Dom Ruinart’s chalk-inspired wrap for 2010 Champagne vintage

Ruinart (LVMH) has once again teamed up with Pusterla 1880 and James Cropper’s Colourform – the packaging suppliers behind its molded pulp Second Skin Champagne case launched in 2020. This time, the suppliers worked to create Crayères, a molded fiber packaging for a Dom Ruinart 2010 vintage Champagne.

With its chalk-like, velvety texture, Crayères folding box takes inspiration from Ruinart’s historic chalk cellars. Some 16 design iterations were needed to reproduce the faceted appearance reminiscent of a block of chalk, explains Pusterla 1880. “Accentuating the light and dark with shadows, the wrap creates a fascinating and unique casing and took a huge amount of detail […] to create. We used a chalk rock concept from the start, based on The Erratics sculpture by Darren Harvey-Rega and real stone to add texture,” explains Rowan Nowell, Senior Designer at Colourform.

Made of paper from sustainably managed European forests, the monomaterial folding box formed using water, heat and pressure is molded in a single piece. Pusterla 1880 says that the machining of the mold required creating special milling cutters for the nearly 400 facets making up the case’s structure, which features “not a single straight line,” according to James Cropper.

The box is adorned with a crest and text in gold hot foil that is color-matched to Ruinart’s specification. While the brand’s Second Skin cases featured a label, the Crayères case marks the first time gold foil detailing has been applied directly to the pack, James Cropper says, highlighting that it does not affect recyclability. The closure is engraved with ‘1729’, the year Maison Ruinart was founded.

The folding box represents a 62% reduction in carbon footprint compared to the previous Dom Ruinart gift box. It is also 11 times lighter, offering paper savings of over nine tons.

*Ruinart’s Second Skin case won a 2020 Formes de Luxe Award. To enter this year’s competition (deadline June 17^th, click here).