Ruinart

History

1. 1728

   A monk and a royal edict

   Dom Thierry Ruinart (1657-1709) was a Benedictine monk and scholar attached to the Paris abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. He knew Dom Pérignon and visited the abbey at Hautvillers, where he died. He came from a family of cloth merchants in Reims and on his travels saw Champagne win over the courts of Europe. The obstacle was transport: wine could only be shipped in barrels, in which sparkling wine would not survive the journey. Only the edict of Louis XV of 25 May 1728 allowed wine to be transported in bottles.

2. 1729

   “In the name of God and the Blessed Virgin”

   On 1 September 1729 the monk's nephew, Nicolas Ruinart, opened the first account book with the words “In the name of God and the Blessed Virgin, let this book begin”. The first delivery of “wine with bubbles” left in January 1730. At first Champagne was a gift for customers buying cloth, but it soon proved the better business: from 1735 the Ruinarts traded only in wine. They sold most in Lille, which accounted for 67% of turnover.

3. 1764

   The first rosé in the ledgers

   On 14 March 1764 the house's account book recorded a shipment of rosé Champagne to Germany. It is the oldest known record of a sale of rosé Champagne, and the house regards that year as the birth date of its Rosé.

4. 1825

   Wines, biscuits and hearts

   Irénée Ruinart de Brimont (1770-1850), a descendant of the founder, was a member of parliament and mayor of Reims from 1821 to 1827, and gave the house great momentum. As the city's first citizen he welcomed Charles X to Reims for his coronation in 1825 and is said to have declared: “Sire, we offer you our wines, our biscuits and our hearts”. He was the first Vicomte de Brimont.

5. 1877-1931

   The chalk of Saint-Nicaise

   Chalk from the Saint-Nicaise hill was quarried as building stone from Gallo-Roman times until the 18th century. In 1877 Ruinart was one of the first to set up cellars in the old quarries: 8 km of galleries on three levels, with the deepest halls 38 m high. During the First World War it moved production and offices there to shelter from the bombardment of Reims. In 1931 the chalk cellars were listed as a historic monument, and in 2015 the hill and its cellars were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

6. 1896-1910

   Mucha and a flight across the Channel

   In 1896 André Ruinart commissioned a poster from Alphonse Mucha, and so began the house's friendship with art that continues to this day. In 1906 Ruinart offered a prize of 12,500 gold francs to the first aviator to fly across the English Channel. Blériot did it in July 1909, but he had not entered the competition, so the prize went on 21 May 1910 to Jacques de Lesseps.

7. 1959-2026

   From Dom Ruinart to Caroline Fiot

   The first vintage of the prestige Dom Ruinart, a Blanc de Blancs, dates from 1959. In 1963 the house was bought by Moët & Chandon, and later it became part of LVMH. From 2007 to 2025 the cellars were run by Frédéric Panaïotis: he brought back ageing Dom Ruinart under cork, in 2020 introduced the paper “second skin” packaging, and in 2023 a new wine, Blanc Singulier. He died in June 2025. Since 1 January 2026 the cellars have been run by his protégée Caroline Fiot. In 2029 the house will celebrate its 300th anniversary.

People

Curiosities

1. Alphonse Mucha's 1896 poster for Ruinart is today one of the icons of Art Nouveau and has entered the public domain. Mucha was hired by André Ruinart. source
2. On Louis Tauzin's 1914 poster the house praised its cellars as “the most picturesque in Champagne” and invited visitors to tour them without a ticket. source
3. Ruinart and Veuve Clicquot have different “first rosés”. Ruinart recorded a shipment of rosé Champagne in 1764. In 1818 Madame Clicquot was the first to make rosé Champagne by adding red wine from Bouzy to white, the method most houses use today. source
4. In 1906 Ruinart offered a prize for the first flight across the English Channel. Louis Blériot was the first to fly across, but he had not entered, so the prize went to Jacques de Lesseps, who flew across the Channel on 21 May 1910. source
5. anecdote The greeting with which the mayor of Reims received Charles X in 1825, “we offer you our wines, our biscuits and our hearts”, has gone down in Reims history. The biscuits are the famous pink biscuits de Reims, which are dipped in Champagne. source
6. In January 1906 the house advertised in the American weekly “The Wasp” as the firm of “seven generations of Ruinarts”. source
7. On 5 October 2024 the house opened its redesigned garden on rue des Crayères to visitors: 7,000 m² of plants and sculptures by contemporary artists. source
8. Frédéric Panaïotis died aged 60 during freediving training in Rochefontaine, Belgium. According to reports, he unclipped from the line on his second descent to 25 metres. source