How to Find Premium Tequila in a Saturated Market

The agave-based spirit may be shaking off its dive-bar reputation, but the industry is still awash with inferior brands. Here’s how to find the real deal—and why it matters. 

By Jason O' 14/11/2023

Twenty years ago, tequila was considered the basest of spirits, relegated to dives and college bars. Most of what you’d see were mixtos, cheap versions made of 51 percent agave and 49 percent corn or sugar syrup, resulting in the type of low-quality swill that demanded not only a chaser but also a sort of pre-chaser. You may recall the ritual: Lick a pile of pure salt, choke down the shot, then bite into a lime wedge as your throat burns, your eyes water, and the regrets begin.

Today’s tequila landscape is unrecognisable. The growth has been profound. Tequila consumption in America has roughly doubled in the past seven years, recently overtaking whiskey and set to pass vodka. What’s more, the majority of the ascent has left mixtos behind: In 2022, for the first time ever, 7 of every 10 bottles of tequila consumed in America were 100 percent agave. Tequila is so popular, agave distillates have begun to pop up all over the world, including in South Africa, India, Australia, Peru, and New Zealand—where there’s a distillery making a limited-edition Blue Weber agave that sells for nearly $600 a bottle. The spirit cannot be labeled “tequila,” unless it’s made with Blue Weber agaves in one of five designated states in Mexico, the most famous of which is Jalisco. (That New Zealand bottle is known as TeKiwi.)

Arguably more dramatically, there has been a radical transformation of tequila’s reputation. Since George Clooney and his partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman famously sold their Casamigos tequila brand in 2017 for a billion, a tequila company has practically become a lifestyle accessory for Hollywood royalty, TV stars, NBA heavyweights, musicians, comedians, socialites, influencers, and whichever one(s) of these Kendall Jenner is (hers is called 818). Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s Teremana tequila, launched in 2020, is already the industry’s 10th-largest brand and the fastest growing in the spirit’s history.

But listen closely enough and you hear a heavy sigh from distillers and aficionados alike. The rapid proliferation of tequilas—there are currently almost 3,000, a full third of which were created in the past five years—means that while consumption has never been higher, it has also never been harder to separate the signal from the noise. With no shortage of folk eager to sell you their $100 blancos, it’s no surprise that many of these products are built more on marketing than on quality. There’s a code of honor in tequila; no one publicly insults anyone else’s brand. But as distillers and professionals will tell you, there are basic universal principles of good tequila making. And if you’re hoping to find a truly premium version, it helps to know what those tenets are.

Complexity From the Ground 

Tequila and its cousin, mezcal (a spirit made in Mexico from any type of agave plant), have a superpower: They are the only spirits in the world for which the standard way to enjoy them is neat, at room temperature, and unaged—at least, not the way we tend to think about aging. Blancos, by far the most popular variety, never see the inside of oak barrels.

Harvesting agaves at Don Fulano Jimadores.

“With tequila, it’s very important to understand that maturation begins in the fields,” says Sergio Mendoza, who produces Don Fulano and Fuenteseca, among other premium brands. As part of a long line of agave farmers, he’s one of the few tequila producers to own his own plants. “When you talk about maturation, people expect you to start talking about barrel aging,” he says. “But we’re talking about a raw material that is way more complex than most raw materials used to make spirits.”

Agaves take a long time to grow. You’ll almost never hear anyone talk about where the corn or wheat for their whiskey comes from, because those grains are harvested every fall and don’t express much of a sense of place. Blue Weber agaves, on the other hand, take an average of seven years to reach maturity. Agaves have terroir, like wine grapes, and when fully ripe have an inherent complexity. “You can literally put a glass up to the still and you’re drinking a product that has a maturation of seven or eight years,” says Mendoza.

El Negocio master distiller Chava Rosales.

