The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It (P.S.)

Having been to the region of bubbles, I naturally was drawn into the subject matter. I have now purchased about four or five more copies of this book to press into the hands of others I think would enjoy it. I was impressed with the details of the era which the writer included. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves histry and bubbles...

Loved this book. Tilar brought to life the remarkable story of a women who changed how Champagne was made during a time when women were not involved with business. I have given this book as a gift to many friends.

What an amazing story, both as a biography of Mme Clicquot herself and the history of the French champagne industry. Obviously meticulously researched, with multiple historical references provided, interesting in themselves. To top it all, the story reads so well, a tribute to the author.

This book is a difficult read. The author has to "imagine" what it was like back in the day when this lady lived. She references that many times because she (or anyone) does not have any facts regarding the exact life of this subject in her early years. This book is only for people who are really, really interested in wine and wine history, myself included. But it is a tedious read.

I LOVE Champagne, so this book club pick was high on my interest list. While I learned a lot about the making of champagne, I felt like I was reading a history book. Based on the preface, I thought it was going to be more in the author's voice, who sounded like she would fit in great with my group of friends. I'm all for hanging with anyone who agrees that a glass of Champs isn't just for celebration! If you're a history buff, then this book is for you. I will be purchasing a hard copy for coffee table decor.

Too much babbling and presumptions. Many times words are put in the widows mouth which she probably never spoke. And then again the feminist touch to it, why? From the first page it feels like a LVMH stunt and the credibility of the author (and Mr Arnault) sinks to a deep in the process. Readers don't like being taken for dumb. An historical work would have been nice but then again few references to the person seem to be left.

Widow Clicquot--The Story of a Champagne Empire and The Woman Who Ruled It
Tilar J. Mazzeo
I read Mazzeo's other book, The Hotel at Place Vendome: Life,Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris and couldn't put it down. It was more compelling than this story of one woman who held on to the champagne business for decades. Let's face it. Grapes don't have much personality but rooms can talk--a slip across a bed tells a story with 2 glasses of champagne nearby.
The Widow Clicquot, known as Barbe-Nicole, is one feisty woman who defies convention in Reims and serves Napolean some of her bubbly. I don't want to give too much away. There is a story here of defiance, perseverance and sheer chutzpah. The Widow was known all over Europe and Russia for her distinctive "wines."
Today we call her the first celebrity businesswoman. Only queens and prostitutes earned any publicity. Little is known about her life; however, the author does an excellent job of describing the times (1700-1800s) and customs. Yes, there are names you know--Moët, Dom Perignon, a blind monk no less, as well as secret Catholic marriage ceremonies in the tunnels of limestone mines.
If you've ever taken a Napa wine tour, ordered a bottle of champagne for a celebration or just enjoy the bubbles tickling your nose (wait until you see how they got there!), this is a read that we'll keep you dreaming for a while.

I expected a biography; however, it became apparent early into the book that Mazzeo simply did not have near enough material to write one. Instead Matteo uses the arc of Clicquot's career to show the development of the champagne industry against the backdrop of enormous political and economic changes in nineteenth century Europe. Although Clicquot was unique in terms of being a female CEO, she was not that unique in terms of the particular industry she was in . I did learn some new facts about champagne, including the fact that it originally was very sweet, with about 300 grams of sugar per bottle - more than say sauternes. There is also a suggestion that champagne originally was invented by the British, Moreover it was the British preference for dryer wine that lead to the development of the brut which is the favored modern style. Sacrebleu!

I rarely give five stars because that assumes near-perfection, but given the research done to write the book, I am utterly grateful to have been exposed to it. The Widow Clicquot was the first international business woman. The author received some vintage champagne and in the box was a small brochure which mentioned the Widow. The author ran with it and wrote a book about an amazing, admirable, woman who literally almost invented the business of champagne. Very interesting topic by itself, but we also get an insightful amount of French and industrial history thrown in. So thankful to have found this on Bookbub.

This tale is interesting but it is definitely "history light". The author has taken many liberties with the available documentation and in so doing we are left wondering what really happened and what has been entirely made up. We do get a creditable overview of the early days of the champagne industry. In her attempt to create a person out of the available old documents, the author plays loose with the facts, creating scenes that might have happened, others that could have happened and some that cannot have happened (for example, she could not have seen the "gray sky" at 6 AM in Reims as the sun did not come up until 7:12 on February 10, 1806. Other quantifiable historical inaccuracies abound.) The notes and bibliography indicate a well researched book, however, many descriptions show the author has a vivid imagination. These tales cannot be assumed to be history. The reader is left with the task of deciding as to what parts really did happen and what was made up. The book should be described as a fictional account of the Cliquot champagne empire.

"The Widow Clicquot" is the story of the woman behind the Veuve Clicquot brand name, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who revolutionized the champagne industry in the early 19th century, amidst political turmoil and economic strife in Napoleonic France, to bring her champagne to nearly all of Europe and make it the most recognizable luxury product in the world. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot is credited with three great achievements in the wine industry: creating an international market for champagne, establishing brand identification, and with inventing a method of disgorging debris from the bottle that sped up production significantly. In "The Widow Clicquot", author Tilar Mazzeo attempts to discover the woman behind the brand, a child of the French Revolution who worked unceasingly to build a commercial empire just as women were increasingly excluded from the business world.

