Brummell February 2014

February 2014

The little black book for the City

New horizons Adventure holiday accessories • Cycling training camps • Hiking the Tasmanian coast • Weekend heli-skiing Military watches • Brand-new tech for 2014 • Bold foreign property choices • Food foraging • Left-field gins

Breguet, the innovator.

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A RACING MACHINE ON THE WRIST

RICHARD MILLE CALIBER EXTRA FLAT AUTOMATIC RM 033 Diameter: 45.70 mm x 6.30 mm Free sprung balance with variable inertia Monoblock micro rotor in Platinium Power reserve: 42 hours Baseplate, bridges and balance cock made of titanium Balance: glucydur, 4 arms Inertia moment 5.75 mg.cm2, angle of lift 53º Frequency: 21,600 vph (3hz) Spline screws in grade 5 titanium for the bridges and the case Upper fange in carbon fber Baseplate in hand-ground grade 5 titanium, wet sandblasted, Titalyt® treated Bridges wet sandblasted, top surface polished by hand, grade 5 titanium PVD treated Locking sections hand polished Sapphire blasted surfaces

Welcome to Brummell Adventure can be defned as a risky or unexpected undertaking. At its most extreme, hell-raising writer Hunter S Thompson advised following his example: ‘Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride!”’

But adventure is as much about encountering new experiences, setting up new enterprises and facing new challenges as it is about thrills and spills. In this issue, it comes in many guises: we explore the adrenaline surge of off-piste skiing from a heli-drop in a remote Swiss valley for a sporty long weekend but also speculate on the venture of buying second homes in unusual and

remote locations, like Nova Scotia; review the latest technology, from military-grade security hardware to a futuristic media player; check out stylish accessories with which to sail, climb and ride; and source hardy, shock-absorbing watches for serious activity, whether underwater or up mountains. Elsewhere, we take a walk on the wild side of the Tasmanian coast; recommend destinations for cycling holidays; go foraging in the New Forest; examine the market for investing in old maps; share culinary exploits in London dining; and talk to the entrepreneurs who have set up a distinctive chauffeur service manned by ex-services personnel for the ultimate in precision driving. Enjoy the ride.

Joanne Glasbey, Editor

Contents • Brummell

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Cover illustration: Malika Favre Show Media Brummell editorial 020 3222 0101 — Editor Joanne Glasbey Art Director Dominic Bell Managing Editor Lucy Teasdale Chief Copy Editor Chris Madigan Deputy Chief Copy Editor Gill Wing Senior Designer Jo Murray Picture Director Juliette Hedoin Staff Writer Charlie Teasdale Fashion Director Tamara Fulton Copy Editors Cate Langmuir, Katie Wyartt Intern Rachael White Creative Director Ian Pendleton Managing Director Peter Howarth — Advertising & Events Director Duncan McRae duncan@fyingcoloursmarketing.com 07816 218059 — showmedialondon.com brummell@showmedialondon.com — Visit Brummell’s website for more tailor-made content: brummellmagazine.net

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Foreword Columnist David Charters asks if City bosses are offering the right kind of leadership Money no object The best way to guarantee privacy in the Caribbean. Buy this private island in the BVIs BEAUMONDE News Private-jet travel across Australia; watches inspired by the Six Nations and Tom Clancy; and the ‘Wake up, it’s a powder day!’ ski app Technology Unfat-screen TVs, a 256GB media player, a military-grade security key and an acrobatic droid… 2014’s new tech feels very futuristic Skiing Off-piste thrills– including a heli drop – in a remote Swiss valley. But all in a weekend Property Adventurous second-homebuyers look further afeld – even as far as Nova Scotia After the City The luxury leather-goods success story that started as the hobby of two M&A specialists ADVENTURE KIT SPECIAl Accessories Set sail, break trail, hit the road, pedal off or head up the mountain in style Watches Shock-absorbing, pressure-withstanding and scratch-, water- and helium-resistant, these are timepieces for serious missions

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68 Colour reproduction by Fresh Media Group, groupfmg.com. Printed by Manson Group, manson-grp.co.uk Brummell is published by Show Media Ltd. All material © Show Media Ltd. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions.

The information contained in this publication is correct at the time of going to press. £5 (where sold). Reader offers are the responsibility of the organisation making the offer – Show Media accepts no liability regarding offers.

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FEATURES Cycling In the 21st-century bicycle boom, destinations such as the American West Coast and Mallorca have become two-wheel hot spots Maps We all love a little cartography – alternative Tube maps are almost as popular online as amusing cats. But for some people, collecting antique maps is a serious business Travel Shark-infested seas on one side, vast wilderness on the other and deceptively violent wombats in the dunes: the Tasmanian coast provides a dramatic, beautiful and wild setting for a walking holiday

By George A luxury car service that employs immaculate, disciplined ex-military drivers – with the added advantage that they can handle security crises EPICURE Food & drink news Sailing between island vineyards off Croatia; a new French vermouth; British biltong; and a Roman institution in London Foraging Spring comes to the New Forest and, with it, a larderful of wild garlic, edible nettles and seaweed ripe for the gathering Gin The artisans are coming for your G&T: Brummell’s pick of the quintessentially British spirit from passionate independent producers Japanese restaurants While London food trends ping around the globe from Lima to Lillehammer, one cuisine remains a constant

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Foreword • Brummell

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Leading edge

The world of investment banking needs a new kind of management: one that doesn’t just rely on the bonus.

But such motivational skills are few and far between

Words: David Charters Illustration: Brett Ryder

Management by fear and greed is easy. Real management requires… er… management skills.

Don’t spread this around, but there is a distinct possibility that large chunks of the investmentbanking industry don’t have those skills. There could even be a leadership defcit. Not an ego defcit – no worries there – but a lack of actual core skills to manage and motivate people when you can no longer do it simply with money. This is the conundrum facing many of the biggest frms as a result of the changes imposed on the industry following the crunch.

In the good old days, we measured our year very largely by one criterion: the bonus. It was paid largely – sometimes exclusively – in cash and, in the very best years, our frms even found ways for us to put off paying tax on it until the following year. So cash was king and we worked like demons, subject always to sudden death if we got something wrong, and with the temptation of job-hopping if we got bored or could fool someone with an even bigger wallet into offering us more. This latter point allowed us to extort huge sums from willing victims further up the food chain. We had to be paid that much or we might leave. Of course, it suited our bosses to pay us large amounts because, by defnition, they had to get even more than we did – otherwise what’s the point of being boss?

The change to a paper-based system with rolling multi-year vestings means that, over time, the differences get smoothed out between good years and bad ones. At the same time, we are expensive to fre, other than in rare cases of gross misconduct, because of the need to pay out on the unvested awards from previous years. We are also expensive to hire for the same reason: buying us out is a big investment by a new employer.

So increasingly large numbers of us will stay put, harvesting rolling returns accrued over years, and pacing ourselves because… well, why wouldn’t you?

How does it show? Partly in the hours we all put in, and the previously routinely written-off weekends and family holidays that are now rarely

In the future, leaders will become more accountable, not just to the outside world, but to their own troops

interrupted, in the punishing travel schedule that can, after all, be dealt with by telepresence, and partly in a feeling that this is an industry that is starting to pace itself. Somebody turned the heat down. We may not all burn out quite so young – or so wealthy – after all.

Motivating us will require different skills, too.

There will be a danger that the most aggressive, impatient talent (yes, I mean the really greedy ones) will move to smaller frms – or non-banks – not caught up in pay restrictions. The people left behind could turn out to be good, long-term advisers for corporate clients, offering a type of service that had tended to be out of fashion prior to the crunch: impartial advice from professionals willing to prosper slowly over time alongside their clients, rather than travelling salesmen fogging the product of the month at all costs. Or they could just turn out to be dull, risk-averse types who happily preside over slow but steady decline.

Either way, the question is what sort of people should lead them, and whether they, in fact, get the leaders they deserve. The senior appointment process in investment banking has never been a model of fairness and transparency but, rather like selecting a new pope, on the whole the ‘system’ seemed to work. Or at least it worked suffciently well that those of us further down the food chain were able to work with whoever was appointed and public failure by top management was rarely so bad as to make us cause waves by protesting.

On the exceptional occasion when someone senior scored a ‘blue on blue’ – misunderstanding a fee

structure, say, and agreeing something in a client meeting that made the rest of us cringe – they were likely to be moved sideways and out. Believe me, there is no one quite so instantly naked as a master of the universe who everyone knows has been told he is toast: the look in the eyes says it all – non-verbal communication at its fnest.

The kind of boss who inspired me – and I was lucky enough to have had a couple – had a lot of old-fashioned leadership values. Praise was public, punishment private. They worked as hard as anyone on the team, though differently: more time on planes, more client-facing, more creative. And they were loyal, sharing credit for success, taking the heat for failure. They were also interesting, even eccentric. One is still an extreme angler who has fshed in some outlandish places. Another climbed mountains. They believed in things that went beyond the size of their wallet or how many shoes and handbags their wives would buy that year.

The sad thing is that they were exceptions.

I saw other senior fgures willing to serve up sacrifcial victims when things went wrong. Or running victory laps for something they’d just heard about, but the deal team had quietly worked on for months. Perhaps the bad behaviour was the understandable product of the old system and will become unnecessary and eventually unacceptable in the new. Or perhaps not. In fact, let me pause while a squadron of pigs fies over the trading foor.

What will defnitely happen in the future, which has to be one of the most positive, though least-reported, outcomes of the crunch, is that leaders will become more accountable, not just to the outside world, but to the most questioning and well-informed audience of all: their own troops. Time to raise your game, fellas. History is marching on. There are only so many places at the top, and not everyone will make the cut. l The Ego’s Nest by David Charters, the ffth novel in the series about City anti-hero Dave Hart, is published by Elliott & Thompson, £6.99

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POWER: 565BHP ACCELERATION: 0-60MPH IN 3.7 SECONDS SPEED: 205MPH Official government fuel consumption figures in mpg (litres per 100km) for the Aston Martin V12 Vantage S urban 12.6 (22.5); extra-urban 27.7 (10.2); combined 19.2 (14.7). CO2 emissions 343 g/km. The mpg/fuel economy figures quoted are sourced from official regulated test results obtained through standard testing. They are for comparability purposes only and may not reflect your real driving experience, which may vary depending on factors including road conditions, weather, vehicle load, and driving style.

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Brummell

vladi-private-islands.de

Your own British Virgin Island, with luxury residence and white sand beaches, takes some beating as an exclusive hideaway

If we’re really talking money no object, the ultimate luxury has to be your very own private island.

From Thunderbirds’ fctional, missile-heavy Tracy Island, to the Barclay brothers’ Brecqhou (a tiny Channel Island off the coast of Sark), owning one represents the acme of acquisition.

Available worldwide from Italy to Nova Scotia, Japan to the Maldives, a number can be snapped up at the lower end of seven digits. However, one of the most exclusive private-island estates available to anyone with $30m at their disposal has to be Buck Island – 43 acres of soft, white sand beaches and vertical cliffs overlooking the

lapping Caribbean. It’s part of the British Virgin Island archipelago – land your private jet on the largest island, Tortola, under a mile away, and take a speed-boat trip over. The estate includes an acre on Tortola and an annexe used to house staff.

The lavish accommodation on Buck Island itself, for 20-plus guests has played host to dignitaries and royalty, who’ve enjoyed the vast suites, spa, gym, infnity pool, library, ‘theatre room’ with 360° views, beach houses, boathouses and more.

This scepter’d isle is undeniably ft for a king – or at least a king of commerce. vladi-private-islands.de

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Beaumonde

Limited-edition Bremont watches inspired by Boeing; off the beaten track in Australia and Africa; Matt Roberts’ bootcamps

Outback odysseys Luxury bespoke-travel company Abercrombie & Kent has announced a new private-jet adventure to Australia’s last frontier. A maximum of 30 guests will embark on a 13-day trip by privately chartered Fokker F70LR aircraft for the price of £15,925 per person. Flying between Perth and Darwin, the tour takes in the Australian outback, early cave paintings by the Aboriginals and snorkeling at Ningaloo Reef.

