known as “powder number three”: Godinot, p. 65.
the skill in French cooking of clarifying a consommé: The Professional Chef: The Culinary Institute of America (New York: John Wiley & Son, 2002), pp. 300–303.
a good eye to track the sediment and an excellent thumb: André Jullien, Manuel du sommelier, ou Instruction practique sur la manière de soigner les vins (Paris: Encyclopédie de Roret, 1836), p. 189.
chemical process called “autolysis”: Carlo Zambonelli et al., “Effects of Lactic Acid Bacteria Autolysis on Sensorial Characteristics of Fermented Foods,” Food Technology/Biotechnology 40, no. 4 (2002): 347–351.
fine champagne its characteristic rich, nutty flavors: Stevenson, p. 9.
its northern location prevents the grapes from developing too many natural sugars: Liger-Belair, p. 137.
without being overshadowed by foliage: Hervé This, Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor, trans. M. B. Debevoise (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), p. 232.
ordering bottles could be maddening: See Champenoises: Ecomusée de la région de Fourmies Trélon (Trélon: Atelier-Musée du Verre de Trélon, 2000), courtesy of the resource library, Champagne Moët et Chandon, which describes Barbe-Nicole’s problems with ordering bottles in consistent size and quality. Champagne production required specialized bottles, in form, color, resistance to pressure and acidity, and embouchure (bottle opening), and poor glassware was a significant obstacle to the development of the industry. By the 1820s, Barbe-Nicole was precise in the orders that she placed to her manufacturers, but the glassmakers “had serious technical difficulties and reticence about fabricating this model,” because she wanted functional, cylindrical, and aesthetically pleasing bottles “before their time” (p. 80). She disliked, in particular, the appearance of pear-shaped bottles, writing: “This form is without elegance” (p. 152; letter of March 1856). By the 1830s, Barbe-Nicole was also beginning to regard bottle shape as a marketing device, and she insisted that her suppliers not sell bottles made to her “form” to her competitors (p. 151; letter of October 1831, to Haumont). As a result of her persistence and buying power (she purchased approximately sixty-five million bottles over sixty-five years in business), the glassmaking industry in wine developed rapidly during the mid-nineteenth century, and the company archives, with over seven hundred letters on the topic, reveal a great deal about her “role in the elaboration of the champagne bottle” as we know it today (p. 148).
Until then, wine bottles were blown by hand: Dumbrell, p. 16
Perhaps she was what wine experts today sometimes call a “supertaster”: Jamie Goode, The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005), p. 170.
Sulfur gives a cool summer’s glass of sauvignon blanc: This, p. 236.
white wines are aged “on the lees”: Ibid., p. 250.
CHAPTER SIX: THE CHAMPAGNE WIDOW
Sales in France were now a mere 7 percent of their sales: Etienne, p. 269.
from Prussia and Austria or not at all: During the period, control of central and eastern Europe was divided largely between two powers, the Austrian or Hapsburg Empire and the independent kingdom of Prussia. Although territorial boundaries shifted, especially during the Napoleonic period, Prussia generally included parts of the modern states of Germany and Poland, territories along the Baltic, and several former Soviet states. The Austrian Empire included much of modern Austria, Hungary, Romania, and numerous Adriatic states, including the northeast territories in modern Italy. The Ottoman Empire, although in decline during the early nineteenth century, controlled the large extent of territories to the south, including modern Turkey, some of the contested Adriatic states, most of the areas around the Black Sea, and significant parts of the Near East, Middle East, and northern Africa. For a more complete account of early-nineteenth-century political geography, see Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (New York: Penguin, 2007); and Andrew Wheatcroft, The Hapsburgs (New York: Penguin, 1997).
“The excess of luxury [here] means that the broker”: Quoted in Etienne, p. 262.
“The commerce in this place is excessively rotten”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 5.
“Foreign companies are seen as nanny goats”: Quoted in Etienne, p. 263.
