Greetings from the Médoc, where I just got back after a couple days roadtripping down from our house to Biarritz. We started off with one night in St Jean de Luz (about 2 hours from Bordeaux) where we met up with dear friends Bruce and Joey for a day of exploring Guéthary, the most charming seaside town just outside of Biarritz, and an evening in St Jean de Luz where we were spending the night. Thanks to Bruce’s stellar planning, we had a killer meal at Petite Grill Basque with incredible Basque fare and some delicious rosé for just around 30 euros a bottle (as it should be…) before catching a glimpse of the eclipse. The next day we spent in Biarritz, shopping for Basque fabrics and jelly sandals, spending the night at the fab Regina Experimental. Extending our trip by one night after concluding that one short day in Biarritz was simply not enough, we spent the next day heading gradually north towards our town, St. Yzans. Of course the road trip would not have been complete without a drive through the Pays Basque and a perfectly decadent meal for which we headed to Auberge D’Achtal in Arcangues, about an hour outside of Biarritz. This meal was killer to say the least…a perfect (and massive) omelette chock full of cepes, a delicious warm duck terrine with cornichon made with all of the offcuts from the confit and magret, and of course, a duck confit with fries (heaven). Not exactly a summer meal but noteworthy nevertheless. We rushed to our last stop, a charming chateau-hotel just south of Bordeaux where I recorded an episode of my soon-to-come podcast (the Hotline), had a delicious dinner of a giant côte de porc cooked over an open fire of sarments (dried grape vines) and spent the night. It was a great few days spent in the Pays Basque which I seem to fall in love with more and more with each visit and get totally immersed in, hence why this newsletter was a couple days late! My apologies… This will also be the last Wm Brown Weekly of the summer, as myself and the team will be taking a few weeks off, à la francaise, to enjoy the last bits of summer.

We’re on the OOO stretch of late summer, which makes now the perfect time to drop my latest collaboration with Hemingsworth, the Medoc polo. Named for our place in France (where I’m presently enjoying summer’s swan song, G&T in hand), it’s our interpretation of the classic toweling polo made in a beautiful navy-white stripe.

It has a deep, Riviera v-neck and a large, pointed collar that can stay slightly raised at the back for an extra shot of louche cool. Fit-wise, we took inspiration from the best of 1970s and ‘80s tennis polos with a shorter arm and a body that’s neither too trim or too boxy.

It might be late in the game, but this is precisely what you want to wear lazing on the beach, the backyard or by the pool… go get ‘em while they last!

Speaking of, we’ll be going quiet for the rest of the month as Yolanda and I take our own vacation and begin prep for the next fall issue. But before signing off, we combed the considerable archives of the Wm Brown Weekly (which spans nearly five years!) for a few evergreen posts that can enliven your end of summer. Such as…

• Our Holiday Rental Prepper.

• Sartorial lessons on beating the heat from 10-well dressed guys.

• 10 Summer Cocktail Alternatives from some of our favorite bartenders.

• As well as three Upgraded Summer Cocktails, plus a few killer snacks!

• My Summer Grill Kit, plus my Favorite Outdoor Cooking Methods.

• And, of course, the ultimate in summer eating… the Wm Brown Cheeseburger!

• Finally, in case you missed them, my recent Summer Swimwear Kit List and my Summer 2026 Kit List.

That’s it for now—see you in September!

In the 1970s, soap on a rope was pretty big. My dad loved it. The brand he used was Aramis, which was also a cologne that was pretty popular in the 70s and 80s. Aramis soap on a rope was ever present in our bathroom, and then it fell out of favor, (I have no idea why…) but I rediscovered it recently.

And on a recent trip to Portugal, my friend Jamie introduced me to Musgo Real’s soap on a rope, which Sid Mashburn carries. I really like their scents, so I bought one and immediately fell in love with it. Like my friend David Coggins, I prefer bar soap over any kind of pump-driven gel or shower soap. Keeping bar soap dry and not gooey is a challenge, and soap on a rope solves that problem effortlessly. You just hang it up on the shower nozzle, and it dries. There’s no gross gooiness, and it lasts longer because it dries hanging there on your shower nozzle rather than sitting in soap dish.

In addition, it’s really fragrant. It adds a great smell to the bathroom, and it looks cool and reminds me of my dad.

THE SHAVE

I love a straight razor shave. My favorite is in Rome at Genco Barbiere, and I’ve often thought of how to get the same experience at home.

I’ve always been skeptical of multi-blade razors. My favorite is a two-blade Gillette that is almost impossible to find anymore. I have a a little travel razor that fits two-blade Gillettes that I have to stock up on all the time, which is when I realized that buying a pack of 10 for $40 is highway robbery. No wonder they have to keep them under lock and key in the pharmacy!

So, I made the switch to safety razors. I started with Muhle, a German brand, whose razors work out to be pennies on the dollar. I buy a pack for almost nothing. But you have to be careful. They give a nice, clean shave without irritating the skin, and I especially love using them when I’ve had a few days’ growth of beard. It shaves much easier than those mult-blades that get jammed up, and they’re just great-looking objects over all.

There are two varieties: one gives you a slightly closer shave, and one doesn’t. I’m a bigger fan of the one that doesn’t, because you’re less likely to cut up your face. That being said, a septic pencil is a must and will stop your bleeding if you’re just delving into the world of safety razor shaving and make a mistake. You have to take your time, as they don’t adjust to the angle of modern, multi-blade razors.

I recently came across a brand based in Montana called Proof. These guys are making safety style razors with a single-cast aluminium handle that is so good-looking and it all has spring-loaded head that easily follows the natural contours of the face.

They have this ingenious blade system which uses half the blade of a single razor safety razor. (blades have become even more cost effective) It connects by a genius magnet system, and you get everything one should love about a safety razor shave with actual safety.

On that note, you always need to take your time with a safety razor, Proof makes it easy. It’s my new favorite razor. I see that they’ve just made a straight razor, which may be the next graduating tool in my shaving arsenal. That may require some practice.

USE CODE wmbrown for 10% off!

DRESS CODE

For the latest installment of our Dress Code series we dialed up frequent Wm Brown contributor Jonathan Petrino, whose further musings on travel, food and style can be found at his Substack the STUDIO Journal.

How early do you remember being interested in clothing—and how?

One of my earliest memories of really paying attention to clothing was at the uniform tailor shop in the Marine Corps. It was quite an operation. Fitting hundreds of Marines for their dress blues, down to the buttons, shoes and every last detail. It was the recruiting poster brought to life. You understood immediately that clothing could communicate identity, pride and belonging.

How would you describe your personal style in two words?

Carry-On Classicism.

If you have a uniform, what does it look like?

I wouldn’t say I have a uniform, exactly, but there is certainly a formula: chinos or jeans, a button-down or long-sleeve polo, suede loafers and always a blazer. I wear the blazer as a coat when it’s cool outside. Not only to dress something up.

Whenever possible, I add a tie, probably a knit one. Everyone seems impressed by a tie these days: at the airport, in the office, checking into a hotel. It’s such a simple way to make a statement. And always a watch, one that can act as a utility player. I love my Blancpain Bathyscaphe for that.

Who was your style icon when you were young?

The honest answer is my father. Oxford cloth button-downs, ties, suits and tassel loafers; classic ’80s casual and corporate style. I still have one or two of his shirts and several of his ties.

The cinematic answer would be both Michael Caine as Lawrence Jamieson and Steve Martin as Freddy Benson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The style in that film has incredible range.

Who is your style icon now?

I’m not sure how “now” this answer is, but Pat Riley (the NBA coach) in the ’80s and ’90s. Those looks have aged incredibly well. There’s a lot of inspiration to be found there…modernized, or not.

How often do you edit your closet, and how?

Not often enough. I’m a collector, so editing doesn’t come naturally. But maybe once a year I go through it and ask whether I actually wear something, whether it still fits my life and whether it has a story. If the answer to all three is no, it can go.

What’s your travel kit?

Always suede loafers (I have several pairs) along with dark, sometimes black, denim and a few pairs of khakis or chinos that can dress up or down. One or two blazers come with me: always a dark-blue J. Press blazer or a Ralph Lauren corduroy piece depending on the weather and season.

I’ll add a few Ralph Lauren featherweight mesh button-downs, several OCBDs from the handful of people who still make them well and, of course, at least two ties. Shoe trees always. Everything gets packed neatly into my sticker-covered yellow Rimowa.

This gives me enough to dial it up or down, but still be accepted at any restaurant or club in any city I might find myself in.

Is there an article of clothing you got rid of—but wish you’d kept?

If something is truly special (or I suspect it might become special) I’m very unlikely to get rid of it. My problem is less regret over things I’ve let go and more the pieces I still own that no longer fit quite as well as they once did. They’re still in the closet, waiting patiently for a comeback. Mine, not theirs.

