The Beau Caillou

As a collector of art and contemporary design, the proprietor-grower of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, Bruno-Eugène Borie, called on Atelier Alain Ellouz to create an exclusive wine casing for an exceptional vintage, the Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 1982 double magnum.

Amélie Faurens and Xavier Jacono at Studio D-AD-A initiated the project. They imagined a colossal jewel in the shape of a pebble designed to hold a generous double magnum. They wanted to create a dramatic contrast between material mass and minimalist design. So they combined two original stones: alabaster, with its translucent, moon-white beauty and Gunz gravel, the vital force of exceptional wine growing soils.

Sculpted by man since ancient Egyptian times, alabaster is now at the forefront of luxury decor thanks to Alain Ellouz, who knew how to master and reveal the hidden mysteries, just the way a wine reveals a great terroir. The local Gunz gravel deposited on the slopes of Saint-Julien during the quaternary period reveals the true expression of the Cabernet Sauvignon vine, Medoc’s majestic grape variety.

Alexis Jouvin, Designer and Technical Director at Atelier Alain Ellouz, headed the design and development of the casing. Two 15 mm-thick shells were extracted from the same alabaster block in order to obtain a perfect continuity of lines. Each shell then undergoes the Stonelight process to make them as hard as granite. The technical components include an autonomous battery and LED lights, which are inserted into the base, under the bottle, itself held in place by translucent pegs.

The Beau Caillou alabaster stone series includes limited, numbered pieces. They will be displayed as a statement of contemporary design by major dealers and great wine collectors on November 16th in London.

Photos credits © Studio D-AD-A, Lisa Linder, Atelier Goodday