PW Book March 23

PRIVATE WORLD

Introducing Montage Cay in the beautiful Abaco Islands of The Bahamas. Montage Hotels & Resorts’ first luxury community in the Caribbean will feature a fifty all-suite Montage Hotel with stunning ocean views and a Spa Montage. The Residences at Montage Cay will include a limited collection of exclusive oceanfront Residences with access to the signature services and amenities of Montage.

Among its features are a 47-slip deep-water marina for vessels to 110 feet; seven white sand beaches; swimming pools and water sports.

This is truly Private Island Living in an idyllic setting less than a mile from Marsh Harbour and 170 miles off the Florida Coast. A debut collection of Residences are now available. We look forward to welcoming you home to Montage Cay.

Private Residences from US$6.9 million.

Artist’s conceptual renderings subject to change.

Masthead

Editorial

Matteo Atti EDITOR IN CHIEF, VISTA

Diego Bivero-Volpe

EXECUTIVE EDITOR, VISTA

Nick Scott

EDITOR IN CHIEF, ROBB REPORT UK

Ken Gawrych

MANAGING EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Lewis Chester, Lysanne Currie, Simon De Pury, Elizabeth Doerr, Ryan Herman, Christian Koch, Viju Mathew, Robin Parker, Robin Swithinbank, Tom Weijand

COPY EDITORS

Vince Jackson, Piers Martin

Design

Erik Romano

ART DIRECTOR, VISTA

Nick Mrozowski

DESIGNER

Lauren Schumacher

PHOTO EDITOR

Cover Illustration

Eiko Ojala

Production

Adeline Cippoletti-Saez

ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Contact Private World at PRIVATEWORLD@VISTAJET.COM

Publishing & Sales

Adam Fox PUBLISHER (AFOX@ROBBREPORT.COM)

Luke Bahrenburg PRESIDENT, ROBB REPORT & HEAD OF LUXURY, PMC  (LBAHRENBURG@ROBBREPORT.COM)

Florence Esplin HEAD OF AGENCY PARTNERSHIPS

Meaghan Hecksher PROJECT MANAGER

Edward Cortese VICE PRESIDENT, BRAND PARTNERSHIPS

Sarah Ansari JEWELRY & FASHION DIRECTOR

Gregory Bruno

AUTOMOTIVE SALES

Steve DiNunzio REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENTS & HOME FURNISHINGS DIRECTOR

Jody Dunowitz MARINE, SOUTHEAST TRAVEL/ CARIBBEAN & CIGARS DIRECTOR

Earl Estep

WATCH DIRECTOR

Danya Gerstein TRAVEL, GROOMING & CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DIRECTOR

Marion Lowry AVIATION, TRAVEL & AUTOMOTIVE/WESTERN REGION

Jason Russell WINE & SPIRITS DIRECTOR

Luciano Bernardini De Pace ITALY

Alexandra Young MIDDLE EAST

Yvonne Yeung ASIA

Marketing

Emma Jenks-Daly VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING

John Yan EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTEGRATED MARKETING & CREATIVE SERVICES

Ann Wadsworth DIRECTOR, INTEGRATED MARKETING

Kali Smith

SR. DESIGNER, INTEGRATED MARKETING & CREATIVE SERVICES

Mary Kate Fornshell INTEGRATED MARKETING MANAGER

Larysa Stachowicz INTEGRATED MARKETING ASSOCIATE MANAGER

Rachel Albers DESIGNER, INTEGRATED MARKETING & CREATIVE SERVICES

Letter From the Editors

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Private World: an exclusive member’s publication packed with content hand-selected for the community flying on the Vista Member’s fleet.

Private World brings together the latest and most remarkable stories from the world of fine living—from travel and adventure to watches and jewelry via motoring, architecture, boating, technology, fashion, dining, design, wine and spirits—as well as features covering topics of interest for inquiring readers with a global business outlook.

Our aim is to enrich your time in flight by delivering inspiration to live life to the maximum. There’s more to Private World than this, though. The magazine in your hands will connect all who read it with those featured in it. We see it as a repository of opportunities for every Vista Member.

Naturally, some of our partners feature on these pages. Turn to page 32 to find out how self-proclaimed “travel alchemists” Ariodante—with whom we collaborate on one-off bespoke itineraries for arts, opera, history and fashion lovers—are planning to create life-enriching experiences for gastronomes and adventurists in the future. Foodies will also be interested to hear more about Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, who elaborates on his approach to his latest culinary creation for VistaJet guests on page 108. In the same series of profiles Mathieu Roland-Billecart, of Champagne Billecart-Salmon—which provides the rosés we serve on board our aircraft—tells us about the nuances of helming a 500-year-old family business of which he has been CEO since 2018.

Meanwhile in our features section—in keeping with a rising trend that sees successful people investing in assets about which they are passionate—we examine how to gain returns, both emotional and financial, from watches, wine and art. Elsewhere, we talk to Jon Rahm—the Spanish golf professional who looks set to keep racking up the PGA Tour wins for the foreseeable future—about his meteoric rise to fame (see page 60). We also gained exclusive access to Gus Wenner, CEO of Rolling Stone, about his and his father’s roles in preserving its status as one of the most relevant and high-profile publications on the planet (see page 72).

Enjoy the issue. We hope you’ll be hungry for more when our second edition comes out later this year and you’ll be inspired to seek our help to make new connections in a world of incredible possibilities.

All the best, Nick Scott and Matteo Atti

Contributors

Viju Mathew

A degree in physical geography laid the foundations for the decade Viju spent writing about various aspects of fine living, before he became Robb Report’s automotive editor (along with testdriving cars around the world, he pilots the Dream Machines section of the magazine).

A former rock-climbing instructor, he also has a penchant for cycling, snowboarding and the odd drop of single malt. In this issue of Private World, Viju delves into the highoctane world of the Ferrari 499P (page 66)—the hypercar that, proudly bearing the Prancing Horse logo, will tear up the tarmac at the FIA WEC in the top class this year.

Lysanne Currie

Lysanne is an editor, writer and digitalcontent creator who spent a decade in various consumer magazines before becoming editorial director of Hachette Filipacchi. A former editorial director at BSkyB and head of content at the Institute of Directors, she’s now editor in chief at Meet the Leader—which helps CEOs tell their stories through print, video and digital—and writes about business, luxury and travel for titles including Victor, The Ethicalist, Tempus and Superyacht

Life. In this issue, Lysanne explores two forthcoming exciting developments in the world of seafaring— Silenseas, a sailing yacht whose roots lie in the history of the Orient Express (page 28) and Habacoa—a resort community being developed in the Bahamas (page 31).

Simon De Pury

An art dealer, curator, gallerist, photographer and DJ, Basel-born polymath Simon was, early in his career, chairman, Europe and chief auctioneer worldwide at Sotheby’s and also curator of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Since then, he has become one of the world’s most highprofile auctioneers (he owned and ran Phillips from 2001 to 2013). He has been called the Mick Jagger of auctions for flamboyant performances behind the podium that have earned him several screen appearances (including the BBC documentary The Man With the Golden Gavel and the Netflix hit Emily in Paris). In this issue, in one of three focuses on “passion investments,” Simon— with characteristic elan and eloquence— describes the ins and outs of investing in art (page 48).

Lewis Chester

Lewis, DipWSET, is a London-based wine collector, member of the Académie du Champagne and Chevaliers du Tastevin, cofounder of Liquid Icons and, along with Sasha Lushnikov, cofounder of the Golden Vines Awards— which will take place in Paris from October 13–15 this year. He is also honorary president and head of fundraising at the Gérard Basset Foundation, which funds diversity- and inclusivity-education programs globally in the wine, spirits and hospitality sectors. In this edition of Private World, Lewis offers some of his exhaustive insights into the nuances of investing in fine wine.

Elizabeth’s 30-plus years in watch publishing have included contributions to numerous high-quality print magazines, books and websites all over the world. Her books— Twelve Faces of Time (2010) and Bridging Art and Mechanics: The Unabridged Story of the Corum Golden Bridge (2015)— examine independent watchmakers. She was on the jury of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève eight times before becoming a member of the GPHG Academy. In 2013 she cofounded and was editor in chief of quillandpad.com. In this issue, as part of our focus on passion investments, Elizabeth offers her take on what timepieces might yield returns in years to come (page 52).

Elizabeth Doerr

How to Use This Book

Private World is curated by the VistaJet team to provide you with unique services, insights and access to the world’s most sought-after brands, experiences and business leaders.

Please contact your Private World team at privateworld@vistajet.com to personally explore opportunities relating to what you find on these pages.

A Wine-Tasting Pavilion at Donum Estate, California

Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann’s architecture firm, Studio Other Spaces, is behind this kaleidoscopic canopy, which is playing host to oenophiles visiting the Carneros region.

Tomorrow’s News

SUMMER 2023

Raffles Hotel London Opens Its Doors at London’s Famous Old War Office

One of Britain’s most historically significant buildings will open its doors to the public this summer, as the Old War Office plays host to Raffles London. It’s a new landmark not only for the British capital’s hospitality scene, but for a hotel group whose Singaporean outpost, established in 1887—and named after the city-state’s founder, Sir Stamford Raffles—is recognized for inventing the Singapore Sling cocktail.

Few London landmarks are as storied as the grand OWO, located on the city’s Whitehall thoroughfare. It was here that British wartime PM Winston Churchill and other influential politicians and military leaders shaped the world’s future. What’s more, the 117-year-old building inspired Ian Fleming to pen the James Bond novels after the author worked there as a key liaison officer between the OWO and Britain’s Naval Intelligence Service.

Guests wishing to soak up a slice of history can choose between 120 rooms and suites and 85 uniquely branded residences (available to buy), some of which are situated in the building’s most storied corners—including the former offices of Churchill, as well as those of David Lloyd George and John Profumo, who was recently portrayed in the BBC

political-scandal drama The Trial of Christine Keeler.

Elsewhere, the 760,000-square-foot building features a worldclass spa and fitness space and 11 destination restaurants and bars— one of which is on the hotel’s roof, commanding unforgettable views over Buckingham Palace and the Mall. VVIP guests— visiting government delegations, celebrities, Private World readers and the like—can reserve nine interconnected rooms on the first floor, across a scopious 5,382 square feet.

Commissioned by the Hinduja Group, the restoration of the Grade II–listed building was undertaken by hundreds of artisanal craftspeople, with a special brief to preserve certain historical elements such as the mosaic floors, oak paneling and chandeliers. These include famed architect Thierry Despont, known for his work at LA’s Getty Center and the Statue of Liberty.

“We have a worldclass team to oversee the opening, in whose hands I’m confident that the Raffles experience of London, for our residents, guests and visitors alike, will be unforgettable,” says Raffles and Orient Express CEO Stephen Alden.

Scenic’s New East Antarctica and Ross Sea Voyages Set Sail

It’s hard to know what the explorers Dr. Douglas Mawson, Robert Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton— traversing through the elements on dog-pulled sledges toward the South Pole on a grueling expedition that ran from 1914 to 1917—would have thought if they had seen the majestic Eclipse II cruising through the Antarctic scenery. Now you can follow in their footsteps from the comfort of your cabin.

Eclipse II, Scenic Ocean Cruises’ latest “discovery yacht,” boasts spacious suites and a butler service as well as the 5,900-squarefoot Senses Spa and 10 unsurpassed dining experiences. And, from next year, a limited number of guests per season will be able to board Scenic Eclipse II and traverse previously unexplored and unavailable routes, in the process taking in landscapes teeming with

seabirds, penguins, whales and seals. A visit to the Mawson’s Huts complex at Cape Denison, in the far eastern sector of the Australian Antarctic Territory, is also on the agenda.

“Scenic Eclipse II will be the newest and most modern luxury expedition ship operating in remote East Antarctica and the Ross Sea region, setting the benchmark in providing once-in-alifetime journeys for our

guests,” explains Claudius Docekal, vice president of Scenic’s Ocean Deployment. “As we remain the only ships to offer an abundance of exploration on Zodiac, helicopter, submarine, kayak and stand-up paddleboard, guests will enjoy exclusive experiences such as exploring the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a landscape that has been compared to the surface of Mars and is only accessible by helicopter.”

SHIP: SAM REYNOLDS; GROUP: PABLO BIANCO

JUNE 2023

Pharrell Williams Launches His First Louis Vuitton Collection During Men’s Fashion Week in Paris

More than 180 years after the eponymous founder of Louis Vuitton, aged 13, walked 400 miles from Anchay to the French capital to seek his fortune, the brand is

striding purposefully into a new chapter.

There’s little doubt its iconic monogrammed luggage will remain a core part of the French house’s repertoire for the foreseeable future— but the announcement of musician, producer, songwriter, philanthropist, fashion designer and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams as men’s creative director, back in February, represented a big leap into uncharted territory.

It’s the second time a Black American designer has held this position at the French luxury house, with Williams taking the reins from Virgil Abloh, who died in November 2021. The appointment is a clear milestone in the merging of the traditional menswear and streetwear sectors and represents a blueprint for how the LVMH group— which enjoyed record revenues of over $83 billion in 2022—plans to broaden the brand’s horizons.

In a statement regarding the appointment, Louis Vuitton described Williams as a “visionary whose creative universes expand from music to art and to fashion. The way in which he breaks boundaries across the various worlds he explores aligns with Louis Vuitton’s status as a cultural maison, reinforcing its values of innovation, pioneer spirit and entrepreneurship.”

SPRING 2025

67 Pall Mall Opens a Club in the Wine Capital of Burgundy

67 Pall Mall’s flagship London establishment claims to offer the most extensive wine list in the British capital, as well as dining experiences and management services for members’ storage and trading requirements. Its Singapore outlet, which opened in February 2022 in the 15,000-square-foot Shaw Centre penthouse in the heart of Orchard Road, has the largest and most expansive wine list in Southeast Asia (5,000 wines, 1,000 available by the glass).

The more recently opened Verbier establishment—nestled high in the mountains above the vineyards of the Valais wine region, around 50 minutes’ drive from the regional Sion airport—offers a 500-strong by-theglass list, including a

unique library of mature vintages celebrating Switzerland’s finest and global producers, as well as fine dining conceived by former Le Comptoir Robuchon chef Dario Avenca and a tireless concierge service.

