Spritz | This & That
The Wealthy Widow efer to it as “The Widow” and, odds are, your bartender or wine steward will know exactly what you mean. First, you have excellent taste in champagne. Second, you have at least a passing knowledge of the name behind the celebrated yellow label. When François Clicquot died in the fall of 1805, the principal of a small champagne house made a widow out of 27-year-old Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin. By any standard of the 19th century – and France’s Napoleonic Code was no exception – the death signaled an almost certain demise of the family enterprise, given the unfortunate fact that François was an only son. The ridiculous notion that La Veuve Clicquot – the Widow Clicquot – might take the reins of the family vineyard in the Champagne region of France was simply unspeakable in polite company. But Ponsardin was not what modern personality experts might label a “rule follower.” She may have been the daughter of a well-to-do textile merchant, educated in the finest school in Reims and quite socially adept, but Ponsardin cared less about traditional societal expectations and more about her own survival. She was quirky that way. Though she had no formal training in matters of business, the Widow was gifted with reliable entrepreneurial instinct. Sensing the end of the Franco-Prussian War was at hand, the Widow choreographed the furtive delivery of thousands of bottles of her champagne to Russia, despite a Napoleonic ban of exports. She had just tripled the price. For that, she may even have popped open some bubbly to celebrate her own cleverness – by her 40th birthday, Barbe-Nicole, La Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, had emerged as one of the wealthiest and most prominent entrepreneurs in Europe.
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slice | november 2010
GETTY IMAGES
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By Lauren Hammack
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin and great-granddaughter Anne de Mortemart in a painting by Léon Cogniet
Tidbit
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin’s daughter Clementine married the destitute Comte Louis de Chevigné in 1817, and he proceeded to enthusiastically spend the Clicquot fortune. Wealthy employee Eduoard Werlé put an end to the financial crisis that ensued by paying off the company’s debts in 1828 and becoming a partner in the business. Placed in charge of the Clicquot finances, Werlé seriously curtailed Chevigné’s pocket money.