Champagne has been produced commercially since the 17th century, but interest in the product was dwindling by the end of the 18th. Then between 1790 and 1830, sales increased 1000% to over 5 million bottles a year. Barbe-Nicole Clicqout deserves much of the credit. The author follows her life from her bourgeois childhood as the daughter of a prominent and politically pragmatic textile manufacturer to her marriage to Francois Clicquot, son of another textile family that also owned a small wine brokerage for which the couple had high hopes. But not long after they began blending and bottling their own wines, Francois died. Barbe-Nicole carried on. It looked like the worst possible time to take her product to the international market. The Napoleonic Wars brought trade embargos, blockades, and taxes. But with her tireless salesman Louis Bohne, the luck of the Russian occupation of Reims, and a good deal of daring, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot grabbed huge market share.

"The Widow Clicquot" tells the story of both the business and the woman behind it, but the story of the company is the easier to reconstruct, as its records and correspondence are archived. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, herself, is more elusive. Tilar Mazzeo has reconstructed her family life and the ambition she had for her company as best as she can ascertain. But there are no private diaries to rely upon, and very little personal correspondence is extant. It is through her business dealings that Barbe-Nicole's personality and intelligence left their stamp on history. For this reason, the author can only speculate about how the lady felt or what she thought, and there is a little too much of that for my taste in the book's early chapters. But "The Widow Clicquot" is well-written, informative, and brings Barbe-Nicole alive for the reader. Historians and champagne aficionados are sure to enjoy it.

Driving west into Paris on the Autoroute through the rolling, vine-covered countryside, a road sign near Reims, the world headquarters and soul of champagne, says "Veuve." Champagne drinkers know that the sign refers to the Cliquot winery where winemaking history was made and where, to this day, the Cliquot caves are to be found. Champagne lovers will want to read this enthralling history of one of the greatest wines in the world, to be consumed year-round and not just as a celebratory tipple for special occasions.

Tilar Mazzeo has assembled a definitive history of the Widow's life, times and family, and the turbulent Revolution and Napoleonic eras in which she lived. The author recounts essentially all the significant events that created the global champagne industry. The book reflects meticulous research and scholarship, brilliantly annotated, revealing the Widow as a serious piece of work, a pioneer feminist possessed of a whim of iron. She was an outstanding manager, marketer and innovator: she invented the still-used riddling rack that permits efficient disgorgement of sediments that emerge during initial fermentation. But, au fond, Mazzeo leaves few questions about champagne unanswered.

After reading this book, the only logical action is to go to Reims, explore this fascinating and historic area and visit as many champagne wineries as possible, including the extraordinary, computer-controlled crushing and bottling facilities shared by all the producers (85% are small houses), that cost millions and work only a few weeks a year. The visiting seasonal grape pickers from all over Europe, alone, are worth a book.

When visiting the Cliquot caves, remember that behind one anonymous wall, in the 1940s, was a French Resistance hospital never discovered by the Boche invaders who were a mere 15 feet away. It's typical of the place and the glories it produces. Champagne is an alluring, enduring mystery. So is the Widow.

This was an excellent book if you take into account that it is not, in fact, purely historical. Quite a bit of it is pieced together from inference and past conjecture. However, it remains a fascinating read about an elusive woman. It's not quite a history book given that. It's also more than a "historical novel" - I think one of the other reviewers called it a "docudrama", and that fits very well. Don't get me wrong...it's really fascinating and fun, just isn't an unabridged history about the woman who created a champagne empire. This isn't the author's fault, as there's extremely limited information surrounding Veuve Clicquot's life in many areas. What what exists, a good job was done for sure.

It has everything tantalizing that you could want in such a book. A woman shrouded in mystery, unique in her time for ruling a vast empire. The making of said empire from mere "scraps". She was a resourceful lady, was Barbe-Nicole Pondsarin.

If you are fond of champagne and wine in general, this is a nice tome to add to your collection. It's fascinating, and entertaining. It's not a book to get for pure historical value, though. Still it will make a fine addition to my library of wines. I'll enjoy having it on hand for the useful trivia to dispense with other wine-drinking friends.

As an educated fanatic of all things of 18th century French origin, it was with great anticipation that I waited for my copy of The Widow Cliquot to arrive in my mailbox. I was enormously excited to read about a woman who lived through a revolution and a restoration only to establish a thriving commercial enterprise (and all during a time when women were not accepted in the business world).

So you can imagine my slight disappoinment when I discovered that the book was more about the history of champagne making than the private life of Barbe-Nicole. I thought the writing was solid and engaging, but often strayed from the subject matter: The Widow.

I found myself wanting to know more about the woman - her likes, dislikes, the challenges she faced as a female owner of a male driven business, what she felt about her husband.