Agriculture is one aspect of the industry damaged by the recent surge of interest in tequila. The agaves that are becoming ripe this year were planted when demand was half of what it is today, inflating their price. Rather than pay the premium, unscrupulous distillers will harvest immature agaves in the name of higher margins. “Harvesting young sacrifices all the richness of flavor, the complexity, the depth, everything we identify with tequila,” Mendoza laments. “There’s nothing you can do in the process to make up for that mistake. That’s why so many of them use additives, to make up for everything they’ve lost.”

Additive Free

Additives are the open secret of the tequila industry, the thing no one used to talk about. Even if a label reads “100 percent agave,” the liquid inside might be only 99 percent agave, because producers can still add up to 1 percent by volume of lab-designed sugars, oak essence, glycerin, or caramel coloring without being required to disclose that they’ve done so. In other words, tequila brands can (and do) say that their vanilla sweetness is a result of extra-special barrels or extra-delicious agaves when, in fact, the flavor comes courtesy of industrial sweeteners they’ve dumped into the tanks.

Agaves destined for the distillery.

“Tequila doesn’t taste like cupcakes,” says Eduardo “Lalo” González, who launched his additive-free tequila, Lalo, in 2021. In his view, undisclosed additives mislead the consumer to think “that good tequila tastes like vanilla or bubble gum.” González named his business in honor of his father, a tequila maker himself also called Lalo, who started a brand to honor his father in the 1980s called Don Julio. González believes that a big part of Lalo’s 160 percent year-over-year growth is thanks to consumer demand for unadulterated spirits.

Aiding in the pushback against additives, in 2020 the independent informational website Tequila Matchmaker introduced a Confirmed Additive Free certification to its database of over 5,000 bottles, providing aficionados an easy way to search for uncorrupted spirits. (As of this writing, 102 brands have made the list.) “The additive-free certification is going mainstream,” says Grover Sanschagrin, who, with his wife, Scarlet, operates the site. “Retailers tell us it’s an easy sell and has become a differentiator on the shelf. People are telling us now that they can’t get a distribution deal unless they’re on the list.”

Workers bottling Fortaleza.

Nick Lutz and Adam Craun, cofounders of the brand-new company El Negocio, sought Tequila Matchmaker’s certification before bringing their product to market—and even before they began production. (The brand debuted on shelves in October.) “When we started interviewing different distilleries, we were only really interested in ones that held true to traditional methods,” says Lutz. “Traditional methods do not include dumping sugar, wood flavor, and all that stuff into the product.” Craun is a winemaker—a cofounder of Memento Mori, makers of a 100-point Napa Cab—so his interest in discerning a sense of place in the liquid, influenced by the weather, the soil, and the agave, means that going additive-free was integral to the project. (In fact, Lutz and Craun have such faith in the ability of tequila to take on terroir that they believe connoisseurs will be able to identify and celebrate the nuances in yearly vintages just as wine collectors do.)

El Negocio cofounders Nicholas Lutz and Adam Craun in the distillery.

The Sanschagrins, for their part, say that they don’t believe additives are necessarily bad, or that people who prefer tequila with additives are wrong; plenty of consumers clearly favor a sweeter tequila, which reduces the perception of alcohol burn. Rather, the Sanschagrins say they initiated the certification system simply out of frustration with the lack of transparency.

González agrees. “If I have a latte and I put milk and Splenda in it, someone could say, ‘That’s additives!’ ” he explains. “I say, ‘Of course it is! But I know about it.’ ”

Heritage 

For every step in the tequila-making process, there’s a way to do it cheaper, quicker, and more industrially. While traditional producers slowly roast their agaves in brick ovens for 36 to 72 hours, others rely on autoclaves, which utilize pressurized steam, to shorten the cooking time to only 7 to 12 hours. Still others employ diffusers, building-size industrial machines that use high-pressure water to shred the agaves without cooking them at all, thereby extracting tremendous yields and completing the whole operation in just a few hours. Critics say that if a brick oven is akin to a slow cooker, a diffuser is like a microwave.