If your interests lie more in wildlife, then perhaps the African crosscontinent tour is more your thing.

Beginning in 2015, the company will be taking travellers on a new 17-night adventure across Botswana, Ethiopia, Namibia (pictured), South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The all-inclusive.tour is priced at £52,865 per person. abercrombiekent.co.uk

Right on track There’s only one thing better than a powder day on the slopes, and that’s being one of the frst up the mountain to fnd all the fresh lines.

Helly Hansen’s new First Tracks app allows you to set your location and preferred amount of snowfall, so, if it happens overnight, this app wakes you up early so you get there frst. Share your frst-track snaps on Instagram tagged with #HHFirstTracks for a chance to win HH gear. hellyhansen.com

Face-off ↑ From Live and Let Die to the Men in Black series and 2003’s remake of The Italian Job, chances are you’ve clocked a Hamilton watch in a fair few movies over the years. The American watchmaker has a starring role in this year’s fast-paced thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, with two timepieces from its Khaki Titanium range in the frame. Playing the lead, Chris Pine wears a rugged automatic model ft for a spy, while Kevin Costner’s character opts for a multi-functional aviation watch with a raft of features. hamiltonwatch.com

New Yoo ↑ Luxury Cotswold eco-development The Lakes by Yoo – a collaboration between renowned designer Philippe Starck and property entrepreneur John Hitchcox – is the setting for ftness expert Matt Roberts’ series of boot camps. Each four-day programme helps you achieve a specifc focus – triathlon training, fat-loss or health and nutrition – sustained, while you’re at it, by a vegetarian menu. After your intensive training, unwind in your lakefront residence equipped with the latest mod cons. thelakesbyyoo.com

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Beaumonde • News

Striking beauty ← Fort Standard, a contemporary industrial-design company based in Brooklyn, excels at creating well-conceived, functional products from long-lasting materials using traditional methods. In 2013, the studio created Life is Precious, a beautifully simple survival kit that included a penknife, compass and fshing wire, all contained neatly within a small brass canister. Sadly, it was just an exercise in creativity and never made it to store; however, by popular demand, Fort Standard has now created Fire, a scaled-down version of the concept, which contains strike-anywhere matches and a cotton ball for tinder.

Waterproof and easily stored, the metal cylinder – made from a single piece of brass – is simple, practical and downright handsome, making it a great take-anywhere tool for the aesthetically conscious explorer. $150; fortstandard.com

Quite the dish Since opening in early 2012, Soho’s 10 Greek Street has been one of the hardest no-reservation restaurants at which to get a table. It’s happy Steel yourself ↑ To mark the passing last year of Carl Elsener, the pioneering inventor of the Swiss Army Knife and founder of Victorinox, the company has created a limited edition of his favourite design, the Explorer. It features all the tools you’d expect – corkscrew, can opener, screwdriver, scissors and magnifying glass – but the main blade has been forged from Damascus steel, an intricately ornate metal most often used in Middle Eastern sword-making.

In commemoration of his work, Elsener’s signature is etched along the oak casing of this heirloom, of which just 7,000 have been made. £159.99; victorinox.com

news, then, that the same team is opening a second site, 8 Hoxton Square, in late-February and that this venue will take bookings.

Look forward to an exciting and varied wine list, and a changing seasonal menu crafted from carefully sourced ingredients.

8hoxtonsquare.com

Scrum down ↑ In rugby union, as in all sports, accuracy is key – which is why, as part of Swiss watchmaker Tissot’s ongoing partnership with the RBS 6 Nations, referees in this year’s championship have been kitted out with a new limited-run timepiece.

Like previous models in the series, the quartz T-Touch II Titanium RBS 6 Nations Special Edition 2014 is equipped with a host of added extras, including a compass, thermometer, chronograph, dual time zones, two alarms, backlight and perpetual calendar. And much like the sport itself, the watch embodies a tough attitude, with a rugged titanium case contrasted with a fery-red strap and face detail. £590; tissotshop.com

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Beaumonde • News BRUMMELL PROMOTION

A taste of romance

The Dalmore’s master distiller, Richard Paterson, explains how to get the most out of sampling a whisky: take your time You should approach whisky in the same way as you look at a painting: the more time you give it, the more it will communicate to you. Jackson Pollock called it an ‘inner world’ – and that is what is revealed to you when you take your time nosing a whisky.

Nosing and looking at a whisky will tell you about 96 per cent of what you need to know. Only when you really want to confrm what your nose is telling you do you drink it. I use a copita sherrytasting glass; others use the Glencairn glass – they’re both shaped to direct the whisky’s aroma to the nose. I put my nose right in the glass and say, ‘Hello’, then pull it away, bring it back and say, ‘How do you do?’ and then a third time, ‘Quite well, thank you.’

This isn’t just a ritual. The frst time, the bouquet rises but the alcohol hits you too; the second, you go into the heart of the whisky; and the third reveals even more nuances. And these are not big inhalations. Just move the

glass slowly from nostril to nostril. It’s like kissing a woman’s hand in the old days: it would just be a whisper of a kiss.

Next, you take a sip and hold it on the tongue for 30 seconds, then under it for the same amount of time, then move it around. The longer you hold it in your mouth, the more you will get from it, especially with a whisky as complex as The Dalmore 25 Year Old. You’ll get the dark chocolate and orange marmalade typical of our aged whiskies, with extra plummy notes and blackcurrant that come from the year we gave it in port pipes.

Finally, if the whisky’s a little strong for your palate, add a little water, then repeat the process. That is the way to extract the rare, appealing favours of whisky and open up that inner world.

The Dalmore 25 Year Old, £600; thedalmore.com

Reach for the sky British watch brand Bremont is famed for its aviation heritage and co-founders Nick and Giles English are themselves pilots, so its exclusive collaboration with Boeing comes as little surprise.

The house will use the aeronautical giant’s materials to create a series of wristwatches and chronometers, and a limited-edition collection will feature tiny Boeing parts. Visit the newly opened store at The Royal Exchange to see the full range. bremont.com

Fort rocks ↑ Spitbank Fort, a private island retreat off the South Coast might not boast white beaches, but it does have that undeniable novelty factor. Built in the late 1800s to protect Portsmouth Harbour from a Napoleonic invasion that never came, it went unused until renovation in 2012. The Escape London package whisks you there in your choice

of dream car, helicopter or land yacht.

On arrival, you’ll want to take full advantage of the fort’s rooftop spa, three bars and the games room sited in its original ammunition store.

Gourmet fare will ensure you’re well sated when the time comes to take your luxury transport back to the City. amazingvenues.co.uk

© NASA

Vintage BR 126 Blackbird · Automatic chronograph with Flyback function · Limited edition to 500 pieces · Bell & Ross UK: +44 207 096 0878 · e-Boutique: www.bellross.com

Beaumonde • Technology

Toy glory

Automotive: Audi Smart Display ↓ Audi steered a number of concepts into CES this year, from a driverless mode to ease you through the tedium of traffc jams to laser-powered headlights capable of illuminating up to 500m ahead.

More likely to grace its feet this year is this Android-powered Smart Display, a 10.2in internet-enabled tablet that lets you control your in-car entertainment system via a wireless touch interface Audi describes as ‘crash-proof’, as well as calling up a raft of useful info from fuel economy to journey progress. On a more practical level, it means chauffeur-driven business folk can now enjoy full control over the radio from the back seat. audi.co.uk

If the predominant themes of this January’s annual Consumer Electronics Show were predictable – wearable technology, 4K TV, 3D-printing and ever more digitally connected homes – the products were anything but. From the justifably essential to the downright indulgent, here’s our shortlist of the ones to watch, listen to and joyfully interact with.

Words: Henry Farrar-Hockley

Audio: Astell & Kern AK240 → This polished digital jukebox is more than simply ‘the audiophile’s iPod’: the media player is so powerful, it could form the backbone of a full-spec home sound system. Beyond its duralumin and carbon-fbre façade is a music machine that can handle every audio codec going, from MP3 to Super Audio CD-quality DSD. It has a generous 256GB of storage, expandable to 384GB via a memory-card slot. Wireless functionality allows you to stream tunes from a laptop; those are fltered through twin Cirrus Logic 4398 digital-to-analogue converters to provide the ultimate pocket hi-f experience. astellnkern.com

Health: LG Lifeband Touch ↓ Of the myriad ‘timepieces’ hoping to kick-start the much-presaged smartwatch revolution, not one has yet achieved the balance of connected functionality and alluring wrist furniture.

Arguably the best on show at CES was not a smartwatch, but a health monitor.

The Lifeband Touch is a sleek bracelet with a touch-scroll screen that relays a multitude of data: calories burned, distance covered, song info, incoming texts etc. It also tells the time. A further LG innovation is the set of wireless earphones that monitor blood fow in your eardrums to calculate your heart rate in real time. lg.com/uk TV: Samsung U9000 ← The rapid evolution of TV – LED, 3D, OLED, 4K and so on – poses a problem: where does the paterfamilias of consumer tech go from here? The answer, at least for now, is to put a curve on convention.

Samsung introduced its frst ‘unfat’ fat screen last autumn and this year will sell a complete range of concave TVs. The science is sound: horizontal curvature means every inch of the screen is an equal distance from your eyes, meaning more accurate viewing.

Samsung’s U9000 model (due in 55in, 65in and 78in) automatically upgrades HD broadcasts to ultra-high defnition, and features voice- and gesture-control. samsung.com/uk

Where not listed, price not announced at time of going to press

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Technology • Beaumonde

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Toys: Parrot Jumping Sumo → Renowned for eccentric iPod speakers and friendly aerial drones, Gallic innovator Parrot has branched out into domestic robots with this acrobatic two-wheeled toy. While by no means signalling the rise of the machines, it does herald a new era of connected droids. Using a gyroscope and accelerometer, the Sumo can be ordered around the house with precision and speed, leaping up to 80cm in the air, spinning on its axis and making sharp turns with ease. It is controlled via a free smartphone app over Wi-Fi, and the front-mounted VGA camera provides a gratifying frst-person perspective of the action. parrot.com/uk

Headphones: Audio-Technica SonicFuel ATH-OX7AMP ← On the surface, these elegant, lightweight cans may resemble any other mid-range over-the-ear solution, but under the surface lies an unobtrusive amplifer powered by a single AAA battery. The benefts of adding active amplifcation to the earpieces’ 40mm drivers are twofold: frst, improved clarity and detail. Second, it allows you to output your music at lower volumes, saving battery life on your smartphone. Two 1.2m cables are included: a conventional tangle-free hi-f option, and an in-line design for mobile users, featuring call, volume and music controls. £200; eu.audio-technica.com

Security: MyIDKey ↓ The need for watertight encryption and a reliable solution for memorising the endless passwords that protect our countless digital accounts is becoming ever greater. This Kickstarter-funded data bank is brilliantly simple but, more importantly, resolutely secure, with a military-grade system that self-destructs if tampered with. Using an iOS/Android app, you input your numerous login details directly onto the 16GB key, which can then only be accessed using the built-in fngerprint scanner. It has a voice-search function for quickly locating the right username and password combo, which is relayed to you on its discreet display. myidkey.com Photography: Sony A5000 → If it sounds a little premature to be forecasting the death of the DSLR – the powerful yet hulking stalwart of ‘prosumer’ cameras – consider the A5000, which exemplifes the recent gains made in the leaner, mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) category. The lightest in its class, it shoehorns in a 20MP Exmor APS HD CMOS image sensor capable of resolutely detailed stills and video, alongside wireless fle syncing, onboard photoediting and a 180-degree tilting screen for the obligatory ‘selfe’. Taking all that into account, the appeal of DSLRs is fading faster than a Polaroid in the sun.