I would have liked to have read some of her letters or excerpts from her journals. I also think there should have been artwork - portraits of the people mentioned, engravings of the art of champagne making, and paintings of The Widows estates.

All in all a good read, but a trifle flat.

Tilar Mazzeo's skills lie in her painstaking, archeological assemblage of the skeletal facts that form the foundation of this long-buried biography. Then, based on these facts, she has molded a credible and full image of the woman who inhabited the skeletal image - Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin.

Though Mazzeo's prose is good, it is not compelling in and of itself, though one may argue that such poetic prose can get in the way of a good tale. And this history of the widow Clicquot is a good tale.

It was the story of this plucky woman entrepreneur that pulled me back to the book, finishing it during just three mornings on the stationary bike, to the neglect of the rest of my workout routine.

It provides insight into what the French revolution was like (with lessons for today's corporate "royalty"?), how Napolion rose to fill the gaping void that ensued, and how his Napoleonic code ruled detailed aspects of daily life, and how marrying into a royal title could bestow instant worth upon those poor souls who were merely wealthy.

The mere fact that the widow's biography was never previously written (or only pathetically so) speaks volumes about society's view towards women in the 1800's, as does the widow's view towards her own daughter, and the life path chosen for her. And the gutsy fortitude and faith in her own conclusions are a textbook image of any successful entrepreneur.

This book should be found on the shelves of any serious student of wine, history, or women's studies.

Dave the Wine Merchant

Tilar J. Mazzeo, author of three previous books including one partially on Frankenstein's creator Mary Shelley, has done a brilliant job in presenting a most readable biography of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Cliquot, "La Grande Dame" of champagne. While many of her conclusions are suppositions based on probability and circumstantial evidence, due to a dearth of previous scholarship on the life of this amazing woman, Mazzeo gives us front and center stage in an educational and informative account of the life of Barbe-Nicole against the backdrop of French history and the origins and development of the famous champagne still known to us today. Oh, to be in Paris as I was seven years ago and able to buy a bottle of Veuve-Cliquot for a mere $18.00! Barbe-Nicole was born in Reims (prounounced "Rans"), the heart of the Champagne district, not far from Paris. She was a young girl in a convent school when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. Fearful for her life, her aristocratic family spirited her away back home, and her father began living a double life as a leader in revolutionary politics while maintaining a luxurious lifestyle for the family. At a young age she was married in a secret ceremony in a damp cellar (Catholicism had been outlawed by the Revolution and the churches shut) to Francois Cliquot. Gradually the couple began increasingly diversifying their family business, the mainstay of which was in the textile trade, increasing their sideline of producing and marketing wine. Francois hit the road as a traveling salesman, one of the first to seek out high-toned buyers and helped begin the practice of wine tastings to sell the product. Widowed at age 27, Barbe-Nicole took over the wine business and made a name for herself as one of the first great female entrepreneurs. I learned a lot from this book, including:
-- The myth that the monk Dom Perignon was the creator of champagne, when in fact he was trying only to get the troublesome bubbles out of fermenting wine. The first sparkling wines in fact were created in England by the British.
-- Three different grape varieties (not just Chardonnay) go into the blend to produce true Champagne. The other two are Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
-- Champagne originally was extremely sweet and it was not for many years that dryer varieties began being produced.
-- Napoleon played a huge role in promoting the development and refinement of champagne. He had a special passion for bubbly, and after coming to power, he ordered mass distribution to all wine producers of the newly-published treatise "The Art of Controlling and Perfecting Wines" by Jean-Antoine Chaptel.
This book is best enjoyed with a properly chilled bottle of Veuve-Cliquot Ponsardin. It's a well-written book and a must for anyone interested in the history of wine.

Imagine it is sometime in the mid-nineteenth century and we are sitting in a gambling den in London among a group of aristocratic young rakes. After a while, the cry goes out: "A bottle of the Widow!" This seemingly obscure evocation is enough to bring the thirsty patron one of the most-recognized luxury items of his day: a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne.

Who was the Widow Clicquot Ponsardin, and how did she give her name to one of the greatest champagne empires the world has ever known? That is the subject of a fascinating new biography by Tilar J. Mazzeo. She describes what can be known of the life of a remarkable Nineteenth-Century French woman who during the course of her eighty-nine years experienced tragedy, Revolution, war and ultimate triumph. In an age when most women of her class were expected to live anonymous lives raising children, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot founded a commercial empire and ran it for nearly seventy years. She lived to see her chidren and grandchildren ascend to the aristocracy based on her tremendous success as a businesswoman.

Her family was already well-off by the time she was born, enough so that she nearly lost her life in the French Revolution. The family business was textiles, not champagne. The brief years of her marriage were spent in a futile attempt to make a go at the champagne business with her husband Francois. Only after his death was the business a success. Geopolitical events conspired against them: this was the age of Napoleon and war, blockades and prejudice against French products all made it remarkably difficult to sell champagne on the European market. Ironically, Russia, where Napoleon would meet his great defeat, eventually became her best customer.

