JUNE - JULY 2017 ISSUE

What joy you’ll find in the pages of this issue, where we renew your acquaintance with traditional South Georgia quail hunting at Rio Piedra before exploring an upland playground surrounding a championship golf course and Hal Sutton’s Golf Academy that makes having a big time really easy. And since golf and many upland traditions began in the United Kingdom, we return to London for the next installment of our best gun series, a closer look at the process of barrel blacking. Just the thought of that is likely to generate a thirst, so we saddle up to the bar at Dukes, the famous London watering hole where Ian Fleming conjured Bond. James Bond.

Returning to America, though, will involve a quick stop in France to understand the history of the braque d’Auvergne, a versatile hunting breed with European roots making a small splash in pursuit of upland birds. We visit Beretta’s shooting grounds in New Zealand and the Mediterranean ties that bind upland hunters to Italian guns halfway around the globe. As you try to picture that, imagine trying to capture the nuances of sporting art through watercolors. Arthur Shilstone, now in his mid-nineties, has been at the drawing board doing exactly that for decades.

To pair our columns with the perfect wine has long been on our list, and with this issue we launch “Vintage Upland,” a wine perspective offered by Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible and other books. We hope you find her words a ready complement to our look at the history of cigars and the reemergence of American blends to the whiskey world. And Frank, with his characteristic wit and charm, reminds us that it’s summertime, and the livin’ is, in fact, easy. We hope you’ll find the reading to be easy as well, as you join us on another great upland adventure.

Cover image by John Hafner