The Widow Clicquot--just finished the book

WINE TALK
1

This was a great read. https://www.amazon.com/Widow-Clicquot-Story-Champagne-Empire/dp/0061288586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531794578&sr=8-1&keywords=widow+cliquot

It arrived on Thursday of last week and I finished it last night. About 175 pages, following along the history of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. According to the book, it was her entrepreneurial spirit, risk taking and resilience that built the brand in the early 19th century. The fortune she generated is pretty amazing, as a time as well when women were not revered for their business acumen or having an equal place in business. Yet, she found a way to take over the brand and build it from the ground up, and of note too was her innovation with remuage and the assertion in the book that this was her way of increasing production and quality to get enough of her product really cranking into Russia and some other places, essentially to drive quality and better results relative to disgorgement in a time when it was not all that well understood.

Of note too is the emergence later in the same century of Louise Pommery, like Barbe-Nicole, who was widowed and had to bring her brand forward, although her bottles mainly went to England, and uniquely different was opposite of the sweeter style of Clicqout, instead focusing on the creation of drier bubbly–what is more known as Brut today–to satisfy the British palate.

One other cool thing in the book was also the mention of the Montage de Reims, and having now visited there for a week just a few months ago, it all became more vivid reading the book. Bouzy, Ambonnay, Chigny, etc…all of the cool villages along D26. What I didn’t know during our May visit is that the village next door to Rilly (where Vilmart is based) is called Chigny-les-Roses. This was not always the case and it was formerly called just Chigny but given Louise’s love for roses and their ability to help expose the health of the vineyard, the village’s name was appended.

If you’re looking for a good read and something that mixes/traces history about the early times of Champagne, spend the $12 USD and grab one from Amazon.

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Fascinating. Thanks for sharing, Frank.

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Took her long enough

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[cheers.gif]

5

Frank,

I agree. An excellent book.