I had to leave the picture nice and big, so you could see the bubbles coming out of the bottle…is it not the perfect book for my blog?!

The Widow Clicquot
Tilar Mazzeo
2008
191 pages

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To cover my ass with the FTC I feel obliged to tell you all I bought this one.

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I saw this book reviewed by Swapna and thought it sounded like the best kind of history book….the story of an individual set against the backdrop of a larger historical event. (The Devil in the White City is another book that does this very well.)

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin grew the business that is still produces her famous champagne, Veuve Clicquot (Widow Clicquot). While this might not sound that unusual in today’s world, in 19th-century France this was a pretty amazing thing. And not only did Barbe-Nicole succeed in a male-dominated, tumultuous business, she did it against the backdrop of the French Revolution.

Barbe-Nicole’s distinction is to have been the first celebrity business-woman among them. Some say, in fact, that she is the first woman in history to run an international commercial empire at all. Certainly, she was the first woman – and to this day, one of only a few – to lead one of the world’s great champagne houses. Entering the commercial world just as the first rumblings of the Industrial Revolution were reshaping life in nineteenth-century France, she brought the values of the family business woman to the age of manufacturing. Barbe-Nicole was not just an extraordinary woman, she was an extraordinary entrepreneur. (p. 190-191)

After the death of her husband, Barbe-Nicole continued the fledgling champagne business that he had started. Despite many initial setbacks (war and weather, to name a few), she refused to give up and by the time of her death (many, many years later) she was extremely wealthy, and her champagne was extremely popular.

Besides building her own business, Barbe-Nicole is known for three notable contributions to the champagne industry: internationalizing the champagne market (Veuve Clicquot was very popular in Russia), establishing brand identification, and developing the process of remuage (which allowed for faster champagne making (there’s a more technical term, but I don’t have the brain to describe it)). In fact, the only things I knew about champagne before reading this book were 1) it tastes good and 2) it has to be made in the Champagne region of France to rightly wear the name champagne.

Because Barbe-Nicole was a kick-ass business woman, and because she stepped out of the prescribed existence for French middle-class women in the 19th-century to make her own future, this book is the perfect read for the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. It’s also pretty interesting, and not at all a dry, stuffy history book!

Do you think this might be something you’d like to read? First person to holler that they want it, gets it! Unless you’re the FTC, in which case, you’re not getting squat.