Now, 67 Pall Mall is converting a rustic neo-classical building in the center of Burgundy’s winemaking scene in Beaune, which lies between Lyon and Dijon. Hôtel Moyne-Blandin— a private residence built in the 1780s—is set to be converted into a space that will incorporate a public bar à vin and restaurant, with the listed upper floors reserved for members of the club.

Expect a gastronomic as well as oenological experience at an establishment that lies at the epicenter of Beaune’s epicurean quarter: The club’s founder, Grant Ashton, promises that the kitchen will offer “a lighter, modern style of Burgundian cuisine, as always with wine at the heart of the offering.”

MID-2026 Orient Express Takes the Golden Age of Travel to the Seas

Around 140 years after the Orient Express first pulled out of Paris, the luxury train company is taking on a new journey of discovery—with the launch of the world’s largest sailing yacht.

The 2,370-footlong Orient Express Silenseas, a partnership between Accor and luxury shipbuilder Chantiers de l’Atlantique, will offer 54 suites, including a 15,230-square-foot presidential suite with a 5,700-square-foot private terrace. Its streamlined hull is inspired by 1930s cruise ships while its interior opulence takes cues from the golden age of the French Riviera, with decor to be designed by renowned architect Maxime d’Angeac.

Sailing the Mediterranean Riviera during the summer months—including Portofino, Capri and Saint-Tropez—the yacht will cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands for the winter. This transcontinental experience will be enhanced by two swimming pools, spa

treatments, meditation sessions and stopover explorations focused on discovering cultural treasures. Guests can also take in shows in the onboard amphitheater or, if they’re feeling inspired, make their own music in the private recording studio.

As well as raising the mast on a new level of luxury sea travel, Silenseas will also address some of the negative environmental impacts associated with cruising. It will be propelled by a revolutionary design system known as SolidSail, whereby three rigid sails each with a surface area of 16,145 square feet combine with a state-of-the-art engine run on liquefied natural gas.

“With Orient Express Silenseas, we’re beginning a new chapter in our history taking the experience and excellence of luxury travel and transposing it onto the world’s most beautiful seas,” says Accor CEO Sébastien Bazin. “Innovation is at the heart of this ultramodern ship that will revolutionize the maritime world with new technology to meet today’s sustainability challenges. It is a boat designed to make dreams a reality.”

Rolex Celebrates 20 Years of Its Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative

What do French architect Anne Lacaton, English film and theater director Phyllida Lloyd and the late German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger have in common with electronica composer Brian Eno and Hollywood bighitters Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese?

All are established luminaries who have taken part in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative: the philanthropic arm of Rolex’s long-standing adherence to its founder

Hans Wilsdorf’s mission to foster excellence in all cultural disciplines.

This is a big year for the Mentors and Protégés Programme—its 20th anniversary—and between May 26 and 28, Rolex will celebrate this milestone in Athens with a series of performances, exhibitions and talks with new and old mentors and protégés from the program. Since its launch, the scheme has paired 58 of the world’s most important figures from the arts with their younger counterparts,

in Athens

to nurture their talents. The word “sustainability,” its underlying philosophy insists, should refer to culture as well as climate.

The program’s 2023–2024 cycle is currently seeing Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui team up with young South African visual artist Bronwyn Katz; British author Bernardine Evaristo (above left) with Ghanaian writer Ayesha Harruna Attah (above right); and Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke with Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel (to name just three pairings).

All mentors and protégés will spend a minimum of six weeks together over the course of the two-year program.

Whoever is selected next can be confident of the program bolstering their future prospects: Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s 2010–2011 protégée, Tracy K. Smith, served as poet laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019, while Whitney White— Phyllida Lloyd’s protégée—is a Brooklyn-based Obie Award– and Lilly Award–winning stage director.

MID-2024

Porto Habacoa, in the Bahamas, Becomes One of the World’s Most Environmentally Sustainable Megayacht Marinas

A new superyacht marina in the Caribbean, set to be the first of its kind in the region, is on track to be a crucial stopping point for vessels traveling from the US—as well as an ultra-luxe, secluded and beautiful destination in its own right.

Set on the southern tip of the Great Abaco island in the Bahamas, 160 nautical miles east of

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Porto Habacoa will have a channel entry depth of 26 feet and a basin of 18 feet, allowing it to accommodate superyachts that often struggle to moor in the shallow waters of the Bahamas. Thanks to these unique benefits, the marina will draw the international crowd to berth here when it opens, with the capacity to host 136 superyachts ranging from 150 to 698 feet in its basin.

Far more than a place to break a journey, Porto Habacoa will be a destination in itself: a resort community featuring a yacht club, designer shopping, luxury spa, 18-hole golf course, 50-room hotel and prime real estate as well as

extensive free facilities for visiting yacht crews. The development is also notable for its environmental credentials. Situated adjacent to Abaco National Park, which boasts more than 20,000 acres of untouched forest, the marina has been expertly

designed to minimize the impact on the serenity and biodiversity of the surrounding ecosystem. (It has been created by land excavation rather than ocean dredging.)

Solar energy will take advantage of the Bahamas’s 340 days of

sunshine per year to supply up to 30 percent of the marina’s energy needs. And it will be the first development in the Bahamas to use rainwater recycling as the sole source of potable water for residents and guests.

In addition, the marina will fund an extensive coral rescue facility in partnership with the Perry Institute for Marine Science—encouraging positive growth and sustainable development both above and below the water. Another draw? Plans are underway to build an airport dedicated to private air traffic, which will nestle a 20-minute ride through untouched forest away from your hotel suite, home or superyacht.

SUMMER 2023

Ariodante Travel Launches a New Program of Gastronomic Experiences

“Truly exceptional travel is about magic, intrigue and creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Ricardo Araújo, Ariodante’s CEO, tells Private World.

Self-styled “travel alchemists,” Ariodante is on a mission to make the impossible possible. “Each excursion the company dreams up is a unique creation, crafted around travelers’ interests, passions, lifestyle—and dreams,” says Araújo. “When we start a new project, it takes months to come up with the right storyline and components. Then it’s several months again to find the right providers, negotiate everything and create every detail— because what we offer is precisely what’s not on offer. Think haute couture over made-to-measure.”

A prime example is the company’s Leonardo da Vinci itinerary, which took seven months to formulate and included visits to typically off-limits areas of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel and the Louvre and direct access to rarely seen works in Milan and Paris, including da Vinci’s original codices.

Now, Ariodante is creating a season of one-off gastronomic trips—life-changing experiences—for VistaJet’s members. In keeping with Ariodante’s broader philosophy,

usually unobtainable experiences with the world’s best chefs and illustrious guests will play a major role in these themed threeday adventures that will culminate with a black-tie dinner.

“For the past few years, Ariodante has crafted countless unimaginable gastronomic experiences as part of our immersive travel creations, and today we’re putting gastronomy at the center of a new travel concept, created to be the quintessential expression of fine dining,” says Araújo. “It’ll be a way to discover the world through the art of some of the greatest chefs on the planet: an all-access pass to the world’s most extraordinary gastronomic dreams.”

Ariodante is also working on itineraries centered around science and conservation. Given that this is a company already involved in a science-andconservationfocused voyage of discovery in the Arctic, designed in collaboration with the client, on the islands north of Greenland— requiring satellites, a team of 120 people and at least one year of preparation— expectations are, naturally, very high.

Construction of Oceanix Busan—a Floating Metropolis off the Coast of South Korea—Completes

Speaking at a UN Security Council debate, “Sealevel Rise: Implications for International Peace and Security,” in New York earlier this year, UN secretary-general António Guterres described rising tides caused by climate change as “a torrent of trouble,” adding that “saltwater intrusion can decimate jobs and entire economies in key industries like agriculture, fisheries and tourism.”

Some predict that even hitting the target set out by the Paris Agreement— to limit temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels—would

only cut, rather than eliminate, sea-level rise. Hence the appetite for schemes such as this, a collaboration between the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the Korean port city of Busan and Oceanix, a company that builds floating cities for sustainable human habitation on the ocean.

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, Oceanix Busan will be able to withstand natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. It is to be constructed from locally sourced replenishable materials such as wood

and fast-growing bamboo, as well as biorock, a kind of limestone that forms in seawater from dissolved minerals when a small electric current is run through metal. According to Oceanix, biorock is “the only marine construction material that grows, heals itself and becomes stronger with age.”

Bjarke Ingels, founder

and partner of Bjarke Ingels Group, talking to Private World about this “humanmade ecosystem,” says: “Oceanix City is anchored in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, channeling flows of energy, water, food and waste to create a blueprint for a modular maritime metropolis. It’s designed to grow, transform and

adapt organically over time, evolving from neighborhoods to cities with the possibility of scaling indefinitely.

“Floating cities can be prefabricated onshore and towed to their final site, reducing construction costs. This, paired with the low cost of leasing space at sea, creates an affordable model of living. These factors mean that affordable housing can be rapidly deployed to the most vulnerable coastal locations on the frontlines of climate change and serve as the foundations for future resilient communities.”

Fans of Ingels’s work should look out, too, for a new terminal being built at Zurich Airport. Expected to open in 2032, the building will be constructed largely from locally sourced timber.

NOVEMBER 2023

Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève Winners Announced

The watch industry, like many others, is awash with awards parties. And if “best watch of the year” seems even more arbitrary than “best film” or “best car,” that’s because the creative variety in contemporary watchmaking makes such black-and-white assertions all but impossible. How does one compare, say, Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, a steely icon half a century in the making, to MB&F’s brilliant but barely comprehensible Legacy Machine Sequential Evo?

Of those awards bodies that make such tricky distillations, one is considered nonpareil: the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). Hosted in Geneva every fall since 2001, and overseen by the Canton of Geneva, the GPHG has evolved over those two decades.

These days, a diverse body of around 650 volunteer pundits make up the GPHG Academy. This body of experts creates a short list of 90 watches in 15 categories, including chronographs, clocks and chronometric accuracy. Those are then passed to a jury of 30 to vote for the winners. Voting is a

robust process. Jurors cast their votes secretly, under the watchful eye of a local notary. And yet, the event is not without controversy: Luminaries such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega and Vacheron Constantin have gone awardless in recent years.

None of this has undermined the status of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève as the Oscars of watchmaking, though. MB&F’s founder, Maximilian Büsser, teared up on stage last year when receiving the top gong, the Aiguille d’Or, for his chronograph.

Bulgari chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin’s

acceptance speech, following the Octo Finissimo Ultra 10th Anniversary’s Audacity Prize win, lasted almost 10 minutes.

Our predictions for 2023? It’s hard not to see industry darling Rexhep Rexhepi (pictured), winner of last year’s Men’s Watch Prize, stealing center stage with his Akrivia watches. Audemars Piguet may yet return to the podium having reinvented the ultra-complication with its Code 11.59 Universelle, and you’d not get long odds on IWC stirring this year’s jury with a new Ingenieur based on the original by watchmaking’s most celebrated designer, Gérald Genta.

PORTRAIT: DENIS HERISSON

APRIL 2023

Salone del Mobile in Milan Comes Back to Life

After a Covid-enforced three-year absence, Salone del Mobile returns to its traditional spring schedule this year, taking place in Milan from April 18 to 23.

It brings with it new ideas formed during Supersalone, the special “bridging” event trialed in September 2021 to fill the gap before the main fair could run again. This year, for example, there will be a more fluid, dynamic exhibition setup and a greater focus on circularity and sustainability.

The 2023 program promises several changes, with new brands welcomed to the famous furniture fair, an improved layout to facilitate easier journeys between the pavilions and a radical overhaul of its biennial light event, Euroluce. “We’ve been learning from the past few years: from the pandemic, from the experience of Supersalone, from our exhibitors and our visitors,” says Salone’s president, Maria Porro.

Of course, much of the Salone experience lies in exploring beyond the pavilions, discovering

design highlights and hubs throughout the city. Always top of the list are the presentations from Dimorestudio.

Founded in Milan in 2003 by Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci, the architectural and design studio always produces stunning, immersive installations across two venues—including its rotating collection of contemporary designers and modern masters at its 19th-century gallery in the Brera district.

Also worth a visit are Rossana Orlandi’s perfectly curated gallery shows. The legendary patron of Milanese design’s two-story space on Via Matteo Bandello, set within a beautiful secluded courtyard, is a must-see.

The magic of Salone lies in chancing upon the unexpected—be it a new brand, an old favorite or an inspired collaboration—within the official Salone exhibition space or hidden among Milan’s streets and alleyways. But wherever you go, always ensure you end up at Bar Basso, the place to see and be seen after hours, as the great and the good of the design world descend on this Milanese institution for an Aperol spritz, spilling onto the road outside—a Salone experience that has been denied for too long during lockdown.

The Interior of a Steinway Piano

The GermanAmerican instrument company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan, invented the shape we all associate with the grand piano based on the length of a string determining its pitch. It also removed right angles as they were detrimental to acoustics.

For Pleasure +Profit

The Rising Value of Passion-Based Investment

Highly successful people tend to own goods not only for their intrinsic monetary worth but also for more abstract reasons—beauty, rarity, collectibility, provenance, intrigue, inspirational value. And, there’s no reason why such items shouldn’t potentially offer financial returns, too. Music memorabilia, rare books and even sneakers have now entered the passion-investment realm—here, though, we examine three of the more traditional asset classes: fine wine, art and watches.

A Guide to Investing in Wine

Get

Barrels at Ridge Vineyards, Lytton West, California. Opposite page: A harvest at the same vineyard.

Many people in my social network have, over the years, asked me for advice on how to invest in fine wine. My response is invariably the same: Unless you’re prepared to invest a lot of time and effort probing the market, refining your tastebuds and losing money as you learn, forget it. Go buy an S&P 500 tracker fund and improve your golf game.

Think of the fine-wine market as the Wild West. It is not regulated. Market participants are free to manipulate prices, corner markets or disseminate false or misleading statements without any consequences from a regulatory authority. And the complexities don’t end there.

While there have been wine collectors for millennia, the real beginnings of fine-wine investing can be traced to 1966, and auction house Christie’s recruitment of the late British wine legend Michael Broadbent to run a new London-based fine-wine auction–department: Broadbent’s acumen and ability to ferret out incredible collections of old wines brought broader interest in the category and bottled wines began to change hands at very high prices, which in turn made younger, top-quality wines more valuable as long-term investments. As the saying goes: “The rest is history . . . ”

Getting Started

When it comes to acquiring your fine wines—which, in economic terms, are those regarded as a store of value—a shortcut route is to go to a well-known wine merchant, open an account, ask for advice and start buying. This can lead to disappointment. The merchant will not have access to all the wines

you might want, and you’ll need to earn their respect with your wine knowledge to avoid being sold stock that they are struggling to get rid of.

