What We Learnt At LVMH Watch Week
Big, bold and bright – the best the of the week that was for Hublot, Bulgari, TAG Heuer and Zenith.
LVMH Watch Week rang in the new year in Singapore with a slew of new models from Hublot, Zenith, Tag Heuer and Bulgari.
The luxury conglomerate has wisely been releasing new models each January (debuting with an ultra-luxe show in Dubai in 2020) ahead of April’s Watches & Wonders when most watch brands traditionally show their new key product for the year.
The takeaway in 2023 is that most of the collections were permeated with bright saturations of colour in dials, gem-setting or sapphire crystal cases. The overall vibe is a decidedly cheerful outlook, at least as far as this luxury conglomerate is concerned, for a year that is expected to be looming with economic challenges. Here are some of the highlights.
Hublot
Want to make sure your wrist candy can be spotted across the room? Hublot has no shortage of options for you. From fully gem-set pavé rainbow watches to vibrant sapphire crystal timepieces with skeleton movements in neon yellow and a punchy purple, these models live up to the “Big Bang” in their name. With complicated movements and in-your-face design, they mean business but they’re also dressed for the party.
Big Bang Integrated + Time-Only Rainbow
Just when you think there cannot possibly be another flex on the gem-set rainbow watch, Hublot comes along and puts yet another new spin on the cult-favorite style. The Big Bang models—an integrated self-winding chronograph and a time-only version—are executed with the usual array of multi-colored gemstones from rubies and amethysts to blue topaz, orange sapphire and more but this time around they come mixed. Pink sapphire blend into orange sapphires and blue topaz blends into tsavorites on the center bracelet links mimicking the rays of color in the natural weather phenomenon. The integrated model comes set with a total of 1,290 gemstones, while the time-only iteration sports 1,100. Hublot, as we mentioned, is always keen to make a splash.
Price: TBD
Case Size: 42 mm and 40 mm
Case Material: 18-karat King Gold
Spirit of Big Bang Carbon Blue and Purple Sapphire
Hublot has yet to release the full info on its Spirit of Big Bang models as of press time, but judging from the photos the Carbon Blue model takes after the Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon that debuted in January 2021 which was executed in a carbon case with white micro-glass fibers. Here those fibers take on a baby blue hue and the case is paired with a rubber strap in the same color to match.
But Hublot is known for its work with colored sapphire crystal cases, so the model was also created in a striking purple variant of the material. Sapphire crystal cases are notoriously expensive as a result of their difficulty to machine, which is why you see so few of these in the market. But the company was an early adopter of the use of the material and therefore capitalizes on it each year.
Big Bang Tourbillon Yellow Neon Saxem
At first glance, this looks like another iteration of Hublot’s exuberantly colorful sapphire crystal cases, but this Big Bang is made of something else altogether. It’s called Saxem, a material used in satellite technology that has even more brilliance than colored sapphire. It took three years for Hublot to develop the material in bright, neon yellow, which it describes as a fluorescent shade of acid yellow. Saxem (which stands for sapphire aluminum oxide and rare Earth mineral) was first used in 2019 in a shade of emerald green on the Big Bang MP-11. Like sapphire, it is transparent and incredibly scratch and chip resistant. The automatic tourbillon caliber HUB6035 is skeletonized and uses a micro-rotor so that plenty of light passes through the case and, because it’s transparent, you can see it from all sides. It comes on a neon-yellow rubber strap, color matched to the case.
Price: approx $433,000, limited to 50
Case Size: 44 mm x 14.40 mm
Case Material: Saxem
Big Bang Unico Sorai
Hublot has long sponsored sports heroes, but recently the company dovetailed into conservation issues, in some cases overlapping the two areas. This watch is Hublot’s third limited edition dedicated to an animal conservation organization run by former England International cricket champ, Kevin Pietersen. It’s called Saving Our Rhinos Africa & India (SORAI for short), and it focuses on protecting rhinoceroses from poachers. The dial is trimmed with colors of the sunset representing the heightened danger from poachers faced by rhinos at nightfall when the poachers pounce. Sadly, rhino horns are worth more per kilo than gold. The Unico Sorai contains the automatic caliber UNICO 2 and comes with either a gray fabric strap or a black rubber strap with black, orange and purple camouflage pattern.
