User:Solarys-fr/Veuve Clicquot

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin

Industry	Champagne production
Founded	1772 (252 years ago)
Founder	Philippe Clicquot-Muiron
Headquarters	12, Rue du Temple Reims, France
Key people	Jean-Marc Gallot (President), Jean Marc Lacave (former President)
Revenue	€1.2 billion (2012)
Parent	LVMH
Website	www.veuve-clicquot.com

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxVeuve Clicquot Ponsardin (French pronunciation: [vœv kliko pɔ̃saʁdɛ̃]) is a French Champagne house based in Reims, specializing in premium products. Founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot-Muiron, Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a favored drink of haute bourgeoisie and nobility throughout Europe. The 1811 comet vintage of Veuve Clicquot is theorized to have been the first truly "modern" Champagne due to the advancements in the méthode champenoise which Veuve Clicquot pioneered through the technique of remuage.

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin SA produces and distributes of champagne. The company was founded in 1772 and is based in Reims, France. Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin SA operates as a subsidiary of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.E.

Veuve Clicquot is today best known as the creator of one of the world’s most widely-recognized Champagne brands.

Veuve Clicquot was founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot-Muiron.

Founded in 1772, Veuve Clicquot is among the most prestigious of all Champagne Houses.

History

Foundation

Portrait of Madame Clicquot and her great-granddaughter Anne de Rochechouart-Mortemart by Léon Cogniet.

In 1772, Philippe Clicquot-Muiron established the original enterprise which eventually became the house of Veuve Clicquot. In 1775, it was credited to be the first Champagne house to produce rosé Champagne, using the method of adding red wine during production.

In 1772, Philippe Clicquot-Muiron established a wine business which would later become the Veuve Clicquot champagne house.

The Clicquot champagne house was founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot.

Philippe Clicquot was a textile merchant, a banker and an owner of vineyards in the Champagne country.

Philippe Clicquot-Muiron was a textile merchant and banker, who decided to transform some of his vineyards owned nearby Bouzy and Ambonnay into a wine business.

On January 1772, he published an announcement in a newspaper ("The Gazette de France").

On 3 January 1772, Philippe Clicquot published an announcement in the "Gazette de France" to the effect that he was "founding a wine business under the Clicquot name". The advertisement went on to say : "M. Clicquot is a banker, a cloth merchant and the owner of vineyards in the famous Champagne country". Philippe Clicquot intended to "cross the frontiers of the kingdom and bring the fine wines of Champagne to foreign palates".

Philippe Clicquot was ambitious as he planed to conquer Europe and to cross boarders to sell his wine.

By advertising in this way in the newspapers, Philippe Clicquot was able to expand his wine-bying clientele.

Prior to this date, the Clicquot family had sold the produce of its vineyards only in a small way, to family and friends, as did many other middle class wine growing Reims families.

In August 1772, Philippe Clicquot married Françoise Muiron and the company name changed to "Clicquot-Muiron". The company was a joint venture with his father-in-law, Muiron-Vouette.

Clicquot wine was first produced in 1772, but the name Veuve (or "widow") Clicquot was not used until the 1820s, when the wife of the founder's son inherited the firm. The first batch was not bottled for 10 years and production was disrupted by the French revolution in 1789. It is therefore believed that the ship must have foundered between 1782 and 1788. Ms Cromwell-Morgan said: "One strong supposition is that it's part of a consignment sent by King Louis XVI to the Russian Imperial Court. The makers have a record of a delivery which never reached its destination."

The champagne has been provisionally identified as made in the period 1772-1789 by the company that later became known as Veuve Clicquot. If so, the bottles – preserved in perfect conditions of cold and darkness – are the oldest known drinkable champagne.

His annual shipments swung between 4,000 bottles a year and 6-7,000 in a good year.

According to records, Clicquot champagne was first produced in 1772 but was laid down for 10 years.

xxxxxxxxxIn 1775, it was credited to be the first Champagne house to produce rosé Champagne, using the method of adding red wine during production.

Premature death of François Clicquot

In July 1792, Philippe Clicquot sent his only son, François, then 18 years old, in Switzerland to work in a banking house. He finally obtained a job in the National Import and Export accounts office, in Bâle (Basel).

When François came back to Reims, he sold wine and merchandise for his father. He travelled firstly in France, then in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Austria.

Towards the end of 1796 and throughout 1797, the company also did a determined job of charming Americans in France and all those who traded with the United States. The champagne sold well to Americans living in France, but it was not until 1832 that the company would export regularly to the United States.

The founder’s son François married Barbe, a daughter of Baron Nicolas Ponsardin in 1798.

After his marriage to Barbe Nicole Ponsardin, on 10 June 1798, François Clicquot was made his father's partner and on 20 July the company name was changed to "Clicquot-Muiron et Fils". It became a true champagne house. Sales increased. All other businesses unconnected to wine growing were abandoned, one after the other.

François Clicquot deserves a large part of the credit for this spectacular growth. He was the brain which put the company on a new road, both in matters of policy and financially. Little by little, François Clicquot established a new practice: employing commercial travellers.

Francois announced to his father his intention of expanding the family’s wine business, but was met with disapproval. As France plunged into the Napoleonic Wars, Philippe didn’t see wine as a profitable endeavor. Francois dismissed his father’s concerns, and set about learning the wine trade, along with his young wife. While Francois had little knowledge of wine-making, the craft ran in Barbe-Nicole’s family: one of her grandmothers had been part of a wine making operation generations earlier. Still, the two set out to learn the industry from the ground-up together.

Despite their apparent passion for the industry, Philippe Clicquot’s judgement seems to have been correct: their champagne business stalled and looked ready to collapse.

In August 1801, François Clicquot began a long trip in Europe. Passing through Bâle, he met Louis Bohne. François Clicquot had not been mistaken in his choice. Louis Bohne, despite all the problems to come, remained a faithful employee of the company till the day of his death and was one of the architects of its success. Despite the fact that he was usually stationed far away, he was to become an invaluable adviser to Madame Clicquot.

In 1801, Philippe Clicquot-Muiron retired and handed control to his son François, at that time already married to Nicole-Barbe Ponsardin.

In September 1802, Louis Bohne visited Reims. He learned about the wine which he was to sell. He then travelled through Europe to conquer new marketplaces.

In 1802, Philippe Clicquot retired, and on 21 July 1802, the company name was changed to "Clicquot Fils".

After various trips through Europe, Louis Bohne came back to Reims in March 1803 with a book bursting with orders from the largest merchants and most important individuals in those places. In the summer 1804, the growth of the Clicquot champagne business first began.

In November 1805, Louis Bohne, visiting St. Petersburg, received a letter which contained tragic news: the premature death of François Clicquot on 23 October. "The recent loss of our son and partner, Monsieur Clicquot Ponsardin, who personally managed the company, leaves his father and young widow, who are both in the greatest affliction, with the intention of carrying on only long enough to organise the liquidation of the company". All correspondance at the end of 1805 gives evidence of this intent to formally cease trading.

In 1805, six years after their marriage, Francois fell suddenly ill with a fever. 12 days later, he was dead. Rumors swirled around the town that his death had been a suicide caused by despair at the failing business, though other accounts attribute his death to an infectious fever such as typhoid. Both Barbe-Nicole and Philippe were devastated by Francois’ death, and Philippe announced that by the end of the year, he would end the wine business.

Officially, the cause of François Clicquot's death was typhoid.

At the age of 27 her husband Francois Clicquot passed away and Barbe-Nicole assumed to role of visionary for the company and became one of the few, if only, women in the late 1700’s to run an international business.

They led the business together until 1805 when Francois at just 30 died. His widow (veuve in French) Ponsardin decided to take the family business in hand, becoming one of the first business women in a world predominantly dominated by men.

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the widow Clicquot

What then made the widow Clicquot Pondardin, then just 29 years old, decide to take over her husband's business?

On the purely material side, the necessity to earn a living does not appear to have been a motive. Madame Clicquot's father, Nicolas Ponsardin, possessed a large fortune and would certainly have been able to help his daughter raise Clémentine, her only child. On her husband's side of the family Clémentine was François Clicquot's parents only grandchild, and here too, Madame Clicquot would certainly have found help. It was not financial necessity that drove her to continue her husband's business. It is likely, too, that she never envisaged herself spending the rest of her life educating her daughter and worrying about domestic matters, which had never much interested her. It must be remembered that Madame Clicquot came from a family to whom work ethic and success were very important.