“There aren’t many people who make tequila our way, because it’s so expensive to make it our way,” says Guillermo Erickson Sauza. You may recognize the surname. His great-great-grandfather Cenobio Sauza bought a distillery 150 years ago in a small village in Jalisco called Tequila and started making an agave spirit that he would name after the town. The company passed from father to son for 100 years until Francisco Javier Sauza, Guillermo’s grandfather, sold it in 1976. Today the Sauza tequila brand is owned by the multinational behemoth Beam Suntory, Inc.

Guillermo Erickson Sauza (left) of Fortaleza and his son Billy.

In 2005, Sauza dusted off some ancient distilling equipment the family still owned and started making a tequila he initially called Los Abuelos (“the Grandfathers”), though after a trademark dispute, he changed the name to Fortaleza. Sauza endeavored to make tequila by the same methods his family practiced a century ago, using fully mature agaves, brick ovens, pine tanks for fermentation, and small copper stills—and avoiding additives. He also took the process one step further by reviving an archaic technique to separate the fibers from the juice with a two-ton volcanic stone called a tahona, which used to be pulled by a donkey named Chencha. (The electric tractor that has since replaced Chencha is the only bit of electricity in the whole operation.) “We take a hit on yields,” Sauza says but insists the flavor is unmatched.

Don Cenobio Sauza in 1860. Sauza named his agave spirit after the town of Tequila.

The point is not that a tahona makes a better product than a screw mill or a roller mill—this question is a matter of some debate among aficionados, though the community finds easy unanimity in condemning diffusers—but that tequila is an expensive and difficult product to make well. Shortcuts are always available, tempting brand owners with promises of higher yields and profits. Unless it’s personally important to the owner to follow tradition, they won’t. “If you’re building a business to sell it off and make money,” Sauza says, “you certainly aren’t going to do it with a tahona.”

Still, he finds equanimity in the shadow of these shiny new giants. While he’d prefer that consumers support family-owned Mexican brands, he points out that the new interest in tequila from multinational companies and consumers around the world is likely a net positive. “George Clooney and the Rock are bringing in people that might never have considered drinking tequila,” Sauza says. “And that’s good for our industry.”

Six to Savor

These bottles from small producers, all worthy of any true aficionado’s cabinet, value process and craftsmanship over influencer hype.

Tequila Ocho Blanco

Ocho was among the first tequila brands to experiment with terroir on a large scale. Batches vary year by year, but expect pepper, tropical fruit, and citrus on a broad base of roasted-agave nectar. $50

Siete Leguas Blanco

Siete Leguas has been a consistent favorite of tequila connoisseurs since its founding in 1952. This bottle features an explosion of roasted agave, with citrus, earth, minerality, black pepper, and honeysuckle-like florals all kept in perfect balance. $50

G4 108 High Proof Blanco

While tequila sold in the U.S. is almost always bottled at 40 percent alcohol, it can legally go all the way up to 55 percent. This excellent high-proof example, from the third-generation producer Felipe Camarena, sits at 54 percent but doesn’t read hotter so much as louder, fuller, and more impactful. $116

Fortaleza Reposado

Tequila is its truest self when unaged (blanco), but a touch of barrel maturation can enhance
its flavors. This full-bodied tequila (frequently sold by retailers for more than twice its sticker price) spends six to nine months in used bourbon barrels, resulting in an almost buttery richness. $70

Cascahuin Tahona Blanco

This special edition showcases the classic agave and pepper flavors alongside an enticing greener note reminiscent of jalapeños or even olives. It’s made by the same Cascahuín distillery that produces the equally excellent El Negocio. $109

Fuenteseca Cosecha “Huerta Singular” Blanco 2018

The deepest exploration yet into the idea of “single vineyard” tequila, this limited-edition variety was
made from a high-altitude plot in Michoacán. Baking spices, intense minerality, and bold, fresh herbs bound out of the glass. $235

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Capella Brands Their Own Caviar to Mark Chinese New Year

Capella Sydney continues its commitment to exceptional luxury experiences, with a high tea and caviar upgrade all part of its 2025 Lunar New Year celebrations to usher in the Year of the Snake.