Price: $34,583, limited to 100
Case Size: 44 mm x 14.50 mm
Case Material: Gray ceramic
Zenith
Zenith is juicing up its Defy collection, the brand’s launchpad line for showcasing its most advanced technology, materials and modern designs.
Defy Skyline Skeleton
The new lineup is headlined by the Defy Skyline Skeleton, an openworked version of the El Primero caliber 3620 SK, with a frequency of 36,000 vph and a 60-hour power reserve. Built with an architecture similar to the El Primero 3600 chronograph caliber, the automatic movement drives a 1/10th of a second hand directly from the escapement. It famously displays the fraction-of-a-second indication on the dial, a spectacle almost upstaged by the bold, colored (black or blue) bridges. They’re formed in a four-pointed star to evoke Zenith’s double Z logo of the 1960s. Otherwise, everything about this watch is modern, including the openworked design, state-of-the-art movement and heavily lumed hands and markers—a must for reading time on a skeletonized watch, which generally has a lot going on in the background.
Price: $23,000
Case Size: 41 mm
Case Material: Steel
Defy Extreme Glacier
The Defy Extreme Glacier is the priciest of the new models and a boutique-only edition. It harnesses the power of the most advanced version of Zenith’s El Primero movements, caliber 9004, capable of timing events to 1/100th of a second. It’s the highest-frequency chronograph in regular production today, and it struts its stuff on the dial: You can see the chronograph seconds hand whipping around the dial once every second. The Defy Extreme is all about, as its name suggests, extreme watchmaking and rugged sports, and was “inspired by the raw beauty of wild terrains” according to Zenith. The Glacier represents the opposite landscape of the Defy Extreme Desert launched in 2021 and is a cooler take on the model. Accordingly, it has an unusual decorative element representing the winter palette: The pusher guards and outer bezel are made of chalcedony, a semi-translucent, fairly tough quartz stone with a pale blue hue. Each piece is cut and polished by hand, and because their matrix and hue can vary slightly, each of the 50 examples of the Defy Extreme Glacier is unique. The case is titanium, which eliminates the potentially uncomfortable heaviness of a large watch—this one is a whopping 45 mm wide. It comes on a Velcro or white rubber strap.
Price: $37,100, limited to 50
Case Size: 45 mm
Case Material: Titanium
Defy Skyline
The Defy Skyline, the sporty everyday piece Zenith introduced last year in 41 mm, now comes in a more unisex-friendly 36 mm size. Keeping pace with the trend for bright dial colors that has been pervasive across the watch industry, the model now comes in pink, lime green and light blue dial colors. The dials are notched in a star-shaped pattern for extra glitter. It comes on a steel bracelet or optional starry-patterned rubber strap to match the dial colors. The movement is the Elite 670 automatic, with a 50-hour power reserve.Price: $12,500 to $17,000
Case Size: 36 MM
Case Material: Steel
Defy Skyline Boutique Edition
Back to the more manly size, there is a new 41 mm Boutique Edition of the Defy Skyline, with a dial designed in a gray and gold version of the star pattern – like stars in the night sky. It contains the El Primero caliber 3620, so it includes the dramatic 1/10th of a second indicator in a subdial. With a price tag of $16,000, this handsome piece and the 36 mm ones above, make for compelling alternatives to significantly more expensive pieces of similar designs from other Swiss brands.
Price: approx $16,000
Case Size: 41 MM
Case Material: Steel
Tag Heuer
Tag Heuer Monza Flyback Chronometre
It’s not easy to continuously update an icon over the years without compromising the original design, but the Monza Flyback Chronometre is a futuristic refresh that enhances rather than detracts from the spirit of the 1976 original. The carbon case emphasizes the model’s signature cushion shape while taking it into the future. Adding to the sporty vibe are translucent fumé blue sapphire crystals over the subdials at 3 and 6 o’clock, which also emphasize the model’s original purpose: motorsports timing. As does the new movement, flyback chronograph caliber Heuer 02, previously used only in the Autavia. The lumed date window at 9 adds to the functionality and the modern cool vibe. The lacquered hands and indexes also glow blue in low light. Racing red details, along with a tachymetre and pulsometre, add to the racing vibe.