One can imagine that Madame Clicquot would not have wanted to see her husband's supreme efforts wasted.

Louis Bohne's influence must be taken into account too. Hastily returning from St.Petersburg, he arrived back in Reims 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, all thaks to the success of his selling trips.

It is difficult to imagine that François, passionately enthusiastic, would not at least have discussed the business with his brilliant wife. He probably shared with her his worries, hopes and plans.

The Widow Clicquot was born Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, daughter of an affluent textile industrialist in Reims, France. Born in the years leading up to the French Revolution, Barbe-Nicole’s childhood was heavily influenced by the political leanings of her father, Ponce Jean Nicolas Philippe Ponsardin, which switched from monarchist to Jacobin as the tide of the Revolution turned against the monarchy. Through his shrewd politics, Barbe-Nicole’s family was able to escape the Revolution relatively unscathed, a rarity for an affluent bourgeoisie family.

Veuve Clicquot began with land in Bouzy owned and tended by Philippe Clicquot. The tradition he started quickly grew into a revolutionary new business, which was carried on after his death in 1805 by his wife Barbe Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin.

Barbe-Nicole was a daughter of a successful textile maker.

Her husband, a winemaker from whom she learned the craft, died when she was 27, leaving her a single mother.

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was the actual “Veuve Clicquot,” widowed at the age of 27, just seven years after marrying the company’s heir, François. Madame Clicquot was known for being strong-willed and innovative through her years at the house’s helm.

When François unexpectedly died, Madame Clicquot took over the business, hence Veuve (“widow” in French) Clicquot. With her at the helm, this champagne house flourished.

Barbe-Nicole had other plans, and approached her father-in-law with a bold proposition.

“Barbe-Nicole goes to her father-in-law and says, ‘I’d like to risk my inheritance, I’d like you to invest the equivalent of an extra million dollars in me running this wine business.’ And he says yes,” explains Tilar Mazzeo, author of The Widow Clicquot. “It’s surprising that he would let a woman who has no business training take this on, and what it speaks to is that Philippe Clicquot was no fool. He understood how very keenly intelligent his daughter-in-law was.”

Keenly intelligent, perhaps, but at that point, Barbe-Nicole had been unsuccessful in selling champagne wine. So Philippe agreed under one condition: Barbe-Nicole would go through an apprenticeship, after which she would be able to run the business herself–if she proved her abilities. She entered into an apprenticeship with the well-known winemaker Alexandre Fourneaux, and for four years tried to make the dying wine business grow. It didn’t work, and at the end of her apprenticeship, the business was just as broke as before. So Barbe-Nicole went to her father-in-law a second time asking for money, and for a second time, Philippe Clicquot invested in his daughter-in-law’s business.

Already savvy about winemaking, Barbe-Nicole plunged into a new life.

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot was born in 1777 and widowed at the age of 27. She was a tough character.

Madame Clicquot took over the champagne house at the age of 27 after her husband’s death.

She was born into a family well-versed in local politics and business.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxPhilippe's son, François Clicquot, married Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin in 1798 and died in 1805, leaving his widow (veuve in French) in control of a company variously involved in banking, wool trading, and Champagne production. She became the first woman to take over a Champagne house. Under Madame Clicquot's guidance, the firm focused entirely on the last, to great success.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDuring the Napoleonic Wars, Madame Clicquot made strides in establishing her wine in royal courts throughout Europe, notably that of Imperial Russia, thus becoming the first Champagne house to ship Champagne through the blockade to Russia in 1811. During this time, she also gave Champagne to the Prussian guards enforcing the blockade and the soldiers opened the champagne with their swords, so started the technique of sabring Champagne. By the time she died in 1866 Veuve Clicquot had become both a substantial Champagne house and a respected brand. Easily recognised by its distinctive bright yellow labels, the wine holds a royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxSince 1987 the Veuve Clicquot company has been part of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group of luxury brands, and today owns a controlling interest in New Zealand's Cloudy Bay Vineyards.

Veuve Clicquot Fourneaux et Cie

Four months after her husband's death, Madame Clicquot decided to take into partnership a Reims wine-grower, Jérôme Alexandre Fourneaux, and on 10 February 1806, together they founded "Veuve Clicquot Fourneaux et Cie", which was to last for four years.

Barbe-Nicole had the full support of Philippe Clicquot, as he wrote a letter to a friend: "The Fourneaux company with which Madame Clicquot is going to partnership is one of the top businesses in our town. (...) This new arrangement pleases me greatly, from all points of view and I beg you to continue your good offices on our behalf, to double your zeal, were that possible, to bring in good orders for Veuve Clicquot Fourneaux & Cie."

This company took over the assets of the old "Clicquot Fils" company and Madame Clicquot invested 80,000 francs worth of wine and Louis Bohne was to receive a share of the profits.

The name of Fourneaux often appeared as a supplier in the account books of the old Clicquot-Muiron and Clicquot Fils companies.

Alexandre Fourneaux looked after the salesmen, the ship-owner's who carried shipments and supervised the running of the wine cellars, assisted by the cellar-master. Madame Clicquot looked after the employees, ran the offices and supervised the accounts department.

When she and Alexandre Fourneaux split up, in 1810, she was able to take every decisions concerning her wine business.

The following February she invested a further 80,000 francs and went into partnership with Alexandre Fourneaux, who had mastered the art of assemblage.

Her first years in charge were disastrous. Europe was at war and the naval blockade severely hampered trade. Sales dropped to 10,000 bottles a year and bankruptcy loomed. In 1810 Fourneaux gave up the business.

Alexandre Fourneaux went off to found a new company under his own label, which in 1936 became the Taittinger company.

In July 1810, a circular announced the closure of Veuve Clicquot Fourneaux & Cie, and the formation of Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin.

In 1805s, France's political troubles were increasing. Frontiers were stable for only a few months, as long it took to prepare for a new conflict, which made any sustained commerce almost impossible.

Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin

On 21 July 1810, she launched her new company: Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin.

Her father-in-law, Philippe Clicquot, invested a capital sum of 30,000 French pounds, in the new company, as he had done before.

The balance sheet for 1811 was not brilliant, only 17,000 bottles were sold.

However, one event was to bring solace to Madame Clicquot: the passage of a comet. Madame Clicquot created a "vin de la comète". It was with this "Vin de la comète" that Madame Clicquot was to relaunch her business in Russia, after 1814, and it was to prove a key element in the making of her fortune.

During the first part of 1812? Louis Bohne's pressing concern was to enquire, wherever he could, whether it were possibile, to get a ship through to Russia or the Baltic. Madame Clicquot for her part worked hard to find some way to beat the ban.

While Napoleon was initiating his Russian campaign, in June 1812, Madame Clicquot was finding herself obliged to fire her salaried and full-time salesmen. Apart from Louis Bohne, her company was now represented by salesmen carrying other lines as well and paid only on commission. Reducing costs and risk in all directions, the company sat it out, until better days should come.

It was now, more than at any other time in her career, that her fighting spirit and strength of character were to show themselves at their best.

1814 was a turning point in the history of the Veuve Clicquot company. It was the year when business began to take off again, thanks to the great success of the Russian venture which, overnight, made the name of Clicquot champagne famous.

On 13 March, Napoleon, who had sworn to sleep in Reims, got through in the middle of the night. It was on this occasion that he was given shelter by Jean-Baptiste Ponsardin, Madame Clicquot's brother. During this times, Barne-Nicole feared to be pillaged or robbed.

The moment the monarchy was restored, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne decided to put their plan to execution, which both had been hatching for the last five years, to send a ship to Russia. Taking advantage of the general chaos, they worked in absolute secrecy, while their competitors still believed such a move to be impossible.

Louis Bohne decided to travel with the precious cargo, the "Gebroders" en route to Konigsberg, which laden with 10,550 bottles of Clicquot champagne, left Le Havre on the 6th of June. Meanwhile, Russia had lifted the ban on importing bottled wine.

Louis Bohne decided to sell part of the wine in Konigsberg. He flew from success to success. On the 10th of August, another ship left Rouen laden with 12,780 bottles of champagne destined for St Petersburg, which were sold out as soon as they arrived.

This reversal of good fortune began to appear: Madame Clicquot's cellars were getting dangerously low in stocks.

However, the end of 1814 marked the beginning of an ever growing trade with Russia, which went on increasing until the 1870's.

Difficult times were finally over and the company set on the road to unwavering growth.

During the years which followed, Russia continued, increasingly, to appreciate Veuve Clicquot wines. The sales figures rocketed: from 43,000 bottles in 1816, they climbed to 280,000 in 1821.

