News
A cache of 1926 Ruinart discovered in the cellars of the Paul Bocuse restaurant
A significant lot of nearly century-old Ruinart champagne from the 1926 vintage has been rediscovered in the cellars of the Paul Bocuse restaurant, representing a remarkable find for the champagne world.
What happened
A cache of 1926 vintage Ruinart champagne has been rediscovered in the cellars of the Paul Bocuse restaurant. The find, reported on 23 February 2023, brings to light a lot of bottles from one of France's most storied champagne houses, resting undisturbed for the better part of a century beneath one of the country's most celebrated culinary addresses.
The bottles originate from Ruinart, a prestigious champagne house, and date to a vintage now approaching its centenary. Their presence in the Paul Bocuse restaurant's cellars had, until this rediscovery, gone unrecorded in recent memory.
Why it matters
Finds of this nature are exceptionally uncommon. Champagne from the 1926 vintage represents a window into a period of winemaking that predates the vast majority of living memory, and bottles that have survived intact across nearly a hundred years are, by any measure, rare. For collectors and those with a serious interest in the history of champagne, the emergence of a significant lot — rather than a solitary bottle — from a house of Ruinart's standing elevates the significance of the discovery considerably.
The champagne industry places considerable value on provenance and continuity of cellar conditions. A restaurant of the Paul Bocuse establishment's reputation provides a setting in which the careful stewardship of such bottles might reasonably be assumed, lending the find an additional layer of credibility.
Context
Ruinart is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious houses in Champagne, France. The 1926 vintage, now nearly a century old, belongs to an era that collectors and historians of the region treat with particular reverence, given the scarcity of surviving examples.
The Paul Bocuse restaurant has long occupied a singular position in French gastronomy, and its cellars — like those of any establishment of comparable standing — represent an archive as much as a working resource. That a lot of 1926 Ruinart should surface there speaks to the layered histories that such institutions quietly hold. The rediscovery was brought to wider attention in February 2023.