Alternatively, you could attend some big wine auctions and start bidding. Auction houses, though, can be very expensive: There’s a reason why world-record prices are regularly achieved at auction, and the houses only really specialize in selling back vintage rather than new vintage.

What about buying En Primeur wine futures, which involve a promise from your fine-wine merchant to deliver, in a couple of years’ time, the latest, yet-to-be-bottled vintage? Bordeaux futures have been around since the 19th century as a way of getting cash flow to the châteaux, and there is an En Primeur campaign for Burgundy wines in the UK every January. It’s a welltrod route to getting onto the ladder. However, if your merchant or broker goes bankrupt or fails to deliver, there is not much you can do.

A wine investment fund is an option—but they have one big limitation. They need to deploy a lot of money to the enterprise to be effective, which can limit the types of wines they can buy. And they also need transparent pricing and the ability to liquidate their holdings to satisfy redemptions if investors vote with their feet; so they have to invest heavily in Bordeaux, where pricing is transparent and the spreads are tighter than in other markets. If the Bordeaux market is not on a roll, your fund isn’t going to perform.

Going Solo

Bordeaux has clear benefits, though, if you choose the final route—going it alone—and buy the investment-grade wines among the big five First

Christian Moueix and Tod Mostero— owner and director of vineyard and winemaking, respectively—in Napanook Vineyard, Dominus Estate, Napa Valley. Opposite page: The anticipation-filled ascent to the cellar room at Château Lafite Rothschild, Bordeaux.

Growths of the Left Bank: Château Haut-Brion, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux and Château Mouton Rothschild.

The problem with being too top-heavy with Bordeaux, though, is that if prices stagnate, your returns are going to be poor. Diversifying with wines from Burgundy, Champagne, Italy and California will ensure that you don’t overexpose yourself to one part of the market.

Burgundy is the most sought-after and highest-returning fine-wine region in the world today. This will probably continue due to the very small quantities of top wines made by the region’s domaines and the low-yielding harvests it has faced in recent years. (Climate change has severely impacted Burgundy.)

New-vintage Burgundy wines sell exclusively on allocation, with increasing numbers of domaines limiting the quantities that anyone can buy. Case sizes on offer have reduced from the traditional case of 12 bottles down to six, then down to three, and now, often, down to a single bottle. Of course, you can go to the secondary market or the auction market and try your luck there— but this is not the best strategy for purchasing wines in an efficient and costeffective manner.

Burgundy is based around a pyramid structure: the Grand Crus at the top, then the Premier Crus, the village wines and, finally, the regional wines. Unlike Bordeaux, you’re just as likely to make good returns owning white wines as you are red. The blue-chip domaines include the holy trinity of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine Leroy and Domaine Armand Rousseau.

Moving to Champagne, Prestige Cuvées such as Krug Clos du Mesnil and Clos d’Ambonnay, Dom Perignon P2 and P3, Salon and Cristal age incredibly well, pair with many foods and have the potential for long-term price appreciation in the secondary market. As for Grower Champagnes—those made and bottled by the same person who grew the grapes—the top wines from Jacques Selosse, Pierre Péters, Agrapart & Fils and Bérèche might be considered a small but worthy part of your portfolio.

Over on the West Coast of the US, when it comes to your portfolio, it is probably advisable to limit your selection to a few names: Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Dominus, Opus One, Colgin Cellar, Sine Qua Non and Ridge Vineyards.

Interestingly, despite the abundance of fine wine being made, there are remarkably few investable fine wines outside the aforementioned regions. A small allocation for your portfolio could be considered, though, made up of Germany’s Egon Müller and Weingut Keller; JL Chave Hermitage and Château in the Rhône Valley; Trimbach’s Clos Ste Hune; in Alsace, Clos Rougeard in the Loire Valley; F X Pichler’s Unendlich Riesling Smaragd in Austria; Gantenbein’s Chardonnay in Switzerland; and Penfolds and Henschke’s Hill of Grace in Australia.

Serious collectors-in-the-making should also consider bottle format. Wines in magnums always age better (less oxygen per liter gets into the bottle) and they are rarer—especially when it comes to Grand Crus Burgundy wines.

Avoiding Pitfalls

Once you get started, how you store your wines is every bit as important as what you invest in. Light, humidity, temperature, vibration—all are factors in how the wine will age. The UK has professionally managed warehouses in which goods are not deemed to have entered the country from a tax viewpoint, even when trading between warehouses (many US collectors keep a portion of their collections in them).

Meanwhile, you might wish to steer clear of wines bearing US “strip labels”—a US-government requirement for alcohol arriving from abroad— which down values wines for historical reasons relating to transatlantic shipments. Packaging also impacts the perception of provenance. Most Bordeaux wines come in original wooden cases, whereas most Burgundy cases come in original carton cases. Any deviation from this will induce deep discounts.

As for potential damage, breakage, theft or any other impairment, the UK bonded warehouses, such as Octavian Vaults, build in storage charges that include the cost of insurance: crucial, as even scuffing or water damage on the labels can make your bottles unsellable or subject to severe discounts. Consider, too, the taxation: Which country you are resident in can have a material impact on your real returns.

Returns are difficult to calculate. You need to factor in the costs of storage and insurance, as well as “slippage costs.” Selling fees can be high: 10 percent through a wine merchant and perhaps more through an auction house. If you want to sell a lot of wine quickly, you are unlikely to get the current market price.

After weighing all of this, you might end up thinking that you would have been better off—and enjoyed a smoother ride—putting your hard-earned cash into that S&P 500 tracker fund.

Here’s the heart of the matter for me, though: Investment in wine should be a labor of love—a passion investment with abundant emotional returns.

The manicured grounds at Champagne Salon: a Prestige Cuvée that ages “incredibly well,” according to the author.

Blank Canvas A Guide to Investing in Art

Personal questions are traditionally off-limits during a job interview. Nevertheless, I can never help asking the following two: “What is your sign of the zodiac?” and “What animal would you choose to be?” Why? Because it takes people from all signs of the zodiac to make a company great and all species of creatures to make the animal kingdom magical. I am a Scorpio, and if I could choose to be any animal, it would be an eagle. I interpret this as being linked to my unquenchable thirst for freedom and altitude. An eagle can, of course, “zoom in”—as in when it spots its prey, darts down at speed, catches it . . . then immediately ascends to where the air is thinner—but is otherwise never bogged down by details.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

Having been an art-obsessed auctioneer for half a century now, I have always been in search of the very finest and rarest works. You never know if and when you’re going to come across one, but when you do, you know immediately—and it is like finding the Holy Grail. Very few individuals are prepared to spend $100 million-plus on a single work of art, which makes the air thin at

Opposite page: Swiss auctioneer, dealer and collector Simon de Pury. Right: Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog.

Personal passions, changing tastes, shared ownership schemes . . . all must be part of the composition if you want to succeed. Swiss auctioneer, dealer and collector Simon de Pury explains why.

that altitude of the art market; and yet, activity at that height has an impact all the way down to ground level, where hundreds of millions of people acquire objects of desire in what might be thought of as a global flea market. Those who spend the most on artworks define the market— and as such, become tastemakers.

As recently as five years ago, art-market professionals predicted that the combined income of the main global auction houses—Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips—would, during their peak New York auction weeks in May and November, exceed $1 billion. And then, in mid-2022, in the wake of the Covid crisis, the Macklowe Collection sold at Sotheby’s for not that much short of $1 billion.

As the world of sports shows us, records are meant to be broken; and, just one year after the Macklowe sale, an auction of paintings and sculptures from the collection of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen fetched $1.6 billion over two days (four works alone went for in excess of $100 million).

The highest price ever achieved at auction for a single artwork was when Salvator Mundi, the last work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in private hands, sold at Christie’s for $450 million. There are other works rumored to have been sold privately for around the same amount. The day when an individual work of art will hit $1 billion surely can’t be too far away.

Changing Tastes

Documentary evidence for prices paid for works of art goes back only as far as the middle of the 19th century. Analysis of the art market since then shows it rising and rising in value, bar a few occasional short pauses. Why? Because of a continuous growth in human wealth, paired with a diminishing number of highly desirable artworks available for sale.

Meanwhile, a graph with a continuously upward trajectory doesn’t tell the full story: Considerable fluctuations within the market occur

The very finest and rarest works of art—those that are timeless, immune to fluctuations in taste—are the “trophy” finds.

The author conducts a charity auction, supporting fund raising for research into the cure for AIDS, at amfAR 2019.

due to the constant evolution of taste. In recent years, collectors’ buying patterns have been akin to that of fashionistas, especially in the red-hot emerging sector, where some artists’ work has climbed up in value pretty much vertically for 12 to 18 months, only to plummet back down again after just one or two auction seasons.

In the field of decorative arts, tastes have changed fundamentally over the course of my career. The superrich in the 1970s were furnishing their homes with opulent, ormolu-mounted furniture from 18th-century France. With the exception of the kind of pieces that, for instance, once (provenly) belonged to Marie Antoinette, the bulk of that type of furniture now sells for far less, in real terms. Today, French or Italian mid-20thcentury furniture by the likes of Jean Royère, Jean Prouvé, Carlo Mollino or Gio Ponti is all the rage among the most affluent.

The vast middle segment of the market is also not immune to fluctuations in taste. When a wide

consensus has developed over the importance of a certain artist, geographically speaking, the risk of their work’s value going down significantly is more limited: The entry level is financially higher, but the risk is lower.

A Collective Approach

An ever-growing number of participants is pushing the market up. A relatively recent phenomenon is fractional ownership, Masterworks being a pioneering company in that area. Tens of thousands of small investors can now dip their toes into the art market by buying tiny fractions of blue-chip works. This widens the market significantly: The number of people following the major auctions live, online, has risen to the millions. Finally, art is accessible to all in a way that once only music was.

The nearly unlimited number of participants at the bottom end of the pyramid can also have an influence upward. The tiny group of players at the top of the pile is not immune to the buzz

that can be created by the groundswell of people interested in art.

Which is why, while passion could be a crucial cog in the engine when collecting art, a few purely rational criteria should also apply to make sure that you invest intelligently. Keeping a close eye on the evolution of taste is certainly one of them.

The very finest and rarest works of art, though—those that are timeless, immune to fluctuations in taste—are the “trophy” finds. It is when you acquire these that you find yourself cruising at an altitude above the rest and set to leave behind a meaningful legacy.

History shows that the only truly lasting legacy results from cultural achievements. This will come as no surprise to VistaJet customers, who are used to living life at high altitude. (German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich’s 1818 work Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, shown on page 49, springs to mind.) To invest at altitude, one must view things from an eagle’s perspective.

A depiction of the author’s spirit animal, Bald Eagle, from Andy Warhol’s “Endangered Species” portfolio

Philippe Dufour Duality

The Swiss-born master is, according to the author, “widely considered the ‘godfather’ of the independent watchmaking market.”

Time and Money

A Guide to Investing in Watches

Fine timepieces are risky investments— but there are exceptions, especially right now, explains prominent horological expert Elizabeth Doerr.

I’ve been in the world of ne watches for more than 30 years. In all this time, established collectors have viewed timepieces as items of personal enjoyment—rarely investment-class assets. The basic reasons for this are simple: Like an automobile, once a watch is bought and removed from the store, its value decreases signicantly. And, if we’re talking vintage watches, the unwritten ground rules for high-grade collecting can be confusing, time consuming, expensive and untransparent.

“I’ve frequently gone on the record over the years with my view that watches are not investments,” says Gary Getz, a prominent watch enthusiast and collector and a recently retired business-strategy consultant. “That’s not to say that the values of some watches may not go up over time, but to me that’s both unpredictable and entirely secondary to the importance of watches as works of mechanical art and personal enjoyment.”

Aurel Bacs, head of Phillips Watches in Association with Bacs & Russo, concurs. Elaborating on after-market price structures, he says: “The price- nding process, the mechanisms or dynamics in how watches have a price, have a value, is nothing more than supply and demand, much like buying a share

Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

In 2017, Phillips sold a Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona—that was owned by Newman himself— for $17.8 million.

on the stock market or real estate to rent out. Watches, like art and any other collectible, do not have a stream of revenue. And therefore no analyst in the world can ever tell you this watch is worth $10,000 or $100,000 or a million. Who decides these prices? The buyers, the bidders and the sellers do.”

A new era, though, seems to be afoot.

Hyper-Sensitive

As the digital era has progressed, certain watch models, brands and even provenances have become “hyped,” causing a new arm of watch collecting to open up that follows a di erent path: one heavily in uenced by marketing and a new ideal of rarity. It is chie y populated by a newer consumer group with more discretionary funds to spend than ever before.

Capitalizing on this, major auction houses began placing focus on two blue-chip brands with high reputations when it comes to both craftsmanship and comparatively high overall production numbers. Rolex and Patek Philippe have long been household names and are the poster children for the Swiss watch industry, but these new circumstances have elevated their status in unimaginable ways, culminating in Phillips’s 2017 sale of Paul Newman’s

Patek Philippe Nautilus

A “Tiffany-blue Patek,” as this iteration of Patek’s flagship line is known, sold in December 2021 for $6.5 million.

UR-112

“We produce 150 to 160 watches per year, and we will not raise that,” insists cofounder and head watchmaker Felix Baumgartner.

personal Rolex Daytona Ref. 6239 for $17,752,500—a watch model that was somewhat unpopular at its debut—and most recently the brand-new Ti any & Co. Double-Signed Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref. 5711/1A-018 (the so-called Ti any-blue Patek) in December 2021 for a whopping $6.5 million (both prices including buyer’s premium).

Never a manufacture to be outdone, Audemars Piguet set a record in 2021 for one of its watches sold at auction with a unique Royal Oak Concept Black Panther Flying Tourbillon that hammered at $5.2 million for charity.