After Francois died, Barbe-Nicole never remarried. This gave her a unique opportunity to take over the champagne business and to run it herself. Although women rarely ran business enterprises in Nineteenth-Century France, it was not unheard of for a widow to operate a champagne business after her husband's death. What distinguished Barbe-Nicole was her enormous ambition and competitive streak, her keen business sense, and her willingness to run huge risks to build her business. Over the course of seventy years, she overcame extreme adversity to build a champagne empire worth billions in today's dollars.

Tilar Mazzeo charts the rocky story of Barbe-Nicole's life for us in an entertaining and even suspenseful manner. Along the way, we learn a lot about the history of champagne, the way it is manufactured, what makes for its different blends and qualities, and how it was bottled, stored and shipped during the Nineteenth Century. We discovery, for example, that Barbe-Nicole invented "remuage," a technique of clearing debris from champagne bottles, that eventually allowed for more speedy mass production. We learn about the spectacular vintage of 1811 and the delicate conditions under which champagne had to be stored. The descriptions of champagne were so vivid that at times, reading this book made me very thirsty for a good glass of bubbly.

"The Widow Cliquot" is a fun history of one woman's life and the business of champagne. It reads well and quickly and I found it quite entertaining.

I really enjoyed learning about the Widow Clicquot and the development of the Champagne industry. I think of this book as having 3 acts...The first is a fascinating personal experience woven through the history of the French Revolution. The second outlines the amazing events of a strong woman taking over a business enterprise and building it to greater heights in a time of near total repression of women in business. Whereas the author does a great job on the first two acts, the third is a bit repetitive both in language and fact. I found it meandered a bit and was more reminiscent than analytical. Still, I highly recommend this book as a case study in widows surprising the world by taking over their family businesses. Other examples that interest me include Gert Boyle of Columbia Sportswear and Katharine Graham of the "Washington Post."

I'm giving this book a three star rating, despite the fact that I couldn't finish it, simply because the subject matter is so interesting and worthwhile. Aside from the fact that this is one of those rare books about a real-life businesswoman from centuries past, the history of champagne and of wine making and sales, in general, is extremely interesting. It's just too bad that the author couldn't decide whether she was writing history or a historical novel.

Great popular historians, like Barbara Tuchman and Allison Weir, can get away with hypothetical satements (e.g., so-and-so would have seen a sweeping view of the Seine from her second story window), because they have a good idea when such statements are likely to be accurate and unlikely to undermine the author's credibility (e.g., they're just filling in background color). But the author of The Widow Cliquot uses such hypothesis on a regular basis to set forth the main facts of the story and after a while it grows tiresome and undercuts the reader's belief in the history presented.

Perhaps someday I'll get around to finishing this book and learning how the Widow Cliquot survived the death of her husband and the errors in judgment he'd made while alive to create an enduring business that has far outlasted her lifetime. Then again, with so many well-written histories from which to choose, I'll probably just move on to one with better writing and more convincing historical accuracy.

As an educated fanatic of all things of 18th century French origin, it was with great anticipation that I waited for my copy of The Widow Cliquot to arrive in my mailbox. I was enormously excited to read about a woman who lived through a revolution and a restoration only to establish a thriving commercial enterprise (and all during a time when women were not accepted in the business world).

So you can imagine my slight disappoinment when I discovered that the book was more about the history of champagne making than the private life of Barbe-Nicole. I thought the writing was solid and engaging, but often strayed from the subject matter: The Widow.

I found myself wanting to know more about the woman - her likes, dislikes, the challenges she faced as a female owner of a male driven business, what she felt about her husband.

I would have liked to have read some of her letters or excerpts from her journals. I also think there should have been artwork - portraits of the people mentioned, engravings of the art of champagne making, and paintings of The Widows estates.

All in all a good read, but a trifle flat.

Tilar Mazzeo's skills lie in her painstaking, archeological assemblage of the skeletal facts that form the foundation of this long-buried biography. Then, based on these facts, she has molded a credible and full image of the woman who inhabited the skeletal image - Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin.

Though Mazzeo's prose is good, it is not compelling in and of itself, though one may argue that such poetic prose can get in the way of a good tale. And this history of the widow Clicquot is a good tale.

It was the story of this plucky woman entrepreneur that pulled me back to the book, finishing it during just three mornings on the stationary bike, to the neglect of the rest of my workout routine.

It provides insight into what the French revolution was like (with lessons for today's corporate "royalty"?), how Napolion rose to fill the gaping void that ensued, and how his Napoleonic code ruled detailed aspects of daily life, and how marrying into a royal title could bestow instant worth upon those poor souls who were merely wealthy.

The mere fact that the widow's biography was never previously written (or only pathetically so) speaks volumes about society's view towards women in the 1800's, as does the widow's view towards her own daughter, and the life path chosen for her. And the gutsy fortitude and faith in her own conclusions are a textbook image of any successful entrepreneur.

This book should be found on the shelves of any serious student of wine, history, or women's studies.