Price: TBD
Case Material: Carbon
Case Size: 42 mm
Carrera Chronograph 60th Anniversary
The Carrera was launched in 1963, and over the past six decades, it has become an important pillar for the company. The anniversary edition is a remake of the fan favorite, the ref. 2447 SN, introduced in the late ’60s. It represents the second series of Carreras and comes in a panda design featuring a silvered dial with black subdials (SN in the reference number stands for “silver” and “noir”). It also repeats the striped markers and hands of the original, along with the double index markers at 12 o’clock. The position of the 60-minute counters is reversed compared to the original, but otherwise, it’s a faithful reproduction, with the addition of Super-LumiNova and a modern movement, the Heuer 02. This is a 600-piece limited edition but stay tuned for more anniversary pieces later in the year.
Price: TBD
Case Material: Steel
Case Size: 39 mm
Bulgari
In between shattering one world record after another for micro-thin watchmaking, Bulgari can also be consistently relied upon to honor its roots as a master jeweler, with colorful, gem-laden jewellery watches. Here are the latest drool-worthy diamond and gemstone watches in its Allegra, Serpenti and Diva’s Dream collections, set to be launched next week during LVMH Watch Week in New York.
Serpenti Tubogas Infinity
The serpent, a symbol of vitality and passion, has become Bulgari’s most recognizable motif, expressed here in a rendition that, comparatively speaking, is quite refined. The latest version of the iconic Serpenti comes with diamonds slithering down the wrap-around bracelet to further hone in on its character. The “Tubogas” in the name refers to the particular intricate engineering of the bracelet, with gold links that coil around the wrist like a snake. It is set with a total of 486 diamonds weighing 5.85 carats, set into the case, dial and bracelet. The movement is quartz.
Price: approximately $98,000
Case Material: 18-karat gold
Diva’s Dream
The gems in the Diva’s Dream collection demonstrate the subtle art of color blocking, using perfectly matched hues and sizes of stones and alternating them with gems of another color. There are three variations: amethyst (1.21 carats) paired with pink tourmaline (1.33 carats); topaz (1.56 carats) with tanzanite (1.45 carats); and all ruby (3.5 carats), with perky red hands to match the gems. In between the prong-set colored gems are stations of gold flutes—sculptural representations of this collection’s signature motif, the fan-shaped ginkgo leaf. The bezel and leaves are set with 1.51 carats of diamonds. The design is inspired by Bulgari brooches and necklaces of the 1980s and ’90s, with large, brightly colored gems in various sizes. The movement, as in most high jewellery watches, is quartz. The 33mm cases are rose gold.
Price: Approximately $69,800 for the ruby version; approximately $45,100 for amethyst and tourmaline; and approximately $45,100 for topaz and tanzanite.
Case Material: 18-karat rose gold
Case Size: 33 mm
Allegra
The Allegra line showcases Bulgari’s trademark ingredient: big, brightly colored gems in seemingly random cuts and sizes, arranged in a design that is freeform yet harmonious. It looks easy but from matching the gems to cutting, arranging and setting them, there is a lot of expertise involved in creating each piece. They are variously set with tourmalines, citrines, rhodolites, peridots, yellow sapphires and pink sapphires for one of the brand’s most exuberant expressions of La Dolce Vita. The gems are set prong style with open backs, the goal of which is to have as little metal as possible surrounding the gems in order to allow for plenty of light return, making the colors pop like neon. They contain quartz movements and are priced at €32,100
Diva’s Dream Mosaica
This model also celebrates the ginkgo leaf motif, but in a way that is closer to its initial source of inspiration, the mosaics on the floors of Rome’s Baths of Caracalla. There are two versions, one fully set with a gradient of 3.5 carats of sapphires ranging from pale pink to magenta, in white gold; and the other with 3 carats of blue sapphires ranging from sky blue to deep azure, set in white gold. They are interspersed with arc-shaped panels set with diamonds. Even the diamond-set links on the bracelet of the white gold/blue sapphire model are shaped like gingko leaves, with an overall effect that, in pure high-jewellery style, is crafted more like jewellery than a typical watch bracelet. The pink version has a strap connected to decorative lugs that also take the shape of the gingko leaf. The middle case is set with diamonds, so the watch sparkles from every angle. This one is a slightly larger canvas, with a 37 mm rose or white gold case. Each contains the automatic caliber BVL 191.