By Belinda Aucott-christie 07/02/2025

These days caviar bumps are on the menu at all the best seaside restaurants, and now guests checking into a suite at Capella Sydney will be saved the trip to the beach with a tin of caviar conveniently stationed in their mini bar.

Downstairs at the chic lobby café Aperture, caviar is also part of their elegantly indulgent high tea. Expertly crafted by Head Pastry Chef Arthur Carré. This bespoke menu features a delectable selection of delicacies, including Capella Kaluga Caviar, sesame prawn toast, Peking duck pancake roll cornetto, fried pork dumplings, and pandan and mandarin lamingtons. The experience is complemented by the delicate notes of white rabbit jasmine tea from Zensation Tea House, with an optional upgrade to a glass of Louis Roederer Champagne for a truly indulgent experience.

It’s all part of a chic lunar collaboration with Kaluga Caviar (from central China) which supplies 21 of the 26 three Michelin starred restaurants in Paris. Kaluga caviar offers a balance of luxury, flavour, and sustainability. Its rich, creamy texture and large pearls make it a close alternative to Beluga caviar with a lovely walnut aftertaste.

Even if you are a guest just for the day at Capella Sydney you can indulge your palate with a high tea that pairs Oscietra black caviar, from Russian Sturgeon stock, with champagne and traditional accompaniments.

Ask for the Capella Lunar New Year Afternoon Tea when you make you reservation, and take your place at the table. Each set comes with a 10g tin of Capella Sydney x Kaluga Queen Caviar.

Capella Sydney

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What It’s Like to Stay at Higashiyama Niseko Village, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, a one key Michelin Guide Hotel in The Heart of Japan’s Hokkaido ski fields.

This small ski lodge is a heart-starter hotel. By the end of your trip, you’ll be connected back to nature in both the spiritual and sporting sense.

By Belinda Aucott-christie 02/09/2024

Welcome to Checking In, a new review series in which our editors and contributors rate the best new (and revamped) luxury hotels based on a rigorous—and occasionally tongue-in-cheek—10-point system: Each question answered “yes” gets one point. Will room service bring you caviar? Does your suite have its own butler? Does the bathroom have a bidet? Find out below.

Higashiyama Niseko Village, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Japan.

Describe the hotel in three words: Exclusive, relaxed and sophisticated.

What’s the deal?

On the page the hotel might sound a bit ordinary, but in reality it’s s anything but.

This is an all-season alpine resort at one of Japan’s top winter sports destinations in Hokkaido. The hotel opened in 2020 with little, to no, fanfare thanks to Covid, and it has two high seasons, one in summer and one in winter. 

Domestic tourists come for hiking and wilderness in summer and foreign tourists, who love skiing, come in the winter. YTL Hotels acquired Niseko Village for six billion yen (US$58m) in 2010 from PC One YK, a Japanese limited liability company, and they have made it one of their ultimate destination, nature reserve hotels.

The ski-in/ski-out destination’s main attraction is its accessibility to 2,191 acres of skiable terrain and extensive backcountry skiing, alongside an international ski school, chairlifts and gondolas. There is also a dining and retail venue and easy access to two world-class golf courses and an outdoor activity park for children. 

Now the 50-room Higashiyama Niseko Village, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve is the first Japanese Ritz-Carlton Reserve and YTL’s fifth destination in Niseko Village, residing at the base of Mount Niseko Annupuri.

Niseko Village has been selected as the venue for some of the 2030 Winter Olympics’ events; slalom, giant slalom, super-giant slalom (super-G) and downhill.

The hotel is sophisticated with panoramic mountain views. Having just 50 rooms it feels like a private home, with all the luxury you need to feel utterly spoilt. 

The Best Room

The largest family suite has plenty of room for a family of 4-5 persons, plus space for an au pair. It’s exactly the same layout as the suite, with the addition of a large walk-in-robe, dressing table and lounge room with a dining table. The lounge contains a fold out sofa, for babysitter, plus plenty of room for the children to relax in the hotel after a morning of skiing.