What would you never, ever part with?

I could easily name a few things here…and certainly a stainless steel Rolex Datejust from my father qualifies.

But, I’m going to say back in 2002, I was in Queensland, Australia, while deployed with the Marines aboard a navy ship. We pulled into port for a few days, but somehow I hadn’t packed swim shorts when I left the ship. I popped into a local shop and bought a pair of Canterbury rugby shorts, they were about the only thing available that would work. I still have them, and they’ve come with me on nearly every beach vacation for almost 25 years. Hardly a high-fashion item, but few things I own hold more meaning.

What style rule is worth breaking?

The idea that everything has to coordinate perfectly. You can, and should, mix styles. Something slightly “wrong” or “out of place” like a military jacket, an old collegiate hat or a scarf that doesn’t quite belong can make an outfit feel more personal. Black and navy can look great together. White can work year-round. You should research a lot of these “rules” and how and why they came to be and then you will know that many times they are/were relevant in only a limited set of circumstances.

Which isn’t?

Dress for the occasion. You don’t have to be conventional, but you should show some respect for where you are, who invited you and what the moment asks of you. At the very least, look as though you made an effort. Even if your version of making an effort is entirely personal.

If you had to buy from a single designer/brand for life, it would be…

This answer is going to be rather unoriginal, but Ralph Lauren. Not necessarily for the reasons you might think. The depth and availability of the vintage catalog is incredible, and the pieces have aged remarkably well.

Want something classically ’80s? You can find it. Need a tuxedo for a black-tie event? Covered. Something for a day on the boat? Plenty of options. Something fun and colorful? You know the rest.

New or vintage, formal or casual, traveling or at home: Ralph Lauren covers literally every base. Also, not every designer sells underwear and socks. Ralph strikes again.

What independent designer/store deserves more attention?

There are so many, but three immediately come to mind.

Le Alfré has a Midtown Manhattan penthouse where you might be served a martini while you shop. It’s a fun, personality-filled brand doing its own thing, with a lot of creativity behind it. The filmmaking is especially good. It tells an ongoing brand/origin story rather than simply selling clothes.

I’ve followed Fred Castleberry, and his brand F.E. Castleberry, online for years. I finally popped into his Tribeca shop about a year ago. I’m a big fan of his visual style, his content, storytelling, and the distinct point of view he brings to the conversation.

My wife introduced me to Tibi, which is decidedly a womenswear brand with some items that work for men, but the way they run the business is fascinating. Its founder, Amy Smilovic, is a force. Tibi is simply worth knowing about if you care about fashion (or creative businesses) in any context.

What style advice would you give your younger self now?

Buy fewer things, but wear them harder. Buy really good vintage and, more importantly, buy what you actually like. Forget about trends. Skip the mall. Talk to people who care about style and ask them a lot of questions. Don’t save the good jacket, shoes or watch for some imagined future occasion. The wear, the miles, the patina and the memories are what eventually make them yours. Also: buy once, cry once.

It’s no mystery to the Wm Brown reader that I am a huge fan of wearing white, even outside of its expected “season.” I wear white denim all year-round, my favorites being

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I love a good dressing gown and will wear them in any weather, which for the hottest days of summer means silk. So I’ve collaborated with my friends at New & Lingwood once again to put out a new version of its lounge robe made from 100% tussah silk.

The silk, woven in England by a mill with more than 100 years of experience, is amazingly lightweight and breathable. I also appreciate that we found it in black, which means it can be worn with a pair of trousers and a little something for a creative black tie invite. From lazy Sundays to travel to the occasional evening out it’s super versatile and something I’ll be wearing the rest of the summer.

Perhaps best of all, each robe—like all of New & Lingwood’s dressing gowns—are made directly below the brand’s Jermyn Street flagship, tapping into a long tradition of artisanal crafts in London. Which means if we do not have your size (a few sizes—XS and S—have sold out) they can easily make one up for you! Check out what is in stock here… available online now, go get ‘em!

PICK UP THE PHONE

What’s better than reading the WM Brown newsletter? How about listening to it? Coming soon: The WM Brown Hotline, a weekly-ish podcast featuring dispatches from abroad with Matt Hranek and in-studio correspondent Adam Rapoport. Think of it as an audio travelogue, catching up with Matt as he galavants around the globe, detailing all things WMB, from essential hotel and restaurant tips to sunscreen and swimsuit recs. You’ll be able to access the Hotline in both audio and video format wherever you get your pods, as well as here on Substack, where you can find show notes, including imagery and links to everything discussed in each episode. Stay tuned.

HAPPY HOUR

Last week I popped into Krasi, a Greek wine bar in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, for a long lunch of zucchini carpaccio, tomato fritters and chicken souvla capped by ouzo. However, the most memorable part of the meal may have been its start, when I noticed a spritz cocktail called Amber Antics made with something called St. John Commandaria.

I’d never heard of it, but having grown up obsessed with medieval history I was very familiar with the Knights of St. John, a crusader order that holed up in Cyprus after losing the Holy Land. Commandaria, I soon learned, is a style of dessert wine made in Cyprus from grapes that are picked late to max out their sweetness and then produced through the solera aging system. The end product is sweet and nutty like a PX sherry but feels considerably lighter and lush with a nice citrus touch—in other words, perfect for summer.

I enjoyed it neat after Krasi’s wine director Jeremiah Cates poured me a small measure to sate my curiosity, and also loved it in the cocktail, which the restaurant cans in-house (I was also given a few to take home). It’s incredibly simple, with just Commandaria, orange wine (Krasi uses Mylonas Naked Truth Savatiano, from Greece) and a topper of Italian lemon soda. I’ve produced the recipe provided by Krasi beverage director Lou Charbonneau below; and if you’re looking for an Aperol Spritz alt, you could swap out the lemon soda for prosecco. —Eric Twardzik

Amber Antics

1 oz St. John Commandaria

2 oz Orange wine

3 oz San Pellegrino Lemonata

Add all ingredients to a long-stemmed wine glass over ice, stir lightly and lift to incorporate. Garnish with a lemon peel and serve.

OUTERWEAR

Boltey Java Linen Khaki Overshirt

Wm Brown x Chesapeake’s Co Chambray Tropical Jacket

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On our most recent trip to Corsica (Cap Corse to be exact) we had a delightful stay at the Couvent de Pozzo where I prepped a delicious summer cocktail made with all locally sourced spirits and and sparkling wine. The star was the limoncello (or Lemoncellu as the Corsicans call it) made by Mattei, a local producer that has been making vermouths and spirits since the 19th century on Cap Corse. The Lemoncellu has a tart lemon taste without all the sugary sweetness as its Italian cousin. I used their gin as the base and built this fresh, lemony, sparkly drink from there. Garnished with a peel of Corsican lemon, after a good shake and poured over ice, this drink was a real winner for summer. A pretty thorough search shows that it’s next to impossible to get unless you go to the source—but if you needed another excuse to visit this amazing island, add this one to the list.

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It’s hot dog season and there is no better time to kick it off than the Fourth of July. There are a few favored cooking techniques: grilling over charcoal, gas, on cast iron or flattop, boiling (in beer à la M*A*S*H) or even deep frying (like at

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Because one party at Pitti is not enough we decided to partner with the Belmond Villa San Michele to throw a Monday night garden party to welcome a select group of Pitti goers.

The San Michele has long been a favorite of ours. My first stay was years ago and we even shot a part of our Wm Brown #18 feature and cover there with Max Poglia and Frank Conforti. Nestled high above Florence in Fiesole the San Michele offers a bird’s eye view of the Duomo and the Arno valley. It is often a breezy oasis from the stale heat of Florence in the summer.

They have just reopened after 18 months of being closed for a refresh with new interior designs by Luigi Fragola. The staff remains the same with the F&B run by my old friend and cocktail professore Alfio who I first met in Sicily at the Grand Hotel Tomeo some 10 years ago (see our drink video here!). The garden and pool are a summer highlight and I just love the poolside restaurant with its wood-fired pizza oven and one of the best vongole in Tuscany. The wines stay local and are chilled to perfection. I have also been known to have a Campari spritz or two taking sun at the pool.

The room decoration is simple, elegant and stays close to its Italian roots in terms of marble details, heavy linen drapes and Florentine art. The building was originally a Renaissance monastery built in the 15^th century. It feels more like a grand home in the hills of Florence rather than a hotel. It is also a UNESCO protected site which means it must always stay true to its architectural origins, which is a good thing.