From £419; sony.co.uk

Beaumonde • Skiing

Private view

Despite its remoteness, extensive off-piste and heli-skiing opportunities, the hidden Val d’Anniviers is remarkably convenient for weekend adventure

From the top With only a small amount of the mountain pisted, a short hike from the lift offers deep snow and only a couple of goats (or friends) for company

Words: Chris Madigan

After the frst warm-up run of the morning, we stopped for a coffee at the edge of the village.

In any group of skiers, when it’s time to head to the lift, there are usually a couple of people raring to go but also one or two dawdlers. Not this time: our lift had landed in the car park, rotors still spinning, the pilot unwilling to wait for someone to fnish a croissant.

Moments later, the helicopter was skimming along a snow-covered ridge before the mountain dropped away and, exhilarated, we found ourselves hundreds of metres above the next valley. In the distance was the Matterhorn, but we headed to the 3,796m Pigne d’Arolla. On a small plateau below the peak, the pilot touched down briefy. We bundled out, then stood to take in the beauty and peace of this remote spot near the Italian border.

Our departure point, Grimentz, is also pretty remote. It is one of the villages at the far end of the Val d’Anniviers, hidden in plain sight among its popular neighbours, Verbier, Zermatt and Crans-Montana. Which is just how fans of the valley like it – fans such as Will Herrington, managing director of bespoke chalet operator Frozen Action, and our mountain guide, Nick Parks, who knows renowned off-piste areas such as the Chamonix valley like the back of his ski glove, but has chosen Val d’Anniviers as his home.

Ironically, for such a hidden gem, it makes a great destination for a weekend break. You can fy to Geneva pretty late on Thursday evening, with

trains departing for Sierre as late as 10pm (or it’s a two-hour drive). Frozen Action can organise this – and indeed everything from the moment you touch down, including a wine tasting in a local cellar.

Switzerland may not be known for its wines, but the best of its Pinots Noirs and Petite Arvines from the Valais region are excellent. Nearby is Le Mélèze, a buzzing little restaurant with a central table you cram around for an epic adventure, taking on a mountain… of meats, grilling them yourselves.

Frozen Action can also organise a raclette evening in your accommodation, which is either in boutique apartments among the ancient buildings of this cosy village, or in a spacious modern place just outside the centre, with views across Val d’Anniviers.

And what a valley. A cable car completed in January has joined the ski areas of Grimentz and Zinal, linking 120km of pistes, but the real treasure is to be found off-piste. Much of it is lift-served – all you do is turn in the opposite direction to the family skiing groups. On the frst morning, equipped with avalanche transceivers, probes and shovels and led by a local guide, Sebastian Monnard of the École de Ski Internationale, we head up the button lift to Roc d’Orzival. It opens up some wonderful off-piste – wide, open spaces funneling down into tree sections that are great fun to bounce through – which yields untracked runs all day.

It’s the same story elsewhere in the area.

On the sunny side (St-Luc/Chandolin), short

hikes from the highest points yield great pitches you’ll have to yourself. And, at the head of the valley, Zinal has one of those long ungroomed routes which, were it in another resort, would have legendary status – a Stairway to Heaven or a Hidden Valley. Here, you’re likely to share the run from Corne de Sorbois to the Moiry dam, across the barrage wall and back to Grimentz, with only a couple of mountain goats.

The clincher for this destination, though, is the fact that Grimentz is one of just two resorts in Switzerland where helicopters are allowed to land in the village (the other being Zermatt). After the heli-drop, we had 8km ahead of us and for every diffcult section working around rocks or avoiding crevasses, there was the reward of a snowfeld where you could just settle into a smooth rhythm in the deep snow. Two hours later and 1,800m lower, we walked into the Kurhaus restaurant in Arolla with tired legs, hungry stomachs and beaming smiles. A smile like that doesn’t shift for a while, not fying back on Sunday evening, not at work on Monday. It’s part of one of those lifelong memories you can get from a ski trip – yet you’ve only been out of the offce for one day. l Frozen Action offers three days’ skiing with a mountain guide, including chalet accommodation, one heli drop, ground transportation, a raclette evening and wine-tasting, for around £1,270pp in March (excluding fights and lift pass); frozenaction.ch

Anna Herrington

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Experiences words can’t describe. Memories a camera can’t quite capture.

Adventures aren’t found in magazines.

We can’t describe your dream trip on this page.

But with over 50 years’ experience, our own people and expedition vehicles all over the world, we can help you discover it.

Anything is possible.

abercrombiekent.co.uk 0845 415 4605

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Beaumonde • Property

Home & away From Kenya to Canada and Miami to Mauritius… Be bold about buying a second property abroad – the world really is your oyster

Words: Catherine Moye

Like the blow-out business lunch and shelling out a fortune on a Ferrari Testarossa, acquiring a second home overseas felt a smidge indulgent during the economic downturn. Getting caught red-handed with the deeds to a delightful beachfront villa in a paradise location was tantamount to daylight robbery when so many were struggling to keep hold of their home.

Now those who have been assiduously keeping their heads down for the past fve years are back on the look-out for toothsome properties.

But rather than starting a feeding frenzy on the established second-home markets of France, Spain and Italy, the new entrants have more adventurous ideas in mind. ‘While some people are focused on the more tried-and-tested markets, others are striking out and looking at places they would never have considered before,’ says James Price, a partner at estate agent Knight Frank’s international department.

An example is Miami, which was barely on the second-home map eight years ago. Back then, the word ‘Florida’ was practically synonymous

with a villa on a golf resort in Orlando. Today’s buyers seek the panoramic sea views from Miami’s glistening beachfront skyscrapers and its dizzying urban swagger rather than anodyne lawns and the predictability of the golf clubhouse scene. And who can blame them?

Faena House, a 47-residence oceanfront scheme designed by Foster + Partners, offers one- to fve-bedroom fully fnished residences with magnifcent sea views through foor-to-ceiling window-walls with sliding doors. And because it is operated by Ritz-Carlton Residences, owners will also beneft from fve-star concierge services (prices start at £1.4m through Knight Frank; knightfrank.com).

Alternatively, there’s One Thousand Museum – a landmark new development of 83 ultra-luxury apartments by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid OBE with breathtaking views over Biscayne Bay (prices for a four-bedroom apartment start at £3m through Savills International; savills.com).

According to Joanna Leverett of Savills, the shift in the market towards further-fung locations is mainly due to the army of international buyers now entering the second-homes market, many of whom live and work in London. ‘We have a lot of international cash buyers right now – mostly European, plus Russians and South Americans, whose criteria of what constitutes a great lifestyle and what they want from a second home is different to your British buyer of old,’ she explains.

Leverett cites the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius which, despite being a 12-hour fight from the UK, benefts from only a three-hour time difference as well as tax benefts for those who become residents. Panama is another exotic location popular with buyers. Following the expansion of its canal, it has turned into a cultural hub dubbed ‘the New York of Latin America’ and had a higher GDP growth rate than China in the frst half of 2013.

In the Caribbean, the less developed islands of Grenada and St Lucia are now marketing themselves as being more elite than the island of Barbados, which is perceived to have become a bit tainted by the package-holiday crowd.

On the beautiful, mountainous island of St Lucia are The Residences at Sugar Beach – a collection of 42 three- to six-bedroom properties on the water’s edge with views of rainforests, mountains and the sea (prices start at £1.5m through Sotheby’s International Realty; sothebysrealty.com).

With the Winter Olympics spirit sweeping the nation, year-round activity-based resorts in scenic settings are also very much on the agenda, and especially popular with 30- and 40-somethings looking to spend quality time with a young family.

The spiralling cost of chalets and overcrowding in traditional Alpine resorts means more discerning buyers are looking further afeld. In particular, they are casting their eyes on Canada. Forest Lakes Country Club in Nova Scotia plans to become Atlantic Canada’s premier year-round resort. Offering luxury accommodation in a 1,000-acre site featuring extensive forests and lakes, it is surrounded by mountains (prices start at £285,000 for an apartment through Savills).

Closer to home, the number of overseas property purchases in Turkey rose by 78 per cent

Property • Beaumonde

Ocean views Opposite: Zaha Hadid’s ultra-luxury development One Thousand Museum in Miami. Above: St Lucia’s elite The Residences at Sugar Beach. Below: Faena House, Miami, with its foor-to-ceiling windows

While some are focused on tried-and-tested markets, others are striking out and looking at places they would never have considered before

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in the frst half of 2013, with Istanbul leading the way. ‘Large homes lining the Bosphorus are where the big money is right now,’ says James Price. ‘So are resorts linked to leading hotels.’

One such is LaVanta, a luxury development of 190 apartments and villas currently under construction on a hillside overlooking Kalkan – one of the most beautiful coastal spots in southwest Turkey. (Three-bedroom villas start at £180,000 through Savills.) Another is The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, at Paradise Bay in Bodrum, where 98 villas and 116 residences with breathtaking panoramic views are currently being built (with prices from £900,000, also through Savills).

The current vogue for buying residential property set within a scheme run by a leading hotel operator is partly responsible for buyers looking at the more out-of-the ordinary locations, according to Joanna Leverett. ‘It means home owners can play it reasonably safe in regions that might otherwise be a little too challenging.’

Marrakech, with its exotic medina and the drama of the Atlas Mountains is one example. Another is Kenya, where more adventurous British buyers can enjoy sun, sea and safari at Medina Palms, at Watamu, a luxurious oceanfront development (prices start at £215,000 through Knight Frank).

The current zeitgeist in the overseas property market is a long way from the ‘stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap’ culture that characterised the pre-recessionary days. Gone, too, are high-end estate agents’ breathless exhortations that you can be ‘door to door in under two hours’.

Today’s discerning high-rollers now demand luxury homes in areas that are a tad more inaccessible to the hoi-polloi. l

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Beaumonde • After the City

We wanted to create products that would have their own unique tales to tell

Case study Samuel Bail’s and Abel Samet’s quest to create the perfect weekend luggage has developed into a bespoke, artisan brand founded on honesty and quality

Words: Henry Farrar-Hockley Photography: Philip Sinden

The luxury leather-goods market is a fercely competitive one, controlled by some of the most powerful brands on the planet. So what possessed a pair of affable City execs to join the fray?

‘We were looking for a bag you could take into the offce then away for the weekend – not too formal and built to last. We couldn’t fnd one, so we set out to see if we could create it ourselves.’ explains Samuel Bail (above) of Troubadour Goods, the London label he co-founded in 2011 with Abel Samet. The duo came to London to study – Bail from Toronto to the Saïd Business School, Samet from Boston to the London School of Economics – before crossing paths at Lazard, specialising in M&A advisory. When Bail and I meet in the wood-panelled tearoom at Mayfair’s Brown’s Hotel, it is full of impeccable moneymen, and their workaday luggage – branded gym bags and sad-looking attaché cases – suggests that Troubadour Goods is truly onto something.

The frst task Bail and Samet faced was to fnd people to help them realise their vision. ‘We’d visit East End factories before work,’ Bail recalls, ‘But didn’t fnd anyone who cared enough about what they were doing.’ What followed was 18 months spent juggling a career in fnance with research

expeditions to Italy, Spain and France. Finally, they settled on two family-run tanneries in the Tuscan foothills. ‘Our hides are vegetable-tanned naturally in wooden barrels and we don’t add any fnish or print, which is unusual.’ The zips are by Raccagni (which supplies Tom Ford), while the stitching is Serafl 40 thread from Germany’s Amann Group, founded in 1854. After 30 design iterations and thousands of air miles, they had found their perfect bag – or rather invented it.