Dave the Wine Merchant

Tilar J. Mazzeo, author of three previous books including one partially on Frankenstein's creator Mary Shelley, has done a brilliant job in presenting a most readable biography of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Cliquot, "La Grande Dame" of champagne. While many of her conclusions are suppositions based on probability and circumstantial evidence, due to a dearth of previous scholarship on the life of this amazing woman, Mazzeo gives us front and center stage in an educational and informative account of the life of Barbe-Nicole against the backdrop of French history and the origins and development of the famous champagne still known to us today. Oh, to be in Paris as I was seven years ago and able to buy a bottle of Veuve-Cliquot for a mere $18.00! Barbe-Nicole was born in Reims (prounounced "Rans"), the heart of the Champagne district, not far from Paris. She was a young girl in a convent school when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. Fearful for her life, her aristocratic family spirited her away back home, and her father began living a double life as a leader in revolutionary politics while maintaining a luxurious lifestyle for the family. At a young age she was married in a secret ceremony in a damp cellar (Catholicism had been outlawed by the Revolution and the churches shut) to Francois Cliquot. Gradually the couple began increasingly diversifying their family business, the mainstay of which was in the textile trade, increasing their sideline of producing and marketing wine. Francois hit the road as a traveling salesman, one of the first to seek out high-toned buyers and helped begin the practice of wine tastings to sell the product. Widowed at age 27, Barbe-Nicole took over the wine business and made a name for herself as one of the first great female entrepreneurs. I learned a lot from this book, including:
-- The myth that the monk Dom Perignon was the creator of champagne, when in fact he was trying only to get the troublesome bubbles out of fermenting wine. The first sparkling wines in fact were created in England by the British.
-- Three different grape varieties (not just Chardonnay) go into the blend to produce true Champagne. The other two are Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
-- Champagne originally was extremely sweet and it was not for many years that dryer varieties began being produced.
-- Napoleon played a huge role in promoting the development and refinement of champagne. He had a special passion for bubbly, and after coming to power, he ordered mass distribution to all wine producers of the newly-published treatise "The Art of Controlling and Perfecting Wines" by Jean-Antoine Chaptel.
This book is best enjoyed with a properly chilled bottle of Veuve-Cliquot Ponsardin. It's a well-written book and a must for anyone interested in the history of wine.

Imagine it is sometime in the mid-nineteenth century and we are sitting in a gambling den in London among a group of aristocratic young rakes. After a while, the cry goes out: "A bottle of the Widow!" This seemingly obscure evocation is enough to bring the thirsty patron one of the most-recognized luxury items of his day: a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne.

Who was the Widow Clicquot Ponsardin, and how did she give her name to one of the greatest champagne empires the world has ever known? That is the subject of a fascinating new biography by Tilar J. Mazzeo. She describes what can be known of the life of a remarkable Nineteenth-Century French woman who during the course of her eighty-nine years experienced tragedy, Revolution, war and ultimate triumph. In an age when most women of her class were expected to live anonymous lives raising children, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot founded a commercial empire and ran it for nearly seventy years. She lived to see her chidren and grandchildren ascend to the aristocracy based on her tremendous success as a businesswoman.

Her family was already well-off by the time she was born, enough so that she nearly lost her life in the French Revolution. The family business was textiles, not champagne. The brief years of her marriage were spent in a futile attempt to make a go at the champagne business with her husband Francois. Only after his death was the business a success. Geopolitical events conspired against them: this was the age of Napoleon and war, blockades and prejudice against French products all made it remarkably difficult to sell champagne on the European market. Ironically, Russia, where Napoleon would meet his great defeat, eventually became her best customer.

After Francois died, Barbe-Nicole never remarried. This gave her a unique opportunity to take over the champagne business and to run it herself. Although women rarely ran business enterprises in Nineteenth-Century France, it was not unheard of for a widow to operate a champagne business after her husband's death. What distinguished Barbe-Nicole was her enormous ambition and competitive streak, her keen business sense, and her willingness to run huge risks to build her business. Over the course of seventy years, she overcame extreme adversity to build a champagne empire worth billions in today's dollars.

Tilar Mazzeo charts the rocky story of Barbe-Nicole's life for us in an entertaining and even suspenseful manner. Along the way, we learn a lot about the history of champagne, the way it is manufactured, what makes for its different blends and qualities, and how it was bottled, stored and shipped during the Nineteenth Century. We discovery, for example, that Barbe-Nicole invented "remuage," a technique of clearing debris from champagne bottles, that eventually allowed for more speedy mass production. We learn about the spectacular vintage of 1811 and the delicate conditions under which champagne had to be stored. The descriptions of champagne were so vivid that at times, reading this book made me very thirsty for a good glass of bubbly.

"The Widow Cliquot" is a fun history of one woman's life and the business of champagne. It reads well and quickly and I found it quite entertaining.

