She’s The Extraordinary Woman Behind One Of The Most Popular French Champagnes
Champagne has long been the drink of life’s biggest milestones, from weddings and graduations to birthdays and anniversaries. But you may not know that an extraordinary woman is behind one of the most popular French champagnes: Veuve Clicquot.
“Veuve” is actually the French word for “widow,” meaning the entire brand is named after a woman. Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the widow herself, was the company’s matriarch and became known as the “grand dame of champagne.”
She defied the expectations of her time to transform a struggling business into one of the most recognized brands in the world, easily identified by its luxurious gold label.
The Grand Dame of Champagne
Barbe-Nicole was born in 1777 in Reims, France, right in the heart of Champagne country. Her father, Nicolas Ponsardin, was a wealthy textile merchant who afforded her an elite education. She studied alongside daughters of nobility at a prestigious convent.
Yet, things changed in July 1789 when the French Revolution swept through Reims. The city suddenly became a dangerous environment for kids of the wealthy, so Barbe-Nicole’s family wanted to bring her home. It’s said that the family’s dressmaker helped smuggle her out of the convent in rags.
This brush with danger possibly pushed Barbe-Nicole’s father, Nicolas, to make a strategic shift. While he’d previously been a royalist, he decided to publicly align himself with the Jacobins, a revolutionary group pushing to abolish the monarchy.
Under the new regime, Nicolas kept expanding his wealth and influence. However, one of his most valuable connections was with the Clicquot family. They were textile merchants with a side business in wine distribution.
It just so happened that Nicolas’ daughter, Barbe-Nicole, and the son of Philippe Clicquot, François Clicquot, were also of marrying age. So, an alliance was formed, and the pair tied the knot in 1798.
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Barbe-Nicole and François were reportedly in love, too, despite their arranged marriage. By the very next year, they even welcomed their only child into the world: Clémentine.
Together, the newlyweds had high hopes for the family business, which, at the time, was little more than a side venture. They sourced wines from local growers and sold them, but textiles remained their main source of income.
Both Barbe-Nicole and François had bigger ambitions. They wanted to produce their own wines and expand their reach beyond France. Tragically, François wasn’t around to see their vision come to life.
Following a series of business setbacks and weeks of illness in 1805, he died. Officially, the cause was said to be typhoid, but whispers spread among workers that François had taken his own life.
This left Barbe-Nicole a widow at just 27 years old, and it was a challenging time for a woman to be at the helm of a business.
About 100 years earlier, middle-class women could help run family businesses, most of which were often managed by relatives. Then, by the early nineteenth century, the rise of large-scale manufacturing, shifting economic structures, and the strict legal framework of the Napoleonic Code had pushed women to the side of the business world.
Nonetheless, widows occupied a unique loophole in the Napoleonic Code. They had the financial freedoms of a man and the social freedoms of a married woman. So, while a married woman couldn’t even sign a contract without her husband’s approval, a widow had the power to make her own business decisions.
Barbe-Nicole understood this advantage and embraced it fully. She continued wearing mourning attire for the rest of her life following François’ death, a deliberate choice that reinforced her status as a widow.
At the same time, Barbe-Nicole was able to persuade her father-in-law to let her take charge of the business. He not only agreed but also gave her a strong vote of confidence by becoming her first investor.
Now, the wine business was far more difficult than it might seem. Entire batches could be ruined due to scorching heat or frigid cold due to the lack of technology. Plus, champagne was even more volatile since the pressure inside the bottles made them prone to sudden explosions.
Barbe-Nicole had to manage these hurdles, as well as the challenges of shipping wine over long distances because she wanted to expand into international markets.
Moreover, she was forced to face a world at war. Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1805 and soon imposed trade restrictions to weaken his enemies. This made it nearly impossible to sell wine in key international markets, pushing Barbe-Nicole to find ways around the blockades.
Still, her late husband had left her an invaluable ally named Louis Bohne. Louis was François’ former employee who went on to become Barbe-Nicole’s right-hand man and help her with a bold plan.
To get around Napoleon’s trade restrictions, she sent 50,000 bottles of champagne to Amsterdam with Louis. Then, he was supposed to deliver them to Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia.
The shipment arrived safely, but sadly, disaster struck. The city was blockaded, and the ports were shut down, so close to $3 million worth of wine was put in a damp basement.
The situation only became more precarious for Barbe-Nicole. After Louis traveled to Germany and Prussia to make sales, he realized the markets were on the brink of collapse. He tried pivoting to Russia, but in 1807, he was accused of being a French spy and forced to leave.
Two years later, Europe was nearing financial ruin, and those who could even afford to buy champagne wouldn’t drink a French brand due to the association with Napoleon. So, Barbe-Nicole’s business endeavor failed, and she had to let go of all of her salespeople except for Louis.
It took years before Napoleon was finally defeated and exiled in 1814. This brought peace between France and the rest of Europe. Plus, it represented the perfect opportunity for Barbe-Nicole to begin selling her wines again.
Still, there were some new hurdles. Once trade restrictions were lifted, Europe, especially Russia, would be eager for champagne to celebrate the end of the war. Barbe-Nicole knew that the first to reach Russia would dominate the market. That’s why she decided to act fast before international trade fully resumed.
In complete secrecy, Barbe-Nicole sent thousands of bottles of wine, specifically the vintage 1811 “Year of the Comet” wine, to Russia with Louis. She also sent a second shipment before finding out if the first even made it.
If the plan went sideways, Barbe-Nicole would have to deal with catastrophic financial ruin. Thankfully, it didn’t. Louis made it to Russia with the wine, and there was overwhelming demand. People crowded the ports, eager to pay high prices for Widow Clicquot wines, and the brand became a sensation overnight.
In fact, Barbe-Nicole’s wines were actually served at the kind of Prussia’s birthday celebration, and Czar Alexander claimed he wouldn’t drink anything else.
Barbe-Nicole passed away in 1866 at 88 years old, and she ran Veuve Clicquot up until her death. Her champagne became a symbol of sophistication and luxury, and Barbe-Nicole is credited with multiple “firsts” in the champagne industry.
She created the first vintage champagne, invented the riddling table, and made the first-known blended rosé champagne.
As a brand, Veuve Clicquot continues to thrive today, too, and is known as one of the largest champagne houses in the world.
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