When the Champagne houses were founded

Founding dates

House	Founded	Founders	Status of the date
Gosset	1584	Pierre Gosset	According to the house; a still-wine business¹
Ruinart	1 Sep 1729	Nicolas Ruinart	According to the house²
Moët	1743	Claude Moët	According to the house³
Clicquot	1772	Philippe Clicquot	According to the house⁴
Heidsieck	1785	Florens-Louis Heidsieck	According to Piper-Heidsieck⁹
Jacquesson	1798	Claude and Memmie Jacquesson	According to the house¹⁰
Perrier-Jouët	1811	Pierre-Nicolas Perrier, Rose-Adélaïde Jouët	According to the house¹¹
Bollinger	6 Feb 1829	Athanase de Villermont, Joseph Bollinger, Paul Renaudin	According to the house⁷
Krug	1843	Joseph Krug	According to the house⁸
Taittinger	1932 (purchase of Forest-Fourneaux)	Pierre Taittinger, Paul Evêque	According to the house¹²

How to read these dates

Almost every date above comes from the house itself or its owner. Comité Champagne says the Champagne Houses first emerged in the 18th century and names Dubois, Veuve Clicquot and Heidsieck among the early ones.⁵ UNESCO notes that production spread to Reims and Épernay in the 18th and 19th centuries and that champagne has been exported worldwide since the 18th century.¹³

Two caveats: Gosset and Taittinger

Gosset dates itself to 1584, when Pierre Gosset began trading still wines, mostly red, from his own vineyards in Aÿ; it calls itself the oldest wine house in Champagne.¹ The date refers to a wine house, not to sparkling champagne.¹

Ruinart, founded on 1 September 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart, nephew of the Benedictine Dom Thierry Ruinart, is described by the Mission Coteaux, Maisons et Caves de Champagne as the oldest champagne house.^2,6

Taittinger traces its origins to Forest-Fourneaux, which the house calls one of the oldest in Champagne and which Pierre Taittinger bought in 1932.¹² A founding date of 1734 for Forest-Fourneaux is often quoted, but the house pages give 1734 only as the construction date of the Château de la Marquetterie.¹⁴

Veuve Clicquot: the house's own claims

After François Clicquot died in 1805, his widow Barbe-Nicole, aged 27, took over the house.⁴ The house credits her with three firsts, all its own claims:

1810: the first vintage champagne⁴
1816: the riddling table (see riddling)⁴
1818: the first blended rosé champagne, made by adding red wine⁴

Comité Champagne dates riddling racks to the turn of the 19th century and names no inventor.⁵

Lily Bollinger, 1941

Per the house, Madame (Lily) Bollinger took over Bollinger on her husband's death in 1941 and led it until 1971.⁷

Links between houses

Joseph Krug worked under Adolphe Jacquesson before founding Krug.¹⁰ Georg Christian Kessler joined Veuve Clicquot in 1807 and later founded Germany's first sparkling wine cellar.¹⁵ Carlo Gancia trained at Piper-Heidsieck from 1848.¹⁶ See other regions.