Available for purchase, the stunning, three-piece work uses an age-old technique that harks back to the magnificence of the court of Louis XIV and the lavish Palace of Versailles.

Metallic embroiderer Marie Berthouloux has produced three unique embroidered bottle pieces inspired by Ruinart Rosé Jeroboams. Berthouloux, who describes her practice as textile goldsmithing, has crafted breathtaking, intricate embroidery that envelopes the Jeroboam bottles. Evoking images of vine rows, leaves, and biodiversity, the pieces shimmer and glow with a beautiful web of artistic embroidery, the result of 320 hours of painstaking work each.

Each finished bottle is encased in an elegant wicker sheath made by basket weaver Marie Drouet, with upholsterer Anaïs Jarnoux contributing her expertise to the design of the textile base.

Founded in 1729, the luxury Champagne house has been an innovator in sparkling wine production for centuries. In celebration of its heritage and young creative talent and to foster artisanal craftsmanship, it established the Ruinart Studio program in 2021.

Creatives are invited to Maison Ruinart with a three-fold aim:

• Connecting artisans with the Champagne landscape

• Creating sustainable art inspired by the Maison

• Reusing or repurposing materials drawn from the Maison

RUINART STUDIO MARIE BERTHOULOUX 2022 @CHLOELERESTE

The Ruinart Rosé Jeroboam selected for this Ruinart Studio project has a storied past: In 1764, the house became the first Champagne producer to make and market rosé Champagne, then quirkily named “œil de perdrix” (partridge eye). A blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the cuvée is both reminiscent of Ruinart’s visionary past and celebrates the house’s innovative spirit.

The Jeroboam bottle itself has a generous three-liter capacity, enabling preservation of freshness and aromatic richness courtesy of the reduced ratio of air to wine. This makes it a favorite format of connoisseurs.

RUINART STUDIO MARIE BERTHOULOUX 2023 @CHLOELERESTE

During a languid, hot summer, Berthouloux began to draw inspiration from the Champagne terroir. She spent hours among the vines of Ruinart vineyards, sketching the surrounding landscape and biodiversity.

“Under a blue sky and increasingly hot sun, I sat between the rows of vines for several hours. From the ground, I observed my surroundings. Dry earth, clumps of dandelions, and fragments of wood. Twisted stems reaching skyward in multiple serpentine branches. Fragile, fascinating mille-feuille bark,” Berthouloux said. “Tender leaves, still young and bursting with chlorophyll, already big enough to provide some shade with jagged, chiselled contours. In the distance, a mill sat proudly on the hillside. The landscape was structured by numerous furrows. Men and women were bent over, tending the vines. Voices lingered, slightly out of breath in the heat.”

After absorbing these vivid pastoral scenes, the cradle of the Ruinart Champagne range, Bertholoux filled her sketchbooks with images of jagged Chardonnay leaves, twisting vines, dry earth, dandelions, and the furrowed lines of vineyards stretching toward a distant hillside mill. These impressions became motifs for the embroidery.

Next came the embroidery design and crafting. In line with Ruinart’s emphasis on sustainability, Berthouloux used materials salvaged from the house’s own bottles. These upcycled materials included golden threads from muselet wires, copper and wine-red hues from caps and headpieces, all expertly shaped into spirals, filigree, and delicate leaves.

The result? Berthouloux has transformed recycled materials into three Jeroboam forms that express the motifs – vines, leaves, bark, and wild plants – that bear witness to the vineyard’s biodiversity. At the same time, its metallic shimmer evokes the elegance and luminosity associated with Champagne. Playing with light, movement, and texture, each Jeroboam is both an object of celebration and a canvas of artistic expression – a living tapestry.

RUINART STUDIO MARIE BERTHOULOUX 2022@CHLOELERESTE

Marie Berthouloux is a French artist and embroiderer who trained in fashion design and textiles before specializing in metallic embroidery. She gained a BTS in Fashion Design (BTS Design de Mode) before acquiring a Diplôme des Métiers d’Art (DMA) in Textiles, concentrating on metallic embroidery with a focus on gold. She has made a name for herself as a modern interpreter of traditional gold-thread techniques, a craft that was commonplace at the extravagant court of Louis XIV, the “Sun King”.

After 15 years at the prestigious Parisian upholstery workshop, Maison Brazet, Anaïs Jarnoux founded her own studio in 2019 at the Villa du Lavoir. Marie Drouet, a graduate of École Boulle in Paris, opened her basketry workshop in 2019, where she incorporates materials like bronze and glass for a contemporary touch.

RUINART STUDIO MARIE BERTHOULOUX 2023@CHLOELERESTE

The collectible Champagne work is only available at 4 Rue des Crayères, in Reims, France, but can be shipped abroad. Price is available on request. Contact Jean Baptiste Duquesne for more details at jbduquesne@ruinart.com

Feature photo: RUINART STUDIO MARIE BERTHOULOUX 2024@CHLOELERESTE

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