“And it wasn’t just us,” Phillips’s Bacs remembers. “There was the $31 million for the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime at 2019’s Only Watch auction. Watches were on everyone’s minds: the press, TV shows, blogs, social media. . . . It was everywhere. It became mainstream popular culture to the extent that when I was in Cambodia on a bike riding through a rice eld, somebody stopped me and said, ‘You are the man who sold the Paul Newman.’ ”

Viral Virtuosity

“The digital era brought with it online enthusiast forums in which certain watches became ‘hot’ pieces that ‘serious’ collectors felt they should have,”

Chronomètre Bleu

The French watchmaker, located in Geneva, is one of today’s most in-demand independents, according to the author.

Getz, a serious collector for decades, explains, “setting the stage for Phillips and others to create a sense of rarity around certain makers and references among a broader audience. It wasn’t very long ago that the discussion among enthusiasts wasn’t about making money, but about not getting hurt by buying pieces that matched one’s individual taste but su ered badly in value should the need arise to sell them.”

From 2016, the secondary market value of stainless-steel Patek Philippe Nautilus models, a watch that has existed since 1976, upsurged in an unprecedented way: a true phenomenon that just three short years later saw these models selling on the pre-owned market for twice their retail prices and (much) more. In my estimation, there are two big reasons for the extreme hike in value: rstly, the new marketing direction of auction houses and other preowned sellers focusing on unique or low-volume series; and, secondly, provenance and the evolving tastes of today’s consumer, notably their focus on sports watches. By 2019, bitcoin was also surging, meaning that new wealth was coming into the hands of younger consumers looking for a place to spend it—and a way of displaying it.

The pandemic followed on the heels of the bitcoin craze, bringing about a

perfect storm and solidifying the new feel for watch collecting and investing: “Pandemic spending” caused blue-chip brands to sell out just as production ground to a halt and supply shortages were the order of the day. The recently wealthy now had to look beyond Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet toward the rare and unique world of the high-end independent brands for investment-worthy timepieces. Enter, stage left, the independent makers.

Off the Radar

An independent watchmaker is generally defined as a high-end boutique maker with low volume, handmade products—and, crucially, a free-spirited approach to the craft. These can be individual people or small companies. Historically, the independent watchmaker has generally had a much harder time getting attention. However, six months into the pandemic, the independents experienced an unprecedented rise in both sales and fame with more consumers (finally) discovering the compelling niche end of the market.

“It comes back to real values and real watchmakers and watches and less to big brands who spend millions on marketing,” Urwerk cofounder and head watchmaker Felix Baumgartner says regarding the phenomenon. “Responding to the demand also creates frustration and is a challenge for us today. But I keep my feet on the ground, as is my nature—I am the son of three generations of watchmakers—we produce 150 to 160 watches per year, and we will not raise that. We know who we are, and we know what we want.”

This newfound wider-spread popularity for a stratus of the watchmaking world hitherto basically unknown—except among a small group of passionate collectors—has remained in place, with the must-have indies still in high demand and no increase in production in sight thanks to a wise retention of basic ideals. Today’s in-demand independents include Urwerk, MB&F, Akrivia, F. P. Journe and Phillipe Dufour—the last being widely considered the “godfather” of the independent-watchmaking market.

Flipping the Coin

In the watch world, these new investors of recent years are known as “flippers” (or sometimes “spec collectors”). They look to make short-term gains by buying in-demand watches at retail (or below) and “flipping” them immediately for profit. While a handful of flippers have always existed, they were never enough to upset the natural order of things or prevent dyed-in-the-wool collectors from getting timepieces they have wanted. Now, however, availability is scarce for even established collectors.

“Investors and flippers feed each other as the hype engine creates fear of missing out among less-informed buyers, and flippers benefit,” Getz explains. “I also think we are seeing the effects of watches moving from being a niche interest to a mainstream luxury category, with all that implies regarding the status associated with certain watches and the ability to profit from a manufactured sense of scarcity.

“We’re already seeing this cooling off, and I suspect that some portion of today’s luxury-watch buyers will soon move on to their next categories of status purchases; but at the same time, as with vintage cars, it looks as if excellent examples from certain brands and important references have made a permanent and sustainable jump in value that won’t abate anytime soon.”

This cooling off has seen prevalent secondhand dealers very recently laying off employees or declaring bankruptcy and, as WatchPro even wrote, “Prices for the 50 most tradeable luxury watches have slumped by at least one-third in the past year.” Despite how that sentence looks, this “slump” isn’t really a slump but rather a correction, bringing us closer to normalcy in the watch industry: a microcosm that is driven more by passions than full-blown fiscals.

So, the ultimate question: Should you get into watches for investment purposes right now? The short answer is, you’ve missed the peak of the unprecedented surge, but there isn’t a bubble to burst here because watches have never “bubbled.” If you’re new at it and expect watches to hold their value, you will be best served buying Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak models. These historically blue-chip brands are three of today’s most desirable makers of luxury sports watches.

Sure, bets on this don’t exist—but if they did, I’d also certainly put my money on anything by independent makers Philippe Dufour and Akrivia, if you can get your hands on one (and I wouldn’t be so sure of that).

“Yes, watches can be an investment, but not an investment like a pension fund, real estate or even the stock market,” Bacs says, reiterating a position that most watch-industry lifers share. “The investment is a human one. As in, the pleasure of engaging with watchmakers and peers and hanging out with watch crowds. And, the pleasure of actually being all alone with your beloved watch. There’s the investment of your time and, of course, your hard-earned money. But the dividend is not cash. The dividend is the smile you get.”

Audemars Piguet

A Royal Oak in frosted gold.

Southern Trees by Charles Gaines

This stirring exhibition by the contemporary American conceptual artist, depicting 150-year-old pecan trees, has been on display at Hauser & Wirth on New York City’s 22nd Street.

The Journey to No. 1

Jon Rahm has come a long way from being a broke student to flying between competitions in a private jet. And he knows it. Ryan Herman chats with perhaps the world’s best golfer and gets to know the man behind a world-beating mission.

There’s a saying in golf: “You drive for show, putt for dough.” Less than a decade ago, Jon Rahm was a broke student at Arizona State University relying on his putting ability to put bread on the table, figuratively and literally. When he had enough money from hustling teammates, Rahm and his then-girlfriend, now wife, Kelley Cahill, would occasionally dine at one of Tempe’s more affordable diners, which also made a mean margarita. “And she bought the drinks!” he says with a laugh.

Fast-forward to the present and Rahm has recently surpassed the $40 million mark for career earnings. He also has 19 pro-tournament wins (and counting) and a US Open title and will be one of Europe’s go-to players at this year’s Ryder Cup. Not bad given Rahm only turned professional in 2016.

“It’s easy to take all this for granted,” he says. “I live in Scottsdale, Arizona, and sometimes I think this is all pretty crazy for somebody who couldn’t afford much, who had to win chip-andputting contests against his teammates to be able to afford to eat.

“I always envisioned myself being one of the best in the world, and I had that goal in mind. But what I’ve accomplished—especially as of late— it’s quite incredible. And to not have any financial stress is a huge thing, right?”

“Of late,” he has been on an extraordinary run of form. At the time of this writing, Rahm had won three of his last four tournaments. Going into February, he hadn’t finished outside the top 10 in any event since August. And while we all set ourselves goals at the start of the year—some of which are ambitious, some doable and others which get ditched within a week—one of Rahm’s was “to win more than one tournament” in 2023. He achieved that ambition on January 21. Eleven days earlier, Michael Verity, a statistician who also sets betting odds for golf tournaments, calculated that Rahm’s recent performances would give him a +13 handicap.

Back-to-back wins at the Tournament of Champions and the American Express at the start of 2023 prompted Verity to later tweet: “Relentless Rahmbo . . . we may need to revise this handicap index further!!”

So what does being +13 mean to the casual fan whose interest in golf revolves around the Majors and the Ryder Cup? Well, if you’re good enough to play off a level handicap, aka “scratch,” then you’re a member of golf’s elite, but you’ve probably done that playing the same courses, making adjustments as you go. And you will still be 13 strokes behind Rahm each round.

The La Quinta Stadium Course, California: one of the many venues in which Rahm is making golf history.

Gareth Bale, one of Britain’s greatest modern soccer players, who played with Rahm earlier this year at Torrey Pines, has a handicap of +2, although Rahm reckons Bale is probably two strokes better than his current mark. “He has no business being this good at golf,” says Rahm.

Yet the former Wales and Real Madrid striker is some way from making any impression in professional golf. Or, as Rahm helpfully explains, “If I’m gonna be +13, Rory McIlroy must be somewhere around there. And I bet there’s a lot of people on +8 to +12. So, if you’re a club pro who thinks you could be a [tour] pro, well, guess what, you’re eight shots from being one of the best. Those courses aren’t changing. They’re not easier. But players are evolving. We’re making it look easier as a collective. And this speaks to the greatness of the game right now.”

Out of all those players, Rahm has been the most consistent off the tee lately, albeit with a swing that is shorter than his peers’. That is partly due to being born with a club foot that required multiple operations when he was a small boy growing up in Barrika, 12 miles north of Bilbao, Spain. But, as Rahm stresses, his swing is also the product of many factors, not least having coaches knowing how to maximize his natural ability.

“It wasn’t like I had life-threatening surgery, but what it did was direct me on a path toward learning what my body could or couldn’t do. Although that is meaningless if you don’t have the people that understand golf to apply it to your own game.”

When he was 13, Rahm’s mother took him to meet coach Eduardo Celles. “If I took a full swing, I wasn’t accurate whatsoever. But it really, really worked when Eduardo told me to start basically swinging three-quarters, to shoulder height. That was when I started winning tournaments.”

He also attributes that swing to a sport known in the US as jai alai. For some readers, the only time you will have seen jai alai is for a split second during the opening credits of Miami Vice, but it is also played in the Basque country where it is known as pelota. “They use the hook [in America], but I use the wooden paddle. If you look it up, the paddle is very similar to how I do my golf swing.”

However, as in any sport, winning and losing often come down to preparation, and creating the right environment both on and off the course. “When you’re traveling as much as we do, playing 20 tournaments in the first 34 weeks of the year, a lot of them very far away, there’s a lot of coming back and forth and you don’t want to worry about flights being delayed or clubs not turning up.

“But my caddy once told me, ‘Man, you gotta invest money to make money,’ and he’s the one

that pushed me toward flying private. If you think of yourself as a company and you are the asset, to invest in your body, to make sure you are rested and physically fit to be able to play, is just so important.

“I’m six feet three inches. You know, I don’t really want to be sitting in the middle seat, shoulder to shoulder with other passengers!” he jokes. “And I’m pretty sure I spend almost as many hours sleeping on the jet as I do in my own bed at home. Also, it means I get to spend more time with my family as we fly together.” Rahm and Cahill have two young children, Kepa and Eneko, so the extra hours he gets with them are invaluable.

All that traveling this year will include two trips to Rome. The Ryder Cup makes its debut in Italy, at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, which was completely rebuilt to host the event. Rahm has yet to play the revamped course but says he will do so when he returns to Europe later this summer before or after he plays the Open at Royal Liverpool or the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. He was one of Europe’s few saving graces after that American annihilation at Whistling Straits in 2021, when there were no European supporters because of Covid restrictions.

“Me and Sergio [García] did well in that environment, maybe because we were so comfortable with each other. We almost had to take silence as the European cheers. That was the only way to know we’d done something good, as the crowd went silent. But I enjoyed having people rooting against us. It’s kind of unique. Although you know with all these destinations we’re picking for European venues, like Paris and Rome, I think we can expect a lot more US supporters to show up.”

Rahm is waiting to see if he will renew that partnership with García, who joined the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Tour that saw golfers publicly falling out with each other last year.

As it stands, the LIV golfers—which include Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Lee Westwood—could all be barred from playing, while other stars including Rahm and McIlroy stayed loyal to the PGA and European Tour.

What became a sporting soap opera has been captured in a new Netflix series called Full Swing Rahm, perhaps mercifully, only plays the role of Special Guest Star. “You’ll see me here and there, but my family has enough going on,” he says. “I didn’t need the extra attention on and off the course. But the door is still open to having me in the show in the future. I’m kind of glad I wasn’t in it, what with the whole LIV situation. I didn’t need another news outlet asking me questions about it, although I think it was great for the show, and a heck of a time to start recording it!”

Can it do for golf what Drive to Survive did for Formula 1? “One of the concerns some of us had is that F1 is extremely exciting. You’ve got so much going on. I love golf, but it’s not on the same level of adrenaline as F1.”

One way or another, though, this is clearly a significant year for the sport—and especially for Rahm, who will go into each major as one of the favorites. But as we have an audience with probably the best golfer in the world right now, we would be remiss not to ask for one tip on behalf of the reader that will improve your game. And Rahm’s answer brings us back to where we started: a putter.

“If you’re not the best, the one thing you can practice the most, that could help you in the long run, is putting. If you can save as many shots as you can, inside six feet, those shots start adding up. You can find a million drills online about how to practice those putts. Maybe just dedicate 20 minutes on the putting green instead of hitting 1,000 golf balls. And this applies to a 20 handicapper as well as to every player on tour right now.”

Or even somebody trying to hustle their way through college on a diet of tacos and tequila.

Rahm driving himself toward the summit of the world’s leaderboard.

“It wasn’t like I had life-threatening surgery, but what it did was direct me on a path toward learning what my body could or couldn’t do.”

THE QUEEN

AFTER A 50-YEAR BREAK FROM ENDURANCE RACING’S FERRARI INTENDS TO RECLAIM ITS PROMINENCE

OF LE MANS

HIGHEST LEVEL OF COMPETITION, WITH THE NEW 499P HYPERCAR.

BY VIJU MATHEW

Every legend has an inception point. In the automotive world, one occurred at 4 pm on June 26, 1949, at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France. This was when Luigi Chinetti won the 24 Hours of Le Mans after driving for 22.5 hours. In hindsight, all the credit for his third consecutive Le Mans win is due to the car he was driving, a Ferrari 166 MM. It was the first time a Ferrari had competed at Le Mans.

That victory was the catalyst for Ferrari’s becoming a dominant force in high-performance cars for both the consumer market and motorsport. Ferrari went on to win eight more victories at Le Mans before leaving the highest echelon of endurance racing after the 1973 event. Now, half a century later, the Italian marque is ready to go the distance once again—this time with the new Ferrari 499P hypercar.

“When we decided to commit to this project, we embarked on a path of innovation and development, faithful to our tradition,” said John Elkann, Ferrari’s executive chairman, at the unveiling of the hypercar in October 2022. “The track is the ideal terrain to push the boundaries of cutting-edge technological solutions—solutions that in time will be transferred to our road cars.”