The Rundown

Did they greet you by name at check-in? 

Yes, fireside check-in happens in the Ume Lounge in a comfy seat next to 6-metre high windows overlong Mount Yotei. 

Was a welcome drink ready and waiting when you arrived? (Bonus points if it wasn’t just fruit juice).

Yes, we were welcomed by name with an exotic tea made from local flowers and herbs. I was more in the market for a whisky on this particular day, but the glass of Champagne at lunch of tempura and local sashimi at Yukibana more than made up for this.

Is there a private butler for every room?

Yes, the 24 hour do san concept it alive and well at this Ritz-Carlton Niseko and the message on check in is that nothing is too much trouble. 

Is the sheet thread count higher than 300?

Yes both the beds and the bed linen are incredible. They beds are fitted with white cotton sateen 400-thread count which literally feels like 600 after a day of skiing in the cold. 

The Ritz-Carlton hotel whites are all 100% cotton sateen. They are impeccably crafted of pure extra-long staple cotton sateen, these hotel linens are silky soft to the touch and have a lustrous look that catches the light. The bed is so comfortable you almost don’t want to leave.

Is there a heated floor in the bathroom? What about a bidet? No, bidet but the room and floor are heated. In fact sometimes the suite was too warm, when strolling around in ski gear. 

Are the toiletries full-sized?

Yes, everthing is French full-sized and created heritage beauty brand Sothys just as in the Chasi spa. Extra bath salts are provided daily to make up for the fact that Onsen waters aren’t piped up to the rooms.

Is there a private pool for the room’s exclusive use? How are the spa and gym?

No, private pool in the room but there is a private onsen which can be booked from the Sothy’s Chasi Spa. Both the spa and gym are state-of- the-art. Everything here is sweet smelling and super clean. 

Do you want to spend Friday night in the lobby bar?

Ume Lounge has a very elegant, minimal Armani Casa vibe. Think antler chandeliers, stacks of white birch logs, ceramics and camel pony skin rugs but it is not a party vibe.

You can easily spend at least one night by the fire after dinner reading from the library, but it is not the kind of place where you get carried away with friends. It’s soft lounge  lighting and high end food offering makes it feels small and intimate. The mood is enhanced by the excellent food and service at Yukibana. That said, it  didn’t stop some old college friends from getting stuck into bourbons one night for an evening at the bar.

Is there caviar on the room service menu? If so, what kind?

No, there is no caviar offered on in-room menu, but if you want a crab Eggs Benedict in bed, or prawn tempura you have come to the right place. Ditto the best raw sashimi you have ever eaten anywhere and incredible healthy food nails the east-meets-west twist at every turn. 

Would you buy the hotel if you could?

Yes, undoubtedly. I received more spa treatments and personalised attention in one weekend than I will probably have throughout the rest of my life.

Score: 8/10

What Our Score Means:

1-3: Fire your travel agent if they suggest you stay here.
4-6: Solid if you’re in a pinch—but only if you’re in a pinch.
7-8: Very good. We’d stay here again and recommend it without qualms.
9-10: Forget booking a week. When can we move in permanently?

Visit Ritz-Carlton Niseko

 

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This Rare BMW 507 Roadster Series II Could Fetch Over $3.2 Million at Auction

Only 252 examples of the convertible grand tourer were built during its four years in production.

By Bryan Hood 04/02/2025

There’s another BMW roadster you can buy if you don’t want to wait for the upcoming Skytop.

A stunning 1958 507 Roadster Series II will be auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s next month in Paris. Nearly seven decades after rolling off the line, the sleek two-door remains one of the best-looking vehicles ever built by the German luxury marque.

Like the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and Porsche 356 Speedster before it, the 507 owes its existence to the American car importer Max Hoffman. In the mid-1950s, the businessman convinced BMW that American enthusiasts were eager for a convertible version of the 501 and 502 coupe. The plan was to build and ship thousands of examples of the open-top grand tourer to the U.S. each year, but an unexpectedly exorbitant sticker price sunk any chance the project had of catching on and only 252 cars would be built between 1956 and 1959.

