Meet the Man Behind Napa’s Buzziest New Cabernet
Paul Hobbs lets us peer behind the curtain of what he calls his “pinnacle bottling.”
When we recently went in pursuit of the next great Napa Valley cult wines, the experts, producers, and retailers we spoke to distilled the magic behind the labels we’ll soon be coveting: vineyard sourcing and winemaking talent. And while we often expect the latest sensation to arrive in the form of a young upstart taking centre stage, that’s not the case here. With 45 years of making wine under his belt, Paul Hobbs has just dropped what he calls his “pinnacle” bottling, Hobbs 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, the first cult wine he has created with his own name on the bottle.
Hobbs’s Napa Valley bona fides run deep; after just a year working at Robert Mondavi, Hobbs was tapped to join the inaugural team at Opus One thanks to his expertise in oak ageing. Founded by Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1978, Opus One remains a reference point for cult Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to this day. Hobbs remained at Opus until 1984 and in the interim has had a hand in legendary Napa releases from the likes of Larkmead, Diamond Mountain Vineyard, Peter Michael Winery, Merus, Gemstone, and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, earning numerous accolades and at least 10 100-point scores along the way.
Speaking with Hobbs via Zoom while tasting his 2015, we noted that he is the rare American winemaking consultant toiling alongside the likes of French greats such as Michel Rolland, Philippe Melka, and Stéphane Derenoncourt, who all have a deep footprint in Napa. A native of Buffalo, New York, Hobbs is a third-generation farmer, although he’s the first in his family whose main crop is grapes. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from Notre Dame in 1975 and an M.S. in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis, in 1978. He began an internship at Robert Mondavi while still attending UC Davis, where his research included the comparison of French and American oak under the tutelage of Professor Vernon Singleton, whose exploration of the science of oxidation led to some of the greatest improvements in winemaking practices of the 20th century.
In addition to his eponymous brand, Hobbs is also the owner and vintner at seven other wineries around the world: Paul Hobbs Winery and Crossbarn in California; Hillock & Hobbs in New York’s Finger Lakes; Crocus in Cahors, France; Armenia’s Yacoubian-Hobbs; Alvaredos-Hobbs in Galicia, Spain; and Viña Cobos, which Hobbs co-founded in 1999, in Mendoza, Argentina. It is not hyperbole to say that Hobbs’s involvement in many of these regions has brought renewed interest in them from the press and consumers. Although Armenia is one of the oldest winemaking regions in the world, it’s hard to have a conversation about the current industry there without someone mentioning Hobbs’s name.
In addition to personal provenance, Hobbs is also an expert in vineyard sites and grape procurement, having worked for 45 years in Napa Valley. Despite our numerous attempts to uncover the exact vineyard sources for Hobbs, he would only admit to one of the components, stating that the Nathan Coombs vineyard in Coombsville, which he has owned since 2012, is “a core player in the blend.” Named for the founder of the city of Napa, the vineyard is in an AVA that’s been planted with grapes for over 175 years but only received official recognition in 2011. Hobbs told Robb Report he has been familiar with Coombsville since his days at Robert Mondavi in the late 1970s.
Other than his own estate vineyards, Hobbs simply reveals that his grapes are from “scattered” sites throughout Napa Valley, with parcels in Oakville, St. Helena, and elsewhere. “They may not always appear in a given vintage for the Hobbs bottling, so it will vary from vintage to vintage,” he says. “Without giving away too much, a significant part of this is volcanic soils and there are also some alluvial soils.” All the vineyards are located either directly on the valley floor or on low-lying foothills.“There is no quintessential mountain fruit like Howell Mountain or Diamond Mountain,” Hobbs says. He also won’t drop hints as to who else buys from these vineyards, teasing, “They are all named, pedigreed vineyards. The wine has pedigree; it comes from known sites that have performed at the highest level for many, many decades.”
Made with mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and a very small percentage of Cabernet Franc, Hobbs 2015 finished its fermentation in 225-litre French oak barrels, where it then aged for about 18 months, and was not filtered before bottling. Hobbs is fastidious about his oak regime and points out, “Oak is the second most important ingredient after grapes.” He sources barrels from slow-growing trees; once built, the barrels receive a “long, slow, deep and penetrating toast,” which he states adds stability to the finished wine, eliminating the need for filtration.
“The finish is the fermentation in barrel, not in the tank, which is one of the reasons I don’t break all the berries,” he says. “When we press it, some of those unbroken berries release sugar into the wine and there’s a little bit of sugar there for it to ferment in barrel. There’s sugar in new oak. And I want the yeast to consume those as well. That’s one of the reasons I put it down sweet. It’s not very sweet but it’s just enough to have the yeast consume all the sugars rather than have a cold ferment; then you have problems and have to filter.”
