Madame Clicquot

Well, this blog is going to be about “The Grande Dame Of Champagne”…. Barbe Nicole Ponsardin Widow Clicquot/Veuve Clicquot, was a French champagne producer, widowed at 27 with a 6 yr old daughter Clementine … under her ownership the wine company thrived, the champagne and company still bare her name, you can still buy this champagne and is sold every where … veuve Clicquot yellow label…

The champagne house founded in 1772, 252 years ago in Remis France … Madame is credited with major break throughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810 and inventing the Riddling Table, which is basically a huge wine rack and turning of the bottles, which makes sediment come to the neck of the bottle, which clarifies the champagne .. in 1816/1818 She invented the first known blend of rosé champagne by blending still red and white wines a process still used ..

During the Napoleonic Wars, Madame established her wine in all the royal courts throughout all of Europe and Imperial Russia, the company was purchased in 1986 by Louis Vuitton

When Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin married Françoise Clicquot she was 21 years old, when her husband died she was 27 and the mother of her only child a daughter Clementine who was only 6. no one was really sure how her husband Françoise passed away by suicide or typhoid …

In the early 19 century, the Napoleonic code forbid women and denied them from voting, working, earning money or entering school and university without consent of husband or father… at that time only widows were allowed to be free in French society, to run their own businesses, with considerable opposition, the Widow Clicquot took over the. Business of winemaking, and became the first woman to take over a champagne house and first female producer..

WW1 and WW11… during the First World War Venue Clicquot Cellars sheltered over 1000 company staff and civilians in the Champagne region from bombardment, cellars also housed a hospital and chapel, today Red Cross signs are still on the damp chalk walls, indicating this was the hospital and infirmary area …

The 1942 film Casablanca, Captain Renault played by actor Claude Rains recommends Venue Clicquot to Major Strasser played by actor Conrad Verdit …

Also mentioned in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale..

In 2023 actress, Haley Bennett portrays Madame Clicquot in the Netflix Film Widow Clicquot, based on the New York Times bestseller of the same name … The Widow Clicquot, the story of a champagne empire and the woman who ruled it …

I have watched this movie and it’s excellent on Netflix I have not read the book..

The above picture is of Madame and her daughter …