Love me some fine reading! Wine Book Review on The Widow Cliquot

The Widow Cliquot is the story of Barbe- Nicole Posardin, known as the Veuve Clicquot. The first event was the French Revolution which started in 1789. Barbe-Nicole was 12 years old at the time (she was born on December 16, 1777).  Barbe-Nicole's father Nicolas was a very sucessful textile salesman/merchant who had goals to advance his family from the upper middle class into the nobility and upper class.  He had already gotten a start by as an appointed member on the town council (I believe in Reims). In addition, he was part of a larger committee that did extensive planning for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's coronation ceremony that took place in the cathedral town of Reims. This was right in the same town where the Ponsardins lived.  Barbe-Nicole imagined the life of quiet domesticity and affluent privilege that she rejected while growing up.

The book covers much of Barbe-Nicole’s life, but relays information about the champagne industry, political climate, and the choices that many champagne makers had to make during the tough economic times. For example, French glass making was often a shoddy business, and ordering bottles could be maddening. Staring down at misshapen and flawed glass-work, Barbe-Nicole and Francois must sometimes have despaired. However, glass bottles were essential to the manufacture of champagne. In later years of Barbe-Nicole’s wine making career, the book talks about how industrialization was a huge part of the manufacturing of wine bottles. Manufactured bottles decreased the likelihood of damage to the precious beverage and maintained consistency in transport. Another small note about glassware is that Barbe-Nicole drank her sparkling wine from the broad, shallow glasses that we call coupes and usually associate with the glamour of the Jazz Age and early Hollywood films. For a hard working woman, she still had her glamorous moments.

There were many types of inconsistencies and flaws that champagne makers saw in the outcome of their yields in the time of the Widow Cliquot. Toad's eyes, or despairingly large bubbles in the sparkling wines, were seen as a flaw. The flaw was a serious obstacle to sales because clarity and mousse mattered more to customers than even taste. This was most likely caused by allowing the wine to rest too long in wooden casks in the early stages of production. 

 A portrait of the Widow and (I think?) her granddaughter.

The book also highlights some discrepancies in how and where champagne originated. For those who enjoy the romance of the Dom Perignon legend, there is even worse news. According to the book, wine historians now claim that champagne did not even originate in France. Champagne was first "invented" in Great Britain, where there was already a small commercial market for sparkling champagne by the 1660s. British enthusiasts were investigating ways to control the production of its so-called mousse, or fizz, several decades before wine was sold at all in France.  

The historical and economic discussion in the book was probably the most intriquing. In 1806, success was not only uncertain, but unlikely for Barbe-Nicole. The war at the time seemed to get worse with the passing months and Napoleon's Continental System was inhibiting business. The system was a series of trade restrictions intended to create an economic stranglehold on enemies in Great Britain, Prussia, Germany, and once again, Russia. She toyed with the idea of sending her wines as contraband. Up to now, they had been sending wines in private ships around closed ports, hoping to avoid detection and confiscation at sea. Sending wines as contraband was something far more serious. It meant cutting a deal with a foreign ship captain, usually someone on the other side of the war. In the final months of 1807, it began to look like the only remaining option, unless she wanted wines sitting in uncertain storage in Amsterdam for a second time. (She had stored champagne there previously and almost the whole lot was destroyed- putting her in the red). She hesitated because these ships were typically stopped for inspection and it would be difficult to disguise the French origins of this sparkling wine. If barrel wines could not be sold quickly, their advantages disappeared. 

A picture of today's Veuve Clicquot Label

Other historical events severely impacted the champagne industry, especially for the Widow. When the French invaded Russia, the czar issued an immediate decree banning the importation of French wines in bottles. Everyone knew that the target was champagne. It alone could not be transported in barrels; if it was, all the fizz would disappear. It was a small yet calculated and personal retaliation. Napoleon championed the champagne industry and it was seen that Russia would destroy it. In Reims, a good deal of resentment was directed at Napoleon himself. In exasperation, Louis declared the emperor “an infernal genie who has tormented and ruined the world for five or six years.”