The ethos that motorsport should be the crucible in which the character of the automaker’s models and corporate identity is defined came from founder Enzo Ferrari, who admitted, “I have, in fact, no interest outside of racing cars.” That focus began with his first taste of competition at the age of 21 and continued as he drove for Alfa Romeo before forming his own team, Scuderia Ferrari, in 1929. But a car built by Ferrari, wearing the name, didn’t appear on a starting grid until May 1947 at the Piacenza Circuit in Italy. Although the 12-cylinder 125 S didn’t finish that day, it went on to win the Rome Grand Prix that same month. Worldwide recognition would have to wait for Le Mans two years later.

The 1949 edition of France’s iconic endurance contest, established in 1923, also marked a new beginning. World War II and the postwar national rebuilding effort had paused the 24-hour challenge for nine years. Up until then, Bentley and Alfa Romeo reigned on the grid, but the postwar years saw Ferrari’s ascendancy. Between 1960 and 1965, Ferrari scored six consecutive victories at Le Mans, culminating with a 250 LM victory under the banner of Chinetti’s own North American Racing Team.

But in 1966, Ford caused a famous upset when three of its GT40s swept the podium, further fueling a rivalry depicted

The Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar: a vehicle whose “cutting-edge technological solutions in time will be transferred to our road cars,” according to John Elkann, Ferrari’s executive chairman.

in 2019’s Ford v Ferrari, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Later regulation changes proved problematic for Ferrari, and its 312P—powered by a 3-liter flat-12 engine— became Ferrari’s swan song after its campaign in the 1973 season of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) World Sportscar Championship. Ferrari said it left the endurance series to focus on Formula 1. It has now won the World Constructors’ Championship a record 16 times.

For Ferrari, the decision to rejoin the apex of endurance racing’s prototype competition makes sense. The FIA has created a new Hypercar class intended to be more fiscally viable than the outgoing Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) division. This replacement comprises two categories—the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) and the Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh)—each adhering to many of the same parameters prescribed by the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the creator and governing body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. These regulations dictate a minimum weight of approximately 2,271 pounds (1,030 kg), a total output equaling 670 hp and an estimated Le Mans lap time of 3.30 minutes. Importantly, both versions of the Hypercar class are eligible to compete in the FIA’s international World Endurance Championship (WEC) series—Le Mans is the flagship—

and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North America, which includes the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The main differences between the LMH and LMDh prototypes are in the level of autonomy allowed in the development-and-construction process. All LMDh cars, for example, must have their chassis provided by one of four manufacturers—ORECA, Dallara, Multimatic or Ligier—and the car must be equipped with a rear-axle hybrid system. The latter includes a standardized electric system with primary components from Bosch and Williams Advanced Engineering, while Xtrac provides the seven-speed sequential gearbox. The choice of engine and body styling is up to the individual team. Porsche took the LMDh route for its new 963, which had its race debut at the end of January in Daytona, as has Lamborghini for the 2024 season.

In contrast, the LMH protocol permits non-hybridization, giving the builder free rein with the chassis, power train and bodywork, as long as the class parameters are adhered to. And that’s where the Ferrari 499P comes into play.

“The prerequisite for us to enter the [Hypercar] category was to build the whole car in its entirety,” says Antonello Coletta, head of the Ferrari Attività Sportive GT division overseeing the project. “This was only possible in the LMH

“Ferrari has designed, engineered and manufactured the body, engine, electric motor and all of the car’s components. As always, the car coming out of Maranello is 100 percent Ferrari,” says Antonello Coletta (pictured right), head of the Ferrari Attività Sportive GT division.

configuration. “Ferrari has designed, engineered and manufactured the body, engine, electric motor and all of the car’s components—as always, the car coming out of Maranello is 100 percent Ferrari.”

At the core of the vehicle is a new carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, fitted with a hybrid power train featuring a twin-turbo V-6 akin to that found in the 296 GTB production car and the 296 GT3 racer. A key difference is in how the mid-rear-positioned mill is integrated, with Ferrari pointing out that “the engine is load-bearing and therefore provides a valuable structural function.” While the 296 GTB may be the first production Ferrari to carry a V-6, the marque has a winning history with that cylinder selection, having won its first Formula 1 championship with it in 1961.

“The main development of the engine sought to ensure that the power unit delivers very high torque over as long a rev range as possible, so that there are not only peaks in power but also consistency,” says Coletta, explaining the different approach needed for endurance racing. “The first thing is to ensure consistent fuel consumption within the engine’s use of drive torque. We must look not only for power and torque but for the best power, torque and fuel-consumption figures.”

Complementing the internal-combustion engine is a 900volt battery feeding a differential-enhanced electric motor at the front axle. Tempering the prodigious delivery is a regenerative brake-by-wire system. “We have state-of-the-art solutions for everything to do with the hybrid part and the use of engine controls thanks to the software and electronics as a whole, which we write and design in-house,” says Coletta. “We’ve tried to leave nothing to chance, and this approach applies to all the myriad details that go into the car itself.”

Asked what he finds most impressive about the vehicle, Coletta points to its styling by chief design officer Flavio Manzoni and his team. “Clearly, the car is designed from the

ground up, any models, although some road-derived components and others that we will start testing for future Ferraris,” he says.

The body’s extremely low-profile silhouette contrasts strikingly with the enclosed cockpit topped by multiple air intakes, which transition to a blade-like fin that flows back to dual rear wings. Also prominent are the skeletonized wheel arches with exaggerated louvers to alleviate pressure. According to Ferrari, the front section takes its aesthetic cues from the $2.2 million, limited-edition Daytona SP3, a model that pays tribute to Ferrari’s sports prototypes of the 1960s.

The 499P’s competition debut was on March 17 at the 1,000 Miles of Sebring—the first contest of the FIA’s seven-race 2023 WEC season—having already tested on the Florida track. “The Sebring circuit was very demanding for the car,” notes Coletta, referring to the preparatory sessions. “We focused mainly on the reliability aspect and less on performance. The car must first be reliable, then quick.”

Unlike Porsche, whose director of factory motorsport LMDh, Urs Kuratle, is open about creating the 963 with the intent of competing in both the WEC and IMSA series, Ferrari is noncommittal on the latter. “We can neither exclude nor confirm anything in advance,” says Coletta. “When we get to mid-season, we’ll be able to draw conclusions, assess where we are and where the project is at.” The $2.9 million Porsche 963 is also available for purchase by private customers; Ferrari has yet to follow suit with the 499P.

The Prancing Horse has a lot riding on this hypercar— and a lot to prove after being away for five decades and now facing a field that includes Porsche, Audi, Cadillac, BMW and Toyota. Then again, as Enzo himself once quipped: “What’s behind you doesn’t matter.” That could well be the team’s mantra with the 499P as Ferrari looks to drive its legacy home.

“The main development of the engine sought to ensure that the power unit delivers very high torque over as long a rev range as possible, so that there are not only peaks in power but also consistency.”

—ANTONELLO COLETTA

KEEP ON ROLLING

More than half a century after its founding, Rolling Stone magazine—like many people featured on its pages—has stayed relevant through reinvention. Robin Parker talks to chief executive officer Gus Wenner, son of founder Jann, about how a publishing saga achieved near mythical status.

Wenner likes disruption as much as the next digital native, but he wants to make one thing clear: Rolling Stone—the magazine started by his dad, Jann, in 1967—is in no danger of ceasing publication anytime soon. Through a laser-sharp focus on new media, the 31-year-old CEO has successfully flipped the title’s print/digital model in the decade since he joined from Brown University. Today, almost two-thirds of the brand’s 60 million monthly readers are accessing it primarily online, with social-media channels alone reaching 20 million people.

But to Gus, the print magazine still cuts to the “heart and soul” of what Rolling Stone stands for. “The front cover allows us to make a statement on a global level, every single month,” he says, citing striking images of Harry Styles, Adele and YouTube sensation MrBeast as examples. “We can create something potentially iconic that I don’t think you can really get with digital. In my mind, we will always keep it going, even 10, 20 years down the road—it’s not the focal point of our business, but I don’t see it going away.”

When he arrived as an intern—albeit one whose dad ran the show—he found a heritage brand at a crossroads. The counterculture magazine, in which Hunter S. Thompson, Lester Bangs and Tom Wolfe were once let loose to pontificate for tens of thousands of words on rock, sex, drugs and the death of the American dream, was being usurped by attitude-heavy upstarts such as Vice. And it had never been so unprofitable.

Fiercely protective of what the title stood for— and could still deliver—Wenner reasoned that going for broke was the only option when it came to capturing the imaginations of a generation that increasingly saw the world via a screen. “I was really young and didn’t know much but I cared about Rolling Stone’s history, its place in the world and its mission—and I cared that it survived and thrived,” he says. “It became clear that we were just on the sidelines, not leading the charge, with such a very print-centric culture.”

The young Gus, fresh out of college, was now head of digital, ripping up the rule book and telling a bunch of rock-and-roll journalists to change their ways. Was there pushback? “It was definitely a challenge from a personnel standpoint to build new teams, to focus on digital and figure out who was ready to be part of a very aggressive push in that direction and who wasn’t,” he admits.

“But there was so much talent and so many incredibly smart editors and journalists and researchers. We had to be aggressive and make some hard decisions. It wasn’t easy for one second, nor was it fun at every moment, but it was necessary. We led the charge in transitioning from being a print-based brand to a real multimedia company, but very quickly.”

Within three years, revenues and unique page views had more than doubled. Gus enjoyed a quick ascent from head of digital to president and chief operating officer when Rolling Stone was sold to Penske Media in 2017. New revenue streams—including e-commerce, TV and film documentaries, podcasts, experiential marketing and even the Life Is Beautiful festival—have brought the brand closer to its audience and spread the financial risk, helping the title to enjoy its most profitable year in 2021.

Wenner at work, in every sense, in his midtown Manhattan office.

Gus Wenner on “the Music That Made Me”

“My mum used to have music playing 24/7—I would wake up in the middle of the night to get water, and it was playing throughout the hallways. She would have this rotation of Sam Cooke, Ben E. King, Van Morrison and Lee Scratch Perry. I’d hear them in my sleep sometimes!”

“Ben and Sam remain two of my favorites, and reggae is some of my favorite music, period. Bob Dylan is my ultimate hero—he’s the greatest American writer of the last 100 years for sure. Skateboarding really had a big musical impact on me—that’s where I first heard Tommy James and the Shondells. And Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z opened my world up to hip-hop, and I also love electronic music and country.”

“There’s nothing quite like being moved by a song. For me, the best music carries a deep political message and really resonates and mobilizes people: Think about Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come.’ If I were to have one wish for music today, it would be that there would be more of that and more potent music that comes out with that kind of message.”

Above: Woodstock, the festival held in 1969 on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, is naturally intertwined with Rolling Stone’s history.

Right: The issue of the magazine released in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers.

Milestones in Rolling Stone’s Extraordinary History

1967 Jann Wenner, just 21 years old, founds the magazine in San Francisco for $7,500— the first issue’s cover star is John Lennon.

1971 Title establishes “gonzo” journalism with the Hunter S. Thompson series “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream,” later a cult book and Hollywood movie.

1973 Publishes Tom Wolfe’s “The Brotherhood of the Right Stuff,” which spawned his acclaimed book about the space race, The Right Stuff.

1974 The magazine reaches a circulation of 325,000—a figure that will hit 1.25 million in 1998.

Right: Annie Leibovitz’s shot of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their apartment at the Dakota building on the Upper West Side of New York City.

Below: Lizzo, on the cover of an edition in which she “talks about dealing with haters, heartbreak and the body-positivity movement.”

1984 Jann Wenner offers Tom Wolfe $200,000 to write a serialized piece of fiction—it would later spawn the best-selling novel The Bonfire of the Vanities.

1990 Supermodel Claudia Schiffer appears on the cover of Rolling Stone’s first annual “Hot Issue.”

2000 Cameron Crowe releases his movie Almost Famous, which draws on his experiences writing for Rolling Stone in the 1970s.

2006 Title publishes its 1,000th issue, featuring a 3-Dhologram cover that cost around $1 million to produce.

2023 Crowds gather outside the Rolling Stone office building in New York City to protest against the magazine’s decision not to include Celine Dion on its list of “The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.”

It hasn’t been plain sailing, though. Buying a 50 percent share of Us Weekly from Disney had saddled the business with debts, and Gus led the sale of that brand and Men’s Journal to American Media Inc.

And then came his father’s heart attack, which was followed by triple-bypass surgery. “Family and business are so closely woven together here, and at a young age it fell on my shoulders to solve some pretty existential threats to the business,” he reflects. “The stakes were as high as they come—on top of balancing my dad’s health, company morale and day-to-day business. On paper, I was not equipped for this, but I thrived on it. For all the stress, I realized how much I love Rolling Stone, how important I believe the work is—and also that this is probably what I’m meant to do. My dad once said that

nothing would make him happier than to put his baby in the hands of his baby.”

None of this means that Wenner junior was ever made to believe that running the show was his birthright. “I didn’t start with any intention of owning [it] one day—I didn’t feel I deserved it. Dad, a shrewd man, said, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ I said, ‘Fine—I just want to learn and see what I can do.’ ’’

Jann Wenner was no Logan Roy: Beyond this playful anecdote, Gus does not paint a picture of Succession-style power plays behind the throne. But letting go of his baby wasn’t easy for Jann, who did not so much blur the line between family and work as collapse it entirely. To colleagues, advertisers, publicists, rock stars, writers and presidents, he was Rolling Stone Was that intimidating for young Gus?

“I felt incredibly fortunate, to be honest,” he says. “It was always clear to me that to my dad, it was always about the deeper message behind it all—his aspirations for a more progressive world and his actual love for music and art.” Physical proximity to his father in the office helped Gus get things done quickly: a factor in the brand’s evolution.

As the baton is passed, Gus reflects: “The direction it took wasn’t what either of us expected, but he’s unbelievably happy and proud, and having him as a mentor and resource . . . I can’t even quantify how important that’s been for me. That’s not to say we always agreed on everything over the years, or still agree on everything today, but he’s brilliant, and learning from him is a great honor. And on a personal level, it’s allowed us to spend so much time together, which is amazing.”

