Ruinart

Editorial profile

Maison Ruinart was founded in Reims in 1729 and is generally recognised as the oldest established Champagne house. Nicolas Ruinart created the maison after a 1728 royal decree made it possible to transport wine in bottles more freely, and the family abandoned its former textile business in 1736 to concentrate on Champagne.

Chardonnay is the defining grape of the modern house. It anchors Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs and the newer Blanc Singulier series, while also playing a major role in R de Ruinart and Ruinart Rosé. Since 1 January 2026 the cellar has been led by Caroline Fiot, who succeeded Frédéric Panaïotis after joining the transition during the 2025 harvest.

Ruinart's Reims identity is inseparable from its chalk cellars, or crayères, beneath the city. These deep historic quarries provide the cool, stable conditions used for long bottle ageing and remain one of the clearest physical links between the house's eighteenth-century history and its current wines.

Why this producer matters

Ruinart matters both historically and stylistically. Its 1729 foundation places it at the beginning of the Champagne-house era, but the maison's relevance today rests on more than age. Chardonnay gives the range an unusually clear internal thread, from the multi-vintage Blanc de Blancs to long-aged Dom Ruinart and the climate-focused Blanc Singulier series.

The house also uses a broad geographical palette for Chardonnay. Current wines draw not only from the Côte des Blancs but from the Montagne de Reims, Côte de Sézanne, Vallée de la Vesle, Coteaux d'Épernay and other sectors depending on the cuvée. That makes the Ruinart interpretation of Chardonnay a regional blending exercise rather than a single-village or single-subregion style.

House history and the Reims crayères

The founding act for Maison Ruinart dates to 1 September 1729. Nicolas Ruinart established the Champagne business in Reims, and the family stopped trading textiles seven years later. As production grew, the house made increasing use of Reims' ancient chalk quarries for storage and ageing.

Those crayères remain central to Ruinart today. Their depth and naturally stable temperature make them suitable for bottle maturation, particularly for the long-aged Dom Ruinart wines. They also give the house a physical identity distinct from producers whose history is primarily vineyard-based.

Chardonnay and cellar approach

Ruinart's core multi-vintage wines are assembled from many crus and include reserve wines from several harvests. Fermentation for the principal current cuvées takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel and malolactic fermentation is used. Ageing then varies substantially according to the wine.

For R de Ruinart, Ruinart Blanc de Blancs and Ruinart Rosé, the current technical pages describe two to three years in the cellars. Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2013 spent at least nine years on lees after tirage under cork and around twelve years in the house's cellars overall. Blanc Singulier Edition 20 follows a different model again, combining the 2020 harvest with a perpetual reserve and being released without dosage.

This range of methods means that stainless steel, malolactic fermentation and Chardonnay are recurring house elements, but reserve share, ageing, dosage and cru selection remain specific to each cuvée and release.

Champagne.co analysis

Ruinart's range is best understood as a study of Chardonnay at different scales. R de Ruinart shows the complete house blend, where Chardonnay works alongside Pinot Noir and Meunier. Ruinart Blanc de Blancs isolates the grape across a broad network of crus. Dom Ruinart narrows the selection toward long-aged Grand and Premier Cru material, while Blanc Singulier changes the question entirely by using Chardonnay to examine unusual climatic conditions and a perpetual-reserve system.

That progression gives Ruinart more coherence than a simple hierarchy of increasingly expensive bottles. The same grape moves from multi-vintage house signature to prestige vintage and then into a deliberately experimental series. The crayères and long ageing provide historical continuity, but the Blanc Singulier project shows a house willing to alter blend architecture and dosage when the growing season demands it.

The important buying distinction is therefore not merely “standard versus prestige”. It is whether the reader wants the complete Ruinart blend, Chardonnay in its familiar house form, a long-aged declared vintage or the more exploratory climate-driven direction of Blanc Singulier.

Buying guidance

Start with R de Ruinart if you want the broadest picture of the house because it contains all three principal grapes and the standard reserve-wine architecture. Choose Ruinart Blanc de Blancs when Chardonnay is the main attraction and you want the most direct expression of the modern house signature.

Ruinart Rosé is the natural alternative for readers who want the same Chardonnay-led house identity combined with a substantial Pinot Noir component and red wine in the blend.

Move to Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs 2013 for long-aged prestige Chardonnay and a more selective Grand/Premier Cru composition. Blanc Singulier Edition 20 is the specialist choice for anyone interested in Ruinart's response to warmer, atypical harvests, perpetual reserve and zero dosage. Release numbers and vintages matter: Blanc Singulier Edition 20 and Dom Ruinart 2013 should be bought and compared as exact editions rather than generic names.