Photo: Maximilian Vogl/RM Sotheby’s

The 507 offers up ample proof that (immediate) commercial success isn’t indicative of a vehicle’s worth. The roadster is easily one of the finest sports cars to come out of the post-war period. Its sophisticated design, which was penned by Albrecht von Goertz, combines smooth lines with the ideal proportions. But the 507 is more than just a car to be seen in. It also delivers more than respectable performance, thanks to a 3.2-litre V-8 that makes 111 kilowatts and pushes the vehicle to a top speed of 196 kph. It’s little wonder the car served as the inspiration for one of BMW’s most beloved modern-day models, the Z8.

Inside the 507 Roadster Series II Maximilian Vogl/RM Sotheby’s

The 507 that RM Sotheby’s is selling, chassis no. 70136, left the factory in Ivory White, and was shipped to Havana. It spent three decades in the Cuban capital before being returned to Germany in the late 1980s. In the years since, it was the recipient of a thorough restoration and was repainted in a glossy coat of black that matches its folding soft-top (there’s also a rare hard-top) and center-lock Rudge wheels. The interior—which because the car is a Series II example has more room—has grey leather seats and door cards. Just as striking is the period-correct is eight-cylinder under the hood. It may not be the numbers-matching original, but that mill comes with the lot too.

1958 BMW 507 Roadster Series II
Maximilian Vogl/RM Sotheby’s

The 507 Roadster will cross the block as part of RM Sotheby’s upcoming Paris sale, which will be held on February 4 and 5. The auction house has high hopes for the sports car, which is unsurprising considering its condition and rarity. It’s expected to sell for between $2.1 million and $3.2 million.

Click here for more photos of the 1958 BMW 507 Roadster Series II.

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How to Wear Linen Like a Style God (Don’t Sweat the Wrinkles)

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the essential summer textile, including how to care for it.

By Eric Twardzik 24/08/2024

Next to the fig leaf, linen might be humankind’s oldest covering. It’s turned up in the wrappings of Egyptian mummies and was even worn as armor by Alexander the Great. So how is it that modern men still son’t know quite what to make of it?

Anthony Keegan, creative director of the luxury essentials menswear brand Bugatchi, has a theory. “It’s a sophisticated material, and I don’t think you grow up wearing linen. It’s something the well-dressed man learns about.” But once the well-dressed man—or woman—becomes wise to its charms, it’s hard to go back.

Lilly Lampe’s aha moment with linen came while traveling in Southeast Asia during summertime. “It was this wake-up call that everything we’d read about linen was true,” she tells Robb Report. “It has amazing moisture-wicking properties and a beautiful, visually appealing natural texture. There are just so many reasons why it’s historically been a big part of warm weather garments, and also had other utilitarian uses throughout time.”

So impressed was Lampe that in 2015, she and her husband Alex Robins founded Blluemade, a unisex, workwear-inspired apparel line built around the fabric’s unique performance qualities.

How Does Linen Perform?

J. Mueser

Robins, who refers to linen as “ancient performance technology,” sees it as a natural alternative to engineered textiles. “It’s technical fabric from Egypt, in a way,” he tells Robb Report. Its ability to breathe easily, wick away moisture and dry quickly goes back to the cellular structure of flax (the plant from whic it is derived). Unlike cotton—which Robins likens to a “solid rod”—linen has a hollow core, which proves to be advantageous when wet. “It literally sucks up moisture like a straw,” he says.

Just don’t mistake the hollowness for fragility. Linens are also highly durable, a quality that made it the de-facto labor uniform for much of history. “Before the introduction of denim, it was the go-to workwear cloth,” Robins say.