Wenner senior recently published a memoir called, perhaps inevitably, Like a Rolling Stone Gus describes it fondly as “a well-deserved victory lap.” Reading some of his dad’s hair-raising exploits begs the question: Do you feel jealous that you didn’t get to work in the anything-goes days of the late ’60s and ’70s? “A hundred percent,” he says, laughing. “I mean, the music world is probably 100 times more boring than it was—the whole world is! My mum and dad were in San Francisco in the eye of the storm.”

But he’s not one to wallow. Rolling Stone’s biggest demographic today is ages 18 to 34, and there are endless documentaries to make, festivals to stage, bold new covers to shoot—and new frontiers of journalism to conquer.

“There are unbelievable things happening now in this connected culture,” he says. “One fear of mine is to get too subsumed by any one corporate culture or way of doing things. Rolling Stone has always been defined on some level as a little bit rebellious, a bit of an outsider, and those things can change with the times.” He grins, his mind racing. “Today alone, I’m thinking about four different projects I’m really excited about.” A pause. “There’s still a lot of fun to be had.”

Gus Wenner (right), CEO of Rolling Stone magazine, with its “founding father,” Jann.

Six Senses Svart

Nestled on Norway’s awe-inspiring Helgeland coastline, just near the Arctic Circle, this new resort is scheduled to open in 2024 and aims to be “the world’s first energy-positive off-grid destination.”

The World Can’t Wait

VistaJet has committed to carbon neutrality across its entire business by 2025. How does the company plan to meet this ambitious target?

Propelling the Future

During recent years, the world has zeroed in on organizations and their role in climate change. And, with aviation contributing 2 to 3 percent of all global carbon emissions, the industry has a responsibility to be at the vanguard of change.

It is essential to act fast and decisively when it comes to keeping global heating below 2 percent growth (preferably to 1.5°C) compared to preindustrial levels, as set out in the Paris Agreement of 2015.

A holistic, multifaceted approach is crucial if we are to meet this pledge. Here are some of the ways in which VistaJet is tackling mankind’s greatest challenge to date.

Fuel Control

The single largest potential reduction in aviation’s greenhouse-gas emissions will come through the broad adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Biofuels, derived from sources such as algae or waste by-products that are not in competition with any food crops, have already been shown to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation fuel by up to 85 percent over their full life cycle.

Another benefit of SAF is that it can be blended with conventional jet fuel, allowing for a gradual introduction into supply chains without the need for any expensive engine adaptation.

SUSTAINABILITY

VistaJet's Sustainability

Mission: A Six-Point Plan

To champion the adaptation and adoption of SAF

To use AI to maximize fleet optimization and thus improve fuel efficiency

To publish third-party environmental audits

To introduce increasingly efficient aircraft to the fleet

To replace single-use items with sustainable alternatives

To compensate for the carbon emissions that are not yet able to be reduced with carbon-reduction projects

Find out more at www.vistajet.com/ sustainability

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), whose members in 2021 pledged to achieve net zero by 2050, 65 percent of emissions could potentially be reduced through the use of SAF. But this requires a collective effort: the entire aviation industry working together with governments, oil producers and investors. Production of SAF needs to go from about 27 million gallons today to at least 118 billion gallons by 2050.

VistaJet partners with SkyNRG, a pioneer and global leader in SAF, to increase its use of SAF and to show its commitment to increasing SAF availability worldwide.

Counterculture

Offsetting remains a critical aspect of the battle against emissions. Carbon credits are a way to finance positive impact, channeling much-needed funding into climate-action projects.

Together with leading sustainability-solutions experts at South Pole, VistaJet has invested in emissions-reduction projects that contribute to local communities and adhere to the highest environmental standards.

VistaJet’s projects are situated around the world: in Zimbabwe, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Taiwan. The projects help to mitigate millions of tons of CO2

and contribute toward sustainable development opportunities, from improving education to healthcare and employment creation.

Intelligent Design

The digital revolution has afforded aviation numerous new opportunities for tackling climate change— not least, the use of Big Data and artificial intelligence to decipher exactly where demand for flights is and make route planning far more efficient than it has been in the past by eliminating “empty leg” trips.

It is technology’s immense potential, when it comes to tackling climate change, that inspired VistaJet’s partnership with Earth 300. This vast, futuristic vessel will, when it launches in 2028, be home to 22 onboard state-of-the-art laboratories and 160 leading scientists working in fields from robotics to AI via quantum computing, all with the same goal: blockbuster solutions to the climate issue.

VistaJet’s environmental mission is an ongoing one—a work in progress—which is why a crossdepartment sustainability team has been set up to review progress on current endeavors and explore and devise options for the future. The environmental audits, carried out by third parties and published on a regular basis, will surely make for happier reading with each passing year.

Six Ways CureHeart Is Set to Change the World

For most of the 21st century, the silicon computer chip has governed the way we live our lives. These tiny electronic cerebrums power the smartphones that we’ve become surgically attached to. They now drive our trains, fly our planes and—thanks to the microchips under their skin—they even allow our pets to board VistaJet flights too. But it could be argued that humanity is on the cusp of another new epoch: The Age of the molecule.

The last decade has seen a spate of discoveries regarding DNA, the central molecule through which genetic information is stored. This is no mean feat, as the width of a DNA double helix is about 50,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.

In 2012, two molecular biologists, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, developed a technique of gene-editing known as CRISPR. It works something like this: a ‘guide molecule’ called a ‘guide RNA’ associates with the Cas9 enzyme to be able to find the sequence on DNA to cut or edit.

When the cell attempts to mend this dam-

age, it usually ends up destroying the gene. Scientists can also cut, edit and paste parts of the mutated DNA just like a “pair of molecular scissors,” as Scientific American has put it. They can also replace those faulty genes responsible for genetic disorders with healthy strands of DNA, injecting them alongside CRISPR molecules. Doudna and Charpentier have since won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work. While scientists tampering with our genetic code raises all manner of social and ethical considerations (designer babies for one), it’s been predicted that CRISPR and the new DNAediting possibilities that have followed may one day be able to cure diseases caused by genetic mutations, including congenital blindness, sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis and perhaps even some cancers. In other words, genetic disease could be wiped out for good.

A cure for debillitating and often lifethreatening inherited heart muscle diseases— which cause suffering for millions of families across the world—is also something firmly within science’s grasp, thanks to gene editing. Here, we look at the ways one project, CureHeart, could change the world.

With science continually unlocking the secrets of DNA, the tyranny of genetic heart conditions may soon be banished forever more. Here’s why CureHeart has the potential to transform lives…

It’s estimated that one in 250 people worldwide are affected by an inherited heart muscle disease. These conditions, also known as genetic cardiomyopathies, cause the heart to become progressively more damaged over time. Many with the condition develop heart failure or need heart transplants, often at young ages. Sudden cardiac death is a possible outcome, again with otherwise healthy young people often affected.

Yet, an end to the suffering caused by some genetic cardiomyopathies could well be in sight within a decade.

CureHeart is a global project led by scientists from the UK, US and Singapore and funded by a £30m/$37m grant from the British Heart Foundation (BHF). It’s currently designing and testing the first ever cures for inherited heart muscle diseases, which could be administered to patients via an injection.

A jab to the arm seems like a simple solution, sure, but the science behind gene-editing is incredibly complex. If CRISPR are “molecular scissors,” CureHeart will apply a newer technique called “base editing,” which has been likened to a molecular pencil that can correct single-letter errors in faulty genes within the heart cells of people with genetic cardiomyopathies.

CureHeart aims to have one or more treatments ready for testing in early-stage clinical trials within the next five years.

“[CureHeart will] hopefully achieve something I never thought would happen in my working career: to come up with the first cures for these conditions,” says Hugh Watkins, lead investigator on the CureHeart project and BHF Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford. “It’ll have a transformational impact on the families we’ve looked after for such a long time.”

1 CureHeart could save many, many lives.

“It’ll have a transformational impact on the families we’ve looked after for such a long time.”

It could stop some talented sports stars from retiring early.

In January, gridiron maestro Damar Hamlin, who plays safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed from a cardiac arrest while making what appeared to be a routine tackle during an NFL game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Fortunately, medics rushed to his aid and managed to restore his heartbeat on the field, with Hamlin then transferred to a medical facility.

It seems somewhat illogical that a young sports star at the peak of their fitness and apparently symptom-free such as Hamlin— who is only 24 years old—should suffer from a heart problem: something many still associate with poor lifestyle choices. It’s not known what caused Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, but typically when hearts stop beating in healthy young people, the hidden time bomb of an inherited heart muscle disease is often to blame.

Hamlin has since been discharged from hospital and is currently continuing his rehabilitation with the Bills. For many sports fans, the incident triggered memories of Christian Eriksen, the Danish soccer player who collapsed with a cardiac arrest 43 minutes into a Euro 2020 game against Finland in summer 2021.

Although Eriksen has since had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) fitted and returned to the Premier League, playing for Manchester United, heart conditions have forced many other professional sportspeople to retire.

In 2012, Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the pitch due to a cardiac arrest during an FA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane stadium, North London. For 78 minutes, his heart didn’t beat. It was Muamba’s final game; he retired shortly afterwards and now works as a youth coach.

Four years later, the cricketing career of Nottinghamshire and England batsman James Taylor ended at the age of 26 after medical scans revealed he had ARVC (arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy), a rare disease of the heart muscle which increases the risk of cardiac arrest. The likes of former Argentina and Manchester City forward

Sergio Agüero and Cagliari goalkeeper Manuel Almunia have both been forced to retire from sport due to heart-related issues (tests revealed the latter was suffering from an apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM).

Early diagnosis and quick-thinking medics were sadly not an option for talented soccer player Marc-Vivien Foé, who died aged 28 playing for Cameroon in 2003, with an autopsy later finding he had a hereditary heart condition.

Sadly, there have also been many cases of young aspiring sportspeople suffering from genetic cardiomyopathies before realizing their potential, such as 16-year-old John Marshall, who died on the day he was due to sign for Everton.

It could enable thousands of families to lead normal lives.

One of the cruelest aspects of genetic cardiomyopathies is that people with a disease-causing faulty gene have a 50 percent chance of passing the condition on to their children. In many cases, multiple members of the same family are affected: Muamba recently revealed his three sons have also inherited the faulty gene which caused his collapse in 2012. Although the cures that CureHeart aim to develop will not stop faulty genes getting passed on, it is hoped that they will allow affected individuals to live free from the fear of sudden death or heart failure.

Until cures arrive, genetic cardiomyopathies can only be treated to reduce symptoms and the risk of sudden death. In the case of those who are at risk of having a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm, this treatment takes the form of an ICD. These are brilliant devices that can detect and treat potentially fatal heart rhythms. However, ICDs save lives by sending an electric shock to the heart when its rhythm goes out of kilter, and this can be uncomfortable and worrisome.

Max Jarmey, from the UK, was fitted with an ICD shortly after being diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) in 2013. “If my heart goes above 200 beats per minute, the defibrillator will shock me with around 70-90 joules of energy through my chest and ribcage,” he says.

It could consign devices used to reduce the risk of sudden death to the junkyard.

When hearts stop beating in healthy young people, the hidden time bomb of an inherited heartmuscle disease is often to blame.

It’s hardly surprising, but a condition that may cause sudden death such as genetic cardiomyopathy can have an enormous mental toll on patients. “Around 15 to 20 percent of my brainpower and consciousness is spent thinking about my condition or trying to manage it,” says Jarmey. “I have no idea which way it will go, or what my future might hold—and that’s scary.”

BHF Professor Hugh Watkins—a clinical cardiologist and laboratory scientist—likens the approach of CureHeart to “fixing the spelling mistake in the gene and restoring it back to normal in the heart.” Beyond genetic cardiomyopathies, the technologies and treatments developed by CureHeart may pave the road for new ways of tackling a multitude of cardiovascular diseases where genetic factors play a key role. Ultimately, genes may become the drug targets of 21st-century cardiovascular medicine.

The first human trials using CRISPR-Cas9 technology have already taken place: in 2020, it was used on six people with a hereditary form of blindness. Thanks to the elimination of the genetic mutation which caused the disease, two of those people can now see colour for the first time in years.

Please contact philanthropy@bhf.org.uk to discover more, and to find out how your donations could fast-track groundbreaking research into heart and circulatory diseases to save millions of lives worldwide.

It could pave the way for other diseases to be controlled with gene editing.

It could also ease patients’ psychological torment.

British Heart Foundation

Professor Hugh Watkins likens the approach of CureHeart to “fixing the spelling mistake in the gene and restoring it back to normal in the heart.”

The Jewel in

the Red Sea

With a glamorous setting and a thrilling events calendar in a largely undiscovered stretch of the Red Sea, Sindalah is poised to become the ultimate yachting destination.

Welcome to Sindalah: An Island Like No Other

Glamour

in the Red Sea

Sindalah lies just off the northwestern shores of Saudi Arabia, and when it welcomes its first visitors in 2024, it is set to reshape the international yachting calendar. A host of luxurious experiences outside the traditional Mediterranean and Caribbean seasons await— all of which will unfold just a short sail down the Suez Canal from Europe. With a climate more akin to that of the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, cooler than the rest of the Gulf, Sindalah is very much a year-round destination. It’s also unscathed by the vicissitudes of winter weather, tropical storms and hurricanes. Visitors can sail to Sindalah by boat from most major Mediterranean yachting destinations within 17 hours; once there, an 86-berth marina and 75 offshore buoys will accommodate even the world’s largest vessels, with a capacity to host superyachts up to 590 feet in length.

While its cerulean waters may give those of other tropical resorts a run for their money, Sindalah will be home to a unique and diverse array of experiences. It’ll be easy enough to while away an afternoon at the beach or by the pool, but there’s so much more to Sindalah. Far from the crowds of the Côte d’Azur and the Caribbean, this exclusive hideaway blends the buzz of Monaco with the chic style of Saint-Tropez. Days filled with sailing, scuba diving, shopping and spa treatments will flow into lively evenings spent bouncing between the high-end restaurants and lounges spread around the island.

A Cutting-edge Marina With Italian Design

The ambitious architecture of Sindalah is being led by Florence-based architect and superyacht designer Luca Dini, a global leader in the industry. Dini and his team, including naval engineers, textile and furniture designers, 3-D

animators and more, have designed nearly 100 superyachts and are responsible for some of the sleekest, chicest vessels that cruise the world’s waters today. “Sindalah is a one-of-a-kind island with diverse, coexisting venues,” says Dini. “We have designed all these areas to create something new and innovative.” And now that Dini has set his sights on Sindalah, his intricate knowledge of terrestrial and maritime architecture and his intimate understanding of the needs and passions of the global yachting community, will ensure that the design of Sindalah is like no other destination in the world. “Our goal is to bring the very same attention to detail to architecture as we have in yacht design and to manufacture and bring the best artisans to replicate these results,” says Dini.