Naming the brand Troubadour Goods is a reference to the artisans behind it. Yet it’s also a nod to how the years will lend each bag its own patina. ‘We had in mind an old briefcase owned

by Abel’s grandfather,’ enthuses Bail. ‘It had clearly been to a lot of places and had tales to tell – just the type of product we wanted to create.’

By the end of 2012, Bail and Samet reached a point where their ‘hobby’ was overshadowing their day jobs. ‘The income funded the business and gave us time for research,’ Bail continues, ‘but the decision to go full-time was pretty easy.’ And their strong team smoothed the way. ‘The people we’d got could execute this idea to the level we wanted.’

Bail even argues that their lack of experience in the fashion industry may have been an advantage: ‘Coming from a totally different industry, there wasn’t an expectation of how things needed to be done. It means that, as a team, we’ve questioned the processes every step of the way.’

The other policy that has worked to their advantage from the outset is to be completely honest: ‘We just talked to people. We showed them the things we were excited about, but also the elements we couldn’t quite fgure out. Many people starting companies hide their idea in case it gets stolen. The upside for us was the fact our contacts introduced us to people who understand production, and that was incredibly valuable.’

Three years after they began their search for the ultimate weekend bag, Troubadour Goods has evolved into a tightly edited collection of men’s luggage comprising seven beautifully understated and contemporary pieces, from a bi-fold wallet to a pleasingly capacious briefcase with riveted handles. The online store has been joined by eight UK retailers, including Harrods and Harvey Nichols, and international expansion is next on their leather-bound agenda; Bail has just been to Paris where he and Samet set up a showroom for buyers from Japan, Australia, Europe and the US. Given they established Troubadour Goods with the style-conscious fnancier in mind, do they ever test their wares on their former Lazard colleagues?

‘Oh, absolutely,’ Bail grins. ‘I have a City friend who’s very tall, so when we were designing the shoulder strap, we reasoned if it’s long enough for him, it’ll be long enough for anyone.’ l troubadourgoods.com

Š theo fennell plc copyright

theo fennell

cufinks original designs, handmade in our london workshop london . 169 fulham road . harrods . burlington arcade . selfridges . royal exchange for uk and worldwide stockists please contact +44 (0)20 7591 5000

www.theofennell.com

A Masterpiece: The Residents’ Terrace with the City Beyond at Canaletto

by Architects UNStudio Sales Gallery Open Daily Studios from ÂŁ500,000

www.canalettolondon.com +44 (0)20 7608 1825 257 City Road, EC1

Accessories • Brummell

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Adventure accessories special Kitted out Gone are the days when outdoor and sports clothing was a world apart from fashion. Now luxury-goods brands embrace the active life and you can get your adrenaline fx while looking every inch the hero. Here, we have gathered together nine pages of stylish clothing, footwear, luggage and accessories for adventurous road, cycling, seagoing or mountain journeys.

And we offer a selection of watches that will handle your time spent pushing the envelope.

Cycle of life Clockwise from above: Nylon backpack, £150, Kris VaNassche. canvas and calfskin ‘aller-retour’ messenger bag, £2,750, hermès. Perforated-leather shoes, £320, Bally. ‘randolph’ sunglasses, £240, hardy amies. leather wash bag, £160, Paul smith. ‘city riding’ socks, £15, raPha. city cycling guide, £25, thames & hudsoN at raPha. cashmere-silk summer scarf, £495, BurBerry. Zip-front tops, £395 each. shorts, £125, orleBar BrowN

Action heroes

wherever your adventure takes you, whether on land or by sea, the right kit will save the day

Photography: Andy Barter Styling: David Hawkins

Accessories • Brummell

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Touring production Opposite, from top: Panama hat, £150, and picnic blanket, £295, both Holland & Holland. X2 camera, £1,600, leica. Steering-wheel cuffinks, £245, GTo london. leather wallet, £115, alFRed dunHill This page, from top: Silk scarf, £55, and canvas and leather bag, £645, both alFRed dunHill. ‘Saint-Honoré’ canvas weekend bag with leather straps, £1,120. Bentley for Men eau de toilette, £43 for 60ml, BenTley FRaGRanceS. ‘edbrook’ sunglasses, £270, HaRdy aMieS. leather iPad case, £350, MulBeRRy. ‘Guéthary’ leather sneakers, £375, JM WeSTon. ‘Rocabar’ blanket, £345, HeRMèS

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Brummell • Accessories

Sea worthy This page, from top: Water-print wash bag, £110, Paul Smith. ‘Caveton’ shorts, £145, Orlebar brOWn. Supima-cotton sweater, £85, brOOkS brOtherS. blu mediterraneo mandorlo di Sicilia eau de toilette, £78 for 150ml, aCqua di Parma. ‘Wave’ acetate sunglasses, £179, burberry. leather passport wallet, £120, alFred dunhill. nappa-leather drawsring duffel bag and wallet set, £495, burberry

Opposite, anticlockwise from top left: ‘babord’ canvas and calfskin duffel bag, £3,970, hermèS. boat shoes, £290, bally. ‘StarWalker’ red-gold-plated fountain pen, £750, mOntblanC. ultravid Colorline 8x20 binoculars with case, £700, leiCa. ‘ulysse’ calfskin notebook, £345, hermèS. ‘trancoso’ beach bat set, £140 for two bats and two balls; neoprene case, £60; and fve extra balls, £25, all FreSCObOl CariOCa. maps, stylist’s own

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Brummell • Accessories

Peak condition Clockwise from opposite, bottom left: ‘Alpha Bravo Lejeune’ ballistic nylon backpack, £395, Tumi. Rubber duffel bag, £695, BALLy. Encre Noir Sport eau de toilette, £60 for 100ml, LALiquE. matt-fnish ski goggles, from £340, ChANEL. ‘Raygun’ sunglasses, £500, DiTA at DovER STREET mARkET. ‘meisterstück’ canvas and leather wallet, £150, moNTBLANC. Leather passport wallet, £120, ALFRED DuNhiLL. Laser-printed wool scarf, £175, ALFRED DuNhiLL. Nylon ’Sylvestre’ jacket, £644, moNCLER. mohair blanket, £145, ToAST. Leather sneakers, £320, BALLy

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Brummell • Accessories

In your stride Clockwise from bottom left: Leather wallet, £115, ALFRED DunhiLL. Scotch-grain leather passport wallet, £125, MuLbERRy. Leather wash bag, £190, PAuL SMith. Polo shirt,

£120, VictoRinox. Géranium Pour Monsieur by Dominique Ropion eau de toilette, £145 for 100ml, FRÉDÉRic MALLE at Liberty. Parsley Seed Anti-oxidant hydrator, £43 for

60ml, AESoP. ‘Signature’ tweed fask with cups, £175, hoLLAnD & hoLLAnD. White chocolate Macadamia nut energy bar, £1.46, cLiF bAR. Leather rucksack, £1,225, tRoubADouR.

calfskin hiking boots, £1,030, hERMèS. ‘Alpha bravo Lejeune’ ballistic-nylon backpack with camoufage panels, £445, tuMi. Leather boat shoes, £350, buRbERRy

Brummell Bespoke Promotion

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HARDY AMIES’ ABC OF LONDON

D is for Deckchair

In 1964, British fashion designer Hardy Amies published the style columns he had been writing for America’s groundbreaking Esquire magazine as the ABC of Men’s Fashion. Fifty years later, Hardy Amies is still the choice of men about town, and in homage to its founder, the house is once again publishing an ABC – this time, of iconic London stories. Read them on the ABC blog at hardyamies.com, and learn about your city’s rich cultural history, not to mention great men’s style

The deckchair is a quintessentially British item, still synonymous with summertime in parks, on piers and at the beach. As the name suggests, the ‘deck’ chair originated with the need for light and portable outside seating for passengers on transatlantic liners. The first folding chairs were heavy wooden numbers, difficult to put up without trapping a finger or two and not popular with passengers or crew, who had to stack them each evening and when rough seas threatened. John Thomas Moore (1864–1929) took out a patent for a simpler adjustable folding chair with a slatted wooden back and seat in 1886 and manufacture began in Macclesfield in 1887. He described his Waverley model as ‘the best ship or lawn chair’.

It was recognisably a deckchair, but not yet quite ‘the best’ – the comfortable, light and durable canvas sling was yet to come. There is some dispute as to who added this essential element – some claim it was the Americans – although most agree that, towards the end of the 19th century, a British inventor called Atkins replaced the usual drab olive material with brightly coloured stripes, thus creating the enduring image of what a deckchair should look like.

The design has remained much the same since – like the bicycle, the basics are virtually impossible to improve upon – apart from the addition of armrests on some luxury models, and the notches, which provide adjustable ‘rake’.

Opposite: Hardy Amies spring/summer 2014 collection, photographed in Hyde Park. Above from top: wool distorted-check trousers, striped leather and canvas belt, and suede double monk shoes. Pima cotton double-breasted peak-lapel jacket with patch pockets, cotton gingham shirt and broken-stripe silk tie

By the late 1890s, deckchairs were incredibly popular not only at sea but also on land. P&O passengers were advised to bring their own, to circumvent the morning rush. On land, the practice of hiring them out in parks, usually for a penny, especially around the ornate bandstands, and in gardens and on beaches was quickly established. The roving rental collector, eagle-eyed in seeking out non-paying squatters, was soon a familiar figure. The chairs also became as much a fixture on quiet provincial cricket grounds as panama hats, and scones for tea.

The ubiquity of the deckchair declined with the rise of cheap, portable, often inferior alternatives and some see them as a relic of the days of saucy postcards – the sight of the inexperienced trying to erect one being a comic staple – and knottedhanky headwear. It was an image Blackpool’s tourism bosses wanted to move away from when they made the decision to phase them out in order to ‘modernise’ and move more upmarket.

But for those of us who value the heritage and simple grace of these iconic recliners, it is reassuring to know you can still hire deckchairs in the Royal Parks of London, including Hyde Park, throughout the summer months, and that the traditional model is still made right here in Britain – by the Southsea Deckchair Company, in Portsmouth. ● Available at Harvey Nichols; hardyamies.com

This page, clockwise from top: IWC Automatic AMG Black Series Ceramic; Oris Calobra Limited Edition; Omega Seamaster Ploprof Opposite, clockwise from bottom: Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Airborne; Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Flyback ‘Speed Command’; Breitling Super Avenger Military

Watches • Brummell

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Hard times

Tough, rugged, practical watches for adventurous spirits, born out of scuba diving, motor racing and the military

Photography: Andy Barter Words: Simon de Burton

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Brummell • Watches

Omega Seamaster Ploprof ↑ In 1970, Omega launched one of the most businesslike ‘tool watches’ of all time: the avant-garde Seamaster Ploprof - a contraction of ‘Plongeurs Professionnel’, indicating this was a serious piece of underwater equipment. The most striking features were its lefthand winding crown and a prominent red button to lock the dive-time bezel. What made it really different, though, was a vacuum within the case to prevent helium entering during saturation dives. The model was reissued in 2009, without the vacuum case but with a helium release valve and 1,200m water resistance - double that of the original. £6,150; omegawatches.com

IWC Automatic AMG Black Series Ceramic ↑ Out of IWC’s collaboration with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team have sprung watches in the dedicated Ingeniuer range that utilise the hightech, lightweight materials used in motor racing. One of these is the AMG Black Series - named after the special-edition road cars - which features a 46mm case made from a similar scratch-proof ceramic to that used for high-performance brake discs. The self-winding movement is among IWC’s most rugged, with an integrated shock-absorbing system, and the case is water-resistant to 12 bar. An excellent, understated, sports watch that’s versatile, too. £8,750; IWC.com

