Veuve Clicquot

During the Napoleonic Wars, Madame Clicquot made strides in establishing her wine in royal courts throughout Europe, notably that of Imperial Russia.

[10][14][15] After his marriage, François Clicquot was officially made his father's partner, and in July, the company name was changed to "Clicquot-Muiron et Fils".

Louis Bohne remained a faithful employee of the company all his life and became a valuable adviser to Madame Clicquot, even though he was usually stationed far away.

[17] After various trips through Europe, Louis Bohne came back to Reims in March 1803 with a book full of orders from the largest merchants and most important individual buyers.

Her childhood was influenced by her father,[11] Baron Nicolas Ponsardin, a successful textile maker, who was involved in both business and politics.

[16] In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic Code denied women civil and political rights, prohibiting them from working, voting, earning money, or entering schools and universities without the consent of their husband or father.

[6][19] When Louis Bohne came back to Reims from St.Petersburg, one month after François Clicquot's funeral, 110,000 bottles of champagne had been shipped during the course of 1805, nearly double the preceding year, thanks to his business trips.

Furthermore, Russian Tsar Alexander I issued a decree banning French products, cutting off a previously lucrative market.

[16] Facing bankruptcy, Barbe-Nicole took a business gamble: she decided to send her champagne to Russia, when peace returned ahead of her competitors.

[15][6] With the French monarchy restored, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne put the plan they had been preparing for five years into execution.

In 1814, as the blockades fell away, the company chartered a Dutch cargo ship, the "Zes Gebroeders", en route to Königsberg,[6] to deliver 10,550 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne to the Russian market,[15][6] taking advantage of the general chaos, while their competitors still believed such a move to be impossible.

[15] Edouard and his son Alfred ran the business in the following years developing it further: they acquired new vineyards and in 1877 began utilizing a yellow label for the wines, an unusual color for champagne at the time.

Easily recognised by its distinctive bright yellow labels, the wine held a royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

[16] During World War I, the Veuve Clicquot cellars sheltered over one thousand company staff and civilians in the war-torn champagne region from bombardments.

[16] Long before the law required it, they offered benefits to their employees: holidays, pensions, healthcare, sports fields and recreation areas.

[16] In 1987, the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group acquired Veuve Clicquot,[22][14][23] where it remains today, headed up by Jean-Marc Gallot.

[24] In July 2010, a group of Finnish divers found 168 bottles of champagne beneath the Baltic Sea off the coast of Åland.

[30] This high sugar content was characteristic of people's tastes at the time, especially the Russian market known for its preference for sweeter wines.

Modern champagne producers begin with wine from stainless steel barrels, yielding lower iron and lead levels.

[36] As a result, in 2014, the house submerged 300 bottles and 50 magnums of its champagne at the exact location of the wreck to study whether it matures differently than on land.

[18] In July 2008, an unopened bottle of Veuve Clicquot was discovered inside a sideboard in Torosay Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland.

[16] The Veuve Clicquot chalk quarries are located beneath the colline Saint Nicaise and are granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

[16] When establishing her own vineyards, she bought only vines on land that would subsequently be classified 100% on the "échelle des crus" (Bouzy, Verzenay and Verzy).

[17][21] The company also purchases grapes from 400 different suppliers, some of whom are descendants of the wine growers who sold their harvests to Edouard Werlé.

[11][5] Composed much like a wooden desk with circular holes, the rack allowed a bottle of wine to be stuck sur point or upside down.

For six to eight weeks, a cellar assistant would gently shake and twist the bottles (remuage), rotating them by a quarter-turn every day,[6] to bring the sediments into the neck through gradual inversion.

[45][46] Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is a blend of between 50 and 60 different crus, made of pinot noir (50%), meunier (20%) and chardonnay (30%).

[52] The prize has now expanded to many other countries including, Great Britain, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, Norway and Japan.

Past winners include Françoise Nyssen, Carolyn McCall,[53] Linda Bennett, Anya Hindmarch, Anita Roddick, Zaha Hadid[54] and Susan Lyons.

[16] In the 1942 film "Casablanca", Captain Renault (played by Claude Rains) recommends Veuve Clicquot to Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt).

Portrait of Madame Clicquot and her great-granddaughter Anne de Rochechouart-Mortemart by Léon Cogniet .
Steps leading up from the Veuve Clicquot cellars, representing grands millesimes (outstanding vintages) in ascending order by year
Bottles of Veuve Clicquot ranging in size from "balthazar" (12 L) down to "piccolo" (0.188 L )
Riddling racks in the Veuve Clicquot chalk cellars
Bottles of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut at a Hong Kong wine shop
Ad from the 17th annual regatta of the Larchmont Yacht Club , 4 July 1896
Veuve Clicquot bottles and decorations as part of the company's "Yelloween" celebration