This weekend sees the release of Widow Clicquot, a film celebrating the life and achievements of the Grande Dame of Champagne, who became the first female owner of a champagne house and an incredibly astute businesswoman.
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was born in 1777 into a wealthy family, with a father who was also a businessman. He and Philippe Clicquot, who had founded the Clicquot champagne house in 1772, were friends and consolidated their business interests by marrying Barbe-Nicole to Philippe’s son François.
Barbe-Nicole was 21, and was widowed by the age of 27.
As a widow, legally, Madame Clicquot could run her own business: she was afforded many legal rights single and married women were not. To cut a long story short, she took a business proposal to her father-in-law, undertook an apprenticeship with another winemaker to prove her talent, and, in 1810, five years after her husband’s death, she launched Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin.
Fun fact: Veuve actually means widow in French, so the champagne’s house name is literally Widow Clicquot-Ponsardin.
Besides playing a huge role in popularising champagne as THE drink for richest members of society across Europe, she did two really important things related to the history of champagne.
The first, in 1815, was solving a huge problem to do with the in-bottle fermentation process. Normally, clouds of dead yeast were left behind through the double, in-bottle fermentation process, with no easy way to get it out. Madame Clicquot had the bottles turned upside down after the second fermentation so that the yeast could settle, and then the dead yeast part was submerged in icy water to freeze it. It could then be easily removed and recorked: this process was known as riddling.
In 1818, the second thing was that she made the first known blended rosé champagne.
Madame Clicquot was an incredibly talented businesswoman who fought to take control of the business herself, grow her skills and grow the reputation and desire for champagne across Europe.
She died at the age of 89 in a giant chateau she had built in Boursault, France.
Read more here about the fascinating history of champagne, and see my reel on Instagram about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin here:
Dr. Lizzie Rogers 
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