On Sindalah, leading technology, such as solar-responsive kinetic roofing and 3-D-cast crystal glass, are woven into the fabric of the architecture. Sindalah’s marina will offer services that draw superyacht owners to the world’s finest marinas.

Where do you go when you’re in pursuit of a destination that still comes with a sense of discovery and wonder? An alluring new idyll set amid the crystalline waters of the Red Sea promises all that and much more.

Sindalah is promising curious travelers a taste of something completely new and utterly untrammeled.

A Place to Stay, and to Stay Longer

Visitors to Sindalah will check into the cosseting confines of three sumptuous new all-suite hotels, offering a total of 413 rooms, including 88 villas, as well as 333 suite hotel rooms for those arriving for an extended stay. The island will also have an exceptional beach club, 51 stores, extensive sports, spa and wellness facilities, a calendar of festivals and events throughout the year, and 38 high-end culinary offerings.

“We’re creating one-off concepts that are completely unique in partnership with some of the most renowned brands in the business,” says

Chris Newman, NEOM’s executive director of hotel development. “Additionally, we will build homegrown concepts. We are working closely with young Saudi talent on this as they are implementing some phenomenal initiatives in the culinary space, helping develop the next generation of future chefs.”

Sindalah aims to be a “five-minute destination,” with all of the island’s services and amenities reachable with a quick stroll. Road-free and car-free, the only pressing traffic concerns will be where to sail to for the best snorkeling or swimming on any particular day.

World-Class Golfing

Sindalah is also set to become one of the region’s most popular golf destinations, with its worldclass 6,474-yard par 70 course, masterminded by world-renowned golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. With 18 tees, Sindalah’s lush golf course will deliver two unique nine-hole experiences, as well as golf suites fitted with state-of-theart ball-tracking technology and data feedback, along with a 306-yard driving range.

The course will feature a links-style layout spread across a one-of-a-kind setting: the undulating greens and rolling fairways will look out over spectacular Red Sea views, catering to all levels of play and providing dreamy distractions at the same time.

Crystal-Clear Waters

In Sindalah, the kinetic energy that unfolds on the island’s shores is rivaled only by its kaleidoscopic underwater world. These alluring waters are home to 2,000 marine species including dolphins, turtles, dugongs, manta rays, whale sharks, rare corals and colorful reef fish. Over 600 of the species found here are endemic to the Red Sea, meaning they can’t be seen anywhere else in the world.

The rich marine life and biodiversity has long drawn divers to the waters of the Red Sea, usually to the areas around Egypt and Jordan. In 2021, NEOM and ocean exploration organization OceanX conducted a joint six-week expedition to survey the destination’s underwater world, revealing a 2083-foot-high ocean pinnacle, the world’s northernmost deep-sea brine pool, climate change-resilient coral reefs, eight new species and three ancient maritime and shipwreck sites. The largely unexplored waters around Sindalah conceal exceptional underwater adventures and discoveries.

“We’re creating oneoff concepts that are completely unique in partnership with some of the most renowned brands in the business.”

“Sindalah—and in the future, the archipelago of NEOM—will be the ultimate destination for yacht owners.”

The First Foray to NEOM

What does it take to create an entirely new destination? Imagination, of course. Good access helps, as does uncharted, dramatic, breathtakingly beautiful scenery. And bold ambition.

All of these elements converge in the northwest reaches of Saudi Arabia, where NEOM is one of the most highly anticipated and curiously watched developments in the world. As one of the Kingdom’s ambitious giga-projects, NEOM will be a big part of Saudi Arabia’s tourism goals—the nation aims to welcome 100 million travelers per year by 2030—with destinations like The Line, a 106-mile-long mirrored car-free city, and the manufacturing and innovation hub Oxagon, the world’s largest floating structure. Forty percent of the world’s population lives within a six-hour flight of NEOM; when they arrive, they will explore a region spanning 16,466 square miles, encompassing warm Red

Sea waters, high-altitude mountains that are snow-capped in winter (the planned home of the Arabian Gulf’s first natural winter sports resort), as well as deserts, valleys and more than 200 heritage sites.

But it’s Sindalah that will be the gateway to all of the wonders of NEOM, offering visitors a taste of what’s to come as the first showcase of what this dynamic destination will be unveiling in the coming years. In addition to this nextgeneration yachting hub, Sindalah is also the first of a group of islands that will each have its own distinct vision and design.

According to Antoni Vives, chief urban planning officer at NEOM and former Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, visitors will be able to hop easily from one destination to another. “Sindalah is where you will start, and potentially finish, your trip, as the gateway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea,” he says.

While it’s poised to show the world its first glimpse of the pioneering destination of NEOM, Sindalah is also promising curious travelers a taste of something completely new and utterly untrammeled—a thrilling new chapter for travelers around the world. “Sindalah—and in the future, the archipelago of NEOM—will be the ultimate destination for yacht owners,” says Dini, “amidst the beauty of uncontaminated waters and the comfort of every super-luxury service imaginable.”

Floating SeaPods o the Coast of Panama

The world’s rst community of oating pods will hover at about 10 feet above sea level in Linton Bay Marina. O ering 833 square feet of living space, they will be available for up to $1.5 million by the end of 2023.

The Game Changers

Nine firms doing things differently.

Moncler

Founded in 1952 at Monestier-de-Clermont

(the name is a portmanteau) and acquired by Remo Ruffini in 2003, this Italian maker of winter outerwear has moved from its origins protecting workers from the cold into the fashion world, bringing technical fabrics and warmth to couture.

As befitting a modern company with a global vision, Moncler’s sustainable credentials are of the highest order, allowing individuals—including VistaJet crew—to wear their garments with pride.

Blenheim Forge

Fusing Japanese heritage with Western culinary preferences and modern metallurgy, Blenheim Forge creates some of the world’s finest knives. Handmade in London, the blades are forged from Japanese blue-paper steel or Aogami blue-super steel. They’re heat-treated to a Rockwell hardness of 62 (that’s extremely hard) and can include the visually stunning hand-folded Damascus construction. There’s even an option for handles crafted from a 5,500-yearold oak.

Blenheim Forge releases a limited run of around 30 knives each month. Created by one of the three founders, they take around 30 days to produce and sell out in minutes. Rare editions such as their Mega Sets—priced at $45,000 and wielded by Gordon Ramsay—have become collectors’ items.

3 Westone Audio

It’s likely that your favorite musician wears Westone Audio’s custom in-ear monitors on stage. The brand’s artist list reads like a rock-and-roll hall of fame and includes David Bowie, Eminem and Madonna. Westone’s earphones are exceptional, too. The experience journey starts with an audiologist who will take silicone impressions of your inner ear, from which Westone casts your earphones.

The resulting precise fit (around $2,000 per pair) defines the word “bespoke,” and the sound isolation they provide is the best way to safeguard your hearing. Naturally, the audio quality is neutral, transparent and sublime, and their comfort level allows long-term wear. For both work and play, they are the world’s best, most discreet earphone for the audio purist.

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DAN SHERRATT

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dCS

Pioneering audio company dCS boasts digital-toanalog conversion hardware and software that were first used in radar systems, including for fighter jets. It turns out converting digital ones and zeros into music of the highest order is not that dissimilar from converting a radar signal into the position of aircraft—accuracy, in both instances, is everything. Its proprietary technology has arguably pushed the boundaries of digital audio further than anyone else, and its DACs (digital-to-analog converters) are almost without meaningful competition. dCS produced the first high-resolution DACs for consumers many years ago and has been at the forefront of high-fidelity digital ever since. Its latest APEX generation is precision incarnate and quite at home in the world’s finest audio systems.

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Tempest Guitars

Daisy Tempest is one of the world’s foremost luthiers (makers of guitars). Such has been the clamor for the artistry of her instruments: She has sold every one of her commission slots until 2028. Her bespoke creations are collectors’ items as well as being the last word in playable art. Each guitar takes between 300 and 400 hours to build, and she makes no more than 8 to 10 guitars per year. Daisy even tailors the sound to an individual client’s requirements, choosing tone woods of outstanding rarity and beauty, both aesthetically and musically. And then there’s the artistry and science applied to her sculpting, or “voicing,” of the guitar to extract a rich warmth and personality. These are heirloom creations from a master artisan.

Savoir Beds

We spend around a third of our lives in our beds—and Savoir makes arguably the finest in the world.

This is a brand kept small by its commitment to producing no more than 1,000 beds per year, meaning that demand vastly outstrips supply; 120 artisanal hours go into handmaking each one, and they’re completely bespoke from inception to completion, whereupon each is signed by the master craftsman who made it.

They’re also replete with Egyptian cotton woven in Italian mills and cut in Savoir’s London bedworks. There is no finer, more luxurious place to lay your head.

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U-Boat Worx

U-Boat Worx is renowned for providing the most technologically advanced submersibles to underwater researchers and filmmakers, who use them because the craft are capable of descending to nearly 1,000 feet. So when they unveil a new Super Yacht class of sub for private users, demand reaches fever pitch.

The Super Yacht Sub 3 is an efficient, compact and luxurious submersible. A pilot will guide two passengers in airconditioned comfort, with a Bluetooth sound system for your music and a chiller for your drinks, in a state-ofthe-art submersible with up to 12 hours of dive time in class-leading safety. For adventures below the waterline, this is peerless.

Le Labo

Nestled among the incredible range of fragrances of this ethically minded company—“We believe it is more humane to test cosmetics on New Yorkers than on animals,” states its manifesto—are a few perfumes that have become seismic hits. You may well have heard the names Santal 26 (found aboard VistaJet aircraft), Bergamote 22 and Neroli 36 whispered reverentially among fragrance cognoscenti.

The digits in the names refer to the number of ingredients in the scents, which are as memorable as they are head-turning. The fragrances run along a scent scale from masculine at one end to feminine at the other: The middle ground—the holy grail—is Santal 26.

9 Domaine de la Côte

Located between the Pacific Ocean and the California desert, Domaine de la Côte is the progeny of one of America’s most celebrated sommelier-turnedwinemakers, Rajat Parr. The challenging nature of the terroir produces grapes of stunning quality, if not great quantity.

According to Lewis Chester, DipWSET—whose advice on investing in fine wine can be found on page 42—Rajat is “at the forefront of the new Californian wine movement”: a vigneron whose wines “deliberately and beautifully express the uniqueness of their Californian terroir.” Parr is in the process of converting all his vineyards to organic farming. Readers are strongly encouraged to get on the waiting list for the results.

The RaceBird Vessel

Conceived by Norwegian designer Sophi Horne, the world’s rst all-electric raceboat will take part in the E1 Series of electric powerboat racing—“to the nautical world, what Formula E and Extreme E is to the automotive industry,” as Alejandro Agag, cofounder and chairman of E1, puts it. Rafa Nadal recently announced that he will be entering a team.

MATHIEU ROLANDBILLECART

begin with, this change of pace left him feeling he must be doing something wrong. But not for long. “There’s a lot to be said for long-term vision,” he notes. “Nature imposes rhythm. You can get frustrated—many of the things I do today, I won’t really see the return on investment. We rely on a natural ecosystem, so we have to respect it and be humble about these things.”

His job, he says, is down-to-earth—tending the vineyard while also building a life with his wife and children. But, he notes, it’s also a great honor and a chance to leave a legacy. Long-lasting relationships with clients—some of which go back to the 1950s—continue to be integral. (VistaJet currently serves the house’s rosés.)

CHEF NOBU MATSUHISA

Bio

Cofounder and co-owner, Nobu

Born in Champagne, the scion of a 500-yearold Champagne family—custodians of a Champagne house for the last two centuries—and raised a couple of miles from the estate, you could say Roland-Billecart’s role was destiny. “It all feels like part of a natural ecosystem,” he says, laughing. “Champagne has always been an integral part of my life and family.”

All the same, he left at 20 for the UK, to improve his English—“I took 17 years to learn the language, and in between, finished my university degree”—becoming a chartered accountant and working in the city, before returning to France in 2013 to join the family supervisory board.

So how does it feel to now run the company (he became CEO in 2018)? “The approach to time is very different [from the city],” he says. “We do one cycle of growing grapes and harvesting a year.” To

Working in finance during the 2008 global financial crisis prepared Roland-Billecart for the challenges that the pandemic brought soon after he took the helm. “I was at RBS, and I had to restructure our entire businesses,” he says. “That experience enables you to put a problem in a broad universe and bring solutions.” And he credits his great-uncle, who lived through two world wars, for reminding him of the importance of community and helping each other. “We got stronger during Covid. Thankfully, we had no casualties. And we sold the same number of bottles in 2020 as in 2019.”

The next big launch is an IT system for supply-chain transparency (each bottle will have a unique ID so customers can access information about its content). Travel is still a passion, but it now means more to him to stay grounded—in a literal sense, when it comes to feeling connected to the vineyard.

Ultimately, he sees his role as helping to create moments for people. “I’m happy when people say to me, ‘We were a bit down—then we opened the Champagne, and it made the day right.’ ”

Chef Nobu, as he’s now known, blends the culinary sensibilities of his native Japan with techniques he learned in Peru.

When Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa moved from Saitama in Japan to Tokyo to work as a dishwasher, then as an apprentice chef, it’s unlikely he imagined he would eventually own a culinary empire. Or be business partners with Hollywood legend Robert De Niro. Showing enough talent to be trained as a sushi master, he was later persuaded to move to Lima, where he developed a knack for creating traditional Japanese dishes with Peruvian ingredients.

Chef Nobu, as he’s now widely known, first came across De Niro in his eponymous celebrity-haunt restaurant Matsuhisa in Los Angeles in 1987. The actor—who had taken a liking to the black cod with miso and the Japanese sake Hokusetsu on offer at Matsuhisa—suggested to Nobu that his native New York was missing exactly this kind of fare.

Photographs courtesy of Teekay Teekay teekay and Teekay Teekay teekay teekay.

“Nature imposes rhythm. You can get frustrated—many of the things I do today, I won’t really see the return on investment. We rely on a natural ecosystem, so we have to respect it and be humble about these things.”

