La Grande Réserve
Croix de Beaucaillou by Jade Jagger
Sold for 10 000 euros in China
November 2011
On November 10th, within the framework of the Aussino World Wines Festival held in Guangzhou (Canton), a melchior (18 litres) of 2009 Croix de Beaucaillou by Jade Jagger was auctioned at 90 000 RMB* (about 10,300 €) to two collectors of great vintages, a married couple from the province of Xin Jiang in the North-West of China.
Let us recall that Croix de Beaucaillou, the property of Bruno-Eugène Borie, is constituted of a selection of specific terroirs of Ducru-Beaucaillou, situated at the very heart of the Saint-Julien appellation. Just like a Grand Cru Classé, Croix de Beaucaillou is an exceptional wine which, be it in the vineyard or in the cellars, benefits from the same thorough care as its 1855 alter egos. This Grande Réserve is characterised by its harmony, its intensity and its persistence, as well as its voluptuous grace and delicate elegance.
At the start of the year, Bruno-Eugène Borie enlisted the talents of the very “trendy” designer Jade Jagger to repackage (logo, label, capsule) its prestige cuvée Croix de Beaucaillou. He thus put a finishing touch to the ambitious repositioning of this great wine, a task he launched upon in 2005. With this new luxurious set, Jade Jagger adopted a downright contemporary style, which has successfully promoted the qualities of Croix de Beaucaillou while at the same time bringing to light the prestigious history of Ducru-Beaucaillou.
The golden and luminous décor set against a deep black background recalls the elegant magnificence of the Second Empire in the course of which Ducru-Beaucaillou, which had been founded a century earlier, first gained its credibility and glory through the 1855 Classification. As to the finely chiseled acanthus leaves that intertwine the outline of the Château, they are reminiscent of the motifs on Byzantine crosses and of Princess Marie Caradjia of Constantinople who, at the end of the 19th Century, together with her husband Nathaniel Johnston, redesigned the entire château to give it its present appearance.
While this precious design was widely used on the 2010 vintage, the château has recently bottled a small volume of the 2009 vintage in large formats, which are destined for prestigious sales outlets. It is one of the 50 melchiors produced (18 litres or 24 bottles) that was sold to this couple from Ouroumtchi (Ürümqi), a town of 2,3 million inhabitants situated on the vast inland territories of Western China and which is the capital city of the autonomous province of Xinjiang, This Autumn and until Christmas, the other prestigious bottles will adorn the windows of the most beautiful shops throughout the world: Galeries Lafayette (Paris), Harrods (London), Lavinia (Madrid, Geneva), Scherer (Genève), Sherry-Lehmann (New York), Wally’s (Los Angeles), KDW (Berlin), Dallmayr (Munich), SAQ (Montréal), Duty Free Airport (Dubaï), Watson’s Wine (Hong Kong), Enoteca (Tokyo), Formosa (Taïwan), Oenothèque (Monaco) etc…
Visuals available on request