Oris Calobra Limited Edition ↑ Oris is not only the major sponsor of the annual Raid Suisse-Paris for classic cars but is also offcial timekeeper of the Rally Clasico Isla Mallorca, which includes an infamous narrow, serpentine mountain road featuring a section known as the Nus de sa Corbata or ‘tie knot’. Oris has produced a specialedition Calobra, based on its Artix GT sports chronograph but with extra automotive touches, such as urgent red detailing and a perforated leather strap. The dial is unusual, too, in having chronograph hands that come to rest at the eight o’clock position, and a linear indicator for running seconds. £2,650; oris.ch

Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Airborne ↑ With its chunky, 42mm case, highly legible, unfussy dial, patented crown-locking system and special shock-absorbing mechanism, Ball Watch Co’s Hydrocarbon Airborne appears to be nothing more than a slightly over-engineered sports watch. Its most impressive feature, however, emerges only after dark, when 31 micro-tubes of gas, arranged around the dial and on the hands, begin to glow, providing perfect legibility in the gloomiest of conditions. The borosilicate glass contains tritium gas and has a luminescent coating, causing it to glow with a light that can last up to 25 years. £2,640; ballwatch.com

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Flyback ‘Speed Command’ ↑ Blancpain can lay claim to having made the frst ‘modern’ dive watch in 1953, when it created the original Fifty Fathoms at the request of the French Navy. The watch became popular with civilians, after Jacques Cousteau wore one in his landmark flm The Silent World. It has been revived in numerous new interpretations, one of the most ambiguous being the ‘Speed Command’, which combines attributes of both a dive watch and a driver’s watch, with 30-bar water-resistance, fyback-chronograph function, tachymeter scale and carbon-fbre dial. £14,180; blancpain.com

Breitling Super Avenger Military ↑ If you’re after a non-refective stealth look clearly geared up for the most extreme missions (as the blurb says), Breitling’s hardcore Super Avenger Military might be for you. Water-resistant to 1,000ft and with an extra-thick, glareproof crystal and a screw-down crown and pushpiece guards, it’s an undeniably functional piece - but you might have to rethink how you tell the time: the 24-hour dial makes 8.10pm look like 10 past 10. Once you’ve mastered using it, at least you’ll know you’re keeping time with military precision, thanks to the chronometer-certifed automatic movement. £5,690; breitling.com

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Brummell • Cycling

Along for the ride With its combination of fresh air, ftness and fellowship, the cycling training camp has become the challenging holiday of choice

For some, the Balearic island of Mallorca is the place to go for a week or two of eating, sleeping and sunbathing. For others, it’s akin to the French Riviera or the Hamptons – somewhere to dock the yacht and do a little shopping. There is, however, another group of visitors. They avoid the beaches and steer clear of the streets of Palma, opting instead to spend all of their time on the hilly inland roads. They are cyclists – and their numbers are growing.

In the rather large wake of British Cycling’s recent achievements, you, along with countless others, may have been lured in by the futtering lashes of the bicycle. If you’re still riding, well done: the honeymoon is over and many have given up in the face of fat tyres and foul weather, their titanium framesets banished to the shed in preparation for an online auction. You may be looking to test yourself a little, and may even have the desire to pit your wits against others. If so, it’s time to start training – but you needn’t limit your exertions to a London locale; there’s a veritable peloton of options out there.

The stresses and pressures of normal life fade away and your priorities are changed for the better

Some like it haute Rapha’s Californian randonnées offer challenging routes in breathtaking landscapes

Described by Bradley Wiggins as a ‘Scalextric set for cyclists’, the roads of Mallorca are smooth, winding and fanked by craggy mountains and a shimmering sea, offering the perfect training ground for those looking to put the wheels in motion before the season starts in earnest. But Wiggins and co aren’t the only pros who take advantage of the rollercoaster nature of the island’s geography. Riders from teams such as RadioShack Leopard Trek, Omega Pharma-Quick-Step and Lotto Belisol have all been known to traverse its undulations during the colder months.

‘Mallorca has quickly become a mecca for cyclists, owing to the climate, its proximity to the UK, and its mixed terrain, which suits both sprinters and climbers alike,’ says Ian Holt, director of La Fuga, one of the UK’s leading European training-camp operators. La Fuga has been running cycling academies in Mallorca since 2008, and attendance has grown year on year as people realise that if they’re going to ride tough terrain, it might as well be in the sun and by a beach.

The beauty of a training camp is that, in a week,

Rapha

Words: Charlie Teasdale

Cycling • Brummell

you garner more experience and knowledge from your fellow cyclists and the task in hand than you would in a year of solo riding. The camp will improve your ftness, endurance and confdence, and, above all, it’s fun. As Holt says, ‘You’re surrounded by like-minded people, exploring a stunning location and rewarding your hard work each day with good food and wine.’

The growing popularity of road cycling isn’t just confned to Europe. North Americans follow the sport in huge numbers and their home turf boasts some of the best riding terrain in the world.

So it comes as no surprise that the ubiquitous roadwear brand Rapha runs randonnées, or point-to-point rides, on some of California and Oregon’s most picturesque climbs. Inspired by the classic European routes and billed as a challenging holiday rather than a training camp per se, the seven-day adventures are a mix of tough riding, high-end hotels, excellent food and camaraderie.

‘The pattern of fuelling, riding, fuelling, arriving, celebrating, sleeping and fuelling again puts the focus on riding and the company of your fellow

cyclists,’ says Rapha founder Simon Mottram.

‘The stresses and pressures of normal life fade away and priorities are changed for the better.’

Starting in Portland, the new cycling capital of the USA, one of the itineraries takes in the Pacifc coast, crossing rugged wine country before arriving triumphantly at the Rapha Cycle Club in San Francisco. Picturesque and touristic, yes, but with a total distance of 1,250km and an elevation of 8,273m, this is no Sunday-afternoon ride.

Each randonnée is led by an experienced guide, and a team of dedicated soigneurs, in a Jaguar support car, guarantee that your bike – and body – is maintained throughout the week. Perhaps tour and statistic-obsessives might prefer a gruelling training camp, but for anyone in love with the spirit of the sport, a randonnée is the way to go.

The beauty of cycling abroad is that it offers a stark contrast to rainy days on the A24 to Box Hill, though there is plenty of scenic, challenging riding here in the UK, too. Bikecation, a company founded by friends Jamie Paterson and Rob Penn (who quit his job in the City to cycle around the

53

world), runs structured tours of some of the UK’s most engaging landscapes. The enthusiastic duo offer a roster of outstanding rides, ranging from a few days pootling around the fshing villages of Cornwall to a Land’s End to John O’Groats epic and an Étape training weekend in the Brecon Beacons. The latter covers almost 250 miles, climbs a total of 1,800m and winds its way through some of the Black Mountains’ most testing terrain. ‘For those relatively new to road riding, our camp is a great opportunity to suck up a lot of knowledge,’ says Penn. ‘From how to climb effectively to good nutrition and hydration, and from base layers to gearing.’

Penn would put a riding holiday in the same bracket as a week’s skiing or walking. ‘Taking exercise is central to the whole thing – the sense of wellbeing, enjoying your food, sleeping deeply – but there’s also the sense of a journey: you might cycle the length of a famous mountain range or cross a country… and that resonates long after you’ve returned to the daily grind.’ l lafuga.cc; rapha.cc; bikecation.co.uk

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Brummell • Maps

Route masters Antique maps provide a fascinating insight into how the planet was once perceived and have great investment potential, too, as the experts from this rarefed world can verify

Words: James Medd

A quick geography test: can you pass a map without stopping to look at it? For the majority of humans, it seems even school days spent reciting capital cities couldn’t bury the desire to pick out a point and understand its relation to another. The appeal of maps beyond the purely functional, as both diversion and decoration, has been well established for a century or more. Until now, though, their status as an investment has rarely been considered. And that’s excellent news.

Cartography is the New World for collectors.

According to Daniel Crouch, of Daniel Crouch Rare Books in Mayfair, it’s been brewing for a while. ‘I think there’s a growing acceptance in the art market of prints and engravings, fuelled by our understanding of modern art and photography,’ he says. ‘Then, because we all travel more, and emigrate, we have a feeling for place and location.

And fnally we experience and encounter maps much more these days, on the internet and Google Maps and so on, and understanding of cartography has increased as a result.’

The other factor is availability, which places printed maps in a sweet spot between supply and demand. From the 15th to the 19th centuries, they were typically produced in runs of between 200 and 2,000, but the ravages of varnish (‘the enemy of paper’, says Crouch), folding and hanging saw off most; those that survived were usually hidden away in libraries or encased in atlases. ‘The market was fuelled from the Sixties onwards by the disposal of libraries, as country houses were dispersed,’ says Crouch. ‘Then, in the late-Nineties, there was a sudden realisation that there isn’t an endless supply.’

Prices start surprisingly low, at a few hundred pounds or less. Crouch says he recently sold a map of London for £60, and produces an example of the frst English county maps, from the turn of the 19th century: ‘They’re about 6ft square, extremely dramatic and colourful, and rare, but you can buy a really good one for £2,000.’ Even at the top end, by art-market standards, maps remain affordable. ‘Being a reproduction doesn’t make them any less interesting, but it does mean you can put together a world-class collection,’ he says, ‘whereas if you were collecting antiquities that would be impossible.’

Massimo De Martini of Altea Gallery in the West End sees the low entry point as a great advantage of a market built on fascination. ‘I’d always suggest you start with something small, – paying £50-100 – and learn about it,’ he says.

‘You may want to concentrate on maps of London

Maps • Brummell

55

You can put together a world-class collection, whereas with antiquities that would be impossible

or Sardinia – whatever it is, someone somewhere will have written a book about maps of that area.’

His own interest began with historical sea charts of his native Genoa, and he sees nothing wrong with following a personal connection – home or birthplace – at frst. From there, the possibilities are near limitless: ‘My most expensive map may be £100,000, but most of them are below £10,000.

You can become one of the biggest collectors in an area. It’s a very niche market. In the UK, there are maybe 15 dealers and, worldwide, there are only about 20 more who have stock and catalogues.’

Small as it is, the market is becoming more serious, as maps of £20,000 upwards have become an attractive target for investors looking to diversify a portfolio. According to Philip Curtis, director of the Map House, oldest and largest of the UK’s dealers, ‘Prices at the top end have grown exponentially, anywhere between 10 and 20 per cent every year over two decades.’ This increased interest has also expanded collectors’ horizons, he says. ‘Previously, 19th-century maps were inexpensive, but now people are looking at maps of British colonies and realising how important many of them are. For example, we recently staged an exhibition of maps of the Heroic Age of Antarctica – Scott, Shackleton, Morse – from the early 20th century. Also booming in interest are pictorial maps from the early 20th century. They were often given away and thought of as ephemeral, fun pieces, but now they’re appreciated for their artistic side and also for epitomising their time.’

If maps are subject to the vagaries of fashion like this, it’s not to the extent of modern art. As a rule, they’ll sit as nicely in a modern steel frame as in a carved wooden one, and equally well within a minimalist décor as in a panelled library. And, of course, their appeal is not only aesthetic. ‘One of the joys of being in this business is that there are fascinating aspects to every map,’ says Curtis.

‘In some, it will be pure beauty; in others, their historical importance; in others still, an interesting mistake.’ A brief tour of the Map House takes in

Brummell • Maps David Crouch; The Map House

56

Frozen in time Previous page: engraved sea chart of Scandinavia, 1572, with marine monsters.

Above: pre-Cook Australia, 1753. Below: California mapped as an island, 1666

California’s 150-year history as an island and Australia’s existence in theory centuries before its actual discovery. Daniel Crouch and Altea have their own treasures, from the gallows drawn on a 1572 view of London to Scandinavian sea charts emblazoned with sea monsters.