I really enjoyed learning about the Widow Clicquot and the development of the Champagne industry. I think of this book as having 3 acts...The first is a fascinating personal experience woven through the history of the French Revolution. The second outlines the amazing events of a strong woman taking over a business enterprise and building it to greater heights in a time of near total repression of women in business. Whereas the author does a great job on the first two acts, the third is a bit repetitive both in language and fact. I found it meandered a bit and was more reminiscent than analytical. Still, I highly recommend this book as a case study in widows surprising the world by taking over their family businesses. Other examples that interest me include Gert Boyle of Columbia Sportswear and Katharine Graham of the "Washington Post."

I'm giving this book a three star rating, despite the fact that I couldn't finish it, simply because the subject matter is so interesting and worthwhile. Aside from the fact that this is one of those rare books about a real-life businesswoman from centuries past, the history of champagne and of wine making and sales, in general, is extremely interesting. It's just too bad that the author couldn't decide whether she was writing history or a historical novel.

Great popular historians, like Barbara Tuchman and Allison Weir, can get away with hypothetical satements (e.g., so-and-so would have seen a sweeping view of the Seine from her second story window), because they have a good idea when such statements are likely to be accurate and unlikely to undermine the author's credibility (e.g., they're just filling in background color). But the author of The Widow Cliquot uses such hypothesis on a regular basis to set forth the main facts of the story and after a while it grows tiresome and undercuts the reader's belief in the history presented.

Perhaps someday I'll get around to finishing this book and learning how the Widow Cliquot survived the death of her husband and the errors in judgment he'd made while alive to create an enduring business that has far outlasted her lifetime. Then again, with so many well-written histories from which to choose, I'll probably just move on to one with better writing and more convincing historical accuracy.

Veuve Clicquot is one of the premier champagnes of the world. This book tells the remarkable story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who was widowed before she was 30. Nevertheless, she took control of the business she and her husband had started and went on to create and manage a highly successful international commercial empire in the wine trade. She had to ignore the gender expectations of her time (and of a number of subsequent generations) to do so. The story is an interesting one, full of ups and downs, mishaps, and occasional misjudgements. These are fairly well documented in the records of the company. What is missing is much of anything about Barbe-Nicole herself beyond what she did. There are no diaries, collections of personal letters, etc. As a result, Mazzeo is forced to speculate on what the woman thought or felt. The speculations are not outlandish, but the absence of documents is a drawback. Mazzeo writes decently and tells an interesting story, but it is not especially compelling. It is a "must read" only for those looking into the history of women as entrepreneurs.

Upon the death of her husband, Francois Clicquot , Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin joined Alexandre Jerome Fourneux in a business partnership in 1806 and founded Veuve Clicquot Fourneaux & Co.. She immediately took an active role in the business, participating in the crafting of her own Champagne and within four years was in charge of the business which became Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin & Co.. The Widow Clicquot's risky decision to arrange to transport her wines from the 1811 or "comet" vintage to Russia for sale after the fall of Napoleon saved her company and led to the internationalization of Champagne. She continued at the helm of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin & Co. until 1841, when at the age of 64 she retired. To this day, Champagne Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is the only elite Champagne house with a woman (Madame Cécile Bonnefond) at the helm.

In the 1800s everyone knew of the Widow Clicquot, but few understand anything about the woman behind the yellow label. Scant details of her life have been preserved. Her personal letters did not survive and there is little biographical record. It is to the author's credit that she was able to recreate the life story and provide new insight about this unique woman. Mazzeo does write at times with considerable speculation, but her grasp of history makes the whole story very plausible. The book has extensive scholarly references and bibliography, but only one photo of the Widow Clicquot in her later years and no photos of early Champagne bottles or labels.

This book is valuable for the educational information about Champagne that is interjected throughout its pages. Here are just a few of the little known facts about Champagne that I learned:

* Champagne was discovered by the British, not the French. Sparkling wine appeared in England by the 1660s, decades before it was sold in France. Wine was shipped from France to England in wooden casks. The British wanted to better preserve the wine so they put the wine in bottles where the wine underwent a secondary fermentation. The British added sugar to the bottles, creating Champagne by the 1670s, a decade before it was produced in France.

* Early on, in the 1790s, Champagne was a dessert wine, very sweet, served cold and brownish pink in color due to added brandy and skins of grapes. There were only blanc de noirs (white and red grapes).

* Dom Pierre Perignon did not invent Champagne. That was a marketing ploy by the region's Champagne producers at the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris. In reality, Dom Perignon was given the task of getting rid of bubbles that were ruining still wines of the time. A secondary fermentation occurred in wines stored over the winter in sealed wood casks and when the weather warmed in the spring, a secondary fermentation occurred creating bubbles in the so-called "devil's wine." There was little market for sparkling wine at the time. Dom Perignon was a pioneer of blending.

* The older a Champagne is, the smaller the bubbles become. Bubbles do not affect taste. Since vintage Champagne is aged extensively creating smaller bubbles, the quality of high quality Champagne is often attributed to small bubbles.

* Vintage Champagne must be aged a minimum of 3 years, some of the best are aged 7-8 years. After disgorgement, Champagne rarely improves with cellaring.

