Synthetic diamonds look indistinguishable — even to a trained eye — and cost substantially less than a mined diamond, and have been in existence for longer than you might imagine. The first laboratory-made ones were produced in the 1950s, but improvements in manufacturing efficiency have meant that their arrival on the market as a viable … Read more
Best known for his good taste when it comes to timeless timepieces, the late Jörg G. Bucherer was also an aficionado of fine wines. A selection from his cellar in Lucerne, Switzerland, is up for auction with Sotheby’s auction house until November 24. Highlights from the sale include ready-to-drink double magnums of Petrus, a case … Read more
You find me in Rioja, the Spanish wine region south of Bilbao, in an eye-catching hotel. Frank Gehry’s Hotel Marqués de Riscal, with its curling and sweeping avant-garde canopies of pink, silver and gold, rises from the Ebro valley vineyards in the shadow of the Cantabrian Mountains. Parked below it, ripening in the mid-day sun, … Read more
Madonna, David Bowie, Kate Moss and Elizabeth II. It’s not easy to add your name to a list like that and yet I have. They have had their portrait taken by Rankin — and on a recent Thursday, I joined the club. Perhaps our generation’s most famous photographer, Rankin has captured just about every recognisable … Read more
‘I bet you pick up a lot of girls in that,’ the man said, looking at the Rolls-Royce Spectre I was standing next to outside a Royal Mail sorting office. It’s a question I get asked a lot, not because I own a Rolls-Royce (I don’t have anywhere to park one), but because I am … Read more