The party had a slightly different approach from the first sit-down dinner we had there in 2021. We decided on an informal garden party with a grand buffet and more informal open seating. There was a band of course and Frank and I started things off with an improv duet of “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”. The guests (around 60 or so) were decked out as usual and brought their style A-game. The bar passed Negronis and martinis as well as a selection of Tuscan wine. Some food highlights were a passed tomato risotto topped with burrata, mounds of charcuterie and cheese, focaccia, salad, sautéed greens and the most delicious Fiorentina steak I have ever had in Florence. Afterward, big bottles of amaro were brought out and the band played on.

Before I knew it it was midnight (the party started at 6pm), and it had winded down to a hardcore holdout of party goers and the few of us that were lucky enough to be spending the night. Without skipping a beat Alfio came up to me and said, “How about I bring out some plates of pasta with oil, garlic and chili flakes for a midnight snack?”

“Wow what a great idea,” I said, and before I knew it, plates of pasta for all of us were delivered to a long garden table with bottles of water and chilled white wine. Spectaculare!!!

DISPATCH FROM MILAN

I headed to Milan during Men’s Fashion Week for two reasons, Ralph Lauren and Dunhill. The Milan shows are right after Pitti and I am usually heading off somewhere with Yolanda, not to mention that I am exhausted! But nonetheless, I do manage to muscle my way to Milan for at least one day and night.

The biggest challenge for me is my hotel stay, as hotel rooms book up quickly or have been on reserve for the hardcore show goers for some time and I am always last minute. Thankfully, my Bulgari PR guardian angel Angie was able to secure the most perfect room for me at the Bulgari Milano for the night. I love the Bulgari hotel group and have been privileged to stay in their hotels from Rome to Paris and a few places in between. Their Milan location is perfectly situated for what I need to navigate around town, and the bar—like all Bulgari Hotel bars across the globe—has killer bartenders!

Upon arrival in Milan I dropped my bags, unpacked, had a couple meetings at the bar and ate a delicious salad of mozzarella and tomatoes. I said a quick hello to Angie and she introduced me to one of my style heroes: Paul Smith, who she was meeting for a coffee. That was cool! Milan was not! It was hot as balls and I changed into linen shorts and a Polo linen jungle short-sleeve shirt and headed to my first meeting with Simon Holloway at Dunhill.

The presentation was a delight. Very exciting in terms of his styling and emphasis on fabric, color and texture. I love his mood boards and for this season there were images of Roger Moore in double-breasted jackets and Lucian Freud in his studio (it was the way he tied his scarf that Simon liked). He was also taking inspiration from a vintage Dunhill desk lighter engraved with the hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades from a deck of playing cards. These shapes found their way onto slippers and dressing gowns in the most stylish way. There was an eight-button DB jacket made with British wool, bright blue knits, oversized linen shirts, luxurious suede in neutral colors, smart dinner jackets and safaris. I honestly would take it all but that brown eight-button DB made from Fox Brothers cloth was the winner for me. Simon has taken Dunhill back to its British roots in the most thoughtful and elegant way.

Now, on to the Ralph Lauren show. It was, in a word, EPIC. Both Polo and Purple Label were on the runway and as always they did not disappoint. Navy blue, white, polkadots and stripes. Japanese boro-style patched indigo dinner jackets and kimonos worn over black tie—genius. John Wrazej has once again knocked it out of the park.

The styling was just so inspiring. Heavy linen field coats worn as suiting with neckties, white linen waist coats, jackets and ties worn with shorts and fishermen sandals—all so good. I wanted to pull off every look that passed me on the runway, even Polo’s more streetwear approach to layering madras. I have always aspired to be a mannequin in a Ralph Lauren shop but even more so now!

THE ENDORSEMENT

A few months back, while writing a piece about double-breasted jackets for the summer edition of WM Brown, I texted Matt Hranek to talk T-shirts. I was thinking of pairing one with a DB and wanted Matt’s thoughts.

“How about Sunspel?” he replied.

“What’s Sunspel?” I asked.

“You don’t know Sunspel?”

Guilty as charged. Never heard of Sunspel.

I wear a lot of T-shirts, but I don’t wear a lot of nice T-shirts. Not the kind I can pair with a blazer or a suit and look stylish and grown up (but not quite like Don Johnson).

Enter the dress tee. Enter Sunspel.

Founded in 1860 in Long Eaton, England (not far from Nottingham Forest), the company got its start making underwear with Sea Island cotton. The finest money could buy.

Nowadays, it offers an entire line of casual-yet-stylish sportswear, but T-shirts are its thing. One style, a spectrum of colors, eight core shades, 40 more that rotate seasonally.

Fit and feel is what I would describe as its formula. I’ll start with the length. When I’m wearing jeans, the tee hits right at my belt line. If I’m wearing suit pants, it’s just long enough to tuck in. Shirt sleeves are on the shorter side, but not so short that I’m like, “Check out my guns!”

Body, slim but not tight. And oh, yeah–the collar profile. Unlike a white undershirt (see: James Dean, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen in Badlands), a suit demands a collar that is on the slimmer side. Sunspel aces this.

The ultimate result—as is the case with any piece of well-tailored clothing—is that it makes me look far fitter than I actually am. Which, of course, makes me feel pretty damn good.

Without getting too technical, the secret to Sunspel’s allure is in its construction.

“We use only extra long staple Supima cotton from California, which gives us exceptional control over quality from the very beginning,” says Sunspel’s owner, Nicholas Brooke. “Because we can trace the cotton back to the individual farm, we know exactly where it comes from and how it has been grown. Great fabrics start with great raw materials and there is no substitute for that.”

The cotton goes through a finishing process known as gassing. This gently removes the tiny fibers that sit proud of the yarn, creating a cleaner, smoother surface. “The result is a fabric that feels remarkably soft against the skin and retains a refined, matte appearance rather than developing an artificial sheen,” says Brooke.

Finally, Sunspel uses twofold yarns, where two yarns are twisted together before knitting. This creates a fabric that is stronger, more stable and more durable while remaining light and breathable.

This past month, I’ve worn my Sunspel with jeans, shorts and with my new DB. This afternoon, I’m actually heading to the shop in SoHo. I’ve waited too long to find a Tshirt that fits me—I’m not going to wait any longer to buy another. —Adam Rapoport

Brunello Cucinelli Dinner:

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Just in time for summer, I partnered with my friends Cristina and Lee Hudson of Hudson Napa Valley to produce a 2025 vintage of our Wm Brown rosé. Like patch madras or a a hot dog off the grill, rosé is one of the things I love most about summer— I take a deep dive with my friend’s the Hudson’s to demistify the process of making world-class California rosé. You’ll find our full conversation below.

MH: How did this rosé come about, and how was it made?

CH: The thing that’s important to recognize about rosé is that you can have a saigné, which is a red wine that’s bled off into a rosé, or you can have a rosé whose grapes are dedicated to making this specific wine. And this is a very dedicated rosé style that we make in Hudson. We grow grapes specifically to be made into rosé.

LH: What you need in rosé is great fruit and great acidity. If you make it out of the right varieties, you can get also the toothiness that is really important in rosé.

MH: Explain “toothiness.”

LH: There’s something that can be watery and insipid about certain white wines and rosés. And what gives great white wine or rosé a depth of flavor is a phenolic component. In other words, a tannic component that’s very much in the background, but actually makes for the difference between something insipid and something that’s exciting and textural in your mouth.

MH: And how do you get there?

LH: Variety is fairly important. So, our collaboration with William Brown is made from two varieties: Cabernet Franc, the variety from the right bank of Bordeaux, and Grenache. Both those varieties are grown with a relatively high degree of shade, have high yields and are picked at low potential alcohol with high natural acidity.

MH: How do you time that correctly?

LH: So, while we mature grapes towards harvest, we’re going in and pulling samples every five days. And doing analysis of the pH and the sugar content of those grapes. What we’re trying to do is produce a balanced product that’s bright, fresh and not too high in alcohol, so that it’s something we can really enjoy as a beverage.

MH: How do you keep the alcohol low?

LH: We’re picking at very low pHs and the maturity of the grape is on the lower side. That means less sugar. Sugar and alcohol are in a proportional relationship.

MH: What is the percentage of Grenache versus the Cabernet Franc in this combination?

LH: So, it’s about 40% Grenache, which is a low color variety that has great perfume, and 60% Cabernet Franc, which is a more flavorful variety, has a little bit denser texture and the two combined create this beautiful color.

MH: Do you have control over the color?

LH: The color in rosé is determined by how long you allow the juice of the grapes to be in contact with their skins. Because the only color in black grapes is in the skin. And so the skin contact during the pressing process, and immediately afterwards, determines the amount of color.

MH. Essentially, these are both black grapes. On the vine you see them as black grape.

LH: Yes, they’re not at all white. You’re trying to get just this touch of color. For me, as the color gets denser, it makes me start thinking that the wine is sweet. I don’t know why I have that perception, but what we want is just a slight salmon color. To me it’s a very appealing color.