Napoleon's abdication in 1814 was cause for toasts among both the British and Russians.

Champagne was on the edge / on its way to becoming a way to celebrate events.

While the war's naval blockade still paralyzed commercial shipping, Mme Clicquot conspired to sneak a boat around the armada, delivering 10,000 bottles of high-proof, cork-popping 1811 cuvée Veuve Clicquot to Köningsberg, where it sold the equivalent of 100 dollars per bottle.

When the powerhouse 1811 reached St.Petersburg, Czar Alexander declared he would drink nothing else. Within two years, the widow Clicquot was at the helm of an internationally renowned commercial empire, and she was one of the first women in modern history to do it.

“That’s the time that comes right at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when she has in her cellars what will become the legendary vintage of 1811, and she’s about ready to go bankrupt,” Mazzeo explains. Facing bankruptcy, Barbe-Nicole took a huge business gamble: she knew that the Russian market, as soon as the Napoleonic Wars ended, would be thirsty for the kind of champagne she was making–an extremely sweet champagne that contained nearly 300 grams of sugar (about double that of today’s sweet dessert wines, like a Sauterne). At this moment in champagne history, the champagne market was fairly small–but Russians were early enthusiasts. If she could appeal to their burgeoning desire for champagne and corner that market, Barbe-Nicole believed that success would be hers

After five years of bad vintages, war, and near-failure, Madame Clicquot celebrated the success of 1810 with the first single-vintage Champagne. The concept became a huge success the following year, when the iconic 1811 vintage Champagne was labeled ‘The Year of the Comet.’

The company survived the political and economic turmoil across Europe. Facing stiff competition in the British market, they decided to look for custom further east.

Unfortunately in the summer of 1812, the Russian tsar placed an embargo on French bottled wine. To dodge the measure Bohne, sales representative, packed champagne bottles into coffee barrels.

During the Napoleonic wars she defied an embargo against Russia to supply royal courts throughout Europe.

But it was not enough to prevent 60,000 bottles of surplus inventory building up in the cellars. After Napoleon Bonaparte had been sent into exile on Elba, the company chartered a Dutch ship, the Sweers Gebroeders, to convey 10,550 bottles to Königsberg on the Baltic sea and a major port for the Russian market. Clicquot specified that no other wine should be carried. It sailed on 6 June 1814, as hostilities were ending, and arrived on 2 August. The whole shipment was quickly sold. Scenting success, the diligent widow dispatched another 12,780 bottles a week later, on the Bonne Intention, which sailed from Rouen. The Russian market was at her feet.

With the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna was convened to decide on the new frontiers of Europe. The negotiations started in September 1814, soon turning into a huge party which carried on until June 1815. Champagne was in great demand and the gathering proved a huge promotional operation for the wine. It became an essential ingredient for festivities in European courts, but was soon taken up by the whole of high society, and then by the well-heeled bourgeoisie. By the Belle Époque champagne was found in cabarets, restaurants and even brothels.

Madame Clicquot took fraudsters to court and carried on innovating. Originally there were no labels on her bottles. In 1798 the firm started marking its corks with an anchor, adding a green wax seal as an additional feature. For much of 1811 a comet was visible in the night sky, supposedly the sign of an outstanding vintage. Clicquot dubbed her production le vin de la comète and added a star to the cork, alongside the initials VCP, as in Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin.

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin showed a great business acumen, breaking the Russian market in a moment when the reign was considered lost in Europe, thrown into turmoil by Napoleon and his ambitions. In 1811, as Napoleon’s blockades fell, she dispatched a consignment of 110,000 bottles throughout Europe, 25,000 of which for Russia.

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot was widowed in 1804, at the age of 27. She inherited her husband's business interests in banking, wool trading and champagne production.

Her husband died in October 1805, leaving her a widow with a three-year-old daughter. She managed to convince her father-in-law to let her manage the business.

In 1805, when she was just 27, her winemaker husband died. And, against all 19th Century expectations - and considerable opposition - the young widow took over his winemaking business.

In the early 19th century the Code Napoléon and bourgeois codes of behaviour forced French women to live in the shadow of their husbands.

Next door to Hôtel Ponsardin, the large family estate that Barbe-Nicole grew up on, lived the Clicquot family, under the patriarch Philippe. Philippe Clicquot also ran a successful textile business, making him the chief competitor to Barbe-Nicole’s father. In an attempt to consolidate the power of their two businesses, Mr. Ponsardin and Mr. Clicquot did what any shrewd business owner in the 18th century would have done: married their children. In 1798, when she was 21 years old, Barbe-Nicole married Francois Clicquot, Philippe Clicquot’s only son–the marriage was akin to an arranged marriage, a business deal devised by two industrial leaders in the small town of Reims.

In June 1798 she married François-Marie Clicquot, whose father had interests in banking and trade. He also owned vines at Bouzy and a small wine-making concern, launched in 1772.

With the revolution still in full swing, the wedding service was held in secret, in a cellar. Auspiciously, the priest gave the happy couple a book by Dom Pérignon.

She saw the success of such wine merchants as the widow Germon, the widow Robert and the widow Blanc and understood that widows were the "only women granted the social freedom to run their own affairs".

There was only one problem: the naval blockades that had crippled commercial shipping during the wars. Barbe-Nicole smuggled the vast majority of her best wine out of France as far as Amsterdam, where it waited for peace to be declared. As soon as peace was declared, the shipment made its way to Russia, beating her competitors by weeks. Soon after her champagne debuted in Russia, Tsar Alexander I announced that it was the only kind that he would drink. Word of his preference spread throughout the Russian court, which was essentially ground-zero for international marketing.

Werlé

On 1 December 1821, Madame Clicquot announced that "the exclusive ownership of the business will be passed to M. Kessler on 20 July 1824. She finally changed her mind as she announced on 1 July, that George Kessler would not be taking over but would retain a proxy signature on her behalf. He persuaded her to go into the banking and wool businesses. On 1 June 1822, the Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin & Cie Bank opened its doors. It started brilliantly. But problems gradually appeared.

Edouard Werlé joined the company on 1 August 1821, as a trainee and to perfect his French.

Concerning the Hotel du Marc, a typical 19th-century family mansion, with spacious rooms and generous proportions. Madame Clicquot was 45 in 1822, when she bought this lot where her loyal business partner Edouard Werle built his family home, which is now the hotel. After his death, it was used by Veuve Clicquot to accommodate guests. Artists, celebrities, and friends from around the world have been invited here to savor that which Veuve Clicquot shares with as much passion as its champagne: the art of good living.

In 1826, on the departure of Kessler, Edouard Werlé was promoted. He saved Madame Clicquot (the term is not too strong) from the dangerous situation she found herself in, over the bank and mill businesses.

The bank effectively went to liquidation and other problems appeared.

In the meantime, fortunately, sales of Veuve Clicquot champagne in Russia were still progressing wonderfully.

In April 1831, Edouard Werlé became Madame Clicquot's partner in a new company. Edouard Werlé started by making a whole series of trips through Central Europe to reestablish contact with a number of clients.

Russian sales rose. Madame Clicquot thus decided to establish herself in other markets, as England. Sales rose and even doubled. From 1841 on, the company's annual sales never dropped below 300,000 bottles.

In 1841, Edouard Werlé officially became head of the company. He was 40 years old, she was 65.

But there was one problem which Madame Clicquot still personally handled, and which became a major preoccupation: fraudulent use of her name.

When Bohne died in 1821 Eduard Werler, another German, started an internship at the company. He went on to make a major contribution to the development of Maison Clicquot. In 1830 he became a partner, investing 100,000 francs in the concern. The same year he adopted French nationality and changed his name to Mathieu-Edouard Werlé. Sales steadily increased, rising from a modest 17,000 bottles of champagne in 1811 to 43,000 only five years later, and exceeding 200,000 by 1836. In 1850, when Werlé took over full control of the business, it sold 400,000 bottles.

In 1828 the company fell into a financial crisis but thanks to Eduoard Werlé, a wealthy employee of the company who paid off the firm’s debts, the company could make it and Werlé was made business partner, leading the House as financial chief from 1841, when Madame Nicole-Barbe retirement’s until her death, in 1866, at the age of 89.

The Werlé family, Edouard and his son Alfred, ran the business in the following years developing it further: they acquired new plots of vines and in 1877 they began utilizing a yellow label for the wines, an unusual color for champagne at the time.

They registered this same label under the trademark “Veuve Clicquot P. Werlé” Yellow Label as the Werlè family always recognized the great importance of the work done by Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin.