What Makes Quality Linen

Crop of newly harvested golden flax stems left to dry under a warm French sun. Crop of newly harvested golden flax stems left to dry under a warm French sun. Getty Images

Not all linen is created equally. A key differentiating factor is the length of the fibers, with long flax fibers resulting in a stronger linen that’s softer and less prone to deep creasing, whereas short fibers render a textile more coarse and wrinkle-prone.

Blluemade’s linen comes exclusively from the Flanders region of Belgium, where a rainy, cloudy and temperate climate results in linen strands measuring between two and four feet. Lampe compares this to linen grown in drier and hotter environments, whose strands measure as little as two to four inches.

Other climes blessed (or perhaps cursed) with similar weather tend to produce quality linen, notably Ireland and the Normandy region of France.

Maison Hellard founder Nathan Hellard, whose eponymous firm turns Norman flax into tailor-ready linens, deploys an appropriately Gallic metaphor. “Just like wine, if you have good soil and a good amount of rain and sun, then you have the longest possible fiber in the end. And that’s the biggest difference between a low-quality linen and a high quality one,” he tells Robb Report.

Should you not have the opportunity to measure the strands yourself, Hellard says that quality can be detected visually, too. While linen is a naturally slubby textile, inferior linen will appear far slubbier and fuzzier due to their short fibers, whereas superior linen is smoother.

Will Linen Always Wrinkle?

Linen deconstructed blazer with patch pockets. Brunello Cuccinelli.

You can make linen from gold prize-winning flax and it will still wrinkle. That’s simply a product of how its strands meet together, and the fact that it is a vegetable fiber lacking the natural elasticity of wool.

“The wrinkles are part of the job,” says Keegan, laying out the facts. “And if you have been brainwashed into no wrinkles, period, then you’re going to have to grow into this.”

However, some linens will “bounce back” from wrinkles better than others. Lower quality or lighter weight linens are susceptible to long-lasting creases, whereas heavier linens and those made from longer fibers or with particular finishes will merely rumple rather than buckle. “It’s not that it won’t crease, it’s how it creases,” Hellard clarifies.

Linen’s wrinkle factor should be considered when forming an outfit. With a linen suit, Keegan prescribes a crisp oxford shirt to create contrast, and would avoid linen shirting and its resultant “wrinkle-on-wrinkle” effect. Jake Mueser, founder of the West Village tailor J. Mueser, nixes wool jackets with linen pants, but not its opposite. Mueser is an expert on wearing suiting in the summer without breaking a sweat.

“A crisp, light wool trouser with a linen jacket—that is a good combo,” he tells Robb Report.

How Does Linen Tailor?

Matthew Woodruff, creative director of J. Mueser, wearing an ivory linen suit from the tailor. J. Mueser

Mueser, whose Christopher Street atelier is thronged with linen suit-wearers in summer, highlights the choices available to those commissioning a linen suit.

“Like wool, there’s a lot of variety to linen. You can have a lighter weight, softer, more Italian linen that’s going to have more give and more wrinkle. You can have stiffer Irish linens, more washed and treated linens like Solbiati,” he says, referring to the linen-centric Italian mill purchased by Loro Piana in 2013. “There’s a big variation.”

Indeed, it’s the treated linens that increasingly make for interesting, paradigm-breaking commissions. To take just one example, the Hong Kong and Taipei-based tailor The Anthology has championed a “sueded” linen with a unique finish that leaves it soft to the touch on the exterior, yet crispy and springy on its reverse.

Anthology co-founder Buzz Tang in the brand’s sueded linen suit.
Anthology

“I think this specific linen is quite unique, because it sits right between the most traditional of Irish linens and the Italian ones,” says Anthology founder Buzz Tang. “It lends the Italian softness to the cloth, but at the same time, it still has a certain integrity in terms of drape and hang.”

An undeniable part of the fabric’s appeal at the present, dressed-down moment is its inherently casual appeal, a factor Mueser takes advantage of by often sporting his linen suits with a crewneck tee or Western shirt underneath. However, he doesn’t believe that it must be confined to the most casual side of tailoring and recalls seeing linen used in more structured suits and even dinner jackets to great success.

