One of the pillar families of American whiskey royalty just unveiled not only a brand new expression but an entirely new ongoing label. At a private event celebrating the official opening of their revamped distillery experience in Clermont, Jim Beam Master Distiller—and world renowned master raconteur—Fred Noe took the stage and made two headline grabbing announcements.
First was that his son, 8th Generation Beam Family Distiller Freddie Noe, would join him as fellow Master Distiller. Not when the legendary Fred retires—as he took the reins when his pops Booker retired—but simultaneously, so the two could work alongside one another. The idea being that Freddie would take control over the newly opened Fred B. Noe Distillery, dedicated to his father.
“One of my biggest regrets is to never have distilled alongside my own father, Booker, so working side-by-side with Freddie will be a dream come true,” Fred explained from the porch of the new distillery. “I believe that a Master Distiller should understand the craft of distilling, uphold quality, and honor tradition while spearheading innovation. Freddie embodies this wholeheartedly and I look forward to seeing Freddie lead the charge in creating the next generation of whiskeys that help to grow the American whiskey category around the world.”
In the honor of that pledge for innovation, the father-son Noe duo unveiled Hardin’s Creek Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey—an ongoing annual series of limited production releases featuring some of the rarest and most unique whiskies in the Jim Beam rickhouses.
The more affordable of this year’s Hardin’s Creek offerings, Colonel James B. Beam (SRP $80), features a blend of very young (only 2-years old) Kentucky whiskies. But it is their Jacob’s Well bottle, named after the spring that helped build the Jim Beam empire, that really moves us. Via Zoom we sat down with father and son Noe and toasted their new line with a dram of Jacob’s Well at an event they noted was 227 years in the making—their forebear Jacob Beam first set up shop in Kentucky in 1795. An honor to share the moment with them.
A rich blend of two ultra-aged bourbons—a 16-year-old bourbon with a 15-year-old high-rye bourbon—Jacob’s Well boasts a gorgeous amber color mated to a luxurious mouthfeel. But it is the bourbon’s rich notes of caramel and oak with a hint of peach and ripe apricot that makes this our Spirit of the Week.
Both of the limited edition Hardin’s Creek whiskies comes bottled at 54% ABV, and neither will be seen again once they’ve sold out. The two new expressions will hit shelves across America on July 1—just in time to celebrate Independence Day.
Follow our Contributing Spirits Editor on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.
For the home of a bonafide rock star who’s married to a Kardashian, Travis Barker’s Calabasas, California mansion is tastefully modest.
The one-story home, which spans just under 10,000 square feet, was featured in Architectural Digest following a fresh renovation by Waldo Fernandez, a regular on the mag’s AD100 list of top design, decor and architecture talent.
“I had interviewed several designers, and the day I met Waldo, the minute I spoke to him on the phone, his energy was just the best energy I had experienced.”
Barker gave Fernandez carte-blanche to remodel the home while the musician was on-tour for most of a year, during which time he was advised to stay away until it was time to move in.
The Blink-182 drummer, in-demand producer and frequent Machine Gun Kelly collaborator described the resulting abode as a “zen” retreat in which he can recover from the strains of the road.
“When I come home from long tours or long nights at the studio, [it’s] just a place to rest my head,” he said from his living room, which is decorated with a banzai tree and works by cult-favorite artists Raymond Pettibon and Wes Lang.
It’s also where Fernandez made one of his many contributions during the remodel. The room’s back wall, previously covered entirely to windows, was knocked out and replaced with two giant double doors that open to the pool.
Much of the home is minimal in aesthetic. There’s a sparsely decorated dining room, where he, his soon-to-be-wife Kourtney Kardashian, and the six kids between the couple “eat delicious vegan food.”
In the TV room, Fernandez replaced vaulted ceilings and recessed lighting with heightened, flat ceilings to create clean lines.
“I like clean space, it allows me to think,” Barker said. “And it doesn’t like crowd my vibe.”
There are some signs of rock star excess. Next to a cement ping-pong table, two of Barker’s collection of 25 BMX bikes were displayed for the AD feature, both of which were designed by Dior. The white one was a gift from Kourtney’s sister Kendall, and the gold one was offered to Barker after LeBron James failed to pick it up from the high-fashion label.