Price: Approximately $80,570 and approximately $139,650 for the blue sapphire
Case Material: 18-karat white gold or rose goldhttps://robbreport.com/style/watch-collector/hublot-zenith-bulgari-tag-heuer-debut-new-watches-for-1234793076/
Case Size: 37 mm
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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.
We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for any other Constellation Observatory timepieces (or any other unreleased models from the brand) at the rest of the star-studded events headed our way this year—perhaps the Met Gala?
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In Search of White Gold
Colorado’s barely known San Juan Mountains do a fine line in bespoke skiing experiences, luring alpine-sports cognoscenti and billionaire thrill-seekers alike.
“Though no one currently on staff is at liberty to say, billionaire actor Tom Cruise is a very average heli-snowboarder. But although no one currently on staff is at liberty to say, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—the world’s second richest human—makes up for Cruise’s inability with his off-piste prowess. The pair have been clients of Telluride Helitrax, a heli-skiing outfit operating in the backcountry behind Telluride Mountain Resort, in remote south-west Colorado, since 1982. My source, a former guide who prefers to remain anonymous, admits he’s entertained a host of household-name One Percenters over the years.”
“Power billionaires aren’t going to the popular resorts any more,” he reveals over a happy-hour drink at a Telluride bar. “Luxury skiing these days, it’s all about exclusivity. No one with any clout shares snow, and at every resort, no matter how fancy, you have to share the slopes. But nowhere is more exclusive than the backcountry. That’s your billionaire’s playground. And no backcountry is more exclusive than San Juan backcountry.”
Which is precisely why I am here. Australia’s considerable brigade of free-spending, snow-crazed executives may jet off to Vail and Aspen each northern winter for thrills, but it turns out some of the world’s most choicest ski experiences have been right under their noses—only a short helicopter ride, car journey or private jet flight from said resorts.
Packed into the ultra-rugged southern end of the Rocky Mountains, the San Juans are a little chunk of the Swiss Alps in the US—young, ridiculously spectacular formations known for their steep slopes, deep powder snow and Disney-esque triangular peaks, all bathed in 300-plus days of sunshine a year. And the region is augmented by unique, and select, backcountry options that rival anything currently in the upscale ski orbit.
Case in point: North America’s highest skiing setting, Silverton Mountain. Located in the heart of the San Juans, outside the tiny town of Silverton, the 4,111 m peak boasts 736 hectares of chair-accessible terrain set among what is reputedly the deepest, steepest snow in the nation. It also offers a further 10,000 hectares of private terrain, serviced by heli-ski operation Heli Adventures. This is the Shangri-La of skiing: every slope connoisseur has heard of it, though most wonder if it actually exists.
We arrive via the treacherous Million Dollar Highway, where a disturbing lack of guard rails sometimes causes travellers to plummet into the valley floor (the death toll, grimly, averages eight people per year). Silverton Mountain was bought in 2023 by Heli Adventures’ young co-founders Andy Culp and Brock Strasbourger. While private punters can book the hill in its entirety, starting from around $14,000 per day, plus extra for single heli-skiing runs, the destination is also open to the public from Thursdays to Saturdays through winter.
“Silverton is a bastion for the pure ski experience,” Culp says. “All that corporate consolidation that happened when ski resorts all over the world developed condos and real estate and got super-busy… well, it never happened here. You’re able to access Alaska-like terrain from an old rickety chairlift, but you’re an hour’s drive from a pretty major airport [Montrose]. And you can access snow that’s even better than most heli-skiing straight off your lift.”
