Whether ‘Stalin’s Wine Cellar’ is a journey about chasing fakes, or if these bottles hidden away in the former Soviet Union are genuine, the story makes for a rollicking saga. And if the bottles are genuine, who really did own them and what on earth might they be worth? The tale takes us on twist after twist and has been described as “Raiders of the Lost Ark for wine lovers.” Ken Gargett couldn’t put the book down.
Celebrating an anniversary like 90 years is a must when you’re a wristwatch as old and as evergreen as the Reverso. In honor of the long and successful career of the horological icon, let’s take a brief look back over the last nine decades of this truly authentic timepiece, an Art Deco original in the world of watches.
The RM 65-01 is the latest in a proud line of rugged, structurally advanced chronographs from Richard Mille. In basic terms, it is an automatic, split-seconds chronograph with 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers that displays the date and includes a function selector, rapid winding mechanism, and variable geometry winding rotor. But as Joshua Munchow reveals, there’s much more to it than that.
Urwerk and MB&F are two stalwarts of contemporary watchmaking with, superficially at least, much in common. Here Ian Skellern shares what he thinks are the significant similarities and differences between these two leaders in modern independent watchmaking.
As well as being a superb bourbon, one of the great advantages of the Master’s Keep premium releases from Wild Turkey is that they are not prohibitively priced (these bourbons are in the vicinity of $150 per bottle), nor are they so limited that you’ll only ever read about them and never see a bottle. These are great bourbons intended for drinking, and Ken Gargett gives us the lowdown.
Nestled in among the mountainous green forest overlooking the valley’s larger towns of Fleurier and Môtiers is one of the area’s historical attractions: a stone castle whose earliest sections were built in the early fourteenth century. Since its purchase in 2006, the Château de Môtiers has been fully renovated by Bovet owner Pascal Raffy and now serves as the brand’s headquarters and assembly workshop.
John McGonigle has launched the H-B1, the first watch under his solo brand Oileán. It’s a beautifully hand finished triple-calendar column wheel chronograph powered by a highly modified new-old stock Valjoux 88 movement. While not cheap, Ian Skellern thinks it’s the best value-for-money, exquisitely hand-finished, complicated watch he has ever seen.
Breguet writing instruments round out the Swiss brand’s elegant offerings with a style and grace similar to its timepieces, with many of the pens unabashedly borrowing stylistic attributes from the watch iconography. These writing instruments nestle into three collections: Tradition, Classique, and Reine de Naples, all in parallel with the watch collections of the same names. And they are a win in Nancy Olson’s book!
Should champagne lovers from around the globe be asked to name the greatest wines and producers, there would be a unique name that I believe would be on every list: Champagne Salon is one of a kind because this house produces only a single wine, the vintage Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs. Including the first vintage from the 1905 harvest, Salon has released less than 40 wines over the course of its history.
Sabine Zwettler highlights four sensational watches launched in 2020 that in some way commemorate Glashütte’s 175th Anniversary. These are all limited special editions that she will keep in her heart as personal highlights from the year that turned the world upside down.