Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2025-26 i Robb Report

Mike De Simone and Jeff Jenssen De Simone and Jenssen travel the globe in search of the finest bottles and the stories behind them. Robb Report’s contributing wine editors met with members of Primum Familiae Vini in Kyoto last spring to explore the exclusive realm of these first families of wine as they presented the 2025 PFV Prize (p. 162). “You would be amazed at how hard the crème de la crème of the wine world parties once the business day has wound down,” says Jenssen. “But trying to get them to talk about what goes on behind closed doors is a whole other story,” De Simone adds. Julia Zaltzman A British luxury-lifestyle journalist specializing in yachting and travel, Zaltzman reported on Royal Huisman’s new 165-foot zero-emissions catamaran concept, Aera,…

When Prada debuted its first line of fine jewelry in 2022, it offered bold shapes made entirely of recycled gold-like a giant triangular pendant, engraved with the brand name in the vein of its famous logo. The Eternal Gold collection was followed by Eternal Gold-A New Facet, which featured the same motifs infused with lab-grown diamonds. This year, Miuccia Prada and co-creative director Raf Simons upped the ante with Couleur Vivante, an array of jewels in vivid colors that let the stones be the stars of the show. Miuccia Prada is a longtime collector of antique jewelry, but the designs for her eponymous house are distinctly modern. Bright chromatic combinations offer a surprisingly fresh take on traditional precious stones. Take, for example, the drop earrings with striking Windex-blue aquamarines atop…

It felt like the dawn of a new era. Skeptical journalists, excitable influencers, and industry insiders alike all climbed aboard an open-top bus for a sightseeing tour of London that culminated at a cramped and stifling-hot theater. The unusual final stop was for the reveal of the nearly 2,000 hp Lotus Evija, touted to be the world’s most powerful production car. Six years later, it still is. Back in that heady summer of 2019, electric hypercars appeared to be overtaking (both literally and figuratively) the gas-powered old guard. Lamborghini had shown its futuristic zero-emissions Terzo Millennio concept, the battery-powered Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista were deep into development, and Elon Musk was promising a new Tesla Roadster for the following year. The Evija seemed to be riding the crest of…

For decades, the superyacht world has largely been the domain of family-owned shipyards rooted in tradition and generational stewardship. Recently, a new class of owners has emerged: Gabe Newell, the tech-industry titan who just picked up Oceanco; Laurens Last, the industrialist who moved swiftly to acquire Heesen; and Richard Hadida, the entrepreneur who runs Oyster Yachts. Each of them first built a yacht with the brand they loved, then bought the brand itself. The goal was not only to manage these newly purchased shipyards from afar but also to help them advance design, technology, and full-life-cycle service. Heesen, for example, already had enormous equity in the superyacht world when Last took over, but his previous manufacturing experience provided a fresh look at its operations. Using robotics for painting and fairing,…

Pent, the European design house known for its highly stylized and customized take on fitness equipment, now intends for its imaginative aesthetic to help shape up your sound system with the recent debut of Pent Audio. Its nascent model line comprises three distinct loudspeaker systems, each a commissioned product embodying sculpted refinement. Pent founder Marcin Raczek sees these components as “a chapter in a larger story, where design, movement, and ritual coexist.” Part of that story is tied to the legacy of Pent itself, according to Raczek, who asserts that the avant-garde speakers “echo the same generational artistry that defines our heritage in Poland.” The Pent Gulia, priced from $7,200 to $8,700 (depending on the selection of materials), is the most arresting of the trio, the other two being the…

LIKE JUST ABOUT EVERY other spot in Kyoto, the second-story wine shop turned after-hours bar tucked down an alleyway was almost impossible to find. But once we arrived, the tiny elevator opened to reveal a small, glass-enclosed space filled with wine-world royalty. Among those sipping exquisite Burgundy from fine crystal stemware were Pablo Álvarez, proprietor of Vega Sicilia, port winemaker Charles Symington, and the youthful, bearded Jean-Frédéric Hugel, in his mid-30s the youngest person present except for Isabelle Müller, daughter of renowned Riesling master Egon Müller. The latter was holding a glass of red in one hand and tapping in time to the music on the marble bar, surrounded by Europe’s viticulture elite who, rather than viewing one another as rivals for profits or prestige, had traveled to Japan as…