Russia…would account for an astonishing third of their sales: Ibid., pp. 269, 95.
black crust of infection, and everywhere, he ached: William Buchan, Domestic Medicine, or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases, by Regimen and Simple Medicines: With an Appendix, Containing a Dispensatory for the Use of Private Practioners (Philadelphia: Richard Folwell, 1797), ch. 10.
she could only feel relief to hear that François was dead: Fiévet, Madame Veuve Clicquot, p. 59.
Question Agitated in the School of the Faculty of Medicine at Reims: Jean-Claude Navier, Question Agitated in the School of the Faculty of Medicine at Reims…on the Use of Sparkling Champagne Against Putrid Fevers and Other Maladies of the Same Nature (Reims: Cazin, 1778).
“It contains,” Dr. Navier wrote: Ibid., p. x.
Dr. Navier’s brother-in-law was none other than Jean-Rémy Moët: Jacqueline Roubinet and Gilbert and Marie-Thérèse Nolleau, Jean-Rémy Moët: A Master of Champagne and a Talented Politician, trans. Carolyn Hart (Paris: Stock, 1996), p. 38.
experiments with wine cures: See, for example, Jacques Moreau, De la connoissance [sic] des fièvres continues, pourprées et pestilentes (Paris: Laurent D’Houry, 1689); and William Guthrie, Remarks upon Claret, Burgundy, and Champagne, Their Dietetic and Restorative Uses, Etc. (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1889).
“Champagne, if pure, is one of the safest wines that can be drunk”: Charles Tovey, Champagne: Its History, Properties, and Manufactures (London: James Camden Hotten, 1870), p. 105; reiterated in Charles Tovey, Wine Revelations (London: Whitaker, 1880), p. 38.
“Nothing…can ever assuage the deep sorrow I feel”: Quoted in Crestin-Billet, p. 69.
the slain revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat: Jacques-Louis David, “The Death of Marat” (La mort de Marat), ca. 1794, oil on canvas, Reims, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Reims, gift of Paul David, 1879 (879.8); Marat was murdered by Charlotte Corday during the Revolution.
“The malignant fever is generally preceded by a remarkable weakness”: Buchan, ch. 10.
“Do not abandon yourself to a sort of melancholy gloom”: Quoted in Etienne, p. 12.
“While big with this magnificent project”: Tomes, p. 66.
“profound depression”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. vi.
“the bourgeoisie of yesteryear who had tended the [company] books had…metamorphosed”: Smith, p. 46.
CHAPTER SEVEN: PARTNER AND APPRENTICE
tune of nearly half a million dollars: Etienne, pp. 179–181; using a one-to-twenty ratio.
Under the laws of the Napoleonic Code: According to statute, a “wife [could not] plead in her own name, without the authority of her husband, even though she should be a public trader,” Code Napoléon, ch. 6, sect. 4.
She and Alexandre had each invested 80,000 francs: Etienne, pp. 178–181. Currency in nineteenth-century France was a complex system; for the sake of clarity, all references are to francs, although many continued to refer to values in “livres” or even “napoleons.” The livre—abolished in 1795 by the revolutionary government—had near parity with the franc during the period.
thirty years later an unskilled laborer: Contemporary figures from L. and D. Noack, “Cost of Living in Daumier’s Times,” available at www.daumier.org/index.php?id=176; see also Gilles Postel-Vinay and Jean-Marc Robin, “Eating, Working, and Saving in an Unstable World: Consumers in Nineteenth-Century France,” Economic History Review 45, no. 3 (August 1992): 494–513; British comparative data is included in Liza Picard, Dr. Johnson’s London (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
Philippe brought to the table another 30,000 francs: Etienne, p. 180.
approximately 75 percent of the wines sold by this new company: Etienne, pp. 39–41.
“Sea commerce is totally ruined”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 8.
ideally be stored in cool darkness at around 55°F: This, p. 254.
5 percent of the wine sold to customers is “corked”: Goode, p. 145.
and they would sacrifice taste in order to achieve it: Etienne, p. 74.
Likely, the culprit was problems that had begun during the cask stage: See C. R. Davis et al., “Practical Implications of Malolactic Fermentation: A Review,” American Journal of Enology and Viticulture 36, no. 4 (1985): 290–301; and Émile Peynaud, Knowing and Making Wine, trans. Alan F. G. Spenser (Chichester, UK: Wiley Interscience, 1984).