MH: And why would you invest in a California rosé when the overwhelming amount of rosé you see in your wine shop is from the South of France, or Italy or Spain?

LH: There’s great rosé made all over the world. We’re very proud of ours. We feel as if we’re paying much more attention to the quality of the grapes, really focusing on the maturity and blending of the two different varieties.

CH: I think that the important thing to remember about our rosé and many of these small batch rosés is that they’re really being made by hand. It’s not a formula where you’re making huge amounts of wine. We’re really tasting each vintage, the harvest of that year, how things are tasting, and it’s just fine-tuning little tiny changes in the winery that really make a big difference in the bottle.

MH: And how many different combinations of tasting do you think it takes to get to what we’ve produced here?

LH: We make a 100% Grenache rosé that is a little less complex than this wine. For the combination with Cabernet Franc that we made with you, we blend the wines together in February and then it’s bottled in March.

Before that, the wine is pressed and then transferred to a concrete egg, which is an egg-shaped vessel, and fermented in that. It allows for a lot of lees contact—that’s the sediment in the wine, and it gives you that great aroma and texture. Because it’s egg-shaped, it has much more volume, and much more of the fermented product is in contact with the lees.

MH: How do you think this wine is best enjoyed?
LH: The nice thing about rosé is it can completely span the food world. It can be had with chicken, lamb, fish or just a vegetable dish. Or, most importantly, by the pool, in a bathing suit. To me, it’s really about friendship and bringing people together.

CH: I love rosé as an aperitivo, but I really love finishing a meal with rosé, because it’s just, it’s very uplifting, especially if you have red wine, it just really leaves your palate very light and uplifted and kind of joyous.

MH: I also think it’s a nice wine in the heat. Is that why people define it so well with summer?

LH: Yes, it’s just so refreshing. It’s thirst quenching. What I’ve always thought about rosé, is that you make it for two principal reasons: to get a bikini on, then to get the bikini off. It’s a relaxing beverage and it brings people together.

MH: Is rosé summertime only? What are your thoughts on that?

LH: I’m year-round on rosé. Rosé, for me, a go-to beverage when I come home, any time of year. It’s just so refreshing and pleasant. It’s often looked down on because it’s so bastardized, but when you make rosé like this, it’s really dedicated and hand-done, it is as important as any class in the wine world.

CH: It’s actually harder to make good rosé.

LH: It’s so easy to get off flavors in it. And you can’t afford to make a mistake. You can’t fix mistakes in rosé. We’re in a position where we don’t have a way of blending ourselves out of a problem.

MH: What does that mean?

CH It’s like adding too much salt, you can’t go in reverse.

LH: Right, if you’re doing big volumes, and you have wine that’s a little off character, you can blend it out. But this has got to be 100%. And that’s the challenge of making great rosé. You cannot afford to have an off fermentation or too much tannin or too much sweetness. The acid and the texture have to be just right.

CH: What is maturity in the field, and what happens when you pick grapes that aren’t mature?

CH: We have a different sunshine regimen in California than they do in Europe, and so our maturity is just something quite different than the rest of the world, because we have a lot of sunshine.

LH: Yeah, maturity and grapes are somewhat subjective, but under-maturity and over-maturity are really defined. By under-maturity, we mean grapes that haven’t created the flavor profile that’s essential to a fine wine, and over-maturity is this cloying kind of density that throws it out of balance.

MH: And you have been growing grapes up in Hudson for how long now?

LH: Well, we started in 1984, and today we grow about 200 acres of grapes, and we have an active farm where we raise livestock. We’re 40 minutes from downtown San Francisco without traffic. We see San Francisco Bay from our property, which is essential to the slow maturing that we have at Hudson, and it allows us to pick grapes at the peak of maturity and not have our hands forced by nature. It’s good to have nature on our side.

RAG TRADE

I’d been interested in East Harbour Surplus since the summer of 2023, when I walked into Portland Trading Co. in Portland, Maine, and found a safari shirt made from the coolest, perfectly faded linen fabric. It became an instant favorite, and part of the charm was that it felt like such a discovery. I’d never heard of this little Italian menswear brand with a curiously Anglophone name, and neither had any of the people who complimented the shirt and asked where they could buy the same.

So I was delighted to have the chance to chat with its founder, Fabrizio Vanni, with frequent Wm Brown collaborator Lorenzo Sodi—who also happened to shoot the brand’s latest lookbook —acting as our translator. I learned that its curious-seeming name is an homage to the army/navy surplus stores of old, a fitting moniker as the label was initially made to recreate vintage military jackets. In the years since it’s branched out to have a broader focus, with pieces like pinstriped cotton-linen jackets and drawstring canvas pants.

What hasn’t changed is its commitment to quality fabrics. Vanni, who began working in the fabric trade in 1984, is committed to natural materials like cotton, linen and wool, which he gives a time-worn patina through special washings and treatments. All of the garments are made at a single factory just 30 minutes from the brand’s Florence headquarters , which allows Vanni to closely oversee his experiments in-process and fine-tune them to the smallest detail like button choice . He also notes that all of the fabrics are sourced from Italy as well, making East Harbour Surplus a true “made in Italy” clothing brand at a time when other businesses have been caught cutting corners or making exaggerated claims.

While it remains (charmingly, in my opinion) under the radar, East Harbour Surplus is now sold at over 20 stores in North America. We’ve listed them below, should you want to see Vanni’s vision firsthand. —Eric Twardzik

CALIFORNIA

Douglas Fir

Wittmore

COLORADO

Plain Goods

ILLINOIS

Mildblend Supply Co.

MAINE

Portland Trading Co.

MICHIGAN

Mettlers American Mercantile

Milworks

Sunday Drive

Missouri

Hudson & Jane

NEW JERSEY

City Workshop

Dune + Salt

NEW YORK

Crockett & Co.

Haus of Hanz

Jamestown Hudson

Kai D. Utility

NORTH CAROLINA

Tabor

OREGON

Milworks

PENNSYLVANIA

Vestis

TEXAS

Huckberry

TORONTO

Muddy George

Sydney’s

VIRGINIA

Division Road

WISCONSIN

Milworks

I am just back from what felt like a luxurious amount of time in London. We stayed for five days total, which felt like an eternity as we’re normally in-and-out in just a couple of days.

I was in tow with Yolanda on a project she was working on (more on that later) and we stayed in a newish hotel in Fitzrovia (I loved this neighborhood) called

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I would be hard pressed to find a better Saturday in recent memory than May 16th. Imagine seeing a forecast of nothing but grey clouds and rain, and somehow being met in the morning with beautiful sunshine, a gentle breeze, and zero humidity. Such was the case when I opened my shades in Tremezzina, one of the tiny villages on the shores of Lake Como, when I awoke at the town’s new Edition Hotel. Converted from a grand lakeside palace hotel into a modernist haven by the hotel group founded by Studio 54 maven Ian Schrager, I saw the lifeguards letting up the black and white striped umbrellas and the bartenders readying their ice buckets. Rather than a bathing suit though, I was throwing on a tie to head to the annual Villa d’Este Concorso.

Though I’ve been lucky to attend several car shows in the past, the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza was something entirely different. As expected, the Italians have removed all of the trappings of idiocracy—the tire sponsor booths, the chintzy memorabilia being sold, etc.—and turned it all into a perfect lakeside party; a glorified runway show of just 54 near-priceless cars and eclectic spectators from all over the world and expert service by a buzzing army of tuxedoed waitstaff.

In fact, throughout the spectacle the stars are not only the cars on display, but the food and drink. Namely, the club sandwich, which has risen to renewed acclaim thanks to several recent stories (including one from our friends at Town & Country where Matt and I both lent our expert sandwich commentary) but it’s always been a mainstay on the Villa d’Este lakeside menu. When I was given a rare behind the scenes look at the hotel’s bustling back of house kitchen, I was met with an army of no less than 65 chefs, captained by executive chef Andrea Guerini, serving 1,200 guests consuming over 350 club sandwiches within the 2 hours of seated à la carte offering. It’s a feat of five-star service, and the highest number of club sandwiches assembled in a single day every year for the hotel.

Even more impressive were the car collectors, particularly the ones so dedicated to their collections that they went largely unnoticed and let the cars do the talking. There was Jonathan Segal of California, smoking a cigar out of the window of his 1953 Siata 208 CS Balbo Coupé. There was Gianni Agnelli’s very own, one-of-one Testarossa Spider now owned by Ron & Rosie Stern, painted in a particular shade of silver Mr. Agnelli was known to prefer as the periodic table code for silver is “Ag”, the inverse of his own initials.

