A STUNNING
DISPLAY

Normally, the discovery of a massive spider upon arriving at one’s hotel might be cause for concern. At the serenely surreal Villa La Coste in Provence, however, it’s one of many highlights. I’ve arrived behind the wheel of the Aston Martin DB12 S, steering through the hotel’s concrete Tadao Ando-designed gates, before being confronted by a vast Louise Bourgeois arachnid crouching in a mirrored lake.

This is the South of France’s hottest holiday destination for A-list art lovers. Belfast-born property developer and hotelier Paddy McKillen bought the 17th-century 600-acre Chateau La Coste in 2003, developed a sculpture park, a biodynamic winery and added Villa La Coste – his 28-bedroom hotel – in 2017. Bono, a close friend of McKillen, is a regular visitor and has even gifted artwork to the cocktail bar’s walls. He isn’t the only rock star on permanent display, either. There are sketches in the stairway by Bob Dylan, and hidden in the pine trees above the property are happy-looking bronze foxes sculpted by REM singer Michael Stipe. Yoko Ono has planted an almond tree on which visitors are encouraged to hang notes with their prayers pencilled upon. Another night was my wish, if only to devour more of chef Florent Pietravalle’s seasonal tasting menu and savour the painterly landscape.

Petit dejeuner is spent staring less at croissants and other guests, more at the Damien Hirst or Le Corbusier tapestry hanging behind my fellow diners’ heads. Breakfast done, I wander to the waiting DB12 S: a Liquid Crimson Volante with Satin Bronze alloys and looking every inch the contemporary master. Its craftsmanship, whether inside, outside or unseen, is a true work of art. The materials, surfaces, lines and attention to detail would earn nods of approval from any artists-in-residence. I burble out of the cypress tree-lined driveway, past the pétanque court, and hit the winding roads towards the coast. In case you’re unfamiliar with what the ‘S’ signifies, this is a honed version of the already highly polished DB12 grand tourer. By spending an extra £14,000 over the standard machine, patrons gain a dual-element front splitter, a fixed rear spoiler, a redesigned rear diffuser, bonnet louvres and stacked exhausts. What looked perfect before now looks even better. There’s a noble menace to this car; an aristocratic blade ready to bare-knuckle fight.

I burble out of the cypress tree-lined driveway, past the pétanque court, and hit the winding roads towards the coast. In case you’re unfamiliar with what the ‘S’ signifies, this is a honed version of the already highly polished DB12 grand tourer. By spending an extra £14,000 over the standard machine, patrons gain a dual-element front splitter, a fixed rear spoiler, a redesigned rear diffuser, bonnet louvres and stacked exhausts. What looked perfect before now looks even better. There’s a noble menace to this car; an aristocratic blade ready to bare-knuckle fight.

These revisions aren’t merely skin-deep; the DB12 S also receives an extra 19 horsepower – now totalling 690bhp – and stiffer anti-roll bars, which work in tandem with its Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers and tweaked toe, castor and e-diff settings. The result is a GT that feels sharper and more athletic. Don’t think for one moment, though, that this means ride comfort has been sacrificed. It’s every bit as civilised as a DB always should be.

Its nomenclature denotes a bloodline dating back to the first car built under David Brown’s ownership of Aston Martin in 1948, the 2-Litre Sports: a gentlemanly roadster of which just 15 were built, and which was followed in bigger numbers by the fastback and drophead DB2 from 1950. The first Aston Martin to gain the ‘S’ suffix was 1953’s DB3S, with its focus on performance that was exploited by some of the greatest racing talents of the day, including British heroes Tony Brooks, Reg Parnell, Peter Collins and Stirling Moss, and American legend Carroll Shelby. The initials ‘DB’ denoted style, speed and Britishness, which was further cemented by Michael Caine and Sean Connery getting behind the wheel of the DB4 and DB5, respectively, on film, and Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger rocking the DB6. As well as the DB5, other DBs – contemporary and classic – have been cast for James Bond; both the 1967 and 2007 iterations of the DBS, and the DB10 that was specially developed for Spectre in 2014-15. Nothing quite says British brawn in Savile Row tailoring quite like a DB.

My car’s been fitted with the optional titanium exhaust – an absolute must-have. The growling V8 soundtrack bounces off the pale stone walls and around the rolling vineyards, punctuated by pops and turbocharged whistles. Aural engagement is matched by the sensational steering. It gives the driver enormous confidence to push on. The serpentine mountain passes above Marseille and Cassis left me stirred, not shaken.

You can feel that the gearshifts are 50 per cent quicker than on the standard car. It may be a blink of an eye, but this car is about small changes adding up: faster shifts, more urgent throttle response, bigger carbon ceramic brakes, and damper, e-diff and chassis tweaks that make it a little faster and ever so rewarding.

The DB12 S has a veritable arsenal of emotional hooks one is powerless to resist, from the tune of its twin-stacked quad-exhausts to the scent and feel of its plush leather interior. Above all, it remains the most handsome 2+2 GT on sale, with its brawn ever so slightly more toned. This Volante has been custom-built for wending its way from the chateau to the corniche, the sun shining down upon its fortunate owner. The South of France, the Villa La Coste, fine food and wine and the Aston Martin DB12 S: This truly is the art of living well.