Toward the end of her life, in the 1860s, she wrote to a great-grandchild: "The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity."

Madame Clicquot (1777-1866) is considered one of the first business-women of the modern era. As Evelyn Waugh explained, "The Widow was the first of her sex to take over the management of an essentially masculine trade and, struggling through hazardous times, to emerge in triumph."

When Madame Clicquot died in July 1866, sales had reached 750,000 bottles a year. Newspapers all over the world paid tribute to the old lady. She and her loyal assistants had conquered the world, triumphing where Bonaparte and the Grande Armée had failed.

With the production of champagne increasing, Barbe-Nicole set her sights on building a global empire. By the time she died in 1866, Veuve Clicquot was exporting champagne to the far reaches of the world, from Lapland to the United States. Veuve Clicquot helped turn champagne from a beverage enjoyed solely by the upper-class to a drink available to almost anyone in the middle-upper class–a seemingly small distinction, but one that vastly increased Barbe-Nicole’s market

Known by her peers as "La Grande Dame de la Champagne", she died in 1866.

Alfred Werlé

The scourge of counterfeit brands was particularly virulent in the Russian market and was clearly on the increase in any country where the Veuve Clicquot name was well known.

In the Robin cas in 1855, which took place on French soil, Madame Clicquot had succeeding in having the perpetrators severely punished. Abroad, it was more difficult to get a judgement.

It was during this period, when the company was pursuing expansion and building the foundation of its marketing organization, that Madame Clicquot died at the Château de Boursault on 29 July 1866, aged 89.

By the terms of an agreement made earlier, Edouard Werlé was already proprietor of the Veuve Clicquot label. Her other heirs inherited the remaining assets of the company, these consisting mainly of the various properties and the vineyards. In AUgust 1866, a new company was formed: "Werlé & Cie. successors to Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin". Edouard Werlé worked with his son Alfred.

On the death of his father on 6 June 1866, Alfred Werlé and the Duchesse d'Uzès, formed a new company. During this period, Alfred Werlé did not choose to expand preferring to consolidate by preserving the quality and reputation of his label.

Alfred Werlé finally bought assets from Duchesse d'Uzès.

Bertrand de Mun, his 3rd son-in-law, joined the company in July 1898. He served full apprenticeship (which covered cask work, cella work, shipping work, and office work) and became a partner in 1902.

From that moment on, Veuve-Clicquot Ponsardin, began a new surge in growth, which was only slowed down by the 1914-18 war.

The Veuve Clicquot label had regained its position in all its markets. In 1911, they attained the impressive figure of 2,000,000 bottles.

After the First World War the work of reconstruction began. All the buildings and all the Crayères installations had been destroyed. The offices were moved temporarily to a house the company owned, while wine-making proceeded as beforce, in those cellars which had remained undamaged. Gradually everything was rebuilt, first the storerooms and the company offices, which were not inaugurated until 1936.

In 1932, Bertrand de Mun was joined by his son-in-law Bertrand de Vogüé. They did a great deal for the development of company/employee relations. Long before the law required it, their employees benefited from numerous advantages/ holidays, pensions, healthcare, sportsfields and rest areas. Far in advance of their times in this respect, the company never suffered a single stoppage during the strikes which hit France in 1936.

WW2

At the end of the Second World War, which the company survived without too damage, Hérard de Nazelle, joined his uncles Bertrand de Mun and Pierre de Caraman-Chimay. Alain de Vogüé joined the company in 1952.

Faced with greater and greater expansion, and now quoted on the Paris stock exchange, the decision was taken in 1963 to become a "société anonyme". Bertrand de Vogüé was made chairman, a post to which his son Alain succeeded in 1972.

Since 1987, the company has been part of the LVMH group. Joseph Henriot has been chairman ever since.

The merger of companies selling luxury goods, each one with its own strong tradition behind it, has not in any way compromised their individual autonomy or character.

Since 1990, the company has been investing in the vineyards of Cape Mentelle in Autralia and Cloudy Bay in New Zealand. Despite their youth, these vineyards are among those few in the world which combine all the elements necessary for excellence.

The house was acquired in 1986 by the French conglomerate LVMH.

LVMH today owns Veuve Clicquot.

Veuve Clicquot is part of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) since 1987

The house was acquired in 1986 by the French conglomerate LVMH.

In 1987 the House became part of the LVMH-Moet Hennessy, where it remains today, headed up by President Jean-Marc Gallot, who previously managed another great Champagne House part of LVMH: RUINART.

The company is now owned by the LVMH Group.

Communication

From 1876 onwards the firm pasted a yellow label on all its bottles of dry champagne for sale in Britain. In February the following year the colour of the label was registered as a trademark and it use extended to all bottles.

Veuve Clicquot’s signature yellow label has adorned the bottle for over 180 years. The label started appearing on bottles around 1835 and was officially trademarked in 1877. It was created to distinguish “dry” bottles from the usual sweeter ones in the British market and became a huge hit.

History or production of champagne

The French will tell you that a monk named Dom Pérignon, since canonised by Moët & Chandon, "discovered" the modern version. To the rage and shame of the French, the English are responsible for champagne in its modern form: they relished and promoted the fizziness, developed the glass for stronger bottles and restored cork stoppers. Uptake was admittedly slow: by the start of the revolution in 1789 only 10% of champagne was fizzy. But during the 19th century, as people better understood the science of winemaking and industrialisation sped the process, pop could be made with much less labour, and the market for bubbly boomed.

Dom Pierre Pérignon did not invent champagne. THe oft-told fable is that Dom Pérignon took a first sip and cried out to his fellow monks: "Come quickly! I am drinking the stars". But the story is false.

For a decade after 1660, when Dom Pérignon gained fame as a master blender, he steadfastly worked at ways ton prevent wine from developing bubbles.

Furthermore, champagne did not even originate in France. British oenophiles already were drinking sparkling wine made from champagne grapes.

Customers put still wine from champagne into sturdy British bottles, sometimes with a little brandy to act as preservative. At some point, somebody realized that sugar bottled with the wine would start a secondary fermentation, creating champagne. Bubbly was not invented; it was discovered by accident.

Champagne was first bought for the mistresses of the Kings of France.

In the 17th century a monk, Dom Pérignon, introduced new methods of producing sparkling wine. By combining several varieties of grape into an assemblage, he was able to harness the fermentation process. But the vin du diable had yet to be completely tamed. Yeast would form sticky filaments and leave a deposit that made the finished wine cloudy and spoiled its taste. But Madame Clicquot would change all that.

Production

Vineyards

The Duchesse d'Uzès, Madame Clicquot's sole legatee, as part of her agreement to withdraw from all interest in the company, sold Alfred Werlé her vineyards. The vineyards covered about 40 hectares: 15 at Bouzy, a dozen at Vernezay, the same at Verzy.

The first vineyards to be bought back were those once belonging to Philippe Clicquot, around Vernezay. The second group was the "Bouzy holding" which François Clicquot had inherited from his grandmother Muiron in 1804. These 2 vineyards were enlarged by the purchases Madame Clicquot made in 1820 and 1822. In this way, Madame Clicquot became proprietor of 40 hectares of high quality vines around Bouzy and Vernezay, and a little later on, Verzy.

Between 1872 and 1873, Alfred Werlé acquired 15 hectares at Le Mesnil and enlarged the Bouzy vineyards by a dozen hectares. In one year, he doubled the vineyard holdings, which it had taken the company 100 years to amass. Alfred stepped up his acquisition programme buying a total of 50 hectares in 1884. Alfred Werlé was also the architect of the contract with the Duchesse d'Uzès which was to bring her vineyards back into the ownership of the company.

Under the aegis of Bertrand de Mum, the policy of extending the Veuve Clicquot's vineyards was pursued.

The last acquisitions of any significance were the 25 hectares at Saint-Thierry, purchased between 1967-1975.

Today, Veuve Clicquot owns 284 hectares of vineyards, whose average rating in the "échelle des crus" is 97 %.

The balance of grape requirements is made up of purchases from 400 different suppliers, some of whom are descendants of those who sold their harvests to Edouard Werlé.

The House’s own vineyards cover 393 hectares of land that spread over Champagne and that provides 20% of the supplies. It includes 12 of the 17 Grands Crus and 18 of the 44 Premiers Crus and boasts an average rating close to 96%.

The vineyard is planted with 50% Chardonnay planted on the Côte des Blancs, 45% Pinot Noir on the Montagne de Reims and 5% Meunier on the Montagne Ouest (a sector of the Montagne de Reims) and in the Saint-Thierry basin northwest of Reims.