CEO, Champagne Billecart-Salmon

The man now helming the Champagne house behind VistaJet’s rosés—who formerly worked on the London finance scene—is highly focused on legacy.

De Niro even talked Nobu into heading east and showed him a potential restaurant space—a dilapidated property in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood—but the partnership wouldn’t come to fruition for four more years. It was De Niro’s patience during that period that persuaded Chef Nobu to start their partnership—one that also included restaurateur Drew Nieporent and film producer Meir Teper.

Now, Nobu’s restaurant portfolio spans from California to Saudi Arabia and includes plans to open five more hotels this year, in addition to the existing 16. (The group entered the hotel business in 2013 with the opening of its 182-room Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.)

And yet, Chef Nobu still finds time to enjoy a long-standing partnership with VistaJet, whose passengers since last year have been enjoying a dish carefully formulated to take in the effects of elevation, lower humidity, and increased noise and movement on tastebuds and senses: Nobu steamed salmon dry miso.

“When creating this dish, I wanted to use healthy ingredients and tastes that would be unique and familiar to the palate,” he says. “Salmon is a very healthy and popular fish. Dry miso is one of my signature seasonings and is used in several of our dishes. It adds texture, saltiness and a savory umami flavor that enhances the taste of the steamed salmon. As a frequent flier, I thought about what I would enjoy eating and what would be suitable to serve in this space.”

Chef Nobu’s approach to cuisine mirrors his broader approach to life—and to commercial success. “If the guest is happy and they keep coming back,” he told Robb Report during an interview last year, “then business success comes automatically.”

OLIVER RIPLEY

Bio

Cofounder and CEO, Habitas

Ocean Group, Habitas and Habitas Rise are all among the organizations founded by a serial entrepreneur on a mission to redefine hospitality.

Many of the best business ideas, a popular theory has it, are born of frustration. This is certainly the case with Habitas: a hotel group on a mission to prove that eco-conscious design needn’t compromise the joys of staying at a premium hotel. “The hospitality industry is a dinosaur,” says Ripley—a prolific entrepreneur who has also founded entities including private holding company Ocean Group and venture-capital business Black Ocean Investment. “We founded Habitas to create unique moments of human connection in the most inspiring places around the world, bringing diverse people together and creating life-changing experiences and impact.”

Started in 2016 by Ripley—along with his business partners, Kfir Levy and Eduardo Castillo— Habitas now has properties in Mexico, Saudi

Arabia, Morocco and Namibia, as well as the latest addition to its portfolio: Habitas-On-Hudson, a neoclassical, eco-sustainable manor house just outside the village of Rhinebeck in upstate New York. It’s a property whose location has been chosen based on Ripley’s wish to offer guests refuge in natural surroundings while still being close to New York City.

The brand’s philanthropic arm, Habitas Rise, meanwhile, has undertaken schemes such as an organic-greenhouse-farming operation in Xhazil, Mexico, and a refugee community program in Uganda, as well as coral-reef regeneration and turtle-conservation initiatives.

Was there a catalyst moment for his focus on philanthropic efforts? “Being an outsider and born to an immigrant mother, there was always a search for home and a curiosity to discover,” he says. “In doing so, I developed a respect for the planet, nature and the diverse people with whom we cohabit. We have one planet, and we are very quickly destroying it—we’re burning the resources of five planet Earths at any one time. We need to regenerate before it is too late—through education and action.” Its Caravan Agafay project—located 45 minutes from Marrakech—has been designed to embrace nomadic Bedouin culture and traditions around communal living and aims “to create an immersive glamping experience for travelers seeking adventure, discovery and human connection.”

“Luxury,” concludes Ripley—who uses VistaJet in part because of its commitment to be carbon-neutral by 2025 (see page 80)—“is not a material possession that can be bought or sold. I believe it exists in the moments and experiences we share together with others. I call this luxury for the soul.”

Photographs courtesy of Teekay Teekay teekay and Teekay Teekay teekay teekay.

“As a frequent flier, I thought about what I would enjoy eating and what would be suitable to serve in this space.”

“Being an outsider and born to an immigrant mother, there was always a search for home and a curiosity to discover.

In doing so, I developed a respect for the planet, nature and the diverse people with whom we cohabit.”

BRETT JOHNSON LINDA YACCARINO

The fashion designer started out at age 7— by customizing Nike sneakers with materials sourced during trips to New York with his father.

“I’ve been a sneaker collector since I was 6 or 7 years old,” says Brett Johnson of his precocious interest in all things sartorial. “By the time I was 11, I had my father take me from Washington, D.C., up to the New York City garment district to source a plethora of materials—grained, pebbled, nubuck and washed leathers; suedes; cashmere, wool, neoprene, corduroy, woven cotton, denim. Then, we would go to a cobbler and have them apply the materials I found to Nike Air Force 1s, which were a perfect canvas as a shoe, to create my own aesthetic.”

A decade and a half later, Johnson—who founded his own fashion brand at just 24—sees the tanneries, wool mills and workshops of Italy as his hunting ground when it comes to sourcing materials for the softly tailored suits, cashmere loungewear, snappy outerwear and (naturally) elegant

sneakers in materials such as cashmere suede that are his stock-in-trade today. Johnson, in his own words, has a “multifaceted spirit which is a reflection of his own pursuit in redefining the American dream.” Coming from a prolific and ground-breaking family, he was surrounded by a dynamic mix of art, music and entrepreneurialism.

An avid collector of Audemars Piguet pieces, he refers to his own personal style, simply, as “casual and sophisticated”; Italy, therefore, remains a major influence. (In his earlier years, he even put in a stint at a Ferrari dealership, an experience that still has a notable impact on his designs.) But his spring-summer 2023 collection sees Johnson turn his attention to the Middle East: specifically, Dubai. “It’s a destination that resonates with me— me and my wife, Sarah, first went there in 2016, and it became one of our favorite travel destinations,” he says.

The garments are made predominantly from superlight linens and linen blends, silks, jerseys, cashmere and suedes, while the color palette (featuring a prominence of viridian and porpora) even refers directly to the Emirates city’s national flag, while the Van Dyck–brown, canary-yellow and other warm hues offer a nod to the desert landscape surrounding the city.

“As an African American designer in the fashion sector, I have to work three times as hard and be three times as good to be considered just as good,” says the eternally driven Johnson.

Describing fine living as “a superlative emotion that transcends a singular definition,” he is nonetheless partial to the odd Opus X Lost City cigar. “I don’t drink, so that’s my one vice,” he says. He does have, if not vices, personal rituals. “When I board a plane, I always have to touch the outside before I get on,” he told Robb Report recently.

Bio

Chairman, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal

This executive has been revolutionizing the entertainment industry since joining NBCUniversal in 2011.

“Behind every screen you watch is a complex, multi-billion-dollar business built on content, technology and partnerships—and my role sits squarely at the intersection of it all,” says Yaccarino of her role as chairman of NBCUniversal Media, LLC. “I’m always thinking about where audiences are going, what advertisers need and how our company— and the industry—can be better partners to both. In short, I prepare NBCUniversal for the future.”

Yaccarino is also chairman at the World Economic Forum’s Taskforce on Future of Work, a group that is, she says, engaged with “several initiatives that connect workers with jobs that align with their skill sets”: a mission that also influences her approach to her role at NBCUniversal. “We’ve done our part by upskilling our employees, revising our job requirements to look beyond four-year

Photographs courtesy of Teekay Teekay teekay and Teekay Teekay teekay teekay.

Bio

Founder and creative director of the Brett Johnson Collection

“As an African American designer in the fashion sector, I have to work three times as hard and be three times as good to be considered just as good.”

degrees and even launching a returnship program, which helps parents and caregivers come back to the workforce after taking time off. Because if we want to future-proof our companies, we must first future-proof our people.”

Yaccarino’s career began at NBC. “I already knew I loved content and entertainment,” she says. “The emotion, the power of what we do is undeniable—and inspiring. I mean, what other industry has the power to create and shape culture?”

Her business strategy in a single word—Yaccarino doesn’t hesitate: “Partnership. We’re living in a time of extreme convergence. Consumers have stopped making distinctions between Big Tech and Big Media. They just want great content, easily, on every screen. And partnership is how we continue to enhance our data, our distribution and our platform to deliver those experiences at scale.”

She’s similarly forthright about her broader philosophy. “Honestly, there’s no better feeling in life, or business, than being 100 percent yourself,” she says. “Early in my career, I felt pressure to change my leadership style—not to mention my literal sense of style—so I could blend in better. But this was a mistake. What some might call my feminine traits—empathy, attention to detail, adaptability—aren’t liabilities, but essential skills. Today, I’m at my best when I feel like myself, and that means owning my version of femininity— four-inch heels and all. Ultimately, fine living, for me, is about being me.”

As for why she makes such regular appearances on VistaJet aircraft? “We’re a global company—over a billion consumers engage with our content. That means travel is part of our job. We need to be able to touch down in any market, sometimes at a moment’s notice. Besides, you had me at Signature Wine List.”

ALLEGRA ANTINORI

Bio

Co-owner and winemaker of Marchesi Antinori— one of the oldest organizations on the planet

Along with two other siblings, she helms a company that can trace its history back to the 14th century.

It became apparent that a female triumvirate could end up helming Tuscan wine family Marchesi Antinori, for the first time in its 600year history, back in 1979. In the autumn of that year, three sisters—Albiera, Allegra and Alessia— made a batch of wine for the family to enjoy at Christmas.

To say that the trio were immersed in viticulture from a young age would be an understatement. “I grew up surrounded by people who talked about wine all the time,” Antinori says, “and experiencing nature and the Tuscan countryside firsthand. Spending my summer days strolling in the vineyards made me understand agriculture— its seasonal rhythms, its long-term vision that farmers typically have. So wine has always been part of my DNA. There was no catalyst moment— to help my father with his mission was a natu-

ral decision and over time has become my life.”

The 10th-oldest family-owned company in the world—26 generations have now played a part in its narrative—is one that played a leading role in the “Super Tuscan” revolution of the 1970s that saw wine lovers around the world develop an affection for wine made from French grapes with Italian terroir. Now overseeing vineyards in the Napa Valley and Chile, Marchesi Antinori—a pioneer in the development of the Sangiovese grape variety that lies at the core of Italian winemaking—approaches the craft with “a long-term vision built around the utmost respect to the land, the territory, tradition and heritage,” as Antinori puts it to Private World. “All these values result in an agricultural approach and the respect for the environment.”

When it comes to living life to the fullest, Antinori is emphatic. “Fine living to me is authenticity,” she says. “To be able to live authentic experiences, true ones without any unnecessary frills. Authentic yet very simple experiences that are realized in an intimate and elegant context. To me, living well has nothing to do with opulence and should never be about visibility. Quite the opposite: It should be an intimate and true experience and one of the highest possible quality.”

Antinori and her sisters are custodians of an approach to winemaking, influenced by their father’s introduction of new varieties to the Tuscan soil (notably Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc), which resulted from his visits to the wine regions of California.

Located along the Tyrrhenian coast, Tuscany is a wine region as deserving of recognition as Burgundy is. These three siblings are gatekeepers of the region’s deserved reputation as a global force in viticulture.

Photographs courtesy of Teekay Teekay teekay and Teekay Teekay teekay teekay.

“At every stage, I’ve been drawn to the energy of changing with consumers and the excitement of disrupting old paradigms.”

“I grew up surrounded by people who talked about wine all the time—spending my summer days strolling in the vineyards made me understand agriculture: its seasonal rhythms its longterm vision that farmers typically have. So wine has always been part of my DNA.”

Magic Moments

Uplifting stories from the world of VistaJet.

The Running Man

When entrepreneur Kyle Vogt decided to run seven marathons in seven continents over four days back in 2020, the numbers—whichever way you looked at them—didn’t stack up. But logic and common sense be damned: When you’re asked to help make a world-record dream become a reality, you find a way. For the team at VistaJet, that meant plotting out a globe-trotting route with military precision and not a leg out of place.

It meant flying at specific flight levels in order to shave off precious minutes on every journey. It meant recruiting a dedicated onboard engineer and having backup jets at the ready at every stop, just in case anything happened to go wrong. And it meant sourcing perfectly balanced plant-based meals, in all four corners of the globe, to ensure our marathon man had all the energy he needed at every step.

When Vogt crossed the final finish line— recording a time of 81 hours, 38 minutes and 46 seconds—the new world record emphatically belonged to him. But a small part of it, perhaps, will always belong to the team at VistaJet, too.

A Plea for Pizza

Ask any Neapolitans worth their salt where the best pizza in the world comes from, and they’ll tell you all about Da Michele—a tiny, ancient, hole-in-the-wall spot down in the Porto neighborhood of Naples. Something to do with the water used for the dough, they say, or the richness of the tomatoes—or perhaps the fact that the place has been family run since 1870.

What they’ll also mention, though, is that Da Michele doesn’t do delivery or takeaway under any circumstances whatsoever. Unless, perhaps, you have seven hungry clients desperate to try the legendary delicacy as they wait for their flight to depart from Naples’s local airport.

Facing a nigh-onimpossible task, a member of our private-dining team suddenly remembered he went to school with one of the chefs at Da Michele and—after what seemed like hours of reminiscing, serenading and haggling— persuaded him to allow us to collect seven pizzas and deliver them personally to the airport and into the welcoming arms of our clients.

It was a huge mountain to climb for just $22 worth of pizzas. But you can’t put a price on that dough.

A Trek to the Track

Racing drivers are accustomed to speed, but as the pandemic peaked, most of them discovered they were going nowhere fast. One day, we got a call saying that a driver needed to fly to Italy by noon the following day to take part in an all-important race— and that all the commercial

routes were unavailable.

“So it’s the middle of a pandemic, and you’ve got a Brazilian national flying from Croatia to Italy, and the nearest aircraft is in Paris,” explains one of the VistaJet team. “It looked like an impossible task. We had to ferry the aircraft from Paris to Croatia in order to pick the driver up. We had to get approval from both Croatia and Bologna airports to take

off and land. And we had to do this in the middle of the night, when everything was closed and everyone was asleep.

“But I said, ‘We’ll find a way.’ And we did. I didn’t go to bed until I found out he had arrived safely the next morning and he’d made it to the race on time. So it all worked out. He was incredibly happy and rested. And I was a little tired . . . ”