Yet no entrant earned more acclaim than Jonathan Hui of Hong Kong, who attended with a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in the perfect shade of navy blue. When asked by the afternoon’s master of ceremonies Simon Kidston if he ever turned heads when he took the car on the road, Hui told the crowd, “This car could be bought for $6,200 not that long ago, so I don’t think about the price as much as the insurance companies do. I love cars and I love driving cars, so it would be sacrilegious to not drive it to its full potential. We only live once, so get out and drive, and that includes to the McDonald’s drive-thru, which I did once in this car.” Today, the car’s estimated value sits around $50 million.

In the end, the two prizes — the crowd-voted Coppa d’Oro and the judge-voted Best of Show — were not taken home by the Ferrari. Instead, the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este prize went to an impossibly perfect Mercedes-Benz 300SL. First delivered to its original owner in 1963, the entire car was not only in pristine condition, but remained entirely unrestored as it traveled through the garages of three separate owners including its original snow chains and a pair of skis accessorizing the roof rack.

Another seemingly impossible feat of preservation, the BMW 328 Bugelfalte took home Best in Show. Nicknamed the “trouser crease” for its sleek pressed edged along the front wings, the one-of-one car was first built in May 1937 by BMW’s development department as an entrant of Le Mans before it was stripped down and rebuilt (with a bit of added horsepower) for the 1940 Mille Miglia. It’s the only one of the five cars that entered the Mille Miglia in 1940 that has survived in its original condition, and has never been fully restored.

I finished the day with a visit to Villa d’Este’s neighboring hotel, Passalacqua, where owner Valentina De Santis regaled us with the lake’s latest gossip with a side of beautiful cocktails and bar snacks set against a sweeping view of the palazzo-turned-five star, 24-room hotel. A fitting finish to a picture perfect Lake Como adventure. —Zachary Weiss

WORK IN PROGRESS

At the end of last summer, I collaborated with my friend Chris Molnar of Cacio Pepe to produce my ideal striped crewneck tee using a deadstock jersey fabric. There was only enough to make 30, and they promptly sold out.

I paid Chris another visit while Yolanda and I were in Los Angeles last November, and naturally we went hunting for more cloth. While scouring a fabric mill’s warehouse, we came across a super soft and lightweight cotton-blend knit in navy with a broad white stripe. Amazingly, it had been sitting there untouched since 2015!

I knew right away that this light knit meant it would be a good weight for summer and could be dressed up with a pair of side-tab trousers or worn with a blue blazer. But it could also be the sort of thing you pull on over a pair of white jeans or swim trunks without giving it another thought. So, we had it cut-and-sewn into another long-sleeved tee by Chris’ factory in LA.

Because it’s being made entirely from that single roll of fabric—there’s only enough to make 50 pieces—the neck inset is “perfectly imperfect,” meaning not all collars will be a solid blue on each garment and it may show a little white from the stripe. That’s the sort of odd detail that I love, one that makes a garment unique while telling the story of how it came to be. I have been wearing mine non stop and it launders well with a cold water wash and hung to dry.

They’re up now at Cacio Pepe—go get ‘em!

The first calendar-day of summer is about a month away, but the season has arrived in Southern Italy and Sicily where Yolanda and I have spent the last few weeks. Naturally, all that time spent in the sun by hotel pools or the Mediterranean has put swimwear on the front-burner, so I’m dedicating today’s newsletter to all the swim gear and accessories I personally swear by—or would otherwise like to pick up for myself.

TRUNKS

Orlebar Brown was way ahead of the curve in making swimwear you could also wear to the hotel bar. Its Bulldog model gets the most attention thanks to appearing on Daniel Craig in SkyFall, but I prefer its Springer. At 3” it’s their shortest inseam, and

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WRIST CHECK

Taking a first step into the world of luxury watches can be daunting. Whether it’s the intimidating aura of a luxury brand boutique, a suspicious website, or even an old school, “Psst! Hey buddy, wanna buy a watch?”on the street corner, figuring out where to turn can be a complicated and risky proposition.

Your answer to this quandary is SwissWatchExpo, a family run and rapidly growing pre-owned watch retailer stationed in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia, where one family is setting a standard for the preowned watch market with a robust e-commerce site and comprehensive knowledge and service.

Trust is the largest hurdle when considering a preowned watch. Experienced collectors may have learned who to trust, but only with years of trial and error. For the newcomer, it can seem like too big a gamble, sending them running directly to the boutique brands where they pay a very high premium for that security.

The pre-owned market, however, has two key advantages over the new retail market - lower prices and larger inventory. High end retailers like Rolex carry very limited inventory by design, and this can be frustrating for customers willing to pay. So where do you turn when you want that Daytona?

SwissWatchExpo has stepped into the market with an impressive list of attributes. First of all, they have a full service in-house repair shop that vets each watch, twice. Every timepiece that comes in gets inspected, repaired if needed, cleaned, polished, photographed and posted on their comprehensive website. Then, when the watch is sold, it gets a second inspection before being shipped out. I had never seen such a high level of logistics, expertise and enthusiasm as I did on a recent visit to their facility. These guys LOVE watches.

The company is essentially a family run business. Jake Rokhlin, an expert watchmaker, oversees all things mechanical, while his wife Victoria, whose degrees in teaching and mathematics help explain her impressive capacity for organization, runs the in-house photography studio and oversees logistics while her son, Eugene Tutunikov (Rokhlin’s stepson), adds his impressive Wall Street acumen. Together, they have brought SwissWatchExpo to a nine figure operation and it’s still growing. As clichéd as this sounds, their enterprise, with its 37 employees, really does run like a Swiss watch.

Operations on their selling floor are abuzz with salespeople on FaceTime calls, showing details to clients, discussing the inner workings of watches from Cartier, Jaeger LeCoultre, Breitling, Rolex, Patek Philippe, etc. All the big brands are here for both men and women. And this might be the best part of all - with the trust and quality factors sorted out, you now have access to an encyclopedia of Daytonas, Speedmasters, Tanks, Calatravas etc., priced fairly. It’s like a candy store for watch lovers, both new and experienced.

Because they do such a brisk business, inventory is constantly updated and for anyone dreaming of their first luxury watch, SwissWatchExpo is the place to start, and further, your adventure. -Stephen Lewis

For more from Stephen, check out his Substack, Tilt/Shift.

HAPPY HOUR, PART I

“What can I get you?”

It’s the first question you’re asked when you arrive at any bar, and one that used to send me into a kind of unnecessary analysis.

There was a time when ordering a drink felt like an opportunity to really stretch yourself and try something new (repeatedly). I spent years chasing the World’s 50 Best Bars list and whatever else was fashionable then, happily submitting myself to the age of tinctures, smoke, infusions, reductions, fat-washing, more tinctures, and drinks that were served looking like a chemistry set with some mood lighting. This was more than a dozen years ago, when choosing a destination for a trip could genuinely involve asking, “Yes, but is there a bar there making a clarified milk punch? Maybe also with foraged pine oil?”

And to be fair, some of it was terrific. Some of it was ridiculous. Most of it was part of a broader moment when cocktail culture became more elaborate, certainly more theatrical, and in many cases (as it turned out) more interested in invention than the outcome perhaps.

These days, my drinking life is much simpler. And, much more edited.

I don’t need a menu that reads like a lab report and has to show you with a little sketch what type of glass the drink is served in. I just need the right drink in the right place.

In a dark and cozy hotel bar, I want a gin martini, straight up, with a twist. As cold as possible. That is, for me personally, one of the great civilizing pleasures. London is good for this. New York is good for this. However, my kitchen on a Friday night might just be the best for this. I keep the gin in the freezer, along with the glassware, and the week however long has been adequately left in the rearview mirror. I keep a few small (~2 oz) stemless Cipriani martini glasses and some weightier Ralph Lauren crystal in reserve for exactly this purpose. The best martinis arrive with a high degree of confidence and a very low temperature.

A Negroni belongs almost anywhere, but especially in Italy, where it still feels less like a trend and more like a daily routine. By a fire pit in Umbria, at a bar just off the street in Milan, as the sun starts to set in Rome, somewhere along the coast before dinner. It is one of the few drinks that seems equally at home in grand settings and also completely unremarkable ones, which is part of its genius. I like mine a touch drier than most. Easy on the sweetness, heavier on the gin. I like the bitterness.

Then there is the Campari soda, which may be one of the most underrated drinks ever devised. When I want to keep things closer to earth, or when the evening does not call for another navy-strength, high-octane, personality-enhancer, that is often my answer. Cold, bright, bitter, restorative. Best with an orange swath. Great on a patio.

And in the right setting, especially when it gets dark early, a Manhattan can be perfect. Execution and judgment are key. Other cocktails might survive mediocrity better than a brown drink can. A bad Manhattan is a very sad thing indeed. Too sweet, poorly stirred, made with indifferent vermouth, or poured by someone who never drinks them themselves. I order one occasionally when the weather is just right and when the bar looks like it knows what it’s doing. Our friends make a fantastic one when hosting.