For anyone interested in setting out into this world, an ideal point of departure is the London Map Fair, staged this year on 7 and 8 June at the Royal Geographical Society. But beware the irresistible allure of the map. ‘A lot of the language we use echoes drug use – “obsession”, “addiction”, and, of course, we’re “dealers”,’ warns Daniel Crouch. Massimo De Martini puts it in even more dramatic terms. ‘When a customer comes back and buys a second map, they’re a collector,’ he says. ‘But when they have a third, they’ve caught the disease – and it can’t be cured.’ l The London Map Fair, 7-8 June, Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 (londonmapfairs.com); Daniel Crouch Rare Books, 4 Bury Street, SW1 (crouchrarebooks.com); Altea Gallery Ltd, 35 St George Street,W1 (alteagallery.com); The Map House, 54 Beauchamp Place, SW3 (themaphouse.com)

‘London’s Masterpiece art and antiques fair is adding cultural clout to its upscale image.’

Joseph Charlton I © Financial Times Ltd

26 JUNE – 2 JULY PREVIEW 25 JUNE

INFORMATION

masterpiecefair.com I +44 (0)20 7499 7470 LOCATION SOUTH GROUNDS I THE ROYAL HOSPITAL CHELSEA CHELSEA EMBANKMENT I LONDON SW3

Brummell • Travel Tourism Tasmania; Tasmanian Walking Company

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The coast is clear The trek along Tasmania’s dramatic and isolated Bay of Fires will fan the fames of any would-be adventurer

Words: Ian Belcher

Charles Darwin would love the Bay of Fires hike.

He’d champion it as an alfresco laboratory for natural selection. Along with death by acts of idiocy – say, skinny-dipping with Great Whites – it’s a failsafe flter for the survival of the species.

Why the bold claim? Well, even the most compass-phobic buffoon shouldn’t get lost on the gloriously isolated, divinely scenic two-day route.

Keep the translucent Tasman Sea on your left, lush interior on your right and powder sand beneath your toes. Now walk. Don’t turn. Keep going. You’re there. Stray off piste and perish in the northeast Tasmanian wilderness and you’ve strengthened the gene pool.

But easy navigation doesn’t mean it’s not an adventure. Far from it. Your group of walkers won’t see another human, let alone building. You’ll catch crystal-clear barrels of surf, kayak alongside prolifc birdlife and contemplate a savagely beautiful coastline guilty of countless shipwrecks.

It’s all garnished with weird and wonderful nature,

from edible plants – would Sir prefer bracken root or sea asparagus? – to Chernobyl-sized ants and wombats with lethal, rock-hard glute muscles.

Pat one in its burrow and you risk a broken wrist.

The acid test for the survival of our species has a surprisingly genteel start. At Pleasant Banks, an elegant Georgian mansion outside Launceston, we pack essentials, meet out guides – generous donors of information rather than directions – and drive to the coast. The hike gets the green light just south of Stumpy’s Bay – trust the Aussies to make a poetically beautiful landscape sound like a one-legged swagman – where I realise it’s not just Darwin who would appreciate the beaches of Mount William National Park. Mark Rothko would, too. They’re his abstracts brought to brilliant, glistening life: slabs of cyan sky, emerald ocean and bleached-white sand. Add in artfully sculpted boulders frescoed with orange lichen and it’s clear Tasmania is modest about its charms. Mainland Aussie beaches such as Bells,

Cable and Bondi bask in the tourist-board spotlight, but they wouldn’t even make the subs’ bench here.

Heading along the soul-lifting sweep of Cod Bay, there’s not a single footprint to suggest anyone has been here before. Until, that is, we run into a mound of discarded crustacean shells. No jokes, please, but Australians regard this rubbish dump as a site of cultural and historic interest – a legacy of the Aboriginals who crossed the land bridge that once joined Tasmania to the continent.

Until disease and persecution wiped them out in the late-19th century, the Northeast Clan wintered here, gorging on seafood sourced by women who excelled at diving and fshing.

The shell pile suggests they’d now earn a fortune supplying Sydney’s restaurants.

Today’s 9km hike, punctuated by invigorating hits of body-surfng, runs on less healthy fuel: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk – though made in Tasmania rather than Bournville. It’s an aperitif for an evening pig-out on local brie, fllet steak and abalone,

Travel • Brummell

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Time of sands Opposite: The white cube tents of Forester Beach Camp in the Bay of Fires conservation area.

This page: Seaton Cove, on the Bay of Fires coast

whipped fresh from the ocean by Ryan – a blond Aussie guide rather than indigenous huntergatherer – and raspberry coulis with cream and chocolate fudge.

It’s no ordinary camp food. But Forester Beach is no ordinary camp. Permanent white cube tents, linked by decking and cocooned by dunes, are a canvas answer to a Schrager hotel. Untroubled by tent pegs or guy ropes, I collapse into a deep sleep, serenaded by surf and sedated by the natural aromatherapy of nearby tea trees.

‘It’s fair-dinkum camping,’ says a Melbourne estate agent in our group. ‘But really soft.’ I wasn’t aware anyone apart from Barry Humphries used that expression, but I couldn’t have put it better myself. It’s an incongruously stylish retreat before next day’s longer hike, striding into a sea fret that’s yet to evaporate into another cloudless sky.

Natural history comes thick and fast. We snake over grass that’s been nibbled to bowling-green perfection by wallabies and wombats, and

Heading along the soul-lifting sweep of Cod Bay, there’s not a single footprint to suggest anyone has been here before

disappear into clumps of poker-shaped kangaroo towers: all-in-one barbecue plants that act as both hunting spears – another possum burger, darling?

– and slow-burning torches, with leaves that weave into cool bags for your Foster’s stubby.

At ground level, there’s evidence that, despite the hike’s soft edges, this is raw wilderness. A leaf fitting across the beach turns out to be a dead scorpion born aloft by super-sized ants. You won’t see that on the Cotswold Way. There are half-eaten penguins, massive dessicating cuttlefsh and piles of stiff mutton birds, which had fown straight into the hypnotic 1.2 million-candlepower beam of Eddystone Lighthouse with fatal results.

The sentinel warning sailors of the lethally sharp teeth of Victoria Rocks and Black Reef might be a mutton-bird terminus, but, for us, it’s the start of the actual Bay of Fires. Named by one of Captain Cook’s crew after he saw fickering Aboriginal cooking fames, it offers a glorious wind-in-your-hair, ultraviolet-on-your-face yomp

Brummell • Travel Tourism Tasmania; Simon Kenny; Toby Story

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Marsupial magic Clockwise, from left: ‘Metronomic footfall’ across a beach towards Bay of Fires Lodge; a wombat hides from hikers; the lodge, a ‘minimalist timber-and-glass bolthole’

Dummy Title Opposite: itatiis net quia corernam quae viti int, im quis nis santisciliae dolupta di aut evelasdessint quis volendus volores quidebi. This page:

It offers a glorious wind-in-your-hair, ultraviolet-on-your-face yomp across the sand

across the sand. Our metronomic footfall becomes almost meditative before we start to rise up through boulders to a well-disguised eco lodge.

The reward for completing our 23km hike – the coolly minimalist timber-and-glass bolthole – is as green as Mitchell Johnson’s baggy cap: all solar panelling, hand-pumped showers and minimal artifcial light. Environmentally aware doesn’t mean puritanical. Its cantilevered deck, gazing imperiously across a shimmering ocean, is the perfect spot for a chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio, before a light Mediterranean supper.

We recharge for a day of kayaking on Ansons River, escorted by oystercatchers and cormorants, the prelude to a night of wombat-stalking. It may lack the Hemingway-esque edge of pursuing Kenyan lion or Tanzanian buffalo, but searching for the marsupial through dense vegetation has its own peculiar charm. After our head-torches fnally pinpoint one in the inky darkness, we follow rustling leaves to catch the faintest hint of fur and dangerous buttocks. A split second of adrenaline and the stalk is over. I can’t see it catching on.

As we leave the wilderness the next morning we pass several Casuarina trees. A shining example of evolution, the males ejaculate pollen into the air, a fertile cloud foating towards the sticky knobbles of random partners. Just one more reason for Charles Darwin to adore the Bay of Fires. l Tasmanian Odyssey offers the Bay of Fires Hike as part of a two-week self-drive tour, from £2,750pp including accommodation and fights; tasmanianodyssey.com

I N 2 0 1 1, A N ENGINEER RECEIVED A LIFE SENTENCE FOR REVEALING TOO MUCH ABOUT THE B-2 BOMBER. YOU’LL UNDERSTAND IF WE KEEP T H I S B R I E F.

We’d like to tell you everything about our collaboration with the B-2 Stealth Bomber squadron, but frankly, we’d prefer not to stand trial for treason.

So instead, here are the main points.

1. The B-2 Stealth Bomber is, as the name suggests, designed to avoid detection.

2. It’s also incredibly accurate.

3. Flying at 40,000 feet, it can aim a bomb through a window.

4. The squadron wanted to commission a watch with similar levels of precision.

5. So they went to Switzerland?

6. No, Henley-on-Thames.

7. Yes, we know it’s a bit of a surprise.

8. But here at Bremont, we’ve designed watches for dozens of squadrons over the last ten years.

9. The watch we built for the B-2 squadron is 99.998% accurate.

10. (We have a certificate to prove it.)

11. The watch displays both local time and Universal Co-ordinated Time (the standard reference time used by the military).

12. That’s handy if you’re flying across multiple time zones on forty-hour sorties, like B-2 pilots do.

15. (Sometimes missions can go wrong.)

16. The case is made from steel that’s seven times harder than you’ll find in ordinary watches.

17. Until recently, the only way you could get hold of a B-2 pilot’s watch was to become a B-2 pilot.

18. But now we’ve built a version for civilians.

19. We’d like to say more, but we may already have said too much.

20. To be on the safe side, please eat this page.

13. The watch has been tested at altitudes of up to 100,000 feet.

14. And it’s water resistant to a depth of 100 metres.

Bremont Boutique 29 South Audley St London W1K 2PE

Bremont Royal Exchange 12 The Courtyard, Royal Exchange London EC3V 3LQ

Bremont.com

Collection: Model: Movement: Crystal:

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Freelancer 7730-ST-20041 Automatic mechanical chronograph Sapphire crystal with antiglare treatment

Brummell epicure Adventures in food

Epicure • Brummell

63

For the gastronome, gourmand, connoisseur or the just plain famished – a section focused squarely on food and drink.

Each issue, we bring you a selection of stories and news both gourmet and oenophile to enhance your enjoyment of dining out, eating in, imbibing and consuming. On the menu as always: hors d’oeuvres of news, followed by main courses of culinary indulgence and experimentation, served with side orders of expert knowledge – all washed down with advice on the best in wines and spirits.

www. brummell magazine. net Launching soon, the refreshed Brummell website brummellmagazine.net is an essential resource: your edited selection of the very best in style, culture, food, drink, technology and motoring. With an elegant new design and featuring exclusive interviews, videos and reportage, it’s the indispensable daily dose of the little black book for the City.

News • Epicure

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Star attraction → He won three Michelin stars for his San Sebastián restaurant, so the launch of Juan Mari Arzak’s frst venture outside Spain was bound to cause widespread excitement. It would seem the buzz around it was well warranted, because, after just one year, Ametsa with Arzak Instruction at the Halkin Hotel has already won its own star. As at the frst restaurant, the menu is rooted in la nueva cocina Vasca – a concept that marries the earthy favours and techniques of the Basque region with modern ingredients and touches.

The à la carte menu changes with the seasons, but previous highlights have included scallop and cassava souffé, grouse with grapefruit and fgs, and ox cheek with vanilla. The tasting menu gives diners the chance to try a little of everything, and the best way to enjoy it is via the Ametsa Experience.

For £399 for two people, diners can enjoy a cocktail in the bar, then head into the restaurant for a show-stopping dinner, before retiring to one of the hotel’s luxuriously appointed rooms.