“I prayed to the Good Lord”: Quoted in Etienne, p. 116.
“I pray to the Good Lord day and night to send some corsair to take them”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 8.
“This country has lacked even money for the worst vintage this past year”: Ibid., p. 10.
“What a blessing for us”: Ibid., p. 16.
Avoid “talking politics,” he pleaded: Ibid., p. 20.
“In the name of God, don’t ever talk of politics”: Ibid., p. 28.
The empress had given birth to a daughter in the autumn: Reputed to be the son of her lover, Adam Czartoryski, a Polish prince, the child was born Maria Alexandrovna and lived just fourteen months (1799–1800); Henri Troyat, Alexander of Russia: Napoleon’s Conqueror (New York: Grove Press, 2003), pp. 43–46.
Today, the region is limited to 323 classified villages: According to the Office of Champagne’s Cultivation Regulations (the United States representative of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, or CVIC), grapes grown within the “champagne” appellation are limited to strictly controlled vineyards, and growers must agree to abide by restrictions governing everything from the distance between vines to the extent and timing of vine pruning, the maximum yield per hectare, and the dates of harvest; details available at www.champagne.us/index.cfm?pageName=appellation_cultivationregs.
Even the descriptive term champenoise, or “champagne style”: The use of the label méthode champenoise on wines produced outside the champagne AOC was outlawed in the European Union in 1994 (SMW Winzersekt GmbH v. Land Rheinland-Pfalz Ase C-306/93 [1994], European Court Reports 1994, p. I-05555). The legal status of the term in the United States is the subject of complex litigation, but the use of the term is increasingly controversial. The history of American “champagne” is documented in William Heintz et al., A History of Champagne in California and the United States: With Particular Emphasis on How the Word “Champagne” Has Been Used by Journalists and Writers and the Understanding of Its Definition by the American Wine Consumer, unpublished archival collection, 1984, Saint Helena Public Library, Napa, California.
“a large part of Europe [was] ruined by the famine”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, pp. 58–60.
“there are rare advantages that give us a rising name brand”: Ibid., p. 65.
“Everywhere…business is absolutely dead”: Ibid., p. 76.
“an order to leave the city and the states of Austria”: Ibid., p. 72.
In 1809, she managed to sell only forty thousand bottles of wine: Etienne, p. 269.
the only news he could send: “Business totally dead”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 96.
CHAPTER EIGHT: ALONE AT THE BRINK OF RUIN
founded in 1734 by Alexandre’s grandfather under the name Forest-Fourneaux: Promotional materials, Champagne Taittinger, available at www.taittinger.com; see also Delpal, p. 58.
Nicolas’s reward for his hospitality: George Lallemand, Le Baron Ponsardin (Reims: Chamber of Commerce/Société des Amis de Vieux Reims, 1967).
Austrian archduchess Marie Louise—niece to the ill-fated Marie Antoinette: Marie Louise of Austria (1791–1847); see Edith Cuthell, An Imperial Victim: Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, Empress of the French, Duchess of Parma (London: Brentanto’s, 1912).
her father, always a royalist at heart: Fiévet, Madame Veuve Clicquot, p. 24.
“marriage of the Archduchess Louise is fixed for the 25 of March: Champagne Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Company Archives, 1A E 086, Copie de lettres du 1er Julliet au 9 Novembre 1812, p. 243; letter of March 3, 1810.
she and Louis referred to him in their letters simply as “the devil”: Interview, January 8, 2007, Fabienne Huttaux, Historical Resources Manager, Champagne Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Reims.
the emperor’s personal appreciation of “the beauty and richness of their cellars”: Promotional materials, Champagne Jacquesson, available at www.champagnejacquesson.com.
Her account book showed: Etienne, p. 184.
