Love your Margaux, Ruinart, and DRC? Why not raise a glass in celebration of France’s Bastille Day on July 14th? The French Revolution, which started in 1789 and lasted for around a decade, saw age-old hierarchies swept away. While the uprising laid the foundations for a more democratic nation, the early years of the new regime were characterized by upheaval, uncertainty, and terror.

French winemaking wasn’t spared from the social and political turmoil. Westgarth Wines looks at how some of the domaines and châteaux we love endured this most turbulent chapter of French history to become what they are today.

Founded in 1743 by Épernay wine trader Claude Moët, this Champagne house soon garnered a prestigious clientele from the upper echelons of French society. Fortunately, while building his domestic sparkling wine company, Moët had the smarts to develop a network of merchants beyond France, across Europe, and even in America. These markets proved invaluable during the French uprising years when, one by one, Moët’s aristocratic French clients were disposed of by revolutionaries or fled the country.

As the French rebels seized vineyards owned by the church and the nobility, the Moët family kept their heads down. They managed to maintain an uninterrupted supply of fruit for their wine production through securing new grape contracts and investment in vineyard holdings. They also maintained their cellars beneath Épernay, ensuring stocks were protected. At the turn of the 19th century, Claude’s grandson, Jean-Rémy, cultivated a friendship with the self-appointed Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, who helped elevate the company’s reputation. Soon Jean-Rémy could barely keep up with the demand for his Champagne! In 1832, new family partnerships saw the house’s name change to the Moët et Chandon we know and love today, and the estate will shortly celebrate 300 years of Champagne production.

The 18th century marked a stellar chapter for Bordeaux wines with Château Margaux at the forefront. Its famous gravel soils had been identified as a source of exceptional wines, but viticultural innovations were brought to a halt in the revolution era. Owned by a network of noble families, the estate was seized and sold as “bien national” or state property. Laure de Fumel, a descendant of the aristocrats who had owned the estate, tried to purchase it back from an insurgent who had allowed it to fall into ruin. The strain was too much for her, and she auctioned the property in 1801 to a wealthy Spanish banker and ship owner, Bertrand Douat, Marquis de la Colonilla. The new owner had no interest in winemaking, seeing the purchase solely as a status symbol. The wine world has one thing to thank Douat for though: He commissioned the construction of the grand neo-Palladian style building that characterizes the estate to this day. The grandeur of the chateau earned it the moniker, “the Versailles of the Médoc”. The 1855 Classification of Bordeaux saw Château Margaux ranked as one of only five First Growths, a title that it has sustained with a reputation for some of the finest winemaking in the world. With its modern roots in the 17th century, the estate is around 400 years old.

Ruinart was established by Nicolas Ruinart in Reims in 1729, motivated by an uncle, a Benedictine monk who had identified the growing popularity of sparkling wine. While supplying the upper crust of French society, he looked further afield, nurturing burgeoning markets for his wine in London and Amsterdam. As with Moët, this international demand shielded the house from collapse when the demise of the French aristocracy saw a corresponding drop in domestic demand.

The takeover of the revolutionaries did not bypass Ruinart, though. Insurgents were confiscating land from their enemies, the clergy and the nobility. This included vast swathes of vineyards and monastic cellars. As such, Ruinart found itself barred from access to the Abbey of Saint‑Nicaise’s cellars. The house swiftly forged new agreements with independent wine growers, preserving continuous production. It also acquired new cool, humid cellars in the chalk quarries underneath the Hill of Saint‑Nicaise, the perfect environment for champagne aging. These operational shifts put the house in the position to benefit from the 19th-century explosion in Champagne. Today, Ruinart is on the cusp of its three-century birthday.

Around 1760, Prince Louis François de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, purchased a famous Burgundy vineyard called La Romanée, adding his moniker to its name (hence the DRC acronym). The nobleman only produced wine from the premium estate for his personal consumption, adding to its mystique in wine circles. During the French Revolution, this property was seized and sold, like Margaux, as bien national. A Parisian named Nicolas-Joseph Marey (the son-in-law of the famous mathematician Gaspard Monge) purchased the holding at auction, transferring it into bourgeois ownership.

There were some advantages of the move from the aristocracy to the emerging middle class: A new layer of society was coming to the fore in winemaking, which focused on fresh techniques and commercialization, leading to wider improvements. In the case of DRC, this enabled post-revolution development, laying the foundations for its status as a legendary producer of Pinot Noir today. Incidentally, while the estate was commandeered by the new regime, Prince Louis missed the “terror’ of the revolution: He died in Paris in 1776.

As DRC, the domaine marks 265 years of existence.

Founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot, Veuve Clicquot was already meeting the booming demand for Champagne in northern Europe by the time of the uprising seventeen years later.

A tumultuous time to be running a business that supplied the elite classes, the Clicquots and their sales agents carefully navigated the revolutionary bureaucracy that followed the 1789 revolution to preserve the house. Champagne merchants altered the titles of their aristocratic customers to “Citizen” to do their bit to save them from the guillotine (and preserve their customer base!). As nobles fled from France, Veuve Clicquot followed close behind with cases of their favorite Champagnes. Throughout the following Napoleonic Wars, which brought blockades in European ports, the house’s sales agents formulated ingenious ways of smuggling its much-loved fizz to clients living in hostile countries. In the early 1800s, Madame Clicquot (Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin) bolstered the estate's survival by developing the riddling stage of Champagne and by pushing further into Russian and British markets.

These savvy strategies – protecting clients’ identities, exploiting neutral ports, and nurturing remote markets helped Veuve Clicquot come through the domestic turmoil. The admired Champagne house just passed its 250th birthday.

Want to read more? Take a look at some of our other blogs:

• • Bordeaux: To decant or not to decant?
  • 15 Iconic American history moments…and wine
  • The serious side of Rosé