Breakfast the next morning is included – take advantage of a 3pm check-out to digest. comohotels.com/thehalkin

High and dried Dissatisfed with the lack of good beef jerky on offer in the UK, entrepreneur Will Yates set about making his own, aiming to change perceptions of his favourite snack in the process. His company, Billy Franks, combines artisan butchery, rare native-breed beef and unusual marinades to create succulent gourmet jerky in a range of favours, including black pepper and coriander seed, teriyaki and even cheeseburger. billyfranks.co.uk

Flying fsh ↑ Opening soon in Mayfair is an offshoot of Rome’s classic and celebrated fsh restaurant Assunta Madre. The group’s frst endeavour beyond Italy, it will occupy a prime position on Blenheim Street. Assunta Madre is known for the simplicity of its dishes, such as tuna tartare and shrimp gnocchi, and for using only the freshest seafood, and it will import the fnest catches daily from its sister restaurant’s trusted suppliers. A former fsherman, owner Johnny Micalusi knows good fsh, so this promises to be a treat for any ichthyophile. assuntamadre.com; @assuntamadreLDN Rex

Royal fortifcation ↑ No longer left to languish at the back of the drinks cabinet, vermouth has been brought to light again, thanks to a revival of classic cocktails such as the Negroni. New brand La Quintinye Vermouth Royal is named after Louis XIV’s botanist, but is very much master distiller Jean-Sébastien Robicquet’s creation. It is based on Pineau des Charentes, the fortifed wine from his birthplace, and the emphasis is on the botanicals, leading with the wormwood that gives vermouth its name, as well as vine fower, the signature of Robicquet’s G’Vine Floraison grape-based gin. laquintinyevermouthroyal.com

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Epicure • News

Epoque-making fzz ↑ The highly anticipated new PerrierJouët has arrived on our shores. The 2006 vintage, this is the latest edition of the Épernay house’s Belle Epoque champagnes. It is named after the period of French cultural history around the turn of the 20th century – the time of Art Nouveau painters such as Émile Gallé, who decorated the bottle with the famous anemone design. The 2006 vintage is blended with a notable 50 per cent chardonnay, which, that year, reached an unusually high level of potential alcohol and lower than average acidity. The result is a silky and very well-balanced champagne with a long fnish. It is being served as the ‘house’ vintage at the new champagne bar on Broadgate, Tirage, where it can be accompanied by tasting plates of French cuisine with a twist, infuenced by the South American-Italian owners. perrier-jouet.com; tirage.co.uk

First-name terms ↑ Following a decade of excellence, one of London’s best-loved restaurants, the two-Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, is reopening on 24 March as Marcus. It will retain the same team and a dedication to the fnest European cooking and presentation, but will have a more contemporary aesthetic, including a new collection of artworks on its walls. Service will be less formal to encourage a more casual atmosphere, but the astoundingly good menu will stay the same. marcus-wareing.com

Nice touch For those who lack confdence in the kitchen, the thought of cooking a big joint of meat can be a little daunting. Gorenje’s new iChef+ oven takes the stress out of the process, with a pre-programmed selection of recipes accessible via the touchscreen interface. For those with a little more culinary nous, it has 150 empty slots for your own recipes, too. gorenje.co.uk

Wine sails ↑ Croatia may not market its wines internationally as rigorously as some, but there are many fne (and historic) vineyards along the Dalmatian coast and on its islands. Adriatic Wine Odyssey is launching four- or seven-day trips aboard a luxury yacht, mooring up for visits to the best of the wineries for tastings and meals in picturesque settings.

Each boat has a skipper and host/ sommelier and journeys can be tailormade to your tastes, with swimming, hiking and exploring, or just a week of lazing on deck, glass in hand.

From €1,875 per person for a four-day trip; adriaticwineodyssey.com

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Redefining City living at Goodman’s Fields

Bounty hunters

Foraging • Epicure

69

A walk on the wild side along our hedgerows and shorelines can offer up an abundance of edible treats, if you know what to look for

Words: Jane Fulcher Illustration: Sanna Mander

It’s a Monday morning in the depths of winter in the New Forest, and I’m calf-deep in cold, muddy water, grubbing around under leaf litter for fungi.

And I’m having the time of my life. Despite the torrential rain the night before, it’s a fne day, with sunlight streaming through the trees and the famed ponies tramping through the meadows.

Garry Eveleigh and his dog Finn are my guides for the day. Eveleigh forages for The Pig hotel in Brockenhurst, a luxurious local bolt-hole.

One of The Pig’s main attractions is the 25-mile menu served at its celebrated restaurant, which is thanks, in no small part, to Eveleigh. Alongside vegetables and herbs grown in The Pig’s own garden and produce from carefully sourced farms and suppliers nearby, the menu is driven by what Eveleigh can fnd on the coast or in the forest – chanterelles, herbs, seaweed, wild fruits and more.

A self-taught expert, Eveleigh was a passionate forager as a boy growing up in the New Forest and on the Solent coast, and now shares his knowledge via one-day courses run by The Pig and its sister hotel Lime Wood, also in the New Forest. Guests can choose to forage for edibles in the forest or along the shoreline.

It’s all part of a trend that springs from a wider consciousness about where food comes from, for using produce that is in season and fnding ingredients that are home-grown. Foraging is also an excellent way of getting fresh air and exercise while doing something interesting and informative.

After a short spell under Eveleigh’s tutelage, I fnd I’m looking at the forest in a new way – mushroom stalks that have been nibbled by deer, chanterelles peeking out from behind tree trunks, spongy fungi growing on fallen trees, deep black streams that could hide trout, and birds brave enough to stay in Britain over winter. It’s the end of the season, but we still manage to collect a small basket of winter chanterelles – though Eveleigh assures me that in September the forest foor would be a carpet of mushrooms.

‘There are 2-3,000 varieties of mushroom growing in the New Forest,’ says Eveleigh. ‘I only tend to pick from my own list of the top 10 – or

sometimes 20, depending on what’s available.’

He also points out the potential hazards of foraging for mushrooms without a guide. Some varieties are fatal if eaten and many have lookalikes that are almost impossible to tell apart. Not so the ones I enjoy on toast back at The Pig, which are some of the best I’ve ever tasted – all the more delicious because I’d picked a few of them myself.

With spring on its way Eveleigh is looking forward to the start of a new season of foraging: ‘March is really the beginning of the foraging season and is always exciting. All you need are two weeks of high pressure, with some sunshine, and spring plants and even early mushrooms begin to come to life,’ he says, and adds that this is when he looks for oyster mushrooms, growing from the trunks and branches of beech trees felled by the previous year’s storms. St George’s mushrooms, too, which grow in fairy rings and are found in unploughed meadows and pastures. ‘You can locate this variety even before the mushrooms develop, as the colour of the grass where they grow will always be a much darker green.’

Also beginning to fourish in March might be Alexanders, a plant with a strong citrus/celery favour found in hedgerows; three-cornered garlic, which tastes similar to spring onions and is also found in hedgerows; nettle shoots, which have a ‘green’ taste and are found just about anywhere; dandelion leaves, which have a mild favour when they frst grow; daisy leaves, which make a tasty addition to salads; and sea beet or wild spinach, found on the foreshore at high tide.

Eveleigh, like all responsible foragers, will only pick what is in plentiful supply and does not forage on demand. In March, plants are still coming to life but, in April, his list encompasses a huge number of plants, including varieties of seaweeds, such as laver, lettuce and enteromorpha.

Later, he picks me a salad of greens from the lawn and herb garden outside, including hairy bittercress – actually rather hairless, and tasty – and I refect on how the countryside’s rich larder of ingredients has left me with a taste for more. l thepighotel.com

Ground force There are many ways to learn about foraging in and around London.

Try these for some rich pickings…

Robin Harford Gourmet foraging courses are led

by Robin Harford, one of the UK’s leading wild-food experts. He leads groups in London, Oxfordshire, West Sussex and as far afeld as Scotland. foragingcourses.com Forage London Run by John Rensten, Forage London offers courses in the capital’s parks as well as in the New Forest and on the Dorset coast. foragelondon.co.uk Fergus the Forager Fergus Drennan runs one-day courses, including tips on preserving and a cookery class, near Canterbury and on the adjacent Kent coast. fergustheforager.co.uk The English Truffe Company Dorset’s English Truffe Company takes groups foraging with a dog for those ‘black diamonds’ of nature: truffes. Hunts take place between August and January, and the day includes truffe-sampling. englishtruffes.co.uk Food Safari Food Safari runs courses on foraging on coastlines and inland, in London, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and beyond, with a range of experiences available. foodsafari.co.uk

“Already a favourite amongst London’s smart drinking set” WALLPAPER

“Every aspect of creating their brilliant spirits has been a meticulously researched labour of love” ESQUIRE

“Starting a gin distillery in London is not exactly a new idea, its just no-one had done it for 200 years” MONOCLE

INTRODUCING SIPSMITH Now and then, something very special comes along. In this case now and then was quite a while. It has been almost 200 years since a copper pot still was operating in London until the three lads at Sipsmith commissioned theirs named “Prudence” in 2009, spearheading the resurgence in small batch spirits and the pure artistry of distillation.

Sipsmith’s London Dry Gin is one of the few gins in the world not made from concentrate. Instead, using the traditional one shot method, it’s handcrafted producing only a few hundred bottles at a time, delivering perfect balance with real intensity and character.

Sipsmith’s Barley Vodka is distilled in copper for purity, and made from just the best spirit from the heart of the run. This means there is no need to flter, add glycerine, fructose, or any aromatisers. No compromises; just unadulterated smooth pure vodka.

www.sipsmith.com

Gin • Epicure

71

Good spirits Flavourful gins, crafted by passionate distillers who care far more about botanical balance than bottle colour

Words: Charlie Teasdale Photography: Dominic Bell

When you consider that there are hundreds of thousands of different possible combinations of botanicals, gin has the potential to be the world’s most varied spirit. With consumers increasingly demanding character and provenance in their food and drink, independent microdistilleries have sprung up all over the country, with unusual and exciting recipes that offer relief from the unadventurous norm. Here are fve of the best – they’re all available at eebria.com, which showcases the best UK independent alcohol producers. To read extended interviews with the producers, visit brummellmagazine.net

Gilt, Scotland Made in a bespoke still in Scotland by Strathlevin Distillers – the people behind Valt Vodka – Gilt started, like many good notions, in a bar, when two friends discussed the possibility of making the world’s frst single-malt gin. Twelve months later, they did it. Because of the batch-production method, no two distillations are exactly the same, but that means each bottle is made with great care and real passion. Co-owner Oliver Storrie says, ‘We make every batch ourselves – there aren’t many drinks companies that can say that.’ giltgin.com

City of London Distillery, London During the early 18th-century gin craze, there were close to 1,500 gin distilleries in London, producing a more rudimentary (and occasionally, more poisonous) spirit than the one we know.