The vines are mostly planted on the hillside where the soil is the shallowest and exposure to the sun is at a maximum.

In 2016, champagne region and its 86,000 strictly-defined acres of vineyards which constitute just 3% of France's wine-grape production area.

Fifty-five percent of Veuve Clicquot’s vineyards are categorized as Grand Cru and 40 percent are Premier Cru.

Throughout the region, 14,700 champagne producers work their magic on over 12,500 brands, mostly sold in France.

The region with its champagne houses and crayères – chalk wine cellars - have been granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO.

In 2016, Veuve Clicquot has a vineyard of 393 hectares, an annual turnover of almost €2 billion, and 24 kilometers of crisscrossing chalk caves underneath the historic city of Reims, about 45 minutes from Paris by fast train, that served as bomb shelter for residents during World War I.

In 2016, Veuve Clicquot has a vineyard of 393 hectares, an annual turnover of almost €2 billion, and 24 kilometers of crisscrossing chalk caves underneath the historic city of Reims, about 45 minutes from Paris by fast train, that served as bomb shelter for residents during World War I

Wine making process

riddling

At the beginning, Veuve Clicquot customers complained about bubbles so big and gassy that they left the wine topped with a berry foam. Mme Clicquot disparagingly called the unwelcome froth "toad's eyes", and was determined to make better bubbles. Although she was head of the company, her devotion to the craft of wine making never wavered; she worked with her cellar master to devise a riddling rack to facilitate "remuage", the process by which sediment is drawn from the liquid to the bottle's neck. Her obsession with creating a beverage as clear as a flawless diamond may well have been her most important achievement.

The invention of riddling allows the mass-production of an artisanal and luxury product, just not at the tiny quantities that they were dealing with before,” Mazzeo explains. “Barbe-Nicole begins exporting wine around the world in large quantities and is known as being one of the great businesswomen of her century.”

Madame Clicquot is credited with the developing the riddling process (circa 1816), which is an essential component of Champagne production today.

In 1816 with the assistance of her Cellar Master, Antoine de Müller, the brilliant Dame invented the first ridding table, a process that continues to be used today as it is a crucial step in the disgorgement, the clarification of champagne. Thanks to this new technique, champagne would no longer require decanting before serving or being left in the glass for the sediment to settle.

In the early 1800‘s, it was Madame Clicquot herself who developed the innovative and pioneering system of riddling, allowing the removal of unwanted sediments in the wine by slowly turning inverted bottles on wooden plank with holes drilled in it. This revolutionary method hastily spread throughout Champagne giving rise to the legions of A-framed wooden “pupitres” that we still see today in the vast cellars of the region. The House of Veuve Clicquot has retained this taste for innovation as evidenced by its ever more inventive and yearly changing gift boxes.

Barbe-Nicole’s innovation was a revolution: not only was her champagne’s quality improved, she was able to produce it much faster. Her new technique was an extreme annoyance to her competitors, especially Jean-Rémy Moët, who could not replicate her method. It wasn’t an easy secret to keep, since Barbe-Nicole employed a large number of workers in her cellars–but no one betrayed her secret, a testament to her workers loyalty, Mazzeo explains. It would be decades before any of them became wise to the method of riddling, giving Barbe-Nicole another advantage over the champagne market.

Mme Clicquot created the first recorded vintage bubbly in the region and invented the ridding table, a method of dispelling yeast sediments from the bottles that is still used today.

In the early 1800‘s, it was Madame Clicquot herself who developed the innovative and pioneering system of riddling, allowing the removal of unwanted sediments in the wine by slowly turning inverted bottles on wooden plank with holes drilled in it. This revolutionary method hastily spread throughout Champagne giving rise to the legions of A-framed wooden “pupitres” that we still see today in the vast cellars of the region. The House of Veuve Clicquot has retained this taste for innovation as evidenced by its ever more inventive and yearly changing gift boxes.

Passionate and innovative, she’s credited with having invented riddling rack to clarify champagne and created the rosé Champagne recipe, which is used by most modern champagne houses today. Before Madame Clicquot started using red pinot noir wine, rosé had been made with elderberry juice added to white Champagne.

Veuve Clicquot was one of the first producers of rosé Champagne. Ruinart had already produced a rosé Champagne by tinting Champagne with elderberry juice, but Veuve Clicquot was the first to produce rosé Champagne by adding still red wine to its sparkling. First made in 1818, Veuve Clicquot Rosé is now made by adding Pinot Noir to the classic Yellow Label.

Assisted by her cellar-man Antoine-Aloys de Muller, Madame Clicquot perfected the art of remuage, or riddling.

Veuve Clicquot invented the riddling rack, allowing Champagne to be mass-produced. Created by Madame Clicquot and the house’s cellar master, the riddling rack (which looked more like a riddling table at that time) allowed a more efficient process of disgorgement for the final corking of Champagne bottles. It is still used by sparkling producers around the world.

Veuve (the French for widow) Clicquot developed a technique called riddling, still used today, to clarify the sparkling wine and produced the first vintage champagne.

She is also credited as the first to produce a blended rosé (the first recorded rosé to have been sold was by Ruinart in 1764, a little over five decades before Clicquot’s, but it’s believed to have been produced via maceration).

The bottles were placed in special racks to hold them at an angle. For six to eight weeks they were rotated by a quarter-turn every day. The lees gradually settled in the neck of the bottle. The cork was then drawn, the sediment removed and liqueur (a mixture of still wine and sugar) added, its strength determines how dry the wine will be. Once this technique was perfected the champagne was crystal clear. With a few minor improvements this method is still used today.

Barbe-Nicole knew there had to be a better way. Instead of transferring the wine from bottle to bottle to rid it of its yeast, she devised a method that kept the wine in the same bottle but consolidated the yeast by gently agitating the wine. The bottles were turned upside down and twisted, causing the yeast to gather in the neck of the bottle. This method, known as riddling, is still used by modern champagne makers.

Communication

Events

or partnership / sponsoring

Since 1972, The Veuve Clicquot Business Award has honoured women impacting different aspects of business today and celebrates those who share the same qualities as Madame Clicquot, an original trailblazer: her enterprising spirit, her courage and the determination necessary to accomplish her business goals. The flagship Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award is the longest running award for female business leaders and has recognised some of the UK’s most prolific female business leaders. This award recognises the pioneers of tomorrow’s successful businesses and continues to be synonymous with unearthing and celebrating exciting new female talent in the UK. The award focuses on the innovation behind a business and how that is set to change a sector.

There is the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award. The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award was founded in 1972 to champion the success of business women around the world. It’s the first international prize that recognises women entrepreneurs. In 2017, Zaha Hadid Wins Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award. Past winners include L.K. Bennett founder Linda Bennett, accessories designer Anya Hindmarch and The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick.

Others

Widow Clicquot, one of the world’s first international businesswomen, who brought her wine business back from the brink of destruction and created the modern champagne market in the process.

In spite of the extent of her champagne empire, Barbe-Nicole never left France during her lifetime: it would have been inappropriate for a woman to travel alone during that time. She also never remarried, though there is evidence of mild flirtations with some of her business associates (“She was rumored to have had a penchant for handsome young men working in her company,” Mazzeo explains). Had she remarried, she would almost certainly have had to relinquish control of her business, an unthinkable act for the first modern businesswoman

Much of the drink's alleged exclusivity dates to this time, tied to the rise of the bourgeoisie and a middle class keen to flaunt its status. The 1800s and late 1700s saw the foundation of many of the most famous champagne houses, many marketing themselves with pioneering ingenuity.

Since the 19th century, the pedlars of champagne have relentlessly trumpeted its recherche status. They repopularised sabrage, the wholly silly but immensely enjoyable way to open a champagne bottle with a sword, supposedly invented by Napoleon's officers. Celebrity endorsements from the original Champagne Charlie, Marilyn Monroe – who once claimed to have bathed in champagne – and Bond – who often drank Bolly – suggested that a lifestyle of the rich and footloose was available if only one popped the right bottle. No other drink has come close to reaching the status of champagne, and the continuous competition forces producers to dream up ever more inventive ways of flogging it, such as Laurent Perrier's clever pourer which keeps the bottle cool.

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin is the story of a woman who was smashing success long before anyone conceptualized the glass ceiling.

Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a favoured drink of haute bourgeoisie and nobility throughout Europe.

Despite contemporary mores and the Napoleonic Code, which emphasized a woman's role at home, she was not alone.

