emirates skywards x moët hennessy | a new luxury tour through france

Chile spans some 4,300 kilometres down the western edge of South America: from the red emptiness of the Atacama, the driest desert on earth, through world-famous vineyards and the painted hills of Valparaíso, to the blue glaciers of Patagonia. Yet the drink that best belongs to it is one the world is only just waking up to. Distilled in the northern valleys, where rain barely falls and the ripening sun gives way to cold desert nights, lies something far more discreet: Pisco, its national spirit. With centuries of heritage, and the oldest denomination of origin in the Americas, it remains, beyond Chile, a well-kept secret.

Pisco is, at heart, a spirit of place. The grape behind it is Muscat, grown across Elqui, Limarí and their neighbours, where sun and altitude concentrate the fruit into something intensely aromatic.

In the glass, it is all lift and freshness. The classic, unaged style, ‘transparent’, is floral on the nose: rose, jasmine and orange blossom. On the palate it turns to green grape and soft stone fruit, brightened by citrus peel, before a clean, gently sweet finish. Rest it in barrels of oak or native Chilean raulí, and it turns amber and altogether richer, gathering vanilla, dried fruit and a whisper of spice. One spirit, a spectrum of moods.

That range is exactly what separates Chilean Pisco from its Peruvian cousin. Where Peru’s version is distilled once and bottled undiluted and unaged, Chile’s rules allow for blending, adjusting strength and, crucially, for wood ageing, opening up a far broader family of styles. The distillation itself remains true to its roots. The wine is heated in copper alembics, with only the ‘heart’ of each run drawn off, sometimes passed through the still two or three times for purity. It is a craft the northern valleys have practised for four centuries, ever since colonial growers began distilling surplus wine to stop it spoiling.    

The spirit even takes its name from the land. Early on, it was stored and carried in elongated clay vessels known as piscos, and the word stuck. In 1931, Chile drew a legal line around it, fixing in law exactly where and how Pisco could be made – rules that still govern the spirit today.

For all that heritage, Pisco wears it lightly. It is the backbone of the tart, frothy Pisco Sour and the everyday Piscola; poured long over ice with tonic. A few labels are worth seeking out, from the floral to the oak aged. Waqar is a small-batch, fifth-generation Muscat pisco of real elegance; the oak-rested Capel Moai Reservado is as memorable for its Easter Island Moai-shaped bottle as its softly spiced warmth. Richer still, Alto del Carmen Etiqueta Negra spends two years in American oak, at the whisky drinker’s end of the scale. In its homeland, though, the ritual is simpler. “In Chile, we enjoy our Pisco with asados, delicious grilled meats while dining with family and friends,” says Nicolás Poblete, ProChile’s UK trade commissioner.

The rest of the world is catching on. Chile makes roughly four-fifths of the planet’s pisco and now ships it to more than 40 countries, with exports climbing fast – up 460% to China in a single year, 190% to Spain and 70% to Germany. Much of that momentum is down to ProChile, the Chilean government’s export arm, and its ‘Chilean Pisco: First Spirit’ campaign. “We have an incredible amount of pride for our Pisco,” says Poblete. “It is the most widely drunk spirit here in Chile.”

Out in those far northern valleys, blazing days still cool into star-strewn nights. Centuries in the making, Chile’s desert spirit is, at last, being found.

Learn more about Chilean pisco here. 

words. Olivia Cichero
edit. Huma Humayun
images. Courtesy of ProChile

Serenissima.
Away from the crowds,
Hotel Cipriani offers
the luxury of privacy.
belmond.com

What do a bartender, the entrepreneur behind Sea Containers, a famous architect and George Clooney have in common? The answer is Hotel Cipriani in Venice, the star-studded venue that has been synonymous with la dolce vita for almost 70 years. To understand its story, however, we must travel further back than that…

Back in 1927, a Bostonian by the name of Harry Pickering walked into the bar of the Hotel Europa-Britannia in Venice, which he often frequented. Unfortunately, he had run out of funds, but a young – and rather generous – bartender lent him 1,000 lire to purchase a ticket home. It was not until 1931 that Pickering returned, but when he did, he paid back his debt fourfold. The bartender, born in 1900 in Verona, was called Giuseppe Cipriani. He used the cash to open his own bar, which he named after his American benefactor.

See the full feature now only in Schön! alive.

The place to be.
The hotel’s pool – the largest in Venice –
is the symbol of the city’s dolce vita

A legacy project.
Peter Marino in the newly designed reception area

text

Room with a view.
Hotel Cipriani’s site boasts 270-degree vistas of the water.
The Dogaressa Signature Suite, for example,
affords a beautiful view of St Mark’s bay.

Get your print copy of Schön! alive at our Schön! store and at Amazon.
Download your eBook.

words. Huma Humayun
images. Courtesy of Belmond

Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li for Rimowa.

Our daily commute probably doesn’t feel worthy of an entry in a travel diary, but Rimowa believes the journey from A to B doesn’t always have to be dull. For its latest campaign, the German Maison expands its ‘Never Still’ leather collection with a series of compact silhouettes built for routine travel, following people through Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Shanghai. Photographers Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li track and frame the shortest daily journeys as stories worth documenting, finding beauty in the most ordinary moments.

The update introduces two rich colour choices: a deep, smoky Anthracite grey and a muted Mocha brown, both engineered from full-grain leather that naturally patinates over time. The signature Never Still Flap Backpack debuts in a smaller size in the new Mocha hue, featuring the house’s iconic embossed luggage grooves alongside a padded back panel and a suitcase attachment sleeve. This joins a permanent large option in Anthracite, running parallel to the new Never Still Leather Duffle systems which land in large and medium configurations. For lighter transit, the collection introduces a compact, zipped Cross-Body Bag and the sleek Leather Zipped Tote, an entirely black, pebble-grained companion proportioned to hold a 13-inch laptop in place of a traditional briefcase.

Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li for Rimowa.

Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li for Rimowa.

The new Anthracite colour also makes its way into Rimowa’s Distinct collection, giving the leather suitcase a darker, smoky character. Made at the Maison’s historic Cologne factory, the Cabin combines its signature grooves with lightly pebbled leather, colour-matched aluminium corners, palladium hardware and a robust leather-wrapped construction designed to develop a unique patina through long-term wear.

Travel does not always mean boarding a plane or disappearing for a month; sometimes it means a train, a taxi, a walk across town or simply carrying everything you need through another very busy Tuesday. ‘Never Still’ is designed for all of it.

Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li for Rimowa.

Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li for Rimowa.

The expanded Rimowa leather collections are available now across global flagship boutiques and online. Find out more here.

photography. courtesy of Dana Lixenberg, Daniel Arnold and Feng Li for Rimowa
words. Gennaro Costanzo