UC81

The Rioja Alavesa has been producing wine for centuries. The old farmhouses — caseríos — that dot its landscape were built with the same ambition as the wines they sheltered: to last, to endure, to outlive their makers. The oak beams that held those buildings up absorbed everything: the harvests, the seasons, the slow accumulation of time.

We sourced a batch of those beams from caseríos in the region. They were heavily damaged — but Spanish oak is a resilient tree, and even in that state the structural timber still had everything it needed to become something extraordinary.

The commission came from one of the region's most internationally recognised wineries. The table would be the centrepiece of their guided visit experience — the moment where they articulate the deep connection between their wine and the haute cuisine it has accompanied since its origins in Spain. A moment that deserved an object worthy of it.

UC81 is a sculptural dining table with a solid central base, carved and shaped into a vortex form that progresses upward toward the top. The unavoidable age and scars of the wood meet a form of absolute contemporary ambition — one eye on a long history, the other firmly on the future. Exactly what the winery wanted to say.