Madame Clicquot

Madame Clicquot, née Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin , Widow Clicquot or Veuve Clicquot (16 December 1777 – 29 July 1866), known as the "Grande Dame of Champagne", was a French Champagne producer.

She took on her husband's wine business when widowed at 27. Under her ownership, and her skill with wine, the company developed early champagne using a novel technique. The brand and company of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin still bears her name.

Biography

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, born 16 December 1777 in Reims, was the daughter of a wealthy father, Ponce Jean Nicolas Philippe Ponsardin (from 1813, Baron Ponsardin), a textile manufacturer and politician. Her mother was Jeanne Josephe Marie-Clémentine Letertre-Huart. Napoleon and Josephine had both stayed at L'Hôtel Ponsardin, her family's home (not a hôtel in the modern sense). Her father was made mayor of Reims by Napoleon's decree. She was wealthy by virtue of her very well connected family.

She married François Clicquot at the age of 21. François died in 1805, leaving her a widow at 27 with a six year old daughter Clémentine. Her husband's death may have been suicide, but it was attributed to typhoid.

This left his widow (veuve in French) in control of a company variously involved in banking, wool trading, and champagne production. Under Madame Clicquot's control, the house focused entirely on champagne, and thrived using funds supplied by her father-in-law. Under her management and her skill with wine, the company developed early champagne using a novel technique called riddling. Prior to this invention the second fermentation of wine to create champagne resulted in a very sweet wine with large bubbles and sediment from the remains of the yeast used in the fermentation in the bottle (which creates the bubbles in the wine) resulting in a cloudy wine.

She still used the original English technique of adding sugar, but after this second fermentation was complete the bottles were held upside down. The bottles were regularly turned so that the dead yeast would all gather near the cork (riddling). Once the settling was complete, the wine near the cork was removed, followed by an addition of wine to refill the bottle.

Legacy

Clicquot died 29 July 1866, in Boursault. She had built the Neo-Renaissance style Château de Boursault in honor of the marriage of her granddaughter Marie Clémentine de Chevigné to Louis de Mortemart-Rochechouart in 1839. Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart inherited the chateau on Madame Clicquot's death in 1866. Anne was the daughter of Marie Clémentine and Louis.

In 2019, Lisette Glodowski and Richard C. Walter wrote a musical about Madame Clicquot’s life, titled Madame Clicquot: A Revolutionary Musical. The cast recording of the musical was released in 2023.

In 2023, Haley Bennett portrayed Clicquot in the film Widow Clicquot which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival; it had its wide release on July 19, 2024. The film is "based on Tilar J. Mazzeo's New York Times bestseller The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It and focuses on "the true story behind the Veuve Clicquot champagne family and business that began in the late 18th century".