There’s no radio-frequency lift passes when I arrive. In fact, I don’t get a lift pass at all. A discarded school bus doubles as the “second chairlift”; it picks me up and returns me to a yurt which serves as a restaurant and bar. “There’s a time and a place to hang out at The Little Nell [Aspen’s legendary après-ski bar] and the world doesn’t need more of that,” Culp says. “This is the new luxury. We also run a heli-ski business out of Aspen [Aspen Heli-Skiing] but this is where we come. You can’t put a price tag on what we have here.”
I drive away from the mountain, back along the perilous Million Dollar Highway, park my car and disappear into the San Juan National Forest with guide Kaylee Walden. This white-coated outback between Silverton and Ouray, dubbed “the Switzerland of America”, offers swathes of primo backcountry skiing terrain. The ski touring here is often likened to Europe’s iconic Haute Route—an emblematic trail between Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn.
The operator Mountain Trip offers a Colorado version of that feted circuit, on a multi-day traverse between secluded huts. All in all, there’s nearly 8,000 km² of national forest and 2,500 hectares of wilderness to explore, frequented only by the occasional intrepid enthusiast.
A wood-burning sauna is being prepared as I arrive at Thelma Hut, 4,500 m above sea level. Traditionally, US Forest Service huts were humble affairs, with rudimentary bunks, self-service kitchens, and food supplies brought in by skiers. This evening, however, a chef is preparing local bison across from an open fireplace as the sun sets through a floor-to-ceiling window against a horizon of white mountains. As he works, I walk out into the snow to study the twilight sky; beaming planets shine down on me, necklaces of tiny stars sparkle.
Back down to earth, upon my return to “civilisation”, we take a two-hour car ride to Telluride, probing through the San Juans. The small town is picture-postcard pretty, wedged at the end of a box canyon surrounded by Colorado’s tallest waterfalls, and hosts the highest concentration of 4,000-m-plus peaks in the state. Most of its buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, including a bank that was robbed in 1889 by the outlaw Butch Cassidy.
While the locale offers everything from luxurious on-mountain dining options to 7-km-long runs, it’s the heli-ski enterprise that’s lured me. Telluride Helitrax holds sole rights to over 500 km² of completely deserted ski terrain, a few minutes’ flying time from town. The company runs a range of Eurocopters which guests can charter into Colorado’s best alpine basins, cirques and couloirs. “The range mightn’t be as expansive as Alaska,” says Telluride Helitrax program director Joseph Shults. “But the views, the terrain, the snow depth and quality is as good.”
I’m staying in a privately owned three-bedroom penthouse apartment, where a helicopter takes off each morning for convenience (when I’m done carving clouds, I move a kilometre up the mountain to the seven-bedroom, three-storey mountain retreat Hood Park Haven, valued at around $42 million). Telluride Helitrax uses an abundance of drop-off locations, all above the tree line, meaning everyone from intermediates to experts can be catered for.
During my three-day odyssey, I don’t cross a single other ski track, but it’s the peace that is most startling. In this pocket of montane paradise, there is, literally, not a single sound—a stark contrast to the whirling fury of the chopper that transports me. My experienced guide Bill Allen won’t reveal who’s come before Robb Report. “You’d know their names,” he says, grinning.
And so the San Juans remain a secret to all but a fortunate few. Of all the luxuries the ultra-wealthy enjoy in the skiing ecosphere, the promise of untouched snow is by far the most enviable. Here in Colorado is where the white gold truly lies.
Photography: Kane Scheidegger (heli-skiing); Patrick Coulie (hut); Courtesy of Colorado Tourism Office (Hood Park Haven).
This article appears in the Autumn issue 2026 of Robb Report Australia New-Zealand. Click here to subscribe.
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Best Combustion Supercar: Ferrari 12Cilindri Spider
A modern classic in the making, combining naturally aspirated power with elegant restraint to deliver performance that feels as refined as it is visceral.
In a year when carmakers of all persuasions sheepishly extended hyperbolic electric targets, it’s fitting that the monastic puritans of Maranello—who, lest we forget, won’t finally yield to the sin of battery power until October with the Elettrica—opted to make combustion their major power play.
