The List: 10 things Kevin O’Leary, the professional Dragon and author of Cold Hard Truth, can’t live without
1| Fine wine I have a cellar of wine from Burgundy and Bordeaux. Château Latour ’90 is my current favourite. I bought a couple of cases when they weren’t expensive, but now the Chinese have discovered French first growths, and they’ve gone way up in price. It’s hard to drink them because I know they’re impossible to replace.
2| My vintage camera I got hooked on photography when I was a TV editor and would take stills during filming. I have lots of cameras—both film and digital—but my most prized is a Leica M3 that has never left its box. I have the sales receipt from 1963. It’s worth thousands. If you know Leica, and you see this, it’s better than sex!
3| My digital music I have more than 129,000 songs in my collection, all of which I ripped from old CDs and vinyl. It was a labour of love that took me three years. Vinyl just sounds different—listen to an album like Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, and you’ll notice the bass you can’t get with digital recording.
4| My designer suits I wear a suit every single day: Tom Ford or Prada. I have roughly 50 at a time, and they all fit perfectly.
5| My axe I have a guitar collection that includes a signed Gibson Les Paul. A friend who was playing in his band invited me to the Iridium Club in New York to meet him. We ended up talking for an hour, and then I was jamming with him. It was pretty cool.
6| My squash game I hit the court at 6:10 a.m. three or four times a week at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club. I play with a lot of bond traders because they’re up that early. I get a kick out of the fact that an old guy like me can still beat a younger guy.
7| My Carrera It’s a five-year-old C4. When I turned 50, I bought it on a whim. On a fall day with the top down, it’s a beautiful thing. I’m not a car guy, but I love this car.
8| My pen fetish There are about 35 rare pens in my collection. Someone recently gave me a glass pen with a well in it for perfume. I write with all of them. I think handwriting is a lost art.
9| My keepsake meteorite My dad was in the International Labour Organization, and we moved every two years. In 1963, when we were living in Cambodia, he found this meteorite and gave it to me. One side is perfectly smooth and the other is full of bubbles. It reminds me of all the places I’ve lived.
10| My go-to restaurants People in the television industry like to talk about projects over a glass of wine and good food. I live near Yorkville, so I pretty much eat at three restaurants: Sotto Sotto, One and Opus. I know the proprietors, and they know what I like.
(Images: Nikki Ormerod)
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