WineGirl Blogs

For my first entry on the WoW – Women of Wine, I  have chosen my mentor to be the Madame Veuve Clicquot.

Madame Clicquot was born in 1777 Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin. She was married at 21 to François Clicquot whose businesses were involved in banking, wool trading, and Champagne. His untimely death six years after their marriage in 1805 left Barbe-Nicole une veuve, or a widow. Fortunately for the world of sparkling wine, Madame Clicquot successfully developed her husband’s Champagne business into the elite Champagne company that still bears her name today, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, and is presently owned by Moët-Hennessy a shareholder of WINE and CO.

Madame Veuve Clicquot

Veuve Clicquot has been around for centuries producing stunning wine for an elite few. Madame Veuve was a Champagne innovator, perfecting the traditional production method known as Méthode Champenoise. She is credited with designing the riddling rack, a procedure by which the sediment from secondary fermentation (the fermentation that gives Champagne its bubbles) is slowly encouraged over months of bottle turning into the neck of the bottle in order to create superior clarity of the Champagne.

By 1814 Madame Clicquot’s Champagne was known around the world. Veuve Clicquot is still recognized around the world bearing the legendary yellow label and named for La Grand Dame.

Brut Carte Jaune

Other examples of prestigious Veuve Clicquot Champagne include La Grande Dame Rosé Demi-Sec, and Domino Grande Dame.

Brut Rosé

Demi-Sec

Domino Grande Dame

And last and my personal favorite, Veuve Clicquot is known for some of the most elaborate keepers of fine Champagne including the magic boxes, light boxes and the rivetted box.

Elite Bottle

La Grande Dame Rose and Coffret

Ouvert Coffret

Globalight

Champagne Riva

These fine Champagnes and magic boxes can be found by Wine and Co..

We’ll conclude this first episode of Women of Wine about Madame Veuve Clicquot with a quote by Anonymous: “Here’s to Champagne, the drink divine, that makes us forget all our troubles; It’s made of a dollar’s worth of wine, and three dollars worth of bubbles.”

Cheers,
ChampagneGirl

For more quotes of Champagne click here.