grown so rapidly, it is attracting businessmen around the world. We are not attracted by the volumes because, as I told you earlier, we produce a limited amount of wine. We came here because the number of wine lovers in India is growing. I want to give Pio Cesare a chance to be known and appreciated as a brand, as it is known in the 52 countries it is present right now. And through our association with Prestige Wine and Spirits (Pvt. Ltd), we hope to get close to many of these wine lovers.

We are here to build the reputation of the brand, and, in the next 10 years, I hope Pio Cesare will become as reputed a name here as it is elsewhere in the world. I

Tough questions about the good life 1. What is the best tweed in the world?

2. Does it make sense to invest in some excellent Montepulciano?

3. I think I am ready for my first grand complication watch. Should I go for the minute repeater? Or aim straight for a tourbillon?

4. Ok, I am here at Savile Row. Now what?

5. I want something that is like the Yamazaki 12-year-old single malt. But not the Yamazaki. Help!

From the perfect gift to the indulgent holiday, coming soon, the Mint Indulge team of experts, columnists and roving reporters will help solve your finer dilemmas.

Simply email your queries to indulge@livemint.com February 2012 |

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automobiles

Mean Machine The Quattroporte Sport GT S, the fifth generation of the Quattroporte—or ‘‘four doors”—series by Italian sports-luxury car maker Maserati, was launched in 2009. It sped its way to India last year, when Maserati decided to retail the power-packed luxury sedans in India in collaboration with Shreyans Group.

The Modena, Italy-based car maker has one plant where it manufactures all its cars and then ships them across the world. Apart from the exclusivity, the car maker also provides various levels of customization, majorly divided into four categories—colour choices, onboard electronics, interiors and travel and driving dynamics.

Photographs: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

The exteriors

Instantly noticeable is the low stance, sporty aggressive new front-end, especially, the grill—wider and with inward curving vertical slats that echo the GranTurismo range of cars, which were first introduced in 2007—and large wheels. At the same time, the designers at Pininfarina have been able to retain the integrity of the original design of the fifth generation of Quattroporte, which was launched in 2004.

The grill sports the Maserati logo. The front light cluster has also been redesigned and features a titanium finish.

On the side, the trademark Maserati slots are present. The rear boasts of two sporty LED tail lamps and the exhaust tips.

By Pradip Kumar Saha pradip.s@livemint.com

Technical specifications:

Engine size: 4,691cc Cylinder: V8 Acceleration: 0-100km in 5.3sec Power output: 440hp@7,000 rpm Torque output: 490Nm@4,750 rpm Maximum speed: 285km Dimensions: 5097x1991x1,423mm (LxWxH) Price: R1.43 crore (ex-showroom Delhi) cc: cubic centimetres; hp: horsepower rpm: revolutions per minute Nm: Newton metre

The interiors

The material used for interior finishes is the groundbreaking TitanTex, an ultra-lightweight aluminium-coated titanium fibre fabric.

The fabric gives the interior a high-tech, high-performance look, as well as a shinier, more three-dimensional overall appearance.

The cabin also boasts of handmade luxury trimmings in Italian leather and wood.

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The engine

The Quattroporte Sport GT S is fitted with the Ferrari-made 4.7-litre V8 engine, which is taken from the GranTurismo. Capable of 440hp at 7,000 rpm and a maximum torque of 490Nm at 4,750 rpm, it takes the car’s performance to the next level.