Unnecessarily Well Made, Presented by Sharp & Glenmorangie

In life, you’re always told to do your best. Fortunately, there are some people who actually accomplish that, and the result is something that is better than anybody has the right to expect, something so rich in quality that it’s almost excessive. Here, we raise a glass to the best of the best.

 

Clearaudio Statement Turntable

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In 2015, the distinction of creating the world’s finest turntable might seem a little like boasting that you make a really great VHS player: what’s the point, right? The point is that no matter how many millions of songs you can stream to whichever cloud-based Bluetooth flavour of the week, none of it can match the sheer beauty of a single vinyl record spinning gracefully upon this feat of modern engineering. A cool 770 pounds of aluminum, stainless steel and bulletproof wood, its intricate pendulum-mounted chassis required nearly 30 years of R&D to create. The result is pitch-perfect sound reproduction with zero distortion or colouring — just a whole lot of style, sophistication and soul. More and more men are realizing what they are missing without vinyl, and this is the best turntable to experience what has been lost.

 

Hellman-Chang Sternum Chaise

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Let everyone else keep buying the same old Eames chairs. You’re a man who looks forward, and what you’re seeing right now is the esteemed, of-the-moment work of Brooklyn-based furniture makers Hellman-Chang. Their masterpiece: this arresting, downright sensual solid-wood chaise. Crafted entirely in the company’s Bushwick studio, it’s more than sixty joints are seamlessly arranged in an ergonomic position designed to look and feel truly exceptional.

 

Van Dam Geronimo Boat

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This is the vessel you’ve been daydreaming about your entire life. Almost. It sure looks like the boat you’ve imagined — all that lustrous varnished wood hand-shaped into the distinctive, timeless lines of a 1920s commuter — but a closer inspection reveals that it’s so much more. The twin 300 hp Turbo Diesels beneath its elegantly rounded stern will push 35 knots like it’s nothing, while the powered leather recliner on deck will give you a level of onboard comfort you never anticipated. It’s a flawless marriage of age-old boatbuilding technique and state-of-the-art innovation that doesn’t simply fulfill your childhood wishes, it blows right past them.

 

Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue

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There’s no need to actually explain the genius of this album, is there? No, it’s much simpler to just ask you to think back to how you felt the first time you heard the slinking groove of the piano and bass intro at the top of “So What,” followed by the impossibly smooth, undulating upsurge of Davis’s trumpet. In that moment, you likely felt like you were experiencing some new kind of clarity, almost as if you’d stumbled upon a fuller, truer definition of the word “cool.” Because that’s what Kind of Blue, like Davis himself, is, above all else: cool personified, a beacon of pure virtuoso brilliance.

 

Hudson Woods Kitchen Pantry

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The thing about good design — design that’s smart, efficient and attractive — is that it’s addictive. Once you’re accustomed to strong, clean lines in one area of your house, you suddenly need them everywhere. This hand-built custom pantry is how you bring said lines into your kitchen. The strips of ethically-harvested black walnut that comprise the doors, combined with the soapstone interior shelf and heavy brass hardware, give it a distinctive yet understated look — a kind of rugged, naturalistic take on minimalism. It makes its presence felt without raising its voice.

 

Glenmorangie Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky

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Over 170 years of producing whisky on the same plot of land in the rolling highlands just outside Tain. Twenty-six craftsmen using water from the nearby Tarlogie Springs, the finest barley grown in the area, and the tallest stills in all of Scotland. Ten full years of maturation in first-and-second-fill white oak casks. Creating Scotland’s best selling whisky is, more than anything, about time and location. Glenmorangie Original is about taking things slow, doing them right, and doing them with pride in whisky’s one true home. That’s how you achieve an unrivaled balance and depth, not to mention complex notes like banana, almonds, vanilla and ginger. That’s how you develop a taste that flows across the palate with all the smoothness of a figure skater. That’s how you make a single malt scotch worthy of its name, its heritage and your glass.