Ruinart

Ruinart is the oldest established Champagne house, which is the fact everyone repeats and the least useful one. What actually shapes the bottle in your hand is Chardonnay. Nearly every wine here leans on it, and the result is pale, taut and driven by citrus and white orchard fruit rather than the toasty, bready weight a lot of people expect when someone says Champagne. Buyers who arrive wanting that weight often decide the wine is thin. It is not thin. It is built on a different axis.

The range sorts itself cleanly. R de Ruinart carries more Pinot Noir and has the firmest frame, which makes it the one that stands up to food. Blanc de Blancs is all Chardonnay and is the house signature, and it appears in half bottle and magnum as well as the standard size. The rose starts from that same white base with still red Pinot Noir blended in. Dom Ruinart sits on top: a declared vintage held far longer on its lees in the chalk cellars under Reims.

The step up to Dom Ruinart buys time and length, which is real but only shows if you drink it slowly and not straight from the ice.

The list below is sorted by price, lowest first.