Dirt bike. Mag wheels. That’s one of my earliest memories of a holiday gift that made my eyes go wide. I’d campaigned for a dirt bike for more than a year, and the mag wheels were the detail that pushed it from want to need in my 10-yearold mind. This gift didn’t appear under the tree like everything else. It was unveiled later, pulled from our own family vault—i.e., the garage—as the morning’s final reveal. I didn’t know then that the moment would end up mirroring how we select gifts at Robb Report decades later. This year, the staff discussed and debated hundreds of contenders for the Ultimate Gift Guide in our Giving Issue. The real test wasn’t verbal. It was physical. Eyebrows had to lift. Eyes had to widen.…

Bronson Van Wyck is a self-professed nerd—and that quality just might be his superpower. In his work planning high-profile parties, his lifelong love of art history, architecture, and obscure cultural references often manifests as an evening’s defining detail. Raised on a farm in Arkansas, he studied at Yale before joining the State Department’s protocol operation, managing official visits, diplomatic ceremonies, and other events. He later moved to Los Angeles, where gigs designing film sets helped him perfect the theatricality that now characterizes his lavish affairs. In 1999, he founded Van Wyck & Van Wyck with his mother, Mary Lynn. His sister Mimi soon joined the firm, which has since become a go-to event producer for A-listers including George Lucas, Beyoncé, Madonna, and former President Barack Obama. (Chanel, Hermès, and Mercedes-Benz…

Sure, a sailboat powered by only the wind produces zero emissions by definition, but when it’s a sailing superyacht, the carbon footprint becomes a real drag. Royal Huisman, the yard that launched the first hybrid superyacht, 2009’s Ethereal, went a step further last year with its Project Tidal Shift sustainability initiative. One of the results is the near-zero-emissions Aera concept. Focused on automated cruising using proven technology, Aera conceptualizes a 164-foot catamaran that features an open, serpentine-shaped exterior and is powered by a 115-foot carbon-fiber wing sail. Aera’s development was driven in part by answering the challenge of mutual exclusivity. “For me, the spark was [addressing] how do we make a yacht that can use the power of the wind to decarbonize, without needing 10 crew to pull up sails,”…

At the end of September, Gulfstream launched its G300-a clean-sheet design that replaces the G280-showcasing an interior volume nearly 100 cubic feet greater than that of its predecessor. It also offers the lowest cabin altitude in its class, as well as the new Harmony Flight Deck avionics suite with six touchscreens, synthetic-vision 3-D runway displays, and Gulfstream’s Predictive Landing Performance system. Citing the new technology and safety features, Gulfstream’s president Mark Burns says the G300 will “reenergize” the super midsize category. Not that the segment was slacking-far from it. Blending transcontinental range with manageable operating costs, super midsize jets have become the sweet spot of private aviation, especially as they close in on the space, performance, and technology of their larger-cabin counterparts, without as heavy a price tag. “We’re very…

AUTO, SPIRITS, TRAVEL, ART, FOOD, MARINE, STYLE, WINE, JEWELRY, DESIGN, SPORT, TECH, AVIATION HOW TO BUY The Robb Report concierge is ready to facilitate your Ultimate Gift Guide purchases. Please contact giftguide@robbreport.com with inquiries. Robb Report may receive a portion of the proceeds. 1 A Helicopter Adventure Around Peru ■ Andean founder Ignacio Masias has a simple-mission: share his passion for Peru with curious, discerning visitors from around the world. Both his father and grandfather were sheep farmers, and he was raised in the highlands of the Cordillera Blanca, giving him a deep connection to the rhythms of life in the Andes. For 20 years, his family-run travel company has been the go-to for high-end travelers to the country, so it’s fitting that Andean would devise this unique helicopter-powered experience…