There’s a movie theater featuring terraced couches and 100 professionally-tuned speakers, and a home studio where Barker recorded and produced music during quarantine, including his part on MGK’s “Bloody Valentine.”
His walk-in closet is filled with his staple attire: vintage t-shirts, slacks, Doc Martens and Converse sneakers. And Baker’s bed is a vibrating “organic” mattress free of “toxins and all sorts of bad things that everyone sleeps on and they don’t know about.” Then there’s his garage of murdered-out rides, including the Buick GNX Kourtney gave him for his 46th birthday.
“Usually I drive all my old cars, but this one I have to baby and only drive during special occasions,” he said of the ultra-rare “Buick Regal from hell.”
Next to that is the also scarcely seen G-Wagen 4×4 Squared—of which only hundreds exist—a Rolls-Royce Cullinan with the optioned shooting-star headliner, and an Escalade.
“I’ve had an Escalade every year since they came out with the Escalade. It’s like a must for my fleet. It’s perfect for the kids. I have “Cadillac” tattooed down my ribcage. I’ll never outgrow Cadillac.”
Watch the embedded video above to see the full tour.
Louis Vuitton is continuing to honor Virgil Abloh with what will surely be the most coveted new kicks to launch so far this year.
The late fashion designer, who served as Louis Vuitton’s first black director of menswear until his untimely death last November, crafted 47 bespoke Nike Air Force 1 designs baring the high-fashion label’s insignia.
One received a low-volume run of 200, each of which were sold for as much as $352,800 at a Sotheby’s auction in February.
Nine more of Virgil Abloh’s AF1 designs are getting proper production for sale in Louis Vuitton stores, and though they’re sure to be snapped up and resold on the aftermarket for vast sums, the suggested retail prices of $2,096 for low-tops and $2,620 for mid-tops are affordable by comparison.
“The Air Force 1 is a sample like the Amen Break. A t-shirt is an ‘Amen Break,’ a suit is an ‘Amen Break,’” Abloh said of his AF1 design philosophy in June 2021, referencing one of the most famous and sampled drum beat breaks of all time.
“We’re all iterating on the same ideas. But, in my canon, the Air Force 1 puts the edge on the blade. This object happened way before me, but to get to a context where it’s adjacent to the t-shirt and the suit, its logic has been forty years in the making.”
The launch includes the classic all-white sneaker embossed with the Louis Vuitton Monogram, plus a riff on the same design in black suede. Two-tone editions in white with either green, red or blue detailing hark Abloh’s rainbow motif, while a metallic gold sneaker pays homage to the designer’s debut collection for Louis Vuitton’s flagship Maison location.
There are also patchworked multi-color renditions, and a Damier canvas edition embellished with a graffiti motif created by the artist Ghusto Leone.
All nine designs are listed below:
Coinciding with the sneakers’ launch is a public exhibition located at Terminal Warehouse in New York City from May 21-31. All 47 of Abloh’s AF1 editions will be on display in “physical and virtual form in immersive spaces reflective of the designer’s domains of creation and presentation,” according to a statement from the brand.
Here’s more on the exhibition from Louis Vuitton:
The exhibition…will be wrapped in a vivid orange, and adorned with a logo fusing those of Louis Vuitton and Nike. A grid-like structure, it is the blueprint for the imaginary city erected within the space, seen from above. Walking around the exhibition, guests meander a giant version of the logo reflected in a mirrored ceiling. They are surrounded by 3D-printed statues akin to the ones Virgil Abloh built during his tenure at Louis Vuitton, framed by walls painted in the clouds characteristic of his show sets and campaign imagery.
Drawing on the surrealist ideas central to his practice, the 47 editions of the Louis Vuitton and Nike “Air Force 1” dialogue are exhibited in motion on magnetised walls and in holographic displays animating the sneakers with cues to the breakdancing rooted in the hip-hop culture inseparable to their legacy.
A treehouse constructed above the city pays tribute to Virgil Abloh’s affinity for the childlike mind. Inside, it recreates with exact detail spaces from the Louis Vuitton studio and atelier he furnished on Rue du Pont-Neuf in Paris, highlighting the savoir-faire central to his work for the Maison and the artisanal merit with which the sneakers were created in Louis Vuitton’s workshop in Fiesso d’Artico.