After the defeated Russian troops and retreated to Reims, Barbe-Nicole was waiting for a knock on her door for the Prussians and Russians to pillage her wine. Whether they would pay for it or not was another matter. She surely knew by now that three hundred thousand allied soldiers had taken up residence in occupied Epernay and immediately looted Jean-Remy’s cellars. Before the war was over, he would lose more than a half a million bottles of champagne. When the Russians arrived at last, it still surprised her, but even more surprising that they were gentlemen. The leaders of the Prussians and Cossack armies gave their troops free rein to loot and pillage. The Russians were more restrained, and they were determined to keep administrative control in Reims. The Russians didn’t loot her cellars. Actually, they would mostly buy her wine. The arrival of the Russians would prove to be a brilliant marketing opportunity for winemakers throughout the Champagne. 

The book also commented on the more volatile fermentation and bottling processes of the time period. Wine in wooden casks might last a few years in ideal cellar conditions, but some slow exposure to oxygen was inevitable, and the wines deteriorated if held too long. The same wine in hermetically sealed glass bottled might age well for a decade or more. Champagne was more delicate. Before disgorgement, the process of removing the spent yeast cells from the bottle after second fermentation, sparkling wines continue to improve, resting on the lees, for several years.

An old bottle from Rhone. By the look of the shape, it could have been similar to the champagne bottles used for the Widow's champagne.

Barbe-Nicole lived a life where the champagne industry was terribly rocky and prosperous all within a half century. Towards the middle to the end of her career, it was the golden age of the entrepreneurial upper classes in France. Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, would come to be known as the “bourgeois king,” and in the words of one historian, “The reign of Louis Philippe was a business regime,” whose motto was Enrichissez-vous- “Get rich.”While Barbe-Nicole in her fifties, was still putting in fourteen hour days from dawn to dark, trying to assure a strong company footing after the banking. Her soul was in business. The manufacturing model of business was evolving and she maintained her presence in the company to keep up with changes in industry. The business would soon require thinking like a corporation and not like a family unit, and with it came what historians call “the managerial revolution”- the rise of the salaried businessmen and company executives we know today. Ironically, it was this new model of the professional managerial class that, more than anything else, signaled the end of the traditional opportunities for untrained bourgeois women in family businesses. Barbe-Nicole was making the savviest decisions she could to stay competitive in a changing marketplace, and she needed someone willing to put in the same crushing hours that she demanded herself. “By the mid 1840s, personally managed enterprises… had become specialized, usually handling a single function and a single product.” The economics of industrialization had demanded it, and soon it demanded full-time management as well. The champagne company she had transformed from a small family business into one of the world’s greatest commercial empires would still be at the center of it. 

Towards the end of her career, the Cliquot decided to hand her business to a devout employee, Edouard Werle. Their business thrived and as a result, they were able to expand and take on more employees. One of the Cliquot-Werle rooms had eight presses, capable of producing a thousand barrels of wine at a harvest. By 1860, her label as was familiar around the world as her name. However, as time passed the champagne industry evolved. During the 1860s, the Cliquot wine started to lose presteige since it was not keeping up with evolving tastes. Cliquot’s signature wine was very sweet. However, the more discriminate taste of modern drinkers preferred drier champagnes. As a result, Cliquot had to expand to capture this market share and maintain their competitive dominance in the industry. 

Historic Cellar located in Reims, France. By the way the bottles are stored, they were most likely champagne bottles. Bottles were stored like this to have the dead lees and sediment float sink to the neck of the bottle where they were then removed by hand.

The author concludes with a discussion of women like Barbe-Nicole after her “reign” in the champagne industry and women in industry today. Louise Pommery is the closest example of a woman who had strength like Barbe-Nicole as well as a similar background. Like Barbe Nicole, Louise Pommery did not inherit either a big business or an established champagne house. In this respect, these two women are unique in the history of champagne. By the 1850s, it was advertising that had poised to transform the champagne industry again, and Louise was prepared to lead the way in mass marketing. For example, the British liked crisp, dry champagne and Louise worked diligently to cater to those tastes. Louise Pommery who followed the steps of Barbe-Nicole, was the last generation of women this powerful in champagne. 

 Portrait of Louise Pommery

Barbe-Nicole had made she and Edouard Werle millionaires many times over. She had seen France transformed into an industrial nation, now crossed by railroad lines and manufacturing centers. Above all, she had seen a lot of life and more of her fair share of early death- her husband, brother, a father, and two of her great grandchildren in the space of a few years. Learning the story of her life was both inspiring and engaging. Prior to reading this book, I knew very little about the champagne industry. However, after learning of the Cliquot’s life and the story of this champagne, I look forward to opening a bottle very soon.