The tour was very interesting. Seeing multiple champagne houses you start to think you could do the tour. But everyone said don’t miss Ruinart. I have a feeling they like to keep it a surprise but when you are down in the crayeres they have a special art instillation with lights and movement. But, yes, the caves are all pretty similar.😄🤷🏼‍♀️ They have some beautiful art as well.

From the moment we walked through the gates, it had a totally different and classic feel about what we were about to experience. We were ushered to a waiting room where we met our group, and also our guide , who's name has escaped me. He was a Mexican gentleman living in France, who delivered a touching and loving introduction to the Ruinart brand, He was interested in everyone's individual stories and didn't try and overwhelm you with needless or complex details. He just delivered it in a way that even a novice felt like he was welcome . The wine cellar tour was booked for 1.5 hours, but by the time we finished it was more like 2.25 hours. Verve felt like you were on a production line and went to the minute, Ruinart felt like you were a family member returning there, and the champagne in my opinion was far superior.

We did the Singular Blanc tour, which started with a fascinating tour of the caves. The art installation down there was a little much (mostly because I didn’t like being in complete darkness so far underground) but it only lasted a few minutes. The singular blanc tasting was fun and informative — as we tasted each wine we had to figure out which tray of smells/tastes it matched. Great guide, great tour. Can’t wait to return to see the gardens once construction is done!

We had booked the weekend lunch at Maison Ruinart expecting it to be a major highlight of our trip. It comes with major luxury credentials; the oldest house in champagne. It also isn’t cheap. The product is lovely, but not exciting. It isn’t the sum of its very well done parts. The service staff are charming. Most of the food is amazing- in fact, really quite flawless. There is a sense of occasion when the chef and maître'd serve the mains on a trolley. For us it somehow didn’t feel special. The champagne pours were miserly (my first was genuinely a thimble, and took far too long to come), the Maison is currently a building site, and the dining room feels a tad makeshift- almost like a cafeteria or refectory. We didn’t end up visiting the cellars at Ruinart, and I suspect their visits are polished and very well done based on the standard of service staff. I don’t want to take away from excitement, but I would be careful booking this with the expectation of an exceptional experience to mark your visit to champagne. It is a lovely, expensive lunch. We much preferred the overall experience at Le Parc (the lunch set menu is basically the same price as Ruinart) even though the food at Ruinart was perhaps more to our palate.

Although there is still lots of building work going on around the Maison, due to finish October 2024, which doesn't make for great viewing nor hearing, it didn't spoil our tour. Thanks to Morgan for showing us around. The cellars truly are worth visiting and I loved the collaboration with the artists especially the light shows down in the cellars themselves. The champagne tasting was of course great but wished we were able to taste some of the Vintage to see whether it is really worth spending extra on.

By far the best champagne house visit in Reims (and we’ve been to many)! We were lucky enough to get a private visit with our guide Cara, who was very knowledgeable about the wines and most of all the oldest champagne house! She made the visit so special with her warm welcoming nature and kept my husband and myself enthralled by her passion for the champagne, the most beautiful caves and her fascinating recount of the creation of champagne and Maison Ruinart! Plus we had a choice of vintage and more recent tastings of the wonderful Ruinart champagne, perfect! I’ve never known 2 hours pass so quickly. A must if visiting Reims!