We live in a world where any bottle is available if you have the fortitude to track it down and are willing to part with your dwindling resources. Yeah that would be your shrinking portfolio that we’re referencing. But our philosophy is that moderation is for monks and you can’t take it with you, so live well. That said, wine doesn’t have to be expensive to be good, but a pedigree is helpful.

In what may be the only wine in history to achieve cult status before anyone had even so much as had a sip, Levy and McClellan, two of the greatest wine makers in the New World, produced a stunning 2004 Cabernet which Robert Parker awarded a 95 – 98. The wine is a blend of 92 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. You won’t find this on the shelves of your local mini-mart. The only way you can purchase their very limited production wine is to be on their list, so you will want to join the cult now.

Still dragging your heels? At $350 a bottle price tag — a sum that puts it behind cult favorite Screaming Eagle at $500 — it is a controversial new wine. However, according to James Laube at Wine Spectator (who is quite handsome just in case this is important criteria), “the 2004 is plush, rich, opulent and, at points, fleshy and elegant, given its size.”

Worth every penny and three hail Mary’s.

One of the toughest things when traveling is leaving your baby behind… your four-wheeled, 400-horsepower baby, that is. Fortunately, Raffles L’Ermitage Beverly Hills understands your pain. They’ve instituted the “Choice Is Yours”, which allows people who book the Presidential, the Governor, or the Grandlux Suite to choose from a Ferrari 430 Spyder, a Bently GT Convertible, a Bently GT Coupe, or a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder.

Simply book the Presidential Suite and select your ride. You’ll be met at the airport and whisked off to the vehicle of your choosing. From then on you’re free to cruise Rodeo to your heart’s content or blaze up Highway 1 to Malibu. Any way you cut it, you’re rolling in style.

When you’ve turned enough heads, come on home to your newly-enlarged grand 4,400 square foot Presidential Suite. This cozy little abode features three bedrooms, a living room (with grand piano), a media/game room, a formal dining room, four bathrooms, kitchenette, private entrances, and five balconies with views from Downtown to the beaches.

If you can find your way out of your room, you can enjoy a smorgasbord of other treats: the RafflesAmrita Spa with a full suite of spa treatments, steam rooms, aromatherapy,and more; their rooftop pool with private cabanas and pretty one of the best views in all of LA; and multiple dining options, including JAAN and meals in the poolside cabanas. If you can’t find your way out, stay in and indulge in their top-ranked private dining. Added bonus: Raffles is extremely pet-friendly with wide selection of pet services, so your puppy will feel as pampered as you do.

So get it in gear: LA luxury awaits!

The Rovio is basically a GPS-enabled webcam on wheels that looks suspiciously like an upside-down Star Trek Enterprise. The robot syncs with your computer via WiFi to allow it to be controlled by your mobile phone, gaming console… basically anywhere you can get an internet connection. Say you’re sitting in Rome and want to know if your pooch is sleeping on the guest bed. Simply fire up the Rovio from your hotel room and check out the situation. The streaming video and audio will allow you to hear the dog snoring, see his drooling face on your pillow, and tell him to get off the bed.

The top-mounted movable camera and wide range of vision enables you to see and hear exactly what Rovio sees and hears on your screen, even in low light.

Although the company thinks this is a good home product, we could have much more fun with it at the Mi4M office. We’ve come up 7 compelling ways to incite office espionage with the Rovio.

1. 1. Guard our secret vodka stash from our advertiser
2. 2. Check out what the new employee is doing and contribute to her growing sense of paranoia
3. 3. Use instead of email to deliver papers from office to office (hey, what better way to “break through the clutter”)
4. 4. Keep an eye on the front door (due to the recession, we had to let the nail-filing, gum-chewing receptionist go… go figure)
5. 5. Watch the new intern try to figure out the Italian cappuccino machine and bark conflicting instructions at him
6. 6. See what the marketing team is planning to present, so we can quickly squash any good ideas they might have
7. 7. Follow the art director down the street to his favorite lunchtime bar (and make sure he’s drinking the good stuff)

Just refrain from going crazy with more babysitter videos… the internet has enough of that on it already.

When you think of Switzerland, you don’t usually think of “crazy”. “Meticulous,” “clean,” “reliable,” “courteous”—all these may come to mind. But crazy? Well, it’s easy to forget that the Swiss do have some of the most extreme mountains in the world and they’ve got enough loose marbles to rip it up on them no matter what the time of year.

Enter the Kulmhotel Gornergrat, which embodies all the qualities listed above. The “craziness” comes into play due to its location: 10,000 feet above sea level situated in the midst of the Swiss Alps with panoramic views covering twenty-nine 13,000-foot peaks, including the Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn. Located about 45 minutes from Zermatt, you reach the hotel via the Gornergrat rack railroad, Europe’s highest open-air cog railway. The train climbs nearly 5,000 feet from the Zermatt station over bridges, ravines, and more to drop you off right in Gornergrat. Note that this place is so high with skies so crystal-clear that they built two observatories on top of the hotel in 1996, one of which is still in use by the University of Cologne.

