Kaelo, iceless ice bucket
Kaelo's iceless bottle cooler installed in a Lida Cucina luxury kitchen.
(Image credit: Kaelo / Twitter / @TheKaelo)

It's taken seven years and 'about a million prototypes', but a UK start-up company has launched an iceless ice bucket and claims it is already being installed in expensive London homes.

  • Kaelo iceless ice bucket uses cold, dry air to chill wine

  • One bucket costs £1,890

  • Start-up targets luxury homes and private jets

Full story

Wine geekery knows few limits and innovators have long been keen to take bog standard wine paraphernalia and update it.

The bottle (interactive), the barrel (intelligent), the cork (air-sucking), and now the ice bucket, which, in one fell swoop it has been rendered void – that is to say iceless.

‘Kaelo’ used cold, dry air to chill the wine more consistently and provide a drip-free pour. Cold voids are costly however.

The starting price of a hand carved Kaelo is £1,890.00 ($2,500). Each is hewn from three kilos of stainless steel for the rim and three kilos of aluminium for the chamber, according to inventor and product designer Kevin Jabou.

He said that he spent seven years perfecting the chamber following a frustrating Champagne cooling experience in a restaurant.

‘It should have been elegant, but it wasn’t. The ice bucket nearly fell over, nearly tipped the table over, and there were drips everywhere.’

So, Jabou locked himself in his garden shed and built ‘about a million prototypes’ – working at anything from manual labour to bar tending to fund the project.

Early this year, he raised £250,000 from various sources and several Kaelos are now installed in high-end London basements.

Next steps are private jets and four-wheel drives for champagne fuelled shooting parties, he said.

Asked for comment, Florence Cathiard of Château Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux, said that she agreed with the principal of avoiding ice.

‘The cooling process is not homogenous. Also you risk losing the label.’

But, she balked a little at the price. ‘If it is really elegant, why not? But we use aluminium coolers that keep the wine fresh for up to half an hour in the shade. They cost €50.’

Two glasses of rose wine with ice cubes in

(Image credit: Credit Unknown)

Credit: Anna Ivanova / Alamy Stock Photo

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Sophie Kevany
Sophie Kevany
Bordeaux Expert, Decanter Magazine

Sophie Kevany is a freelance journalist, editor and researcher who is based in Bordeaux, France.

For Decanter, she reports on the news in Bordeaux, as well as covering various areas of the world wine industry such as environmentalism and reporting on wine markets.

She has formerly written for Agence France-Press, Dow Jones Newswires and the Profitable Ideas Exchange in Bordeaux.