A NEW 50-ACRE FARM is slowly coming to life on Luxor’s west bank. Neatly tended rows of plants sit among the palm trees, thriving in the rich Nile-fed soil. There’s everything from tomatoes to bananas, as well as livestock, along with a duck pond and some ersatz pigeon towers built to hide an ugly structure on the skyline that interrupts the bucolic view. Dotted throughout the greenery stand shaded structures and small buildings, each a hub of human activity. Take the group of 30 or so local women, conversation bubbling in Arabic, who surround tables strewn with waxy rectangles-sugarcane pulp they’ve made into paper that’s drying in the sun. Under another lean-to, one man works to turn palm leaves into elaborate, rattan-like woven furniture-he’s even fashioned a small shelf for…

For a while there, going to the barbershop could feel like an obligatory act of personal maintenance—more stylish than getting your teeth cleaned, but not by much. In the name of efficiency, a clean shave or a precise cut in even the most sophisticated cities relied on impersonal online bookings, quick turnaround times, and interiors that definitely spared expense. A new class of high-end tonsorial temples is taking a far more luxurious approach, which tracks with the rapid growth of the men’s grooming market. (By some estimates, it may be worth up to $115 billion by 2028.) This suggests that guys around the globe are finally ready to demand the level of pampering women have enjoyed in salons for decades. Here, three spaces that want you to enjoy the process…

Two decades ago, Audi transformed itself from a brand that competed with Subaru, at least in the eyes of consumers, to one viewed on par with BMW and Mercedes-Benz. No easy feat, as unlike those other German marques, Audi never had dedicated rear-wheel-drive platforms to work with. The company’s impressive upward mobility was owed to its industry-changing design, first applied to the stunning 2003 Le Mans Quattro concept—which eventually became the R8—then quickly followed by the Nuvolari and Pikes Peak concepts, which led to the A5 and Q7 production cars, respectively. The design language was so strong, inside and out, that premium automakers were suddenly on their collective back foot. In recent years, though, the heir to the Auto Union legacy has been stumbling a bit with electrification—too many platforms…

What may be the closest thing to a perpetual-motion machine yet, the MODX 70 claims to be the first yacht employing 100 percent electric and renewable energy. And while Royal Huisman’s Aera currently remains a concept, France-based Océan Développement’s 70-foot catamaran has already sailed thousands of miles in the Med since its launch in April. “Every decision in designing this boat revolved around having zero fossil fuel on board,” says Jean Guyon, a partner of the French shipyard. “We view it as a Tesla,” he adds, “but one that can recharge itself as it moves from A to B.” The futuristic craft runs on two 40 kW electric motors fed by a 250 kWh LFP battery bank. The array of solar panels, totaling nearly 775 square feet, delivers 14.5 kWp…

In 2018, a cigar-shaped aircraft that appeared to be flying straight out of a 1950s sci-fi movie was spotted over the California desert. What seemed to be a space invader was actually Texas-based Otto Aerospace’s Celera 500L, which served as an early technology demonstrator for a more advanced aircraft known as the Phantom 3500-the official disrupter of the super midsize class. Although roughly the size of a Challenger 3500, the Phantom features a cabin that’s slightly greater in width and higher in headroom, as well as operating costs closer to those of a light jet. “Our laminar-flow design allowed us to reduce the aircraft weight by half compared to competitors like the Praetor 500,” says Scott Drennan, Otto’s president and chief operating officer. “The efficiency means that the components can…

Since she was a kid, Emanuela Bozzi de Brabant has been going to the Engadin, a valley region of the eastern Swiss Alps. Less than three hours by car from her base in Milan, it’s where she learned to ski and where her parents have kept homes over the years. So when she and her husband, Matteo de Brabant, began spending time there during winters and summers with their four children, they didn’t feel they needed their own property; they would just stay with family. But as their kids grew—they now range in age from 12 to 23—the pair decided that it made more sense to buy a retreat in their “favorite place,” as Bozzi de Brabant refers to it. And when Switzerland made it easier for foreigners to purchase…