“She goes from being a very minor player to a name that everyone knows, and everybody wants her champagne,” Mazzeo says. Suddenly, the demand for her champagne increased so much that she was worried she would not be able to fill all the orders. Champagne making, at that time, was an incredibly tedious and wasteful business, and Barbe-Nicole realized that she would need to improve the process if she was going to keep up with the new demand for her product.

Champagne is made by adding sugar and live yeast to bottles of white wine, creating what is known as secondary fermentation. As the yeast digests the sugar, the bi-products created are alcohol and carbon dioxide, which give the wine its bubbles. There’s only one problem: when the yeast consumes all the sugar, it dies, leaving a winemaker with a sparkling bottle of wine–and dead yeast in the bottom. The dead yeast was more than unappetizing–it left the wine looking cloudy and visually unappealing. The first champagne makers dealt with this by pouring the finished product from one bottle to another in order to rid the wine of its yeast. The process was more than time-consuming and wasteful: it damaged the wine by constantly agitating the bubbles.

Clicquot, who had worked for a while in Switzerland, had a good head for business. Under his guidance, sales rose from 8,000 bottles a year in 1796 to 60,000 in 1804.

Veuve Clicquot was called La Grande Dame de la Champagne.

Adapting and improving it, she spread its effervescent product across the globe, turning it into one of the most successful maisons de champagne.

Clicquot was the first female champagne producer. A few more followed. All were widows, the only women French society of the time would allow to take such a public role.

Still, as the two embarked on their life together, a real partnership seemed to grow between them. Francois was a lively young man with large aspirations: instead of taking over his father’s textile industry, as his father wanted him to, Francois was interested in growing his family’s small wine business. Up to that point, the Clicquot’s family’s involvement in the wine industry constituted a minor portion of the family business. Philippe often only sold wine as an afterthought to his large textile business, adding bottles of still or sparkling white wine to orders only to round them out (once a boat had been commissioned and paid for, Philippe wanted to make sure he was getting his money’s worth). Though sparkling wine had been invented, the Champagne region was more famous for its still white wines, which Philippe would buy from wine producers and export on an as-needed basis. Philippe Clicquot had no intention of expanding its wine business to production, but Francois had a different plan.

In fact the Champagne Widows were so successful that some champagne houses without a widow added Veuve to their labels nonetheless!

Widowed in 1805 at the age of 27, Madame Veuve Clicquot (born Ponsardin) defied every convention of the day to take the helm of her late husband's small Champagne House. She personally supervised cellar activities and introduced innovative production techniques still used today.

From risking her inheritance on a failing business to gambling her champagne against a naval blockade, Barbe-Nicole built her champagne empire on bold decisions, a business model she never regretted. As she wrote in the later years of her life in a letter to a grandchild: “The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exacting, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity.”

Wine-growing in the Champagne region began in earnest in the seventh century with the founding of monasteries around Épernay and Hautvillers, Marne, in eastern France. Wine was a major source of income for the clergy.

For its history and legacy, it’s worth arranging a visit, especially for a tour of the crayères (chalk cellars). This labyrinth of ancient quarries dating back from the Middle Ages started being used from 1909 as wine cellars. Situated on the Saint-Nicaise hills, 20 meters underground, it stretches 24 kilometers (15 miles), maintaining the temperature between 10-12 celsius and over 90% humidity from winter to spring.

Then there was the creation of the Yellow Label, a now iconic brand, different from anything being done by the competition. As well as the 1846 purchase of Pavillion de Muire, one of the few Renaissance buildings still standing Champagne region, and the 1909 purchase of the Saint-Nicaise Mounds. Veuve Clicquot, with its wit and innovative spirit, transformed the champagne industry and became one of the region’s leading houses, with 393 hectares consistently producing exceptional wines.

La Grande Dame stands proudly as the consummate cuvée of the house and is produced from only the finest Grands Cru vineyard plots of Veuve Clicquot. Cleverly combining two varieties of the iconic Champagne region Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, La Grande Dame is the result of a perfect balance between power and character, freshness and delicacy.

Originally excavated centuries ago by the Romans, the chalk walls offer the correct constant temperature - about 9 degrees celsius - and humidity for ageing to wine.

The region with its champagne houses and crayères – chalk wine cellars - have been granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO.

During war times the purpose of the cellars surpassed that of mere storage space. A faint Red Cross sign for the infirmary on the damp chalk walls indicates part of the history of this awe-inspiring space as a shelter during the World War I.

In 2010, divers found bottles of champagne in a sunken vessel in the Baltic sea. This Champagne is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable bubbly. Three of the bottles were Veuve Clicquot. The shipwreck was discovered near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland.

In 2010, champagne has been found near a shipwreck 180 feet deep in the Baltic. It is thought that the champagne may belong to a consignment sent to the tsar of Russia by King Louis XVI just before the French revolution.

The wreck was located by Swedish divers just off the coast of Aaland, one of a chain of Swedish-speaking, self-governing islands which belong to Finland.

There is an anchor on the cork and they told me that (Clicquot) are the only ones to have used this sign.

In July 2010, 162 bottles of 200-year old Veuve Clicquot champagne were found 165 feet under the Baltic Sea. Many of which were still drinkable thanks to the stable, cold and dark conditions at that depth.

In 2010, 46 Veuve Clicquot bottles were recovered from the first diving expedition to the 19th century vessel laid at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near the Åland Islands in Finland.

168 bottles were found 50m beneath the Baltic Sea in July 2010, several of them unusually well-preserved due to the stable, cold and dark conditions. 47 of the 168 bottles in the wreck were Veuve Clicquot. Among the results were very high levels of sugar - higher than most modern dessert wine. It corresponds on the taste of the time.

Experts from the house tasted one of the salvaged bottles and found that the champagne still held its own. As a result, the brand submerged a cage of bubbly at the exact location of the wreck in 2014, which will be resurfaced in 40 years and compared with another set of champagne aged underground at the same depth (roughly 174 meters underwater).

In 2012, Veuve Clicquot was the second highest selling brand of champagne in the world, with 1,474,000 nine-liter cases sold worldwide.

In 2014, Veuve Clicquot has placed 300 bottles and 50 magnums of its champagne at a depth of 43 meters (141 feet) in the Baltic Sea to study whether it matures differently from on land

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided in 2015 that parts of France’s Champagne region, along with its champagne houses and cellars, should be on its World Heritage list. This northeast region of France is worthy of attention for its long history of wine-making and story of resilience through the First World War.

Champagne is one of the three fastest-growing wine categories, according to a VinExpo/IWSR study released this past June and in 2016. And champagne shipments to the U.S. increased for the fourth year in a row, to 21 million bottles. The study also projects that global consumption of sparkling wine will increase another 8.7 percent by 2019, significantly more than overall wine consumption, at 1.4 percent.

In 2016, in the United States, Veuve Clicquot is number one in sales: more than four million bottles a year.

Into their Library, you'll find vintages aged for a minimum of 20 years reside (special tastings can be held there, too), and gawk at a bottle that dates back between 1839 and 1841, which was discovered at a shipwreck in 2010.

The brand's motto is 'Only one quality, the finest'.

Brut Carte Jeaune Yellow Label A blend of 50 to sixty different wines, Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is a showcase of reserve wines and consistent quality. Made primarily of Pinot Noir (50%) with Pinot Meunier (20%) and Chardonnay (30%), this fine wine expertly balances fruity freshness with traditional subtle elegance and finesse.

Veuve Clicquot organizes various events such as the Veuve Clicquot Widow Series, the Meet the Widow, Clicquot In The Snow...

Veuve Clicquot also organizes Widow Series. The Veuve Clicquot Widow Series pays homage to the founder of the house, Madame Clicquot, who was widowed in October 1805.

The house’s prestige cuvée is ‘La Grande Dame.” It was introduced in 1972 to celebrate Veuve Clicquot’s 200th anniversary.

In 1972, 200 years after its foundation, the House launched the prestigious cuvée “La Grande Dame”, as the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin used to be named in the region.

The Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, part of a global initiative, recognises the success and vision of up-and-coming, entrepreneurial business women aged between 25 and 39 years old.

In 2008, Carolyn McCall, chief executive of GMG, publisher of the Guardian, was last night named the Veuve Clicquot businesswoman of the year.

