Brut Daily

Houses

Ruinart

The oldest established champagne house, founded in Reims in 1729, known for a Chardonnay-led house style and for the 38 metre-deep Gallo-Roman crayères beneath its Reims headquarters.

Founded
1729
Location
Reims, France
Ownership
Part of LVMH
Known for
Oldest established champagne house · Chardonnay-led house style · Blanc de Blancs NV · Dom Ruinart (prestige) · Crayères: UNESCO-listed chalk cellars in Reims
Grapes
Chardonnay (5) · Pinot Noir (2)
Official site
www.ruinart.com

Style

Ruinart's house style privileges Chardonnay, generally expressed in a lighter, more linear profile than the Pinot Noir–led styles of the Montagne de Reims. The house's most distinctive wine — Blanc de Blancs — is its non-vintage flagship, unusual among major houses.

History

Founded on 1 September 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart, a cloth merchant whose uncle, the Benedictine monk Dom Thierry Ruinart, had been a contemporary and occasional visitor of Dom Pérignon. That date, just months after royal authorisation to ship wine in bottle rather than cask, makes Ruinart the first commercial champagne house. Ruinart was acquired by Moët Hennessy (now LVMH) in 1963.

Crayères

Ruinart's cellars — the crayères Saint-Nicaise — are chalk pits dating to Gallo-Roman times, extending 38 metres below Reims. They are part of the UNESCO inscription "hillsides, houses and cellars of Champagne" (2015).

Cuvées

Figures

Recent

2026

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2021

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