* The Widow Clicquot discovered remuage, a system of clearing Champagne yeast debris trapped in the bottle after secondary fermentation by riddling.

* Barbe-Nicole Clicquot was one of the first winemakers to use labels on her bottles in 1814.

* The signature of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot is on every orange label Champagne that bears her name.

This is an "entertaining" easy and quick read; informative even if speculative as has been pointed out by some detractors. I have to ask: who picks up a small format book, not a half inch thick and really expects a biography written by Meacham or Ross King or Manchester? Yes it has flaws, I haven't read a book yet that hasn't but if you aren't after a large (and sometimes laborious) scholarly text and still want something informative this is a good choice.

To paraphrase Lincoln, those that like this sort of thing will find plenty here to like. I mean that in both a good and not-so-good way.

"The Widow Clicquot" exists in that delicate world between biography and historical fiction, where gaping holes in the historical record are filled with supposition, educated guesses and intuition based on the few tiny nuggets of info that do survive. Those who are looking for a pure, hard-driving bio are most likely going to be irritated by the extrapolations ("On what basis does she say *that*?! How does she *know*?!"). Fair enough, but having been in the trenches of academic history I'm slightly more forgiving... I know first hand just how difficult it is to reconstruct a life from the past, especially when this life occurred in one of those, er, "dynamic" eras of political, social or economic upheaval when people were less concerned with good record-keeping.

I think those who like reading about unconventional women, innovative entrepreneurs, the history of one of the world's most enjoyable luxuries, or popular history in general will readily forgive the author her many extrapolations and greatly enjoy this book. The good widow Clicquot sounds like the kind of formidable woman you'd love to meet in person (and talk about as soon as she left the room!). Mazzeo's writing is engaging, and she does a good job with filling in gaps of Barbe-Nicole's life-story with info on the history and production of champagne, which the casual reader will most likely find enjoyable and informative without feeling unduly "academic." To a surprising degree, Mazzeo is able to make the good Widow's business ventures suspenseful and riveting, making these sections of the book particularly enjoyable.

Very often, the success of a biography, particularly on a poorly documented subject, depends on the degree you can trust the historian, particularly his or her ability to understand all the available info well enough to fill in the inevitable blanks. For what it's worth, I do trust Mazzeo's reading of the sources enough to give her extrapolations the benefit of the doubt.

For those who like this kind of bio, I'd also recommend Joyce Tyldesley's Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh.

I have just finished "The Widow Cliquot" about Barbe-Nicole Cliquot, who when she became a widow (veuve) established the vineyard that became Veuve Cliquot, changed the way champagne was made and marketed, and nurtured it into the industrial powerhouse that provides us with the magnificent champagne that I am SO fond of today

A fantastic story of a woman with a business brain and ambition at a time when there were no powerful women outside of the aristocracy. A recommended book that is not only about a fascinating woman, but also about the process of making champage. I think I could do with a glass of it right NOW!

Naturally, the _Oxford English Dictionary_ contains the word "widow", but if you look down the definition list, you will come across one that might surprise you: "champagne". The entry clarifies (a little) that a "colloquial or slang" use of the word comes from "Veuve Clicquot", French for "Widow Clicquot", the name of a firm of wine merchants, and at its helm was indeed the widow Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. Further clarification, and much more, can be found in _The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It_ (Collins) by Tilar J. Mazzeo. Mazzeo is an assistant professor, a cultural historian, and a wine enthusiast. In her acknowledgements, she thanks all the "many friends who joined me so enthusiastically in the extensive `primary' research, with a bottle of the Widow in hand." It is clear that Mazzeo enjoyed the research, and that she admires the Widow and the widow, of whom she writes that she was no queen, duchess, or mother of some great man, and she wasn't even a widow of a great man: "She was simply a formidable and independent woman, making her own name in the humdrum, dog-eat-dog world of business." There were a few other women of her time who were successful in big business, but Barbe-Nicole was something extraordinary in her determination to make a product that everyone knows and values two centuries later. This is a good biography, along with descriptions of the science, art, and history of winemaking.

When Barbe-Nicole came onto the wine scene, champagne was a niche market. She was born in 1777 to a wealthy family in Reims. She formed a good marriage with François Clicquot, whose family had become wealthy in the cloth trades, but who had a sideline in wines. They learned the craft of winemaking together, but he died when she was only 27, possibly of typhoid (which people thought might be treated by giving the patient champagne) and maybe from suicide because his business was going badly. With considerable pluck, his widow held onto the company. Contemporary traditions and then the Napoleonic code dictated that the woman's place was in the home, but there were other widows preceding her in the wine business, and though they may have lost their husbands, they were the only women granted the freedom of running their own affairs. She had picked a good time to jump into the champagne market. Much of Mazzeo's book has to do with the effects of history on the wine markets, including events like the Russian occupation of Reims. The widow was able at times to exploit current events and make sales, for instance, to Czar Alexander, who proclaimed that he would drink nothing else. There are also accounts of how the widow worked with her cellar master to make champagne clearer and with tiny, not gassy, bubbles.