That is more or less the list now.

I still allow for minor variations. A gin and tonic always has its place. A good glass of wine often wins outright. But in general I find myself returning, more and more, to the classics. Over the years, I’ve gained a clearer idea of what I actually want.

At some point, if you drink enough drinks in enough places, you stop ordering to be impressed. A martini in the right bar. A Negroni before dinner. A Campari Soda in the sun. A Manhattan when the weather and the company all agree.

These days I’m not at all interested in cocktails that need much/if any explanation. I’ll take the ones that already know who and what they are. What about you? - Jonathan Petrino

For more from Jonathan, check out his Substack, the Studio journal.

HAPPY HOUR, PART 2

I absolutely love a gin and tonic. If 5 o’clock rolls around and I’m at home, it’s what I mix in the kitchen, and I have my own methodology down to a science: Tanqueray on the counter, five-ounce Fever Tree can in the fridge, and a double old-fashioned glass in the freezer. 2:1 ratio in favor of the tonic, and a fresh slice of lime.

As much as I enjoy that level of control—which is why I almost never order it in a restaurant—my favorite place for a G&T is on a plane or a train. As the kids today might say, it just hits different.

First, there’s the build-your-own aspect to it. I love getting those two little nip bottles. At about 1.5oz, one isn’t enough for a proper drink, and two is too much (in any transit situation, particularly air travel, I choose “too much”). Then there’s the 12oz can of tonic, always Canada Dry, which is overkill considering you get a small plastic up filled to the brim with ice.

So, I always pour both nips into the glass, and then give it what amounts to a floater of tonic. Sometimes I remember to ask for one of those little wooden stirring spoons they serve with coffee to mix it up. If not, I’ll turn one of the empty nips upside-down and use it as a stubby little mixing spoon.

It’s a much different—and stiffer—kind of G&T then what I make at home, but it’s precisely what I want if I’ve spent the whole day in Manhattan and am sitting down for the first time in 10 hours on a train, or if I’ve just made my cross-country flight and am desperate for a nap. As this short, strong drink goes on, I’ll splash in some more tonic on top from time to time, depending on how I feel. It’s not so much to dilute the drink but to extend the experience of it, a sweet respite from the all too-often uncomfortable and uncaring world of modern-day travel. —Eric Twardzik

I am spoiled. When I’m in Rome I go for a straight razor shave around three times a week. My friend Bob (Roberto) has the most amazing barber shop in Rome. It is called Genco Barbiere, at the end of street called Via Portoghesi in the center of the city, and it’s conveniently a three minute walk from my apartment. The building dates to when Caravaggio was roaming these exact streets finding subjects for his paintings, getting in sword fights and most likely getting a haircut in the same location as Genco. It is a place rich with history, and like most OG barbershops, is the hub of the city. You meet artists, collectors, executives, politicians, Cardinals (from the Vatican) and

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I know I’m a little late to the game here, but I just started watching The Day of the Jackal starring Eddie Redmayne (2024). I was a fan of the 70s original with Edward Fox (and his style), and I like the modern flair Redmayne has brought to this assassin for hire. He is dressed really well in subtle monochrome knits (Brunello), well-tailored suits (Knize) and smart accessories (Omega watches, Borsalino hats and Drake’s ties). The series is shaped really well in terms of the narrative, and is visually very appealing in terms of its cinematography. I can’t wait for season two.

In Barbour news, those heading to the Blue Ridge Mountains and The Lodge at Primland now have access to the property’s Barbour Borrowing Closet. No longer forced to be victims of underpreparedness, guests travelling to the property can request their styles and sizes before arrival to have ready for usage throughout the stay, ideal for exploring the surrounding 12,000 acres on foot, fly-fishing or hunting the grounds.

More on the Barbour front…sustainable luggage brand, Harper Collective has partnered up with Barbour for the internal linings of all of their suitcases, which can be removed and washed, and are extremely durable (not unlike their outerwear.)

For you Delta Diamond lovers/chasers, Delta has just announced the next generation of their Delta One Suites. They’re newer, nicer, longer, and an overall upgrade, so good news for those planning long-haul international trips in the future.

Consider this for a clever summer plan: the 2026 Le Mans Classic will be taking place July 2-5th, featuring over 700 race cars from the last century. It’s held in the 24 hour period before the Le Mans circuit, and is a true showcase of racing history. And check out my wife’s France Travel Planner if you’re trying to figure out what else to add on in the area, or her epic Paris Black Book.

Orlebar Brown has just released their summer collection, with lots of great new stock for all of your summer exploits. We are always fans of the basics, but if you’re feeling adventurous, this pair with a vintage photo from the Monaco Grand Prix is cool, and of course their James Bond collab is always a conversation starter.

The Italian Open is on until May 17th, so if your plans align, go and have a Campari spritz at Camponeschi in our honor if you make it. May is a great time to be in Rome, so, in case this idea is coming too late, plan it for next year. (Also consult my wife’s Rome Black Book!)

Back in Wm Brown No. 19 we profiled my friend Eric Maggiori, a Parisian with a mind-blowing collection of vintage American militaria and workwear who also publishes the heritage menswear magazine AVANT. This May sees the release of Eric Maggiori’s Collection Volume 2 (the first was published in 2021), a 260-page printed tour through his archives, which includes over two hours of short video content accessed via QR codes. And come June, Eric’s opening an AVANT showroom in Paris’ 11th arrondissement that’ll be the first of its kind in the French capital. Another reason for a Paris visit!

If you’re in the UK, Purdey at The Royal Berkshire Shooting School has recently reopened after a major renovation. Clara and I managed to make it out there (it’s about an hour and a half from London in the Reading area) a couple of weeks ago for a shooting lesson and it was great. It’s a special opportunity to get your hands on a Purdey, and the facilities and team are top tier.

Now that it’s spring, everyone in NYC is looking for the best place to enjoy the weather, have a drink, and avoid the masses who all had the same idea. My favorites: head to Jeffrey’s on Christopher St for a great Negroni or martini, and you can never go wrong with the best Guinness in NYC at The Ear Inn, or if you’re a pro, a Black and Tan. If you mention my name you might still be able to get a takeaway Negroni at Dante…If you want to stay in the West Village but don’t want to risk your life fighting for a table at Bar Pisellino, enjoy a cold one outside The White Horse Tavern. And if you’re on the UES get your spring rosé fix at Cafe Commerce where the sun shines and the people watching is other level.

MOTHER’S DAY CHEAT SHEET

This Florentine hand-marbled leather bound notebook is a no brainer. (Write a love note on the inside cover.)

Having purchased this various times for Yolanda, I can vouch that this Hermes Kelly leather bracelet is a crowd pleasure and lasts forever.

The Perfect Weekend Tote by Alex Mill is a solid option—bonus points for a hand painted monogram!

Nothing says Happy Mother’s Day like Viennese glassware—enter this Lobmeyer vase that’s perfect for your Mother’s Day bouquet.

If she’s organized, you can’t go wrong with this Métier leather notebook cover.

Yolanda has been eyeing up this linen jacket from Quaker Marine so I’m sharing it here too!

This leather travel jewelry box is both practical and considerate.

If she’s into design, this polished solid brass egg paperweight by Viennese artist Cark Auböck is understated, practical, and a beautiful object.

Why not gift her a Yolo Journal digital subscription, or even better, a collection of magazines!

Everybody loves a slipper, so why not make it pony hair?

If you’re based in NY, treat the mothers in your life to a treatment at ONDA, they won’t be disappointed.

Sick of her stealing your safari jacket? This version from Ann Mashburn is pretty perfect.

Any jewelry from George Jensen is timeless. There’s lots of great options but we love this bracelet, and this incredible bangle—a wall clock is always a welcome office accessory, and if she’s into watches, the Torun Watch with a mirror dial is incredibly cool and a real IYKYK piece.

While a cookbook is sort of a gift for the entire household, it’s always great to receive one, especially when it’s as iconic as Jacques Pépin. Filled with all of the cooking techniques anyone could ever need, the newly released 50th anniversary edition of Jacques Pépin Complete Techniques is the perfect gift.

