STYLE Edit: Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 1982, one of Bordeaux’s finest wines, is now available in an exquisite alabaster case created by French stone sculptor Alain Ellouz – Le Beau Caillou
Known as Le Beau Caillou, meaning “the beautiful stone”, it’s a collaboration between the venerable Saint-Julien winery, and the artist and designer Alain Ellouz, known for his expertise in lighting alabaster. Inside is a suitably rare and precious example of the winemaker’s finest work: a double magnum of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 1982.
With its sensuous, gently curving shape and minimalist restraint, each example of Le Beau Caillou is unique. Carved from alabaster, the delicate, ethereal rock used to create so many of the world’s most valued carvings and sculptures, it presents a silky smooth, perfectly polished finish that is as texturally satisfying as the liquid contained within. It’s lit up from the inside, glowing enigmatically thanks to a rechargeable, cordless system, as you open it up to reveal the three-litre bottle of coveted Bordeaux that awaits inside.
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This remarkable new container is the work of Ellouz, perhaps the world’s leading expert in fashioning alabaster into beautiful decorative objects. The French designer, who has showrooms in Paris, London and New York, has been a trailblazer in the working of the material, helping to transform it from something long thought too delicate and porous for widespread use, into an incredibly tough substance that can be used with confidence to make a range of items. Conceptualised by Ellouz, the stone became reality in the hands of designer duo Amélie Faurens and Xavier Jacono from Bordeaux-based Studio D-AD-A.
Le Beau Caillou is not the only beautiful stone associated with the winery. The Ducru-Beaucaillou vineyard takes its name from the range of pebbles, caillous in French, from jasper to flint to quartz to agatoids, deposited many hundreds of millennia ago. They are the key reason why this represents such spectacular terroir for making wines of great beauty and subtlety, forcing the vines to dig deep for their nutrients, while reflecting sunlight to prevent evaporation, and retaining heat during the summer to help the grapes ripen at night.
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It gives rise to one of the most sought-after wines of Saint-Julien, itself one of Bordeaux’s most desirable regions, a tiny appellation of just 900 hectares spread along the left bank of the Gironde river that is home to a dense concentration of fine wineries.
One of the oldest winemakers in the region, Ducru-Beaucaillou has roots that date back many centuries, and was one of the wineries included in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, the single most important classification in winemaking history. Since 1941, the chateaux has been owned by the Borie family, with renowned winemaker Bruno Borie taking charge from 2003.
The main wine produced there, Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, is a deuxième cru renowned for its stunning vibrancy and finesse. A classic Bordeaux blend of 70 per cent cabernet sauvignon and 30 per cent merlot, it finds a particularly intense, complex articulation in the 1982 vintage that appears inside Le Beau Caillou.
The indications that this is a very special wine indeed begin with the nose, which exhibits dried rose petals, cedary herbs, fruit liqueurs, cigar smoke, wild mushrooms and oiled leather, with a hint of licorice. Sweet fruits dominate the flavour, with super soft tannins and a long highly perfumed finish. In the charming curves, alabaster lightness and mysterious, ethereal beauty of Le Beau Caillou, this one-of-a-kind wine has found a fitting home.
- Le Beau Caillou is a collaboration between Château Ducru-Beaucaillou and French stone sculptor Alain Ellouz, culminating in a very special case carved from alabaster
- Saint-Julien in Bordeaux, France is a tiny appellation of just 900 hectares spread along the left bank of the Gironde river – but it is home to some of the world’s finest wineries