Once at the top, you’ve got all sorts of activities at your disposal. Skiers can enjoy 250 miles of prepared ski runs in the wintertime. There’s the Swiss Topwalk, which uses computer chips to measure the time it takes you to do various Nordic walks, submit them online, and compare them against the best male and female athletes in the world (just in case you want to have your sense of achievement crushed). You can visit the igloo village (and even do an overnight), go snow-shoe trekking, or take their toboggan which drops you nearly 1000 feet in about 10 seconds. In the summertime, there’s hiking, biking, the Swiss Topwalk once again, sunset dinner hikes, and the newest rage in the Alps, nude hiking. Any time of the year, if you call ahead, you can get a personal tour through the observatory and observe the starlight skies through the telescopes.

When you’ve had enough adventure, relax in the best the Kulmhotel has to offer. An early 1900‘s chateau provides an historic exterior but the interior is completely updated: Clean modern styling reins throughout, with lots of sleek light woods playing off of white walls and red accents. Enjoy cocktails in the high-ceilinged bar and traditional Swiss comfort food in their cozy restaurant. Then retire to your room where flat screen TVs, plush beds, and sweeping views await. Word is that the Monte Rosa suite is the way to go.

Any way you cut it, you won’t regret getting high, Swiss-style.

Katafanga Island, Fiji

While looking for our next vacation adventure, I thought that a nice deserted island would provide a little respite for the soul. Then it occurred to me: why visit when you can move in? And why share when you really don’t have to do so? And really, who doesn’t want to be the monarch of their own little kingdom?

With a renewed sense of destiny and a Reidel flute full of my favorite bubbly, I checked out islands in Greece (a little too raw), Tonga (questionable government), the Caribbean (too common) and South America (has promise, but not quite yet). The sun was setting over the Bay, the champagne was getting low and I was losing hope.

Then I discovered Katafanga Island, one of the last pieces of paradise for sale in the South Pacific. It’s everything you might want in a Fijian island complete with a luxury resort complex currently under development. Just think: own your island and you can release your inner designer when you put the finishing touches on the resort.

The resort includes 20 private guest villas, each with its own outdoor shower, spa tub built for two and private lanai with a fresh water plunge-pool overlooking the 5000-acre turquoise lagoon and reef that encircles the island. Other buildings on the island include a dining pavilion, open air lounge, two-story wine cellar, fitness center, full-service spa, nine-hole executive golf course, tennis court, airplane hangar, marina and moorings for visiting mega-yachts, and a runway perfect for your small personal jet.

The island also has nine limestone caves full of stalagmites and stalactites – perfect for splunking. The deepest cave explored so far is 400 feet below the surface, but we’re sure you can do better.

When we all move to the island, what should we call ourselves? Katafanganese? Katafanganoans? Those all sound a bit like bizarre dog breeds. Either way, I’ll bring the champagne.

What you want is a new master, steeped in the lore of the masters that came before, but eager to leave his mark on the modern world. Enter the geniuses at Gaziano & Girling. With pedigrees from Green and Cleverly, these guys are ready, willing, and able to make their mark on the world of good taste. Dean Girling states it eloquently: “English shoemakers don’t like challenge or evolution, whereas Italian and French counterparts are so hungry for both that their styles are too fashion-oriented. We want to create a balance between the two.” Translation: not too hot, not too cold, but just right (thank you Goldilocks).

They offer bench made, made to order, and bespoke shoes with the full compliment of designs that combine the classic and cutting-edge. Classic calfskin oxfords that defy the norm with cap toes cut in the shape of diamonds; square-toe loafers with twisted penny straps; classic wingtips with diamond-shaped perforations; they take the best of the old and add just the right amount of new. They’re not afraid to seek out tanneries anywhere in the world to find the right leather for your ideal shoe. The final touch: they’ve got sole—their soles cause raving among fans for their attention to detail.

If you’re interested, the time to act is now. Tony Gaziano will be visiting the United States all through April, hitting Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

That said: when you’re straight-up batshit crazy for extreme, then you’re ready take up wingsuit flying. This crazy-ass sport takes makes skydiving look like bungee-jumping (and bungee-jumping look like riding a pogo stick). In wingsuit flying, you wear a special wingsuit which has fabric sewn between the legs and under the arms to create an airfoil which actually creates lift. The end result is greater control while flying (or “falling” as some might call it) and more horizontal movement.

The results are truly insane (see the video to the right for examples). Typical BASE jumps are finished in seconds – with wingsuits you can fly for minutes which feel like an eternity. You can do barrel rolls, swoops, and flips. And the lunatics in Norway are going for extra thrills by flying within feet of the cliff walls that they jump off of.