Virgil Abloh’s Nike x Louis Vuitton Air Force 1s are set to arrive in stores globally in June.
Ana de Armas is considered one of the hottest young actresses in Hollywood for good reason. With recent breakout roles in Knives Out, No Time To Die and Deep Water, the Cuban-born beauty is set to take her career to the next level with Blonde, the NC-17 Netflix biopic in which she portrays legendary actress and pin-up Marilyn Monroe.
Based on a Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, Netflix’s first-ever NC-17 release is directed by Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Mindhunter) and scored by cult rocker Nick Cave.
While de Armas has mostly remained mum on the buzzed-about role, EW recently published an article based on a 2019 interview in which she talked about making Blonde.
“It was the most intense work I’ve ever done as an actress,” she told EW. “It took me a year to prepare for that — research and accent and everything you can imagine. Reading material, and talking to Andrew Dominik for months, and getting ready to start. It was three months of shooting nonstop — like, a crazy schedule.”
But she added, “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done. Can’t wait for it to come out. It’s a very special film, and Andrew’s a genius. He’s one of the best filmmakers I’ve ever worked with.”
Around the time de Armas shot Blonde, she was also shooting her role as 007’s sidekick spy in Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film, No Time To Die.
“I was preparing for Blonde, and then the film got pushed, and I got called for No Time to Die,” she said. “I went to London, and I only had like 10 days to do two weeks of training, which is not much for everything I had to do, which made me very nervous.”
She continued, “And then, on top of that, Daniel [Craig, who plays Bond] got injured and I had to postpone my shoot and go back to do Marilyn Monroe, which is completely different from everything else — emotionally, mentally, and physically — and then three months later go back to London and go back to being a Bond girl.
“All that training I did was kind of gone and forgotten! But it all worked out, and I was working with the best team possible, and they made it happen, so I’m happy with it.”
Author Joyce Carol Oates, who wrote the 2000 book Blonde that the movie is based on, previously said she saw an early cut of the project and was impressed.
“It is startling, brilliant, very disturbing & [perhaps most surprisingly] an utterly ‘feminist’ interpretation,” she tweeted in August 2020. “Not sure that any male director has ever achieved anything [like] this.”
In addition to Armas, Blonde stars Adrien Brody as Monroe’s third husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, and Bobby Cannavale as famed baseball player and Monroe’s second husband Joe DiMaggio.
In other Monroe-related news, Andy Warhol’s portrait of the actress recently sold for a record $195 million.
The booming, thunderous sound of a stack of Marshall amps guides the backline sound of the world’s most famous bands — and that same sound holds true even in the new-and-improved Marshall Emberton II Speaker.
The Marshall Emberton Speaker is already beloved among fans of high-quality, portable home audio in its own right, boasting a waterproof design and a look that pays homage to Marshall’s legendary full-sized amps.
Marshall’s lineup also includes the new Willen speaker, boasting 15 hours of battery life and a compact, easy-to-carry design.
If you thought it was hard to improve upon a modern classic, think again: Marshall has quite literally amped up the toughness of the Emberton Speaker with an IP67 water and dust-resistant rating, and it can even be submerged in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes without missing a beat.
The Willen delivers on Marshall’s promise of exceptional sound quality and portable design, boasting two color options guaranteed to add flair to any listening experience.
For those who prefer a longer battery life and don’t mind a slightly larger design, the Emberton II hits all the right notes, too.
The Marshall Emberton II remains as portable and compact as ever, designed to deliver on-the-go Bluetooth sound in a stylish package that stands out handsomely anywhere in your home — or on the road.
Two full-range drivers and passive radiators deliver the high-impact sound you seek, and the use of the brand’s True Stereophonic technology also provides standout multi-directional sound.
One of the more impressive attributes of the upgraded Marshall Emberton II is its playtime: It provides 50 percent more playtime once fully charged than the first edition of the Emberton (more than 30 hours, to be exact).