While he is also reticent to pinpoint an exact ideal drinking window for his bottle, Hobbs says it will drink well for at least 30 years, lamenting that it will “long outlive its cork.” He refers to the idea of the 2015 giving different “snapshots” depending on when it is opened and consumed. “You get the opportunity to experience more rides with a wine like this,” he says. “A well-put-together individual is interesting in their youth as well as in their young adulthood all the way through to the very end of their life cycle, so I think this wine will offer something great for the next 30 years.” Asked point blank what makes the 2,196 bottles of Hobbs 2015 worth $1,200, Hobbs says, “To be direct about it, I think the experience, the history, and my experience with Napa Valley. This is the culmination of all those. It feels a little arrogant to say these things, but it’s really 40 or 45 years of experience working in Napa Valley with some of the best properties and this is a wine at the pinnacle of my career.” We can’t help but agree.
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Omega Just Unveiled 9 Watches in Its New Constellation Observatory Collection
The line-up shows up a bevy of metals and colours, too, as well as two new calibres.
Omega’s latest watch is in a universe of its own.
The Swiss watchmaker just unveiled its new Constellation Observatory Collection today, the next step in its Constellation lineage and the first two-hand hour and minute timepieces to ever earn Master Chronometer certification. And if you were paying attention to any of the dazzling watches spotted at the Oscars this year, you would’ve caught a glimpse of the new line already: Sinners star Delroy Lindo rocked one of the models on the Academy Awards red carpet, giving us a pre-release preview of the collection.
Developed at Omega’s new Laboratoire de Précision (its chronometer testing lab open to all brands), the collection houses a set of nine 39.4 mm watches. The watches underwent 25 days of scrutiny there, analysed via a new acoustic testing method that recorded every sound emitted from the timepiece to track irregularities, temperature sensitivities, and more in the name of all things precision. (Details such as water resistance and power reserve are also thoroughly examined.) This meticulous process is all in the name of snagging that Master Chronometer label, meaning that the timepiece is highly accurate and surpasses the threshold for ultra-high performance. The Constellation Observatory Collection has now changed the game, though, thanks to its lack of a seconds hand.
“Until now, precision certification has required a seconds hand,” Raynald Aeschlimann, president and CEO of OMEGA, said in a press statement. “The development of a new acoustic testing methodology has made that requirement obsolete. It is this breakthrough that has enabled us to present the Constellation Observatory, the first two-hand watch to achieve Master Chronometer certification.”
In addition to notching its place in history, the collection also debuted a new pair of movements: the Calibre 8915 and the Calibre 8914, each perched on a skeletonised rotor base. The former’s Grand Luxe iteration will appear on the 950 Platinum-Gold model in the collection, which offers up that base in 18-karat Sedna Gold alongside a Constellation medallion in 18-karat white gold with an Observatory dome done in white opal enamel surrounded by stars. The second Calibre 8915, the Luxe, will find its home on the other precious-metal models in the line, either made with the brand’s 18-karat Sedna, Moonshine, or Canopus gold seen across the case, the hand-guilloché dial, and, of course, the movement itself. (Lindo chose to rock the Moonshine Gold on Moonshine Gold iteration, priced at approximately $86,000, for Sinners‘s big night at the Oscars.) As for the Calibre 8914, it can be found in the collection’s four steel models.
Each model is a callback to myriad design features on past Omega models. That two-hand dial, for one, comes from the 1948 Centenary (the brand’s first chronometer-certified automatic wristwatch), while the pie-pan dial (seen in various blue, green, and golden hues throughout the line) and that Constellation medallion caseback both appear on watches from 1952. The star adorning the space above 6 o’clock also harks back to 1950s timepieces from Omega. And to finish off the look, you can opt for alligator straps in a variety of colours, or perhaps a gold iteration to match the precious-metal models; the brick-like pattern on the 18-karat Moonshine bracelet was also inspired by Omega watches from the ’50s.
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Inside Loro Piana’s First Sydney Boutique
A first Australian address brings the Italian house’s textile-led approach to retail full circle.
On the fourth floor of Westfield Sydney, near the Castlereagh and Market Street entrance—in the space formerly occupied by Chanel—Loro Piana has opened its first Australian boutique. It is a significant address change for that corner of the mall, and a meaningful one for the Italian house, which has sourced Australian merino wool for decades but until now had no retail presence here.
The facade is understated—creamy, tactile, more about texture than theatre. Inside, the store unfolds across a single, expansive level divided into distinct men’s and women’s wings. The separation is clear without being heavy-handed: womenswear leads from soft accessories and leather goods into ready-to-wear, while menswear occupies its own assured territory, with tailoring and outerwear given proper breathing room. Footwear (supple loafers, luxurious slides, pared-back sneakers) is particularly strong, and the sunglasses are a quiet standout: mineral-toned frames with a disciplined elegance that feels entirely of the house.
That same restraint carries into the interiors, where the surfaces do much of the talking. Walls are wrapped in the company’s own linen and cashmere; carpets are custom, dense underfoot, softening the acoustics and the pace. Oak and carabottino wood add warmth without fuss; marble accents introduce a cool counterpoint. The effect is a composed space calibrated around material, proportion and restraint.
The Spring 2026 collection now in store underscores that sensibility. Silhouettes are elongated and fluid; cashmere, silk and featherweight merino move in sandy neutrals, creams and muddied earth tones, with flashes of marigold and pale turquoise breaking the calm. Tailoring is softly structured and projects confidence without aggression. Leather goods arrive in buttery skins that feel almost pre-lived, as though time has already worked its magic.