Naturally if you’re putting your life on the line like this, you have to have the best equipment possible, and these come from Phoenix Fly. Founded by Robert Pecnik, longtime skydiver and designer of the first commercial wingsuit, Phoenix Fly represents the most state-of-the-art in wingsuit manufacturing. They offer a variety of wingsuits, from beginner models up to the most advanced suits available, including the Vampire (a high-performance suit which is the weapon of choice for BASE jumpers) and the Stealth (a brand-new design aimed at slow freefall speeds and maximum range). Each suit is tailor-made to your personal body shape, resulting in an outfit that maximizes comfort and performance.

Bear in mind you’re going to need at least 200 regular skydiving jumps before you can begin instruction on wingsuit flying (or 500 if you’re cocky enough that you figure you can just teach yourself). But if you’ve got the sack to go wingsuit flying, you probably won’t mind a couple hundred free-falls beforehand.

And then you can chuckle to yourself as you blow past the line between “sport” and “extreme sport” at a hundred miles an hour.

A more ecologically sound alternative than its foam board predecessors, the Rayskin, with an 8-14 week production time, was specifically designed to give good solid maneuverability for East and West coast surf conditions.

The company hand-crafts, numbers each ride-able work of art and even surfs your custom board to make sure it’s up to snuff. It is then refinished and delivered to your beach-side mansion or Airstream, whichever you prefer. Matthew, you know we’re talking to you. Forget what TMZ says, we don’t care if you ever grow up. Keep surfing dude.

In what has to be one of the coolest jobs on the planet, Rayskin promises to test ride with the best surfers to keep improving and modifying its rides, since in the end, it’s all about surfing, not just the look. Mi4m begs to differ. But hey, what do we know, we’re just a bunch of champagne swirling lounge lizards.

Clothes make the man? I beg to differ. Sometimes the crowning touch – the truly defining element – is not the clothes, but the glasses. Tom Cruise’s “Risky Business” Wayfarers marked the beginning of a phenomenon. Bootsy Collins could not have brought the P-Funk without his star shades. And Woody Allen without those thick-ass frames looks naked (and thank God that’s all he ever takes off in movies). But there’s an art to selecting eyewear that eludes many of us, and I for one refuse to wimp out and buy another pair of aviators just because that’s all I can find these days.

Enter Tom Davies, who is literally putting “bespoke” in your face. Tom Davies Bespoke offers fully-customized eyewear, designed exclusively for you and your individual needs. You start by selecting one of their ready-to-wear designs that most closely matches what you’re looking for. Then working with your optician, they go through a seven-step customization process in order to develop a portfolio of designs ideally-suited to your facial structure and coloring. Throughout the design selection process they set up your own online gallery where you can view mockups of the glasses directly on your face so you will always know how much of a rockstar you’re going to look like. The portfolio is usually ready in 24 hours and once you’ve chosen a design, they’ll usually ship the frames in three weeks. The glasses arrive made-to-order with your name “discreetly” laser-engraved on the inside.

Rest assured that this is no fly-by-night operation making your new shades either: Davies has been at it for seven years now and has perfected his process, with all frames being precision crafted in Japan from the finest materials including titanium and Davies’ unique bloc acetate (which is, in turn, made bespoke for Davies).

Who knows – maybe your new shades will bring out the real you that’s been hiding inside. Here’s hoping it’s more Steve McQueen in “The Thomas Crown Affair” than Elton John in “Tommy”.

Answer: Get your own virtual race car and race anytime you like. Meet the VirtualGT pro driving simulator. Calling this a “video game system” is like calling the space shuttle a 
“kite”. This is a system that pros like the ’08 Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon are using to fine-tune their abilities. The guys at Virtual-E Corp faithfully reconstruct the cockpit of a GTR race car, complete with full suspension, custom racing seat, 4-point racing harness, three headsets with boom mikes (so you can communicate with your pit crew), and your choice of a heavy-duty sequential shifter or gated H-pattern shifter console (or both, if you like). Displays of up to 82 inches with LCD, Plasma, HD plasma, and HD LCD projection options put you right on the race track. But the piece de resistance is their custom audio system: 500 watts of power delivered through four satellite speakers, one subwoofer, and four vibration transducers output 100+ decibels of sound and vibrations as real as if you were truly behind the wheel in a race situation. They assure us that the sense of speed and energy will raise your heart rate and even make you sweat.

The software includes the entire FIA GTR series including the tracks in Spa, Monza, Nurburgring, and Barcelona (third-party mods are already popping up with tracks in the US). Cars include the Ferrari 360, 550, 575, Porsche GT2 and GT3, Corvette C5R, Viper, Lister Storm, Mosler and Saleen S7. And if all this isn’t enough (and really, when is enough truly enough?), just have a chat with their software team and they’ll create custom tracks and cars for you. Just in case your current house isn’t up to snuff, they’ve partnered with interior design firms in 7 major US cities to help create the ideal racing lounge (their example concepts include a racing lounges, pit crew corner, and club area as part of one installation).

So suit up and get in the cockpit. If anyone gives you any flak, tell them you’re in training.