Even 20 minutes of charging delivers four hours of playtime, an astounding amount of efficiency that ensures you’ll never run out of airtime for your favorite indie rock (for example).
Bluetooth 5.1 capability powers the connectivity of the Emberton II, and for the audiophiles among us, there’s a dedicated app complete with equalizer preset options.
Even the control knob on the Emberton II serves a purpose: Pause, play, skip tracks and adjust the volume with ease (not that you’ll want to skimp on hearing every bit of the stunning sound quality of Marshall’s latest and greatest).
The design is also even more thoughtfully considered once you dig deeper — it’s made from 50 percent post-consumer recycled materials.
Sound remains paramount in the build of this handsome, retro-leaning portable Bluetooth speaker: As Marshall says, the brand poured its heart and soul into a speaker that “now packs an even mightier punch than before to deliver the ultimate listening experience.”
Besides the standout design and seriously cool looks, the best thing might be the price — it’s just $169.99 to get a taste of a proper concert listening experience at home. To that, we say you can turn it up to 11.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which state is the thirstiest of them all? It’s actually New Hampshire, according to a new study tracking the amount of beer consumed by residents of all 50 states.
The Beer Institute Brewer’s Almanac tallied which states drink the most suds in gallons, and those numbers were made into an infographic created by Victor Depre of Hypntic Data. To add another layer of intoxicating intrigue, he also included each states’ most purchased beer brands based on Data Agency’s 2021 Beer Rankings Report.
New Hampshire leads the pack with 41.5 gallons consumed per capita, followed close by by Montana at 41.1 gallons. Both states prefer Budweiser, which was the most popular choice nationwide as the the leading label in 21 other states.
North Dakota takes No. 3 at 37.5 gallons, but the midwestern state opts for its home-grown Fargo Brewing label. Budweiser reenters the chat in South Dakota, which puts down 37.3 gallons per person to claim No. 4.
Vermont rounds at the top 5 at 34.0 gallons and a predilection for Bud Light, followed by Wisconsin at a somewhat surprising No. 6 with 33.7 gallons and another local fave, Spotted Cow.
InsideHook spotted the study on Twitter and notes that consumption rates in the top top two states double that of the least beer-drinking state, Maryland at 19.7 gallons. Connecticut (19.8), New Jersey (20), Utah (20) and Rhode Island (20.1) round out the bottom five.
Click here to see an interactive version of this infographic and here to find out where your home state ranks in beer consumption.
Tanya Kizko celebrated her Maxim March/April cover appearance by hosting an intimate, eco-conscious dinner benefitting a charity for the children of her war-torn homeland.
The elegant charity event featured a silent auction for Save The Children Ukraine, followed by a zero-waste dinner prepared by Chef Denevin Miranda at The Osprey restaurant inside the stunning 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge.
Guests were greeted with a signature cocktail representing a sunflower, the national flower, of Ukraine, while proceeds from the specialty cocktails were donated to Save the Children Ukraine for the entire month of April.
As a luxury lifestyle hotel brand inspired by nature, 1 Hotels cultivates the best of sustainable design and architecture, blending extraordinary comfort and an unrivaled level of service. Guests were welcomed into the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, a striking natural sanctuary located on the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront.
The dinner was housed inside The Osprey, which hosts quarterly Suppers That Sustain Us, designed by Chopped champion and executive Chef Devin Miranda, as apart of their initiative to become an eco-conscious, “net zero” kitchen.
In collaboration with Foodprint Group, the special menu was curated from locally-sourced ingredients. Foodprint Group uses design, behavior change, and Footprint Trax, a mobile and web-based app designed to eliminate waste in food and hospitality businesses. Foodprint is a proudly female-owned-and-operated business based in Brooklyn.
The intimate, 60-person dinner included model Valentina Ferrer, current Miss New York USA Briana Siaca, Australian style influencer Charlotte Bridgeman, and multiple former pageant winners, including, Miss New York USA 2020, Andreia Gibau and model Rachelle Di Stasio, who competes for the Miss New York USA 2022 crown in June.
Attendees enjoyed the five-course meal paired with wine provided by Macari Wines, a zero waste espresso martini courtesy of Belvedere Vodka, and elegant Italian mineral water provided by Sole.