In 2009, global sales of champagne fell by 19 per cent in the first half of this year – when the world found it had little to celebrate, or could not afford to pay £25 for a bottle of reasonable quality champagne. Global sales may fall to 260 million bottles this year, compared to a peak of 339 million bottles in 2007. For years, champagne has defied the slump in other French wines and expanded its sales, especially in China and Russia but also in one of its oldest and biggest markets, Britain. But now the champagne bubble has burst. There are over one billion bottles of champagne – almost three years' global supply – piled up in store. After negotiations, the big champagne houses and the thousands of small producers agreed this month to defend the "image" of champagne as a costly but affordable luxury, rather than allow prices to fall to the level of "other" sparkling wines from Italy, Australia or New Zealand..

In 2009, cellars are the same cellars that Madame Clicquot walked through in the 19th century, creating new and advanced methods of producing the best champagne. In these cellars during both of the World Wars, the villagers hid from the bombs and shellfire.

Veuve Clicquot champagnes are aged longer than is required by law. Even the house's nonvintage champagnes are cellared for at least 30 months, and its vintage champagnes for 5 to 10 years.

Frederic Panaiotis, house oenologist, who is part of the committee of 10 that makes all the decisions on the blending of the reserve and nonvintage champagnes of the house.

At Veuve Clicquot, the grapes from different varieties and plots are kept separate to preserve the characteristics of each terroir until blending. The grape varieties are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier.

There, grapes are picked by hand.

La Grande Dame 1996 is the pride of the house.

In 2009, Cecile Bonnefond, the first female president of Veuve Clicquot since the widow herself was running the company.

Veuve Clicquot also organizes the Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award.

The award is was created as a tribute to Madame Clicquot, who took control of the family champagne firm after being widowed in the early 1800s, aged 27. It celebrates entrepreneurial women who have made a significant contribution to business.

The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award was created in 1972 as a tribute to Madame Clicquot, who in the early 19th Century developed modern champagne-making techniques and established the Veuve Clicquot brand. The champagne house describes her as having been "proud, stubborn and strong-willed". The company then invites the award-winning woman and have vine named after her.

A bottle of nearly 200-year-old Veuve Clicquot purportedly broke the record for most expensive Champagne ever sold. In 2011, a bidder paid €30,000 for a bottle of shipwrecked Veuve Clicquot found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. It was estimated to have been made between 1825 and 1830.

In 2017, Veuve Clicquot produce 17 million bottles a year.

In 2017, Veuve Clicquot released its first extra brut champagne, the non-vintage “Extra Brut Extra Old”. It is an appealing wine: the softness and mellowness of its age decrease the need for sugar. Critics and consumers have warmed to it. Jamie Goode, who runs WineAnorak.com, applauded its “lovely precision”, declaring it “really gastronomic and structural”. Brand new release from VC and formidably fine, made from the reserve wines of six different vintages.

In 2010, Veuve Clicquot also organizes Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup polo final.

Veuve Clicquot also organizes The Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic.

The Veuve Clicquot Polo Classics held each year in New York and Los Angeles. These events are attended by global celebrities, the British royal family and other top influencers. The event had sold out as more than 5,000 spectators watched world-renowned polo players.

The annual Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic is also a fashion event and a fancy event.

Since 2012, Veuve Clicquot also organizes Veuve Clicquot Carnaval, a festive celebration in Museum Park, in Miami, a garden overlooking the ocean, where Miami residents and celebrities mingled while sipping Veuve Clicquot Rosé Champagne.

The champagne brand also organizes the Veuve Clicquot Carnaval event in Miami.

In 2013, Charlotte Olympia created a capsule collection inspired by the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in NYC tomorrow. The accessories are done in colors that give a nod to the Yellow Label and Rosé Cuvée champagnes.

In 2018, Today the House produces an estimated 19 million bottles per year, making it the second largest in champagne only after MOËT & CHANDON (also part of LVMH).

Veuve Clicquot sells over 1.5 million cases of Champagne each year. And 400,000 of those Veuve cases go to the United States. Compare that to one of Champagne’s “larger” grower-producers, Chartogne-Taillet, which produces just 6,500 cases of Champagne each year.

Environmental Affairs Department

Wine making : Veuve Clicquot's winemaking team, guided by Cellar Master Dominique Demarville (10th Cellar Master, appointed in 2011), continues to follow the motto of the House set by MadameClicquote “one quality only, the finest”.

For this, every precaution is taken to ensure that the grapes remain intact right up to the moment of pressing, and a network of pressing centers scattered in each sector of Champagne cuts the distance and time between the vine and the presses to a minimum.

After the pressing, only the juice from the cuvée (the first – and most noble – pressing) is used, blended using approximately fifty different crus, predominantly of Pinot Noir and with a use of between 25% and 40% of reserve wines.

It Brut non-vintage Yellow Label emblematic cuvée is aged for a minimum of 36 months and vintage wines for a minimum of five years.

All Veuve Clicquot champagnes receive a very lightly dosage, allowing the House’s wines to fully express the distinctive style of Veuve Clicquot that Demarville refers to as “power, aromatic intensity, but without heaviness, with freshness and a silky texture.”

Products Champagnes have been getting drier across the board, and Veuve Clicquot is throwing its weight behind the trend with the launch of its limited edition Extra Brut Extra Old. This innovative ultra-dry, non-vintage cuvée is blended exclusively from the house’s exceptional library of reserve wines – one of the largest in Champagne – and is for cellar master Dominique Demarville something of a celebration of this immense inventory.

Shaped by much more mature wines than are usually found in an Extra Brut, the first release (£69) is a blend of 47 per cent Pinot Noir, 27 per cent Chardonnay and 26 per cent Pinot Meunier, based entirely on reserves from 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 1996 and 1988 vintages, with 90 per cent of the blend made up of the first three vintages. All six wines were aged for at least three years in vats, before being blended in late 2013 and left to mature in bottle on the lees for a further three years, lending the resulting cuvée a greater degree of complexity and depth.

Since 2008, Veuve Clicquot has hosted the celebrity-filled Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in New York and Los Angeles. Celebs like Kendall Jenner, Neil Patrick Harris, Nicole Kidman, Alicia Keys, and more can be spotted sipping on Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label throughout the match.

Demarville says he made a point of favouring wines with a riper, more full-bodied character that naturally required very little sweetening – the resulting ultra-dry champagne has a dosage of just 3g/litre, around a third of the average Brut. Demarville also tinkered with the bottling pressure, lowering it from the usual 6 bar to 4.5 bar, to achieve a noticeably fine-textured effervescence.

Bright gold, with a lively mousse, this cuvée pops with tangy aromas of pickled lemon, grapefruit peel and toasty, yeasty biscuit. On the palate it’s vigorous and fresh, with lots of lemon and lime and a really striking salinity; there’s not an ounce of fat on this Extra Brut, but it still has great length, with the more mature wines giving it hints of toast and girolles that emerge with time. Savoury and invigorating, it’s an exciting new addition to the category.

The latest edition to the Veuve Clicquot family, Extra Brut Extra Old is a low-dosage, double-aged cuvée blended exclusively from the house’s reserve wines (dating from 1988 to 2010). The fullness of the reserve wines allows for a lower dosage of 3g/L. Double aged with three years on lees and another three in bottle before release, the palate is a beautiful juxtaposition of intensity, richness with high acidity, purity and minerality. It gives light, ticklish bubbles, citrus, ripe stone fruit, cream and red cherry with savoury edges on the finish – a sumptuous delight to enjoy with seafood.

Rich When its three years of maturation are over in the sloping pupitres [racks] created by the house's founder, Madam Clicquot, and long after a 60g dosage of sugar has been added, the bottle will be taken away and coated in a reflective, disco-ball silver coating. Your common-or-garden champagne has around 9g; the Richer Veuve demi-sec has 25g. "Rich" was released in June 2015. The company's president, Jean-Marc Gallot, said at the time, “tradition is good in life, but in this challenging world, we have to push the boundaries”. It reminds the 170-year-old champagne – still, apparently, drinkable – was part of a haul recovered from a wreck found off Finland's Aland Islands. It was one of 40 bottles of Veuve bound for the tsar's court. The sugar dosage in this bottle is a dentist-scaring 150g, two and a half times that found in Rich. As our guide says, with some understatement, “the Russians had a sweet tooth”.

A bottle of the new "Rich" champagne created by Veuve Clicquot for the younger generation, to be mixed with grapefruit, cucumber, fresh peppers or cold silver-leaf tea.

