France’s Most Exclusive Wine Region Is Now More Welcoming to Tourists
New hotels and upgraded visitor experiences in Champagne are putting a new face on bubbly’s genteel reputation.
A new welcome center opens at Ruinart’s headquarters next month.
Photographer: Chloe Le Reste/Ruinart
For the casual traveler, it’s never been all that easy to visit the orderly, chalk-toned 19th century buildings at Ruinart, the oldest house in France’s Champagne region, founded in 1729. Until recently, getting in required paying a high fee, knowing someone important in the wine world or booking a coveted brunch reservation—and advance planning.
That changes in October as part of a broader embrace of tourism in the region. The general public will be welcomed to the vast estate through the new Nicolas Ruinart Pavilion—a showpiece added to 5 acres of landmarked woodlands, where visitors can kick off tours and tastings or simply stop by for a glass of bubbles. Designed by the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, the curved-roof structure was built in an existing clearing using local stone and glass. Beams of natural light mimic the cathedral effect in the estate’s Gallo-Roman chalk-quarry cellars, called crayères, set 125 feet underground.