Ruinart

Dom Thierry Ruinart was an intuitive, visionary, hard-working and modest Benedictine monk who lived from 1657-1709 and was a contemporary of Louis XIV.

A brilliant theologian and historian, he left his home in Champagne at the age of 23 for the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, one of the most influential centres of learning near Paris.

During his stay, he came into contact with the city and the court, where he gained an awareness of a more secular life. In particular, he learned about a new 'wine with bubbles', which was not yet known as champagne and which was already popular among young aristocrats.

On 1 September 1729, in Reims, in the heart of the Champagne region, Nicolas Ruinart drew up the founding charter of Maison Ruinart, creating the world's first ever champagne company.

It was the start of a business that is still thriving and prosperous almost three hundred years later. The intuition of his uncle, a monk, who first showed him the way, thus inspired an initiative that was to go down in history.

In the middle of the 18th century, Ruinart acquired ancient shelters dug under the city of Reims to store its bottles.

In 1764, the house sent the first Champagne Rosé throughout Europe. The family, which was ennobled in 1817 and took the name Ruinart de Brimont, ran the house continuously for more than two centuries.

Each generation reveals a head of the family with a specific talent that is put at the service of posterity.