Management Chairman: Jean-Marc Gallot Oenologist: Dominique Demarville Cellar Master: Dominique Demarville

Communication A bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne has a distinctive gold-yellow label

Veuve Clicquot has a yellowy-orange label renown. Known as Pantone 137C, the colour has been registered as a trademark to prevent others from ripping it off in the EU, USA and Australia. Veuve Clicquot has form in suing or threatening to sue minnows for daring to use its colour scheme. It successfully sued the Spanish cava Don Jaime in 2012 for using an orange trademarked by Don Jaime as Pantone 1375C. In 2001, the threat of legal action against the tiny Stefano Lubiana Winery in Tasmania for using 'Clicquot Orange' resulted in Lubiana agreeing to withdraw its fizz rather than face a costly legal action. Veuve's owners, Moët Hennessy Champagne Services, even stopped a Belgian company from using a yellow-orange colour along with the word 'Malheur', printed in blue, for beer. One of the functions of the Champagne Committee in Reims (motto: 'Champagne only comes from the Champagne Region in France') is "to undertake outreach, communication and promotional activities to protect and defend the AOC wines of the official Champagne wine region". The entire industry is constantly on the qui vive to snuff out any kind of infringement against the valuable Champagne name.

"I'm sippin' Clicquot and rockin' yellow diamonds," Wiz Khalifa raps in "Black and Yellow" on his 2010 album, Rolling Papers.

Veuve Clicquot traditionally advertises at upscale events and publications, including creating the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in New York. It also launched a global print ad campaign called "Let Life Surprise You" in the fall of 2015. But to really change perceptions — and not lower prices, which start around $50 a bottle — the brand launched its first digital ad campaign, focused on introducing the company to an influential demographic: millennial women. In 2016, Veuve Clicquot released three digital short films on YouTube and Tumblr focusing on telling the story of the woman who ran the company through the lens of the modern millennial woman. It's continued the campaign by curating images of women drinking its bubbly at social events, as well as creating GIFs and other social media around the materials. Digital-focused ads allow the brand to introduce itself to new consumers who may not have heard of the champagne. Tyson Stelzer, wine writer and the author of "The Champagne Guide 2016-2017," said adding to the buzz about the brand was the fact that the Madame Clicquot story was detailed in a New York Times bestselling book in 2008, which was optioned for a movie in 2013. Stelzer also pointed out that the U.S. is the third-biggest consumers of champagne, following France and the U.K. Veuve Clicquot could be in a good position to meet increased demand. Stelzer said. He said it's the second largest of the champagne houses, and it recently announced plans to expand production facilities. The project is estimated to cost 200 million to 300 million euros.

Veuve Clicquot meet with success reaching 50.9K followers on Twitter, 166K followers on Instagram, 8.8K followers on Pinterest and having 723K likes on Facebook. One of the answer is quite simple: the brand is EVERYWHERE on the social media world. Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. Pinterest. Tumblr. Veuve Clicquot has launched in 2015 its Tumblr. This strategy was ingenous. Tumblr is a niche. Tapping in a niche segment and using it in the right way as Clicquot did has engaged the consumer more than ever. Consumer can not only see the content posted by the brand itself but they can also share their own pictures.

The company also launched an app called Click for Clicquot. a smartphone and tap to instantly put a glass or bottle of crisp, sparkling Yellow Label on ice for a friend at a chic London hotspot. Sync your phone’s contacts with the app and match the relevant parties to a restaurant of your choosing: the culturally tapped-in to the just-reopened foodie institution that is Quaglino’s, perhaps; a Victoriana lover to Mr Fogg’s; or, in the new year, a bookworm to Café Royale’s Oscar Wilde Bar – and simply send a text letting the recipient know the fizz is awaiting them. Choose from one of London's hotspot venue such as Quaglino's to the chic St Pancras Renaissance hotel, decided on a glass or a bottle or a stay, select your lucky recipient and write your message. The lucky recipient will then receive a text alerting them to the surprise awaiting

Lux champagne brand Veuve Clicquot is trying to bring its image down to earth with a new campaign and platform strategy — one that relies exclusively on Tumblr. The 244-year-old brand launched its first-ever digital ad campaign. Called “Let life surprise you,” it’s a set of three short videos narrated by Madame Clicquot herself (played by Juliette Binoche). The eponymous widow ran the company in the 19th century taking the reins of the business from her husband when she was widowed at 27 — highly unusual for a woman at the time. The appeal to millennials is that the brand approaches life with the same unexpectedness they do

Modernisation of production

Bottles of Veuve Clicquot ranging from "piccolo" (0.188 L) to "Balthazar" (12 L)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxMadame Clicquot is credited with a great breakthrough in champagne handling that made mass production of the wine possible. In the early 19th century, with the assistance of her cellar master, Antoine de Müller, Clicquot invented the riddling rack that made the crucial process of dégorgement both more efficient and economic. Clicquot's advance involved systematically collecting the spent yeast and sediments left from the wine's secondary fermentation in the bottle's neck by using a specialised rack.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxComposed much like a wooden desk with circular holes, the rack allowed a bottle of wine to be stuck sur point or upside down. Every day a cellar assistant would gently shake and twist (remuage) the bottle to encourage wine solids to settle to the bottom. When this was completed, the cork was carefully removed, the sediments ejected, and a small replacement dose of sweetened wine added.

Oldest bottle

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxIn July 2008 an unopened bottle of Veuve Clicquot was discovered inside a sideboard in Torosay Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland. The 1893 bottle was in mint condition, having been kept in the dark, and was the oldest bottle known to exist. It is now on display at the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin visitor centre in Reims and is regarded as priceless.

Shipwrecked bottles

xxxxxxxxxxxxxIn 1987, an expedition, licensed by the Michigan Department of State and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and headed by underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence, recovered a number of cases of Veuve Clicquot (Yellow Label, Dry) Champagne from the 9 November 1913, shipwreck of the Canadian steamer Regina in Lake Huron, off Port Sanilac, Michigan. Spence afterwards described the still sparkling Champagne as "quite dark in color but as having an excellent taste." The shipwreck site is located in approximately 83 feet of water at latitude 43°20.24′ North, longitude 82°26.76′ West. The water temperatures at the wreck-site range from 1°-18 °C (35 °F. to 65 °F).

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxIn July 2010, a group of Finnish divers found 168 bottles from the Föglö wreck in the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Åland Islands. The bottles were initially claimed to have been produced between 1782 and 1788. They were sent back to France for analysis. Shortly after this, the bottles were traced to a now-defunct champagne house Juglar. In November 2010, it was reported that the wreck indeed included Veuve Clicquot bottles as well. Veuve Clicquot stated that experts checking branding of the corks "were able to identify with absolute certainty" that three of the bottles were theirs. The other bottles examined were attributed to Juglar.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxOn 17 November, the local government of the Åland Islands announced that most of the bottles were to be auctioned off.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxIn January 2011, further information about the Åland bottles was released. Ninety-five of them were identified as Juglar, 46 as Veuve Clicquot, and at least four as Heidsieck. The well-preserved wine was considered drinkable when it was tasted in 2015. Chemical analysis showed levels of sugar (150 g/L) much higher than modern champagne. It also had much higher levels of salt, iron, lead, copper, and arsenic compared with modern vintages. It is believed the arsenic and copper originated from antiquated pesticide (Bordeaux mixture) applied to the grapes. The iron probably came from nails used in the wine barrels, and the lead leached from brass valve fittings of the winemaking equipment. Modern champagne producers begin with wine from stainless steel barrels, yielding lower iron and lead levels.

In popular culture

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxVeuve Clicquot is featured in several films including Casablanca and Babette's Feast.

Veuve Clicquot is mentioned in Downton Abbey Series 6, Episode 1.

Veuve Clicquot is mentioned as having been consumed by the fictional British Secret Service operative, James Bond (written by Ian Fleming). Bond drank Clicquot, Veuve Clicquot, and Veuve Clicquot Rosé in at least three of the original novels: Casino Royale, Diamonds Are Forever, and Thunderball.

In Gore Vidal's historical novel Lincoln, a prostitute serves U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's personal secretary John Hay Veuve Clicquot at a bordello—where it is known as "the Widow"—on Inauguration night, March 4, 1861.

Veuve Clicquot is popular throughout the Real Housewives series, in particular Beverly Hills, Orange County, and New York City.

In multiple Russian books of XIX century Vevey Clicquot is used as synonym to high-class Champagne sparkling vine. Brand is mentioned in works of Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and other prominent and not that prominent authors.

See also

• List of Champagne houses
• Louis Bohne, sales agent for Veuve Clicquot
• Mireille Guiliano, former spokesperson, co-founder and CEO of Clicquot, Inc. in the US