I lost Yolanda’s watch. Or I misplaced it. I wasn’t sure. I had a memory of being handed a gold watch to stash when she was packing, but my memory just went blank to where I put it. We were packing in Rome to start a couple weeks of travel. First to Florence for my biannual Pitti party, and then from there, Yolanda was heading to India and I was off to Scotland. There was a discussion in the frenzy of packing about what watch to bring and Yolanda decided against traveling to India with a gold watch. Yolanda normally wears an 18k gold Cartier Tankissime, a watch she loves that I bought her a few years ago with about that much time spent trying to find it. She first spotted this watch on the wrist of her friend Inez and another one on Inez’s friend Jeanine. Yolanda, who never really obsesses about watches, said to me that is the watch I REALLY want and the search was on. I found one a couple years later and swiftly bought it for her. She loves this watch. She never takes it off. Until now. There was also another gold watch we share in rotation with us in Rome and that was a 14k gold Rolex date with a Milanese bracelet. That one was also stashed in advance of the India trip. The watch she decided to travel with was a Cartier tank mini on a gator strap. (Yes I end up buying her watches even if she isn’t gunning for them to supplement my own obsession.) After we came back from our separate trips, we landed and met in our apartment in Rome. During the unpacking Yolanda said “Hey I would like to wear that gold Cartier can you get it?” I said sure and headed to my usual stash spot. It was not there. She then said “what about the Rolex?” and I said that was not there either. As I began poking around looking in every jewelry box and valet, Yolanda found the Rolex. She had stashed it, but what about the Cartier? My memory was blank. Yes, I remember being handed a gold watch but I had absolutely no memory after that. I began to go mad. I looked everywhere, even in spots that I would never in a million years hide things. But I didn’t know. Maybe in moving around so quickly, packing and prepping, I did something unusual or out of the ordinary with my hiding strategy. I found nothing. I was getting anxious and having panic attacks about not finding this watch. How could I be so careless, so stupid. I wasn’t sleeping. My mind was racing. I even went to a couple chapels in Rome, lighting candles and saying a prayer to recover this watch. (I was raised Catholic after all, it couldn’t hurt.) We were getting ready to head away again for about 10 days and I just decided to try to forget about it and maybe I would recover the memory of where I put the watch. Or maybe it was stolen. Maybe my very religious, very kind, very honest cleaning lady stole the watch. Maybe this delightful, honest, saintly, church going woman suddenly decided to lead a life of crime. Ignoring the pile of cash on my nightstand and digging around all my drawers to find a stashed watch, ignoring other watches and jewelry to take Yolanda’s Cartier to fund perhaps some Catholic charity for the poor and needy. Unlikely but possible. Yolanda thought I was absurd with this idea. But you know you never really know what it’s like to be robbed until you are.

I was haunted by this watch. I could not stop thinking about it. It was less about the money this watch cost me. (even though this Cartier was by all means not cheap) It was about the sentimentality of the watch. The fact that Yolanda cared so much for it and the journey it took to get it and how happy I was that she had this thing that she admired so much. After all it was just a material thing that could probably be replaced. But the fact that it was my responsibility to take care of it and I failed just killed me. I was so upset about it that when watch sites popped up on my IG I got sick to my stomach. How the hell was I going to find this watch. After our latest trip we were to be in Rome for about a week before we headed back to NY. That was my only window to finally find this watch. We began to get philosophical about the experience—I didn’t realize that this was deeply affecting Yolanda as well—what was the lesson here? What can we learn from this? We need to slow down. Be more thoughtful. Realize the value we have in our lives without the emphasis on material goods. We had lunch with our friend Marghe in Rome who said “guys, you have to let this go, do you know how many things of value I have lost? Just let it go, forget about it and you will be fine.” Ok that is fine but I WAS NOT FINE. I could not stop thinking about it even though I pretended I did.

Then I recalled a story my good friend Dewey told me about finding the wedding gift IWC watch his wife gave him. I’ll paraphrase here for time (the full story will be in my next volume of A Man and His Watch II): He lost the watch for some time and couldn’t find it. He kept making excuses to his wife when she asked why he wasn’t wearing it and Dewey finally decided to consult a psychic. Dewey’s good friend Jenny’s husband founded the Psychic Friends Network. (I remember the old Dionne Warwick ads like it was yesterday.) She introduced Dewey to a psychic, they had a call and she led him to his garage, to a tennis bag on the floor and inside the bag was the IWC wedding watch! I need this psychic I said and texted Dewey and told him the situation. Time was of the essence as I was leaving Rome in 4 days. Jenny and most of the psychics

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I am just back from Geneva where I had three intense days visiting brands and checking out their watches at the latest Watches and Wonders. W&W is always a fun time for me even though it can be exhausting. Seeing the latest novelties the brands have to offer is great, and I love the community and catching up with friends in this business from around the globe and that is always a pleasure. The expo is huge and getting your steps in (averaging 10k) is no problem as you run around navigating appointments between brands.

I am just back from Geneva where I had three intense days visiting brands and checking out their latest novelties at the latest Watches and Wonders. It’s always such a fun time for me even though it can be exhausting. The expo is huge, and getting in 10k steps minimum a day is no problem as you run around navigating appointments between brands. I love the community and catching up with friends in this business from around the globe and that is always a pleasure.

We were also set up this year to shoot any interesting watches for the second edition of the watch book. We had Stephen Lewis with his portable studio upstairs near the press room all prepped and ready. So besides a tight schedule of back to back appointments I was running watches to Stephen to shoot and having on the fly interviews! As I take a deep breath and sigh of relief from my hotel bed in London, I once again want to apologise for my tardiness this week getting this newsletter to you a day late. Below is a quick edit of some of the highlights for me from this year’s fair.

SMOKING SECTION

In a world where smoking’s been confined to the edges, proper cigar etiquette is sometimes lost in the smoke. Thankfully, our faithful columnist Aaron “Sig” Sigmond has agreed to lay down the law—and answer a few of my questions—below. —Eric Twardzik

There are all manner of books about men’s manners. How to Be a Man: A Guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentleman by the inestimable Glenn O’Brien (2011) is a classic; Peter Post’s Essential Manners for Men (2003) and Men and Style: Essays, Advice and Considerations (2016) by David Coggins are excellent as well.

Learning etiquette from a book and living it are different things, though. Nothing beats practical experience, and assuming your mama raised you right, some decorum is intuitive. Others, more along the lines of customs, must be taught. Anyone who knows me knows one custom I espouse is that a gentleman should always carry a “three-finger” cigar case: a cigar for oneself, one to give away and one to trade. Sensible, polite …but not necessarily intuitive.

Cigars are highly ceremonial, and as such traditions and social graces are prevalent throughout cigar culture. Here are some tips to keep you on the right side of the behavioral spectrum. (Failure to adhere to these is a major personal pet peeve.)

ASK BEFORE YOU IGNITE. Unless you’re in a smoking establishment (lounge, club, bar, merchant tasting room, etc.), always ask those around you if they mind if you light up. This goes double if women are present. I don’t care how old-fashioned that sounds. Chivalry and manners maketh the man.

NO SPITTING, NO CLIPPING. Do not place your cigar in your mouth in any way—no moistening, licking, chewing, drooling or “just seeing how it feels”—prior to cutting… and then have the audacity to ask to borrow someone’s cutter. This isn’t cigar etiquette; it’s a public-health directive. It happens a lot more than you might expect. (It’s up there with asking to try “just a puff” of someone’s cigar. Did we learn nothing from the pandemic other than how to forget boundaries more quickly?)

PAIR IT, DON’T DIP IT. No matter what you’ve seen in movies, no matter if your friend swears it “elevates the experience,” for the love of all that is civilized, do not dip the cap end of your cigar into fine Cognac, brandy or other eau-de-vie. That’s not refinement. It’s marinating.

STIFLE THE BRAGS, HUMBLE OR OTHERWISE. No one cares how many aged Cubans you have. Unless someone asks specifically, zip it.

REMEMBER THE WIMP. Popeye’s burger-loving pal, J. Wellington Wimpy, was a polite moocher. Be polite. Don’t be a mooch. If you’re headed to a social occasion, cigar lounge, barbecue or even a casual stroll and you know cigars will be in rotation, come equipped. A cigar is not something you “borrow”—there is no polite way to ask. If you’re unsure whether the host will provide, assume he won’t, and bring your own. Preparedness, too, is an element of the gentleman’s code.

Conversely, if you are the host, generosity is mandatory. Have enough cigars on hand for everyone to enjoy at least one. If it’s a round of golf or any extended affair, plan on two each. Running out isn’t just inconvenient. It’s amateurish.

And now, to answer a few questions…

“If you’re doling out cigars, should you be prepared to cut and light them too?”
Depends on how formal it all is. You can certainly offer, but your guests shouldn’t expect it. What is expected, however, is that you’ve set the table properly. The host must have lighters (or long matches) and cutters readily available—on the bar, on a tray, within easy reach. Scatter some ashtrays about as well. You wouldn’t host dinner and forget the forks and knives, would you? This is the same deal, just with puros instead of porterhouses.

“If you’ve received a cigar, is it rude not to finish?”
This one is tougher—and contingent on how much inner-Larry David you possess. Unless the taste is dreadfully offensive or the cigar is plugged or canoes, if you accepted it willingly the polite choice is to smoke at least two-thirds of it.