Mazzeo's book traces the widow's business and her decisions which were sometimes disastrous but were more often judicious and lucrative. It was her business skill and capacity to exploit new markets at just the right time that elevated champagne to the customary drink for celebrations. Although much of the making of champagne remained a hand-crafted process, she did institute techniques that, in tune with her time, allowed its increasing industrialization. Her wines are still made; the finest made at Veuve Clicquot is called "La Grande Dame", and bears a rich yellow color on the label. (The history of wine labeling is one of the small points covered here. Originally, the wine houses made do with merely branding their corks, and although the widow had used labels by 1814, it was only the advent of train transportation leading to easy international commerce that got every bottle labeled.) Mazzeo, in an entertaining book that covers a great deal of wine history, has had to evaluate vast amounts of business records, but because the widow herself did not keep a journal or write many personal notes that have been preserved, Mazzeo uses a lot of judicious "perhaps" introductions to tell us what the widow might have been thinking or doing. There is one wonderful quotation from Mme. Clicquot in a letter to her granddaughter, which nicely sums up what the widow thought was important: "The world is in perpetual motion, and we invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity." It was advice to which she had been faithful all her career.

This is the story of probably the most famous female "CEO" (had such a title existed at the time) in history, and the product to which she gave her name. Widowed young, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin struggled to create what became one of the great champagne houses. How she did it is a fascinating story.

What sets this book apart from mere biographies is the way Mazzeo relates birth and growth of Veuve Clicquot to the political and social history of France and Europe. Barbe-Nicole was born to an ambitious bourgeois family in Reims a decade before the French Revolution. Her father threaded his way successfully through revolution and régime changes, and his daughter clearly inherited his ability to move with the tides of circumstance. The Napoléonic Wars, with their shifting alliances, made the shipment and sale of her product hazardous at best, but she persevered.

Mazzeo, rightly, I think, also points out that Mme. Clicquot-Ponsardin's timing was fortuitous. She was building her business right at the time when manufacture was transitioning from small, family-owned businesses to larger firms. As a result, women were transitioning from being active partners in these businesses to being the visible sign of success, but being relegated to the domestic and social scene. She was not too early to take advantage of the first change, nor so late that she was restricted by the second. In comparing Barbe-Nicole's life to that she desired and achieved) for her daughter and grand-daughter, Mazzeo teaches us something not only about the lives of these women, but of an entire class of women.

Given the fact that there are very few sources for the study of this particular person, the author does a skillful job of interweaving that information, her own experience of the region, contemporary sources, and her own informed speculations. The family details are fascinating, and the reader will learn a great deal not only about the famous Widow but also about the cultural history of wine and sparkling wine, and about the atmosphere of the age. I am always delighted when scholars manage to communicate effectively with a non-scholarly audience; this is just such a book.

One irritating detail to be corrected: millions of readers east of the Elbe River would be surprised to learn that Sekt as a sparkling wine product has disappeared. I love Sekt as do many of German, Czech, and Polish friends. You can buy it everywhere in Germany.

Appreciating wine and champagne and having enjoyed Clicquot, I believed I would uncover a very engrossing bio of The Widow.
Unfortunately, just as the title of this review, it was filled with suppositions....she might have, probably, possibly, perhaps etc. There was no real documentation and very little emotion conveyed. The technical aspects of the development of champagne were somewhat interesting, but I expected to be reading about the widow and her documented personal journey.
It seemed to go on and on and truthfully, while I appreciated the widow's efforts, I wound up not really caring. I saw no real depth to her character. Yes, the times were an extraordinary challenge...but, a challenge to produce wine....what about the challenge of those who were truly impacted by the politics and conflicts of the time?
Having become familiar with many of today's female winemakers, I am certain that Barbe Nicole is somewhat of an inspiration. I have read some of their stories and I was truly impressed by their hard work, physically and mentally, to become a success. Many of them truly incorporated their families and friends in a beautiful and challenging career.

Tilar Mazzeo assembles fragments of an incomplete historical record, and creates an entertaining and insightful profile of one of the most successful business leaders, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, in a book titled The Widow Clicquot. After the death of her husband, Barbe-Nicole ran the business as an audacious risk taker for much of the 19th century, during wars, financial crises and technological innovations. However much you may enjoy drinking Veuve Clicquot or other champagnes, reading about the woman who revolutionized the wine business in the 19th century brings a buzz of its own. This Grande Dame was a remarkable woman, and Mazzeo brings her to life and engages readers in imagining the ways in which Barbe-Nicole faced challenges and made business decisions that led to great success.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

This is a solid biography that adequately depicts the time that Barbe-Nicole lived, as well as, the many trials and tribulations she had to undergo to build her company into one of the world's largest producers of champagne. There are not vast amounts of resource material on this remarkable woman but the author still manages to tell a fascinating story. There is much tradecraft contained within the pages concerning the production of champagne. For those readers interested in wine- and there are many- this book will prove to be a fascinating read and well recommended.