After the Gin Act of 1751, the capital’s distillers dwindled. Now, however, just off Fleet Street, the City of London Distillery is using traditional methods to craft a London Dry gin in the Square Mile for the frst time in 200 years. Its creation is juniper-led, with sweet liquorice and angelica, and is best enjoyed with a slice of fresh grapefruit. cityofondondistillery.com

Masons Dry, Yorkshire Yorkshireman Karl Mason puts it simply: ‘People want local, and they want independent.’ He set up his distillery on a bit of a whim, realising that although some of the big brands are good, they have a tendency to taste similar. Mason wanted his gin to be different – conspicuous by its absence from the gang. He uses juniper from his own bush and a mix of top-secret botanicals to craft a fne dry gin. But, as he puts it, ‘most importantly, it comes from an artisan distillery, not a production line like a chemical plant.’ masonsyorkshiregin.com

Sacred, London In 2006, City headhunter Ian Hart decided to up sticks and pursue his passion for chemistry in the form of gin-distilling. Sacred’s appeal lies in its complicated creation. Hart macerates his 100-per-cent organic botanicals (including Boswellia sacra) in English grain spirit for a minimum of four weeks, and the resulting liquors are distilled under vacuum. Hart explains, ‘It’s a process that produces fresher, lusher distillates’ – as evidenced by Sacred’s recent double-gold win at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. sacredspiritscompany.com

Six O’clock, Bristol Family-run company Bramley & Gage has garnered a strong following for its all-natural fruit liqueurs over the years. Now the distiller has turned its collective expertise to creating a carefully balanced gin with a great depth of favour. Company director Michael Kain says, ‘Tonic makes a huge difference to the drink, and it’s ridiculous to expect a gin to taste the same no matter what you use.’ So Bramley & Gage has created a matching Six O’Clock tonic that perfectly complements its bigger and, shall we say, boozier brother. sixoclockgin.co.uk

72

Epicure • Restaurants

Raw power London food trends may come and go, but one that continues to innovate and entertain is that of Japanese cuisine

Words: Jane Fulcher

Made in England Clockwise from above: Seared Wagyu beef with truffe salsa and ponzu jelly at Dinings; Dubai black cod at Zuma; lobster dumplings at Roka

Twenty-fve years ago, if you’d asked even the most dedicated foodie whether they’d like to try the Japanese delicacy raw fsh, they would have been taken aback. No one could have predicted that, in 2014, sushi would be as ubiquitous a lunch as the sandwich. But the extraordinary thing about Japanese food in London is how it continues to evolve. The city’s palate, it seems, still seeks new favours and experiences from one of the world’s true culinary powerhouses.

A leading light in Japanese cuisine from the very beginning is Rainer Becker, the chef behind the hugely popular Zuma and Roka restaurants.

When he opened Zuma (020 7584 1010; zumarestaurant.com) in Knightsbridge in 2002, he was the frst to bring a robata (Japanese charcoal grill) and a sake sommelier to Europe. Becker also introduced a style of Japanese cooking – learnt during his time in Tokyo – adapted to suit the kind of robust favours he knew would appeal to Europeans. ‘I favour my food the way I like to eat it, going back to my roots,’ he says. ‘It’s not traditional and it’s not fusion, but it’s still authentic. It’s Japanese cuisine, but a bit bolder.’

His style and favours certainly caught on.

Now there’s Roka (rokarestaurant.com) in Charlotte Street (020 7580 6464) and Canary Wharf (020 7636 5228), with two new locations set to open in Mayfair and Aldwych this year.

Zuma has now been exported to Istanbul, Bangkok, Miami, Hong Kong, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with a New York location opening soon.

Adapting to the Western palate is something that Masaki Sugisaki, of Marylebone favourite

Restaurants • Epicure

Because many Japanese dishes are eaten raw, the ingredients have to be of the very highest quality

Dinings (020 7723 0666; dinings.co.uk), has also had to take on board, although in a different way – ‘translating Japanese cuisine into a European format’. The chef has taken elements of French, Italian and British cuisine and mixed it with Japanese dishes he learnt from his family. They ran a traditional kaiseki restaurant in Japan, in which multiple courses of small, intricate dishes are served in order. Sugisaki’s fusion-style dishes are some of Dining’s most popular: the curled potato tar-tar chips flled with raw fsh or seafood, avocado, vegetables and a variety of sauces, and a sea-bass carpaccio with truffe and ponzu (a citrus-based) jelly.

Another important shift in the way we eat out came with, and was perhaps forged by, the popularity of social dining. Zuma introduced Londoners to a play on Japan’s traditional izakaya – casual and sociable restaurant-bars – but refned and polished the concept. ‘The fundamentals of izakaya are enjoying food and drink in a lively atmosphere, and that’s basically what Zuma is,’ says Becker. It has proved a cross-restaurant trend in the capital, where a starter, main and dessert is no longer the expected structure of a meal.

Indeed, the London consumer has become increasingly worldly and sophisticated, embracing adventure in dishes and favours.

‘When I frst opened Zuma, customers would ask for hot sake,’ Becker recalls. ‘But you drink hot sake in winter because it warms you. And never if it’s very good-quality sake, because all the favours evaporate in the heating process. A good sake has to be drunk chilled. So, I invested in the process.

I was the frst in Europe to employ a sommelier exclusively for sake. When I gave customers a quality cold sake to try, they said, “Wow, that’s so good!” And it’s the same with food.’

Sugisaki agrees that, when it comes to trying new dishes, diners’ attitudes have changed in London: ‘Probably the biggest change I have seen in 15 years is that, nowadays, everyone wants to try new things. The dishes on the specials board might be something they’ve never heard of, but they go for it. Take sea urchin – 15 years ago, no one liked it, but people go crazy about ingredients like that now. It’s impressive.’

Tim Anderson, who was the youngest winner of MasterChef when he won in 2011, plans to open his own izakaya restaurant, Nanban, this year. He believes the interest in Japanese food is ‘self-perpetuating’, adding, ‘The more people who get to know and love Japanese food, the more they realise how much more there is to it, which encourages new restaurants to open that serve more interesting, or more unusual dishes.’

A few years ago, with the arrival of the acclaimed Koya on Frith Street (020 7434 4463; koya.co.uk) it was udon noodles. More recently, riffs on comfort food have trended, such as the favoursome ramen served at Soho eateries Bone Daddies (020 7287 8581; bonedaddiesramen.com) and Tonkotsu (020 7437 0071; tonkotsu.co.uk).

There are other factors that drive trends, and a growing concern about provenance and health seems to be at the forefront right now. ‘First and foremost, Japanese cuisine is based on the best ingredients – because many dishes are eaten raw, they have to be of the very highest quality,’ says Becker. ‘I think you can taste the freshness, and we all appreciate that.’ These days, ingredients are fairly easy to get hold of in London and bright, young chefs like Tim Anderson are increasingly turning to Japan for inspiration.

So what have Londoners yet to explore in terms of their palates? Becker offers a tempting view of what is to come: ‘Many dishes are still waiting to be exported, but you need to twist and tweak them because what works in Japan doesn’t necessarily work here.’

Sugisaki reckons you can fnd most Japanese dishes somewhere in London, but notes that we don’t truly specialise here in the same way as the Japanese. ‘In Japan, the big difference is in the many types of restaurant. For example, if you go to a tempura restaurant in Tokyo, they serve only tempura. In the UK, most of the restaurants, including mine, serve sushi, tempura and teriyaki.’

Anderson, on the other hand, believes that as with Italian and French cuisine, an education in the different regional styles is what’s needed.

‘For example, there is virtually no Okinawan food here – dishes such as pork-rib ramen or bitter-melon stir-fry. Likewise, we have no food from Hokkaido – curry soup or a grilled lamb dish called Genghis Khan. I could go on… The bottom line is that, while Japanese food in the UK is much, much better than it was fve years ago, we are still only scratching the surface.’

It seems, then, that there’s plenty more out there to be discovered. We may not know what’s coming next, but we can be pretty certain it’s going to be worth the wait. l

73

Spirit of Japan Move over, sake. There’s a new Japanese drink in town – and it’s getting plenty of attention from mixologists and drinkers alike: shochu. Distilled from barley, it’s a clean white spirit with an ABV that hovers around the 20 per cent mark.

It’s delicious infused with different favours and served on the rocks, but equally good used as a cocktail base.

At the Shochu Lounge (020 7580 6464; shochulounge.com) below Charlotte Street’s Roka restaurant, the bartenders blend their shochu with favours such as rose, rhubarb and chocolate. Customers can even create their own shochu infusion, which will be mixed and kept in a glass jar behind the bar for whenever they fancy a sip.

74

Brummell • By George

Smart move

Two former soldiers are providing injured ex-service personnel with a new career and the City with a premium chauffeur company

Words: James Medd Illustration: Isaac Bonan

Anyone who regularly uses a car service will have their own checklist for driver attributes. Along with driving skills, high-scoring areas might be punctuality, effciency, smart dress, politeness and the tact to know when to talk. Add to that the ability to hold his (or her) own in the event of danger and you have something close to everyone’s ideal.

This was the conclusion former soldiers Rob Bassett Cross and Charlie Bowmont came to while working on an idea to help injured ex-servicemen and women fnd employment – an idea that evolved into Capstar Chauffeurs. ‘Our drivers are security aware, discreet, disciplined, well turned-out and good at map-reading,’ says Bowmont, the company’s MD and a former Household Cavalry offcer. ‘And while we didn’t entirely predict the attraction of the security angle, they’ll have those skills, too.’

But forget any preconceptions about dark glasses and earpieces – Capstar is based as much on the pair’s business as military experience.

Bowmont’s last job was with Jaguar Land Rover and Bassett Cross spent four years at JP Morgan after leaving the Scots Guards. He now runs a privateequity frm. ‘I’m non-executive chairman,’ he says, ‘But starting companies is what I do for a day job.’

Stockists

Since it was founded in 2013, the company has grown to 15 drivers, with another fve in training.

Currently, two-thirds of these are ex-services chauffeurs, but that will change once its own school is up and running. ‘We’re hoping to become the accredited driver-training programme for everyone leaving the armed forces, and we’re aiming at being the best in the country,’ says Bowmont. ‘We have The Stig from Top Gear on our advisory board.’

Operations are run from Capstar’s base in west London by a retired corporal major who used to be in charge of 200 light-reconnaissance tanks.

‘As much as providing an excellent service for the public, it’s about offering ex-military something they’re comfortable with,’ says Bowmont. ‘An environment they recognise, which is structured in a way that’s appropriate.’

With withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent redundancies, there will be 10,000 people leaving the Army in 2014 – most of them young and unfamiliar with any other life. ‘There are different rules out here,’ says Bassett Cross.

‘These are people who are used to always looking forward and having trust in every member of their team, and that doesn’t happen in every

offce in the world. We’ve all been caught out by that when we left the military.’

So far, Capstar has received valuable support from the City, including accountancy and law expertise, and from a close relationship with Jaguar Land Rover, which has supplied its feet of XJLs and Land Rovers.

It isn’t a charity, however, and the focus is on proft and expansion. ‘We need to be able to pay wages, buy new cars and employ more people,’ says Bassett Cross. ‘We’re aiming to have about 40 or 50 cars within the next 18 months and to employ more than 60 staff, of which we want the majority to be ex-military who’ve been injured, whether that’s in confict, training or accidents.’

Beyond that, there might be spin-offs of Capstar for plumbing, electrical or building services: ‘We’re absolutely committed to helping however we can,’ says Bassett Cross. That help includes training employees not only in chauffeuring skills but also in running their own business. ‘Charlie hates me saying this,’ he confdes, ‘but I really hope we turn over staff quite rapidly. Then we’ll know we’ve been successful.’ l 020 8568 7902; capstarchauffeurs.com

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Welcome to Brummell Adventure can be defned as a risky or unexpected undertaking. At its most extreme, hell-raising writer Hunter S Thompson advised following his example: ‘Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride!”’

But adventure is as much about encountering new experiences, setting up new enterprises and facing new challenges as it is about thrills and spills. In this issue, it comes in many guises: we explore the adrenaline surge of off-piste skiing from a heli-drop in a remote Swiss valley for a sporty long weekend but also speculate on the venture of buying second homes in unusual and

remote locations, like Nova Scotia; review the latest technology, from military-grade security hardware to a futuristic media player; check out stylish accessories with which to sail, climb and ride; and source hardy, shock-absorbing watches for serious activity, whether underwater or up mountains. Elsewhere, we take a walk on the wild side of the Tasmanian coast; recommend destinations for cycling holidays; go foraging in the New Forest; examine the market for investing in old maps; share culinary exploits in London dining; and talk to the entrepreneurs who have set up a distinctive chauffeur service manned by ex-services personnel for the ultimate in precision driving. Enjoy the ride.

Joanne Glasbey, Editor

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