THE LIBRARY

I would like to announce and congratulate the gang at Craft and Tailored on their launch of Craft and Tailored Magazine. I have known Cameron Barr, the founder of Craft and Tailored, for some time now, and have appreciated him as one of the handful of trusted vintage watch dealers I buy watches from. He has always been a man of good style and taste, and this latest endeavor in print is a great example of the lifestyle around watches he has created. The mag of course has a healthy mix of great watch content, along with stories on vintage Leicas, Navajo jewelry makers, jazz vinyl and Cam’s love of 80s G-Wagons. Run out and get this Issue One edition ASAP, and when you are finished, stack it on your shelf or leave it on your coffee table as we all anxiously wait for Issue Two.

Apologies that I’m a bit tardy this week getting this newsletter out. It has been a whirlwind. I am sitting on the terrace in Rome after a quick departure from NY. Last week I made a very quick trip to Texas to see how Stetsons are made (more on that later), followed by a big launch party for our spring issue the night before we left! Our cover star Davide Baroncini and his lovely wife Pia were in town from LA, and we all gathered on the newly opened rooftop bar of the W Hotel to celebrate.

There was definitely a quick bit of overpacking—we’re in Europe until mid-summer—albeit with a ton of zigzagging. First up, a quick touch down in Rome to drop bags and repack for a four day trip to Athens to shoot the next style feature for Wm Brown.

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I have never met a pre-bottled Negroni that I have really loved. Some are fine; most suck. It is usually the bitter element (i.e., missing the Campari factor) that fails. Other bitters are too medicinal, not enough citrus notes, not bitter enough, etc. In my experience, they’ve just never lived up to a scratch-made Negroni—until now.

After thousands of Negronis and hundreds of hours of research we have finally bottled the Wm Brown Negroni. Selecting the London dry gin and sweet vermouth was easy, but finding the right bitter was tough. So I got in touch with Sardinian distiller Silvio Carta (they have generously provided spirits for a couple of Wm Brown Pitti parties!) as I’ve long been a fan of their bitter, (called Bitter Roma) which I feel rivals Campari. I asked them if they would sell it to me in bulk, and the response was “Si!”

It took me a while taste-testing the proportions but I think I have nailed it! The gin comes through nicely tempered by the sweetness of the vermouth and rounding out with the bitter, with its subtle herbaceous notes and citrus. Yum! I dare say it BARELY needs a garnish. Give it a try and let me know your thoughts. It’s available now through Roscioli in 350 ml bottles, and 100 ml single-serving bottles are on their way. SALUTE!!

STYLE COUNSEL

Thierry Morali and Matt are longtime friends, having initially bonded over their mutual interest in style. We chatted with the Vienna-based architect to discover the inspiration behind his own elegant sense of dress, why it’s always permissible to wear black tie after 6pm and how he designed the perfect dressing room.

How would you describe your sense of style?

My sense of style comes from my grandfather and classic movies. The same age, same references, same style culture. I’m not fashionable—that’s how I would describe my style.

How did your father and grandfather dress?

My grandfather was the archetypal gentleman of leisure, who told me that you’re never ridiculous wearing a tux after 6pm, even if you’re in a café. There were a lot of rules. Never wear a black suit, black socks are for drivers. I was educated about how things go together, and how you do break the rules from time to time.

What are some of the rules you subvert?

My grandfather would never have approved of my tendency to wear shoes without socks. I can’t imagine the man being without socks unless he was at the beach wearing some espadrilles. He wasn’t a man to wear sandals.

Is there a uniform you wear on a daily basis?

I’ve got a tendency to wear grey flannels in winter with a sports jacket or blazer during the day, or a navy suit. In summer I wear white denim with a linen jacket or blazer and suede Alden tassel loafers.

You have an interesting background in where you’ve lived and grown up. How has that affected your style?

Yes, I should say so, because I had to adapt. I grew up in Africa, and our school uniform was khaki trousers and a matching safari jacket. That was not something I would complain about! People are often surprised that I can wear a blazer in pretty much any temperature. But my father insisted that we wear a jacket for dinner. That’s why I’m never hot in a blazer, or can wear a suit in 40 °C.

And I traveled all over the world. London, New York, Sydney, I lived on an island for a few years in Fiji. The number one rule that I try not to break is that you should always be dressed for the environment and the occasion. I will wear white trousers and a striped sweater if I’m by the sea, or Bermuda shorts with white bucks and a madras jacket if I’m in the Caribbean.

My father and grandfather are from a time where you wouldn’t get noticed for being dressed properly. But these days if you keep to the same traditions and etiquette you will be noticed, because most people don’t dress like that anymore. When people say “Oh, you know Brummel used to say that an elegant man never gets noticed,” I say, “Yes, that was very good in Brummel’s time, but these days an elegant man gets noticed because he stands out a bit!”

I remember when I moved to London and the first time that I was invited for a hunt, I had to go to Cording’s and get the right stuff. You know, Shetland sweaters for walking the moors. I like to fit the décor and the circumstances. I will totally dress up to go and have a drink. In my own home I will never have a martini in a pair of tracksuit bottoms. Never. Even if I’m in the tracksuit bottom, if it’s martini time I will put on a pair of slacks and a pair of Venetian slippers and a shawl collar cardigan. It’s very important to me to feel that the circumstances and what I wear go together. I feel more comfortable.

Is there a relation between your design work and your sense of dress?

Oh yes, absolutely. It’s pretty much the same. I do residential and hotel projects. Hotel projects I treat like if I were a movie director. I imagine how people would like to live in that space, you know, corners with a backgammon table, and I always picture how people would be dressed. It’s an integral part of how I work, a sense of style and aesthetics that makes sense at every level.

One of my favorite things to design is a dressing room. I’ve designed a few cool ones in my life. I’m currently designing a shop and showroom for a Viennese designer. We talk about the junction of fashion and architecture all the time, so it’s very much present in my work.

Did you design your own dressing room?

I did. I took a room in my apartment and decided to turn it into a dressing room. So, I designed my own clothing racks inspired by Giacometti, and I have an old, beautiful Biedermeier dresser with a little desk with little drawers where I can put my accessories and watches. And an Empire daybed and a quite rare valet stand from Jacques Adnet. It’s a mixture of antiques and custom-designed clothing racks, and it’s all color coordinated. It’s of course one of my favorite places.

What’s your approach to black tie?

If I picture my grandfather, I see him at his most relaxed in summer, wearing espadrilles. And the other way I remember him is in black tie. His words were, “After 6pm, it’s black tie.” A black-tie rig was a rather relaxed outfit for people of his generation. A dinner jacket and a black bowtie was just a thing.

And so, I still wear black tie for example if I go to a concert in Vienna. Very often I’m the only one. If there was ever a place where a man can be comfortable wearing black tie it’s Vienna, because nobody will look at you strangely in Vienna. If you have a sausage from a stand wearing black tie, nobody will peep an eye.

The white dinner jacket, according to my father, was only supposed to be worn below the equator. I tend to be a bit more liberal and wear it whenever it’s sunny and warm. The thing I don’t do is wear black tie during the day, it’s a very American thing.

I’ve got several tuxedos. I’ve got one that is midnight blue, because I had read that the Duke of Windsor had decided that midnight blue looked better under the electric light than actual black. And so, I had to order one. I must admit it’s not my favorite, it still looks a bit blue to me.

THE KITCHEN

I love a quick pickle recipe and I discovered great variation while doomscrolling on IG Reels. Yolanda thinks this time spent on reels is a complete waste of time, but I disagree. I use reels as entertainment, for a good laugh, and, on occasion, recipe inspiration. This quick pickle belongs to the last category. It is fast, delicious and goes well with everything from a curry to a hot dog. Here ya go:

Perfect Pickles Recipe

Ingredients:

4 – 6 Persian cucumbers, sliced

I medium red onion, sliced

I red bell pepper, sliced

Handfull of chopped fresh dill (you can substitute with dry in a pinch just use about 2 tablespoons)

¾ cup apple cider vinegar

Glug of olive oil

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon sea salt

Few cracks of black pepper

Pinch of red pepper flakes to taste

1 large clove of garlic, pressed

Method:

Place sliced veg in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together vinegar, sugar, salt, black pepper, pepper flake, olive oil, dill and garlic. Pour over veg and toss well.

Load ingredients into a large mason jar or a similar vessel. Top off with cold water to cover completely and store in the fridge for an hour or two to chill down and let the brine do its work. I like to give the jar a shake and a rotation periodically to get the brine incorporated into the veg. Test for flavor and see if you want to brine them longer. It’s a matter of taste how intense you want them to be. The longer in the brine the stronger the taste.

Lasts up to 5 days in the fridge (but mine never last that long)