Ruinart releases first new cuvée in 20 years

The 100% Chardonnay Blanc Singulier Edition 19  is made from around twenty crus mostly coming from six terroirs : the Montagne de Reims (Sillery and Taissy), Côte des Blancs (Bergères-lès-Vertus and Cramant), Vallée du Petit Morin (Villevenard) and Sézannais (Montgenost) regions. It comprises a blend of 77% wines from the 2019 harvest as the base wine, along with 23% of reserve wines (which includes wines from 2018, 2017 and 2016 vintages) – half of which has been aged in oak barrels, the other half in stainless steel tanks.

According to the Champagne house, Chardonnay grapes are starting to take on a new flavour character as a result of climate change, revealing more pronounced textures, and more aromatic fruitier and spicier profiles, as temperatures change and ripening accelerate. This resulted in the team experimenting with a first edition, produced in 2023 before releasing the new Blanc Singulier Edition 19 cuvée, which illustrates “the need to adapt from the vine to the wine”.

“This cuvée embodies Ruinart’s capacity to adapt its know-how to a natural environment impacted by climate change,” it said. The Ruinart Blanc Singulier will follow “the rhythm of years marked by an atypical climate”.

The 2019 vintage was marked by record temperatures including three intense heatwaves in the summer and 23 days with temperatures above 30°C. However, despite these extremes, the average annual temperature remained lower than in 2018 – 12.1° compared to 12.8°, with higher spring rainfall before a very dry summer. As a result, the cycle of the vines was disrupted their cycle and resulted in the shortest cycle since 2003, of only 81 days between flowering and harvest – a week less than the ten-year average.