As an uncertain future of AI omnipresence barrels towards us, the 12Cilindri—an analogue, open-topped tribute to Ferrari’s late-’60s/early-’70s grand tourer, the Daytona—represents a defiant fade into the past, a pause for breath, a fleeting return to The Good Times when nascent technology provoked excitement rather than existential dread.
Guiding this automotive nostalgia trip is, as the nomenclature suggests, a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine, generating an unceasing wave of power as it sears towards the 9,500 rpm redline with relative nonchalance. That’s because the 12Cilindri is not a mouth-foaming attack-dog. It scales performance heights with the refinement of the finest Italian works of art; its “Bumpy Road” mode facilitates comfy al fresco GT cruising, and even the imperious powerplant is mannerly at most speeds.
For all the yesteryear romance, progressive technologies and engineering, such as a world-class 8-speed transmission, advanced electronic aids and independent four-wheel steering, are baked into the deal. The 12Cilindri’s clean, stark design somehow toggles between retro and modern; and while vaguely polarising, one can’t ignore its magnetic road presence.
In terms of aesthetics, Ferrari describes the 12Cilindri as being “ready for space”; in many ways, a fantasy vehicle that transports users to another dimension is probably what the world needs right now.
The Numbers
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Power: 610kW
Torque: 678 Nm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
0-100 km/h: 2.95 seconds
Top speed: 340 km/h
Price: From $886,800
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High and Low
At Le Bernardin, Aldo Sohm oversees one of the most formidable cellars in fine dining. But on the beach, he’ll happily drink a cheap rosé. The world-class sommelier explains why taste—and humility—matter more than price.
Aldo Sohm is one of the most accomplished sommeliers in the world. The 54-year-old Austrian heads up an oenophile’s empire on New York City’s West 51st Street, where he both serves as wine director at Michelin three-star Le Bernardin and leads his namesake wine bar, just across the road from the fine-dining institution. (He spends his time literally running back and forth between the two.) So it may come as a surprise that this man, who sips prized varietals all day, admits to the joys of a glass of Whispering Angel, a ubiquitous rosé that retails at stateside Target stores for US$22.99 (around $30) a bottle.
The context here is important; the aptly named Sohm is quick to clarify that he’s not about to start serving Whispering Angel as one of the pairings with chef Eric Ripert’s US$530 (around $750) eight-course tasting menu. But during a trip to the Caribbean for the Cayman Cookout food festival, Sohm’s wife requested a glass of rosé on the beach. When he went to fetch it, she specified that she wanted a cheap drop, not the fancy stuff that he likely would have grabbed. “I felt kind of gobsmacked, right?”
Sohm says as we’re sitting in the tasting room at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar. “Now, rather than just criticising, I have to admit: I got out of the water, and I tried Whispering Angel, too. It was delicious.”
Unlikely as it may be, this humility is perhaps the key to Sohm’s success. His lack of self-seriousness makes him an anomaly in the oftentimes highfalutin world of fine wine. Rather than shaming you for your preferences, Sohm will indulge your desires. Maybe, as in the case of his wife, you’re going to be right. More likely than not, you’re going to be wrong. He won’t simply tell you that, though; he’ll use his encyclopedic knowledge of wine to subtly steer you in the right direction, allowing you to come to that conclusion on your own. “You just wake up from your dream—and mistake—and realise that, ‘Oh yeah, he’s right,’” says Ripert, who has worked with Sohm for almost two decades.
Sohm intended to move to New York for only 18 months. Growing up in Innsbruck, in the Austrian Alps, he wanted to be a helicopter pilot. Like many childhood fantasies, that didn’t come to fruition, and he settled on something more practical, becoming a teacher at a hospitality school. Having overcorrected—“That was way too boring for me,” he admits—he switched to the more public-facing side of the industry, getting a job as a restaurant server. It was then, when he was about 21, that Sohm fell in love with wine. (Prior to that, he was a self-proclaimed Bacardi and coke guy.)