What distinguishes Loro Piana, particularly in a market that has grown noisier by the season, is its refusal to perform luxury in an obvious register. There are no oversized insignias telegraphing allegiance. Instead, the status is encoded in fibre count, in hand-feel, in how a coat hangs from the shoulder. It assumes the wearer knows and, crucially, does not need to announce it.
Sydney’s luxury landscape has matured in recent years; global houses no longer test the waters but commit to them. Yet Loro Piana’s arrival feels different. It is not trend-driven expansion but material logic. For a country whose sheep stations have long contributed to the house’s fabric story, this boutique reads almost as a thank-you note written in cashmere.
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This Stylish, Water-Resistant Dopp Kit Might Be the Last One You Ever Buy
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And though its clean lines and rugged construction make it undeniably masculine, its greatest feature is borrowed from women’s makeup bags. Like the best of these, BB1 unzips to lie flat, giving you unobstructed access to everything inside. Well, you and the 999 other gentlemen who move fast enough to snag one. $289
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Mauve on Up
Brisbane boutique stay Miss Midgley’s offers a viscerally human experience—especially if you dig pink.
On a sun-bleached corner of Brisbane’s New Farm, where the scent of frangipani mingles with the clink of coffee cups, stands a building that has lived more lives than most people. Once a premier’s residence, an orphanage, a hospital and a private school, the 160-year-old stone structure now finds itself reborn as Miss Midgley’s—a boutique stay that teaches a masterclass in how to make heritage feel modern.
Designed and run by architect-mother-daughter duo Lisa and Isabella White, Miss Midgley’s captures the cultural confidence of a city in bloom. Nowhere is that new confidence more visible than along James Street—the leafy, slow-burn heart of the city’s fashion and dining scene—where Miss Midgley’s sits quietly at the edge, its shell-pink façade glowing in the subtropical light.
Built of Brisbane’s rare volcanic tuff, the building’s soft mauves and pinks are more than aesthetic; they are its identity. Locals still remember its 1950s incarnation as the Pink Flats, and the Whites have honoured that legacy with a contemporary blush-toned exterior, chosen to harmonise with the stone’s peachy undertones. Inside, those hues continue in dusty terracottas, russets and the faint shimmer of brass tapware. “Design can’t afford to be for the sake of fashion,” Isabella White has said. “It has to respond to what’s in front of you.”
That sentiment is tangible in every corner. Five apartments, each with their own idiosyncratic floor plan, occupy the building. Ceilings bloom with heritage plasterwork, 19th-century wallpaper fragments have been preserved in the kitchens, and tiny hand-painted notes left by the architects point out original quirks: a misaligned beam here, a hidden archway there. It’s a kind of adult treasure hunt for design lovers, where discovery feels personal and unforced.
Even the picket fence, a heritage requirement, has been reimagined in corten steel—a sly nod to regulation turned into sculpture. It’s this blend of reverence and rebellion that gives Miss Midgley’s its edge: heritage without starch, nostalgia without sentimentality.
True to Brisbane’s easy elegance, luxury here is measured not in marble or minibar but in proportion, privacy, and personality. Each apartment—from the Drawing Room and the Assembly Hall to the Principal’s Office—is a self-contained sanctuary with its own kitchen, large bathroom and outdoor space. The ground-floor units open onto leafy courtyards and welcome small dogs; upstairs, the larger suites spill onto verandahs shaded by jacarandas.
At the heart of the property lies a solar-heated pool hemmed with tropical greenery and fringed umbrellas—more mid-century Palm Springs than colonial Brisbane. Around it, guests share a petite laundry, a communal library and that rarest of urban luxuries: a car park per apartment. The atmosphere is quietly collegiate—a handful of travellers who might nod to each other on the stairs but otherwise inhabit their own creative bubbles.
The hotel’s namesake, Annie Midgley, lends the project both its name and its spirit. An ambidextrous artist and teacher, she famously instructed two students at once, writing with both hands simultaneously—a fitting metaphor for the dual vision the Whites bring to the building: one hand rooted in history, the other sketching toward the future. “Not famous, yet known,” goes the property’s understated tagline—and indeed, Miss Midgley’s has quietly become that most desirable of addresses: the one whispered about by people who know.
Sustainability isn’t an accessory here; it’s structural. The adaptive reuse of the heritage building is its boldest environmental act. Solar panels power the property; an electric heat pump warms the pool; recycled decking and tiles frame the courtyard. The metre-thick tuff walls regulate temperature naturally, and the amenities follow suit—refillable bath products, biodegradable pods, Seljak blankets spun from textile off-cuts, and compendiums wrapped in Australian-made kangaroo leather. It’s slow luxury in the truest sense.
In a world of carbon-copy hotels, Miss Midgley’s feels deeply human—a place where history isn’t curated behind glass but lives in the warmth of stone and the flicker of afternoon light. The lesson it offers is simple and resonant: that the most elegant modernity often comes not from reinvention, but from listening to what’s already there.
