Here’s a novel to pair with your next bubbly

Who was Barbe-Nicole Clicquot and why should Champagne drinkers know her name?

Clicquot was the first woman to make Champagne, but that’s not all. She was also among the first winemakers to use an innovative technique known as “riddling” to disgorge yeast from the bottle during second fermentation, thus clarifying the wine, and she was a savvy businesswoman who managed to thwart Napoleon’s blockades of wine shipments to Russia and Europe.

All this occurred after Clicquot lost her husband to typhus in 1805. As his 27-year-old widow, she took on the task of managing their struggling winery in the midst of wars raging throughout Europe. But the law only allowed her to do so because she was a widow.

Champagne Veuve Clicquot is going stronger than ever today. The Reims-based house, which is celebrating its 250^th anniversary in 2022, rebounded from the pandemic and fears over tariffs to rack up double-digit increases in sales in the U.S. last year. (Source: Shanken News Daily)

I first “met” Veuve (Widow) Clicquot several years ago, when I presented a session on sparkling wines for the Society of Wine Educators. But I couldn’t possibly do justice to her story as well as novelist Rebecca Rosenberg does in Champagne Widows (Lion Heart Publishing, 2022).

Rosenberg is a Champagne historian, tour guide and creator of sparkling wine cocktails for Breathless Wines, a Healdsburg, CA, winery run by three sisters. Rosenberg lives on a lavender farm in Sonoma County and has pursued decades of wine research throughout France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and California. She is the author of Lavender Fields of America, The Secret Life of Mrs. London and Gold Digger, the Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor.

When Rosenberg discovered the widows who made Champagne a worldwide phenomenon – Veuve Clicquot, Madame Pommery and Lily Bollinger – she dedicated herself to telling their stories.

Champagne Widows is an engaging and lively account of what Veuve Clicquot surely suffered in the early years of Champagne production. While it celebrates Clicquot, the strident Le Nez (The Nose) who believes in her innate talent for blending wine and perseveres despite obstacles, the book is also a tribute to those women left behind to tend the fields and run the businesses while 5 million men fought and died in Napoleon’s escapades. If you love historical fiction – and wine – this could be your next beach read. Be sure to stow away a bottle of the bubbly in your picnic cooler!  

I caught up with Rosenberg recently to ask her some questions about the book. Here’s what she had to say:

Why did you decide to write about Veuve Clicquot?

I live in Sonoma Valley and have suffered through researching sparkling wines for 20 years! 😉 We’ve visited the Champagne region of France many times, and I became obsessed with Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, the first woman who made Champagne. We visited all her vineyards and homes and walked her footsteps through the town of Reims. I hired the Veuve Clicquot company historian to discover the details of her life. Deep diving into her challenges, I discovered she had to deal with many of the same problems we have today: pandemics, mental illness, sexist laws, and 15 years of wars. When I learned Napoleon made her father mayor of Reims and was a constant presence, I realized he was her ultimate antagonist. Napoleon’s sexist laws prevented women from owning businesses, and he forbid Champagne to be shipped out of France to his enemies.  

She was a remarkable woman. What do you most admire about her?

I am envious of her gift and curse of Le Nez, an extra-sensitive nose that allowed her to blend extraordinary champagnes that the world coveted. Despite all the odds against her, Barbe-Nicole believed in her champagne, and employed hundreds of fellow widows in making and bottling it. She defied Napoleon’s laws, disguised her ship of champagne, and broke through Napoleon’s blockades. She sold her champagne in Russia, just as Napoleon stranded his Grand Army in Moscow and ultimately killed 5 million soldiers in his futile wars to conquer Europe.

Has writing this book changed your appreciation of Champagne wine? How?

I came to understand that Champagne takes twice as long to make as wine, and is twice as hard, with the methode champenoise, which is a double fermentation process, to make wine. I have deep appreciation of Veuve Clicquot and her riddling process which clarified the murky, cloudy Champagne of the 1800s.

Were there any distinct advantages or disadvantages to being a woman in the wine industry during Veuve Clicquot’s time? What were they? How about today?

There were distinct disadvantages of being a woman in the wine industry in the 1800s. Women were not allowed to own property or businesses. Their businesses and property were owned by their husbands. Only if they were widowed were women allowed to own anything. Women were not accepted or respected in business dealings. Women were not allowed to make business contracts. Today is a different world entirely. My good friends at Breathless Wines are three sisters who make award-winning sparkling wine.

Has this story inspired you to change anything about yourself or your own responses to crises we face today?

Veuve Clicquot was super gutsy to break the law to ship her champagne. She could have gone to jail, or worse. What she did could have been seen as treason to Napoleon! I do admire her tenacity to stick to her Champagne business through 15 tough years and believe in herself. Writing novels is tough in its own way, and Barbe-Nicole’s diamond-hard determination inspires me to keep going in my dream.

You can follow the Champagne Widows blog at Rebecca’s Blog, or on Facebook at rebeccarosenbergnovels.