After studying wine on his own time, he began his formal sommelier education in 1998. He rose quickly through the ranks and was named the best sommelier in Austria in 2002, a title he defended the following two years and reclaimed in 2006. Amid that stretch, he sojourned to New York in 2004 with the goal of improving his English to compete in international competitions. It paid off: four years later, he won the top prize from the World Sommelier Association. But more than the accolades, Sohm had discovered a career. By then, he had joined Le Bernardin after stints at Wallsé, Café Sabarsky and Blaue Gans—all Austrian restaurants in Manhattan.
“Back then we had a very strong French sommelier community, and they controlled everything,” he says. “And it was an uproar because how come an Austrian sommelier came to one of the most French restaurants?” He proved his bona fides, and in 2013 Ripert and Maguy Le Coze, the co-owners of Le Bernardin, approached him with the idea of partnering with them in a wine bar. It was Ripert who suggested putting the connoisseur’s name on it.
Aldo Sohm Wine Bar debuted the following year, with a team that Sohm handpicked. Sarah Thomas was part of that opening crew, after meeting Sohm during a fateful dinner at Le Bernardin with her cousins. When her relatives divulged to him that she was a sommelier in Pittsburgh, he proceeded to serve a blind tasting to Thomas. “He didn’t say what I got right or wrong. He didn’t care about that,” she tells me. “He just wanted to hear me talk about wine, I guess. So I did.”
When he offered her a job at the end of the meal, she laughed. Sohm didn’t. Thomas promptly packed up and moved to New York. After she spent about nine months at the wine bar, Sohm promoted her to Le Bernardin, where she worked for another five years. When she decided to start her own business—Kalamata’s Kitchen, which aims to teach kids about other cultures through food—Sohm was one of her earliest investors. He may have found full-time teaching to be too banal, but it’s still a huge part of what he does now, identifying the next generation of stars and giving them the guidance to grow into their own—whether that takes them into the upper echelons of fine dining or beyond the white tablecloths altogether.
Overseeing two teams, at two very different spaces, feeds Sohm’s prodigious ambition. He’s on a mission to completely reshape the world of wine, from what’s in your glass to the glass itself to what you enjoy it with—say, Champagne with eggs. Along with his day jobs, he has partnered with the Austrian brand Zalto to create his own wineglasses. “As a sommelier, you criticise only, but you make nothing,” Sohm says. So, he also now wears the winemaker hat, producing a Grüner Veltliner under the Sohm & Kracher label, a relatively accessible quaff that’s a collaboration with his fellow countryman Gerhard Kracher. And in 2019 he added author to his résumé, releasing Wine Simple, a “totally approachable guide”, as the book’s subtitle puts it. He followed that up with Wine Simple: Perfect Pairings, to help you pick the right bottle for the right meal and the right moment.
“In wine pairings, you have three possible combinations,” Sohm says. “There’s the perfect pairing. Then sometimes you have flavours just going along… it’s like humans—they talk, they interact, but they never connect. And then there’s conflict.” It’s that first one he’s after every time.
“Sohm fell in love with wine when he was about 21. Prior to that, he was a self-proclaimed Bacardi and coke guy.”
Outside of the restaurant, the wine bar and the cellar, Sohm is an avid cyclist who owns six bikes, a number he admits is excessive—especially in New York City. Riding is what he credits with keeping him healthy, when so much of his time is spent eating and drinking—and drinking some more.
Still, despite the 18-year career at one of the world’s best restaurants, despite the top honours from his peers, despite the wine and the wineglasses and the wine books, Sohm doesn’t consider himself successful. Every day, he’s trying to figure out how he can self-correct. “I like what I do, so I go back home that night, think of things which I can improve,” he says. “I get annoyed when I make a mistake, but I improve the next day.”
His quest for perfection may never be over, but Sohm does concede that he’s happy—its own type of success. Sometimes he finds that happiness while sipping a glass of 1980 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche, a bottle now so rare and coveted that he calls it “unattainable”. And sometimes, if to his chagrin, he finds it while drinking a mass-produced rosé on the beach.
Photography by Tori Latham
This article appears in the Autumn issue 2026 of Robb Report Australia New-Zealand. Click here to subscribe.
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This article appears in the Autumn issue 2026 of Robb Report Australia New-Zealand. Click here to subscribe.
