Caprice
2023Released only when ready to drink — ready for the table.
Lean, reductive, mineral. Flint and sea breeze — a Bordeaux Alvarinho in the spirit of the great reductive white wines.
In music, a capriccio is the idea that bends to no form — short, wilful, and strictly built all the same. That is exactly what this wine is: Alvarinho, a Portuguese variety that practically nobody plants in Bordeaux, from a single patch of sand at the edge of the wood. Planted in 2019, 101 bottles.
In the glass, struck match and wet stone, with a saline trace. On the palate it stays slender and cool, the acidity sets the tone, the finish draws out long. Anyone tasting it for the first time expects something else — and then pours another glass.
0.75 L bottle · £44.00
Like its musical namesake, our Caprice carries lightness in its name – and the utmost craftsmanship in every detail. One hundred percent Alvarinho, from...
Caprice is the estate's reductive, mineral voice — a Bordeaux Alvarinho built on precision and the tension of flint.
Igor Stravinsky — Capriccio, 3rd movement
The flavour profile
Flinty, smoky minerality and a saline trace, with restrained yellow fruit. Reductive and linear on the palate: a taut, precise acidity sets the tone, the texture staying slender and cool rather than full. Vinified in barrique, aged in a glass demijohn — an Alvarinho with no second like it in Bordeaux: mineral, saline and full of tension into the long finish.
Three years of ageing
2023 (white): A warm year with successful flowering and fruit set, apart from slightly cooler periods in July. A tropically humid June brought the most severe downy mildew attacks in years; the remainder of the season was characterized by a "season in two halves" with heat spikes at the end of August/beginning of September and an unusually long harvest. The dry white wines are aromatic, precise, and fresh, with good acidity and moderate alcohol.
Optimal drinking window2024 – 2033
Pour at serving temperature.
Where it comes from
A single-varietal wine, one origin
Each plot is vinified separately; only at the end does the cuvée emerge. More about our terroirs.
Aged in our own cellar.
Aged under control in barrel and vinified plot by plot — then the years of bottle rest in our own cellar, until we consider the wine ready to drink.
In the tradition of modern oenology
Aux Conseillans was for decades the domaine of Jean Ribéreau-Gayon — one of the co-founders of modern oenology, founder of the Institute of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux (1949) and longtime owner of the estate. We work in this tradition: each plot analysed and vinified separately, the ageing guided under control, the release only after proven readiness to drink.
Why we take the trouble
Released only when ready to drink
We bring a vintage to market only when it is ready to drink. We carry the ageing risk.
Composed plot by plot
Each plot is vinified separately; only at the end do we compose the cuvée from them.
Time as an ingredient
Depth needs time. We give the wines the years in barrel and bottle that they need.
Organic & HVE4
The Domaine's vineyards are certified organic and HVE4, embedded in a 19-hectare ecosystem of woodland, meadows, water and vines.
A wine for the table.
A reductive, mineral white – wonderful on its own and with Atlantic seafood such as oysters, shellfish and ceviche.
Dishes that pair well
A selection from our recipe kitchen, matched to the structure and maturity of this wine.
A playlist for the moment
This wine comes with a mood playlist on Spotify — a flowing companion as you drink. Listen in if you like; it isn't necessary.
We release each wine only when we most like to drink it ourselves.Marc & Ellen Ruhland
Good to know
When should I drink the Caprice?
How do I serve it?
Is this a typical Alvarinho?
Why do we call it the rule-break?
Which grape variety and plot does it come from?
How was it aged?
What does it pair with?
Is the wine organic?
The Coffret Dégustation
Three movements of the Suite in one box — Sarabande 2015, Gigue 2016 and Louré 2024. A first path through our wines.
Edition of 101 bottles. Shipped directly from the Château — climate-controlled storage in our own cellar.
For us, time is an ingredient.
The other movements of the Suite
Each cuvée has its own voice, from the rosé to the red that needs decades. In weak years we simply do not make one of them; that is why the repertoire is rarely complete.
