Champagne Ruinart
Founded in 1729, Ruinart is the longest established sparkling wine house in the Champagne region of France. Named after Benedictine monk Dom Thierry Ruinart, the winery is located in the city of Reims, where ancient crayères (chalk pits) serve as cellars that offer constant temperature and humidity, thus allowing the wine to age as long as 12 years. These crayères were hewn from the chalk sub-soil by the Romans, who used the chalk as building materials. Also used during World War I to escape the bombing, these cellars were classified an historic monument in 1931.
Join us as we sit down with Ruinart’s Cellarmaster Frédéric Panaїotis to discuss Ruinart’s history, its vineyard sources, and of course its various cuvées.
For more info on Champagne Ruinart: www.ruinart.com
Sponsor: Bagged Wine: www.baggedwine.com
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(58:56min 42MB)
From Wikipedia.org “The Champagne house of Gosset was founded as a still wine producer in 1584 and is the oldest Champagne house still in operation today. Ruinart was founded in 1729 and was soon followed by Taittinger (1734), Moët et Chandon (1743) and Veuve Clicquot (1772).”
I think graperadio should note “Ruinart is the oldest Champagne house, exclusively producing champagne since 1729.” Also sourced from Wikipedia.org.
Not to nit pick but for those who may use this information to pass wine tests.
awineguy101, thanks for writing. We’ve re-worded the original sentence to clarify that fact.
Eric
Thanks! Had my 1st Ruinart NV Blanc de Blanc from half bottle a couple weeks back. Stunning champagne and you get what you pay for with Ruinart.
Great show, and FINALLY not one devoted to Pinot!!!
Guest was great, you all asked great questions, and it was most entertaining.
Thanks….
R.W.
R.W. – glad you enjoyed the show. You know, the Ruinart Rosé is 55% Pinot. Technically, that means that 22% the show was actually about Pinot Noir! [;-)]
FWIW, I did look back to see what % of shows were Pinot-based since the beginning of the year. Would you believe about 23%.
Eric
R.W.,
Since the beginning of the year we have aired 56 shows. Only 14 are about Pinot Noir. That’s 25%.
I encourage you to explore the archives.
Mark and Eric, based on all the other grapes out in the world, one could argue that Pinot gets the lions share of the attention.
Jay
I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Frédéric this past winter when he came to DC. What a wonderful and talented person. The Ruinart wines are truly exciting. The 1979 Dom Ruinart Rose we tasted that night (one of many wines we tried) is the best Champagne I have ever had. And it probably is not even that close — except maybe for some other Ruinart wines we had that night.
Also, it is great listening to Frédéric talk. You guys could interview him every month or two for years and still I would be excited to download and listen to each interview.
Mark,
I have been a fan of this site for years now, and I am well aware of the archives. Jay said it best, that Pinot gets the lions share. I did like Eric’s pun though. It is just nice to hear some of the other varieties mentioned, there are so many and there is so much to learn, it is almost mind boggling…
I actually just downloaded this as it didn’t appear in my Podcast list for some reason. Can’t wait to listen to it!!! Just visited the Ruinart website, it has terribly irritating Flash so I left that, I think I’ll get all the info I need from the show. Inspiring interviews, keep up the great work!!! O