The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It

The Widow Clicquot

The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It

by Tilar J. Mazzeo
(based on 41 customer reviews)

The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It (Hardcover)
Author: Tilar J. Mazzeo
Publisher: Collins Business


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Most useful review as voted by customers:
14 out of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/21/08


The Audacity of Widow Clicquot

To her last surviving great-grandchild Madame Clicquot writes, "I am going to tell you a secret... You more than anyone resemble me, you who have such audacity. It is a precious quality that has been very useful to me in the course of my long life... to dare things before others... I am called today the Grand Lady of Champagne!"

Coming from a genteel class, it was unusual in that day to run a business, these women instead, were expected to sit leisurely around drawing rooms in idle chatter but when only twenty-seven years old, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot became a widow. The hurdles of making wine and champagne: unreliable bottle quality, turmoil of war preventing export, unusually wet or hot weather, all became Widow Clicquot's worry.

Wines that sparkled was a wine that had gone bad. And beginning in the Middle Ages in the Champagne region of France, it was happening more and more. To turn this seeming catastrophe into a success put Champagne on the map. Second fermentation, a disaster for wine, was coaxed into happening in a bottle of champagne.

The Widow Clicquot became, in the nineteenth century, a premier name in Champagne. This book puts a face on that label.

This book is not only the very interesting story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot but it is also full of very fascinating details about making wine, making champagne, labeling varietals, labeling quality. Second fermentation, the use of sulfur and wine remaining on the lees all makes sense to me now. If you love wine you will really enjoy the history of this fascinating woman and the process of making wine.

The one detriment to this book is Tilar Mazzeo's overuse of the word "perhaps." It leaves the reader wondering just how much of the biographical information is accurate.

7 out of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/24/08


A unique perspective on the woman who launched a storied grande marque champagne

This is not a wine geek account of the champagnes of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. You won't find tasting notes, vintage guides, production facts and figures, vineyard maps. It's about La Veuve, pure and simple. And that's not bad at all.

The author's viewpoint is stated elegantly in her introduction. She aims to tell "the story of a woman raised to be a wife and mother, left widowed before thirty with a small child, with no training and little experience of the world, who grasped firmly at the reins of her own destiny and, through sheer determination and talent, transformed a fledgling family wine trade into one of the great champagne houses of the world. Here, I thought, is a woman who refuses to compromise."

Indeed. We learn how, in the midst of political upheaval in France and the rest of Europe, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin went from the somewhat sheltered daughter of a successful Reims textile merchant; to the wife of something of a melancholic dilettante; to a widow suddenly left to manage a fledgling champagne business -- a woman alone in what was very much "a man's world" at the time. There are detours here and there to provide some basic information about the vineyards and the cellars, the evolution from early champagne in the sweet style to the modern fashion for brut champagne and other details. And of course, a thorough debunking of the myth of Dom Perignon.

But this is not a reference book on champagne for collectors or those looking to learn about the methode champenoise in intimate detail. It offers instead a colorful look at La Veuve herself, in her historical context. As the author discovered, the life of Barbe-Nicole is anything but well documented. But what she has pieced togther from a variety of sources -- including it seems her own imagination -- is an extremely touching and compelling portrait of a woman "who lived with audacity and intelligence" and "opened the road for new generations of women in the marketplace." Ironically, however, after the death of Barbe-Nicole, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin was not headed by a woman again for well over a century.

This is a fascinating book, one that kept my attention from start to finish. Recommended.





4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/26/08


A well-written literate and researched account of the Grand Dame of Champagne

Mazzeo sifted through a great amount of material to find anything of substance on the life of Widow Cliquot. Much of her story is lost to time, having never been recorded. Thankfully, some letters still exist as well as some few other primary sources of her time or shortly thereafter.

My kudos to the author for the amount of research she did, and especially for the wonderfully literate, information-packed, and yet still easily read way the Widow Cliquot's story is offered here.

I had great difficulty tearing myself away from the book, and so ended up reading it all in one shot. Cliquot's story is captivating in the amount of work she put into making her house a major Champagne player, developing new technologies, and changing Champagne's face in the world into the one drink most closely associated with good living, celebration, and high society. If not for Widow Cliquot's diligence and vision 200 years ago, Champage would have a very different place in the world today. Hers is a mesmerizing story, fascinating for it's historical location between the French Revolution and the end of the Napoleonic era, and inspiring for it being the story of a woman doing what a woman wasn't supposed to be doing (especially not a woman of such wealth and reknowned family). And Mazzeo's gifts as a story-teller are truly up to the greatness of the story she tells.

Mazzeo begins the story with the young Barbe-Nicole being snuck out of the convent school so she wouldn't be executed in the revolution. She takes us through the tumultuous years after the Revolution, wars with England and other countries, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the incredible changes in technology, industry, religiosity, and culture that swept through Europe and Russia in the years from the late 1700s into the mid-1800s. Mazzeo offers that history in concise and quick form, but doesn't cheat it of its depth, bouncing Cliquot's story against it and through all the way through the book. And she offers not only a history of the military stuff happening in Europe, but also the economic. How businesses were affected (especially Cliquot's business, of course), offering a more holistic history of the period than most historical textbooks I've been forced to slog through that seem to think that the only important facet of history is a litany of battles and generals.

This is truly an excellent history of a magnificent and inspiring woman through some of Europe's most interesting historical times - the beginning of the post-feudal post-monarchical modern era that we continue to live in. And an excellent history of what is (in my opinion, anyway) the best Champagne in the world, and also the history of Champagne itself.

For those interested in food, this is a must-have book, to sit on the shelf with "Salt", "Beef", "Cod", "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" and other recent books on the history of food. For those interested in European history, this is a must-have book. And for those interested in a history of bygone times that focuses on the people, not just the kings and generals, this is a must-have.

One warning, though - before you sit down to read, you better get yourself of Veuve Cliquot (or other Champagne - don't go sparkling wine on this one). I read this at a church youth retreat, so had no drink with me. I wish I had followed the advice I've just given, because the drink is mentioned so constantly, I felt awful not being able to taste it and enjoy it in the reading.

Definitely read it with a bottle of the good bubbly at your side. Maybe even in the bathtub while your butler brings you caviar.

4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/30/08


Enjoyable, especially if you like bubbly and history...

While I'm more of a Belgian ale fan, I do enjoy sparkling wine occasionally. The Widow Clicquot is a nice mix of biography, wine history, and wine education. Sadly, and much to the author's frustration, little remains in the historic record of the personal life of this interesting woman. Records written in her own hand remain in her company's archives, and some business correspondence is extant that must give us a slight insight into her business personality, especially in communicating with her trusted partner and head sales rep. So the author is definitely excused for taking the liberty of letting her imagination intrude when speculating what Barb-Nicole may have felt during her long and full life.

Some readers, especially those already up to speed on wines, may find the wine history, terms, and current status rather intruding, as it is freely interspersed within the book's chapters. I found it rather engaging, as it moves both the biography and wine history along together. It is also appropriate, as Barb-Nicole lived during many of the developments in the emerging international champagne industry. (I have to admit a new longing to taste champagne as it was at the beginning of the 19th century...)

The book is well-researched, very readably written, and the author obviously truly enjoys her subjects. Salut!

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