Now he was engaged to Miss Rheinwald: Crestin-Billet, p. 89.
burned the symbol of the anchor into the corks: Delpal, p. 173.
brilliant greens flecked with gold or silver: Desbois-Thibault, p. 57.
it had always been used because it was the traditional symbol of hope: Champagne Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, tasting-room promotional materials.
selling more local red wines by the barrel: Etienne, p. 44.
high-end vintages from other, more fashionable parts of France: Etienne, pp. 47–49.
daughter, Clémentine, away to a convent boarding school in Paris: Chimay, p. 31.
challenges of raising a child while running a business: “Women integrated their sense of parenthood with the general business orientation of their lives…evidence does not appear…to suggest that the businesswoman spent much time beyond the market world”; Smith, p. 45.
Her letters show that she was a devoted and pragmatic mother: See, for example, Chimay, pp. 31–42.
“I pray that you will keep it on your person”: Champagne Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, Company Archives, 1A E 086, Copie de lettres du 1er Juillet 1809 au 9 Novembre 1812, p. 429; letter of October 19, 1810.
“This is a terrible thing that gets up and goes to bed with me”: Chimay, p. 18.
“never use the present round saucer animalcula-catching champagne glasses”: Anonymous, London at Table: or, How, When, and Where to Dine and Order a Dinner, and Where to Avoid Dining, with Practical Hints to Cooks (London: Chapman & Hall, 1851), vol. 2, p. 45.
Owing to basic mechanics, the bubbles are smaller and prettier in narrow glasses: This, p. 257.
country estate outside Oger: Chimay, p. 17.
“maritime harpies” and the “assassins of prosperity”: Quotations here and following from Bertrand de Vogüé, Madame Clicquot à la conquête pacifique de la Russie (Reims: Imprimerie du Nord-Est, 1947), p. 8.
“2,000 bottles have been easily sold because of the season”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 112.
That spring, she had orders for fewer than thirty-three thousand bottles: Etienne, p. 269.
Lower the prices if need be, she wrote to Louis in Holland: Crestin-Billet, p. 77.
“There had never been…a grape so ripe, so sugary, and one harvested under such favorable circumstances of weather”: Tomes, p. 129.
“the great comet was attracting all eyes”: Harriet Martineau, Autobiography (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1877).
“how many superstitious terrors it gave rise to”: Anonymous, “The Comet,” Robert Merry’s Museum (November 1858), pp. 137–139, p. 137.
Louis spent the spring of 1812 hunting orders: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 118.
pushing the development of new sugar sources for winemakers: With the continental blockades during the Napoleonic Wars, popular British colonial commodities, including sugar and cotton, were scarce and costly. Because of the need for sugar in the production of wine—and in the production of champagne in particular—“the French wine trade suffered,” and in order to protect his favorite industry, Napoléon saw to it that “investigations were carried out in France to fin
d substitutes for British colonial produce,” including the large-scale extraction of sugar from the locally grown beetroot; William G. Freeman, New Phytologist 6, no. 1 (January 1907): 18–23, 20. See also Phillips, pp. 186–195. According to Robert Tomes, the winemakers still preferred cane sugar, and he reported that beet sugar is “said to poison wine” and give it a “nauseous flavor”; Tomes, p. 145.
“an infernal genie who has tormented and ruined the world for five or six years”: Bertrand de Vogüé, Conquête pacifique de la Russie, p. 8.
“The Good Lord is a joker: eat and you will die, do not eat and you will die, and so patience and perseverance”: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, p. 125.
“All the houses of the nobility,” wrote a British witness: Quoted in George Rudé, Revolutionary Europe: 1783–1815 (Glasgow: Fontana Press/HarperCollins, 1985), p. 273.
“If circumstances were less sad,” he told Jean-Rémy: Victor Fiévet, Histoire de la ville d’Épernay (Épernay: V. Fiévet, 1868), p. 151.
More than half a million men had been sent to fight in Russia: For an account of the Russian campaign, see, for example, Henry Houssaye, Napoleon and the Campaign of 1814 (Uckfield, UK: Naval and Miltary Press, 2006).
CHAPTER NINE: WAR AND THE WIDOW’S TRIUMPH
Sales of her wine had been down again that year…a staggering 80 percent: Alain de Vogüé, Une maison de vins, pp. 64, 123.
he would lose over half a million bottles of champagne: Kladstrup, p. 67.
The Widow Clicquot Page 26