“Just because linen feels more casual, it doesn’t have to be patch pockets and deconstructed,” he says. “I think there’s a charm to taking linen and building it up more.”

Caring for Linen

Chalk stripe deconstructed linen blazer and leisure fit linen trousers. Brunello Cuccinelli.

For linen garments that can be machine washed, Lampe sounds a warning: no detergents with enzymes.

“If you spill ketchup or food on your clothes, it’ll eat away at that,” Lampe says of the additive’s advantages. “But linen is also natural, and so enzymes will eat away at that. And once you eat away at the outer lining of a hollow core material, you have a hole.”

In the interests of keeping linen hole-free, she instead recommends an enzyme-free detergent, such as the one produced by Le Blanc. For those taking the dry-cleaning route, Mueser suggests a similarly careful touch—perhaps skipping the actual dry cleaning altogether.

“I tell people all the time, take your suit to the dry cleaner, tell them to just steam it and press it. It comes back looking and feeling fresh and new, and it doesn’t need to have a chemical bath,” he says.

And finally: does a guaranteed-to-wrinkle garment ever need an ironing in the first place? Keegan says no. “I actually think it would be more of a steam than an iron… steaming is, for something like linen, a really good way to get it to its natural state.” That means crisp, cool, comfortable—and just the perfect amount of wrinkled.

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This Speedy New Personal Submarine Is Like an Underwater Supercar

Three times faster than most personal submersibles, U-Boat Worx’s Super Sub has a top speed of 10 knots.

By Michael Verdon 04/02/2025

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Super Sub!

U-Boat Worx’s just-launched, ruby-red flagship may have more in common with the original 1950s Superman than the color of his cape. The Dutch submersible builder has released images of one of the world’s fastest personal subs, with maneuvering capabilities that should make it a natural for the next Bond movie.

The three-person submersible has a “droplet-shaped hull,” according to U-Boat Worx, and “advanced wing configurations” that deliver a top speed of 10 knots (most personal subs do about three knots and dolphins about seven knots) and the ability to make steep 45-degree climbs and sharp turns at depth. That’s like comparing the speed and maneuverability of a supercar to the family SUV. Besides basic forward, up, and down movements, the Super Sub can also move laterally, which gives it more precise handling on approaching objects like reefs or wrecks, or in a current.

“It’s a first-class ticket to explore the ocean like never before, combining speed, safety, and sophistication in every dive,” said U-Boat Worx marketing manager Roy Heijdra in a statement.

he design has the lithium batteries and thrusters at the rear so the pilot and passengers can enjoy the view. U-Boat Worx

Hyperbole aside, the Super Sub is an advanced design, starting with the cockpit, which has two front passenger seats behind the large acrylic bubble for exceptional viewing in all directions. The pilot is seated behind, so the guests or owners can enjoy the best view. The seats have five-point harness seatbelts because the ride can get kind of wild at full tilt.

The Super Sub’s touchscreen display shows all relevant navigational data as part of the U-Boat Worx Information System (UIS). Safety features such as Maximum Depth Protection, which prevents the sub from descending beyond its 300-metre (1,000-foot) depth limit, and the Deadman’s Switch (which a passenger can trigger to automatically ascend if the pilot is incapacitated) give some sense of the technology behind the design. The sub also has an “auto-heading” feature, equivalent to autopilot, which keeps the submersible on its current heading over long stretches.

The cockpit blends comfort and technology.
U-Boat Worx

Compared to the bubble look of most submersibles, this stealthy, cylinder-shaped vessel looks cool, with its large propellers and rear hydrofoils that combine to improve maneuverability. The thrusters, powered by an electric motor and 62 kWh lithium battery have a total power output of 100 kW—with enough juice to also power the air-conditioning.

The cylindrical shape is faster and more efficient than smaller, bubble-shaped personal subs.
U-Boat Worx

Beyond personal use, the speed and handling of the Super Sub could also make it a candidate for search and rescue and research missions.

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