The Wine Shop Talk
The Wine Shop Talk
Veuve Clicquot: The Woman Behind the Iconic Yellow Label - "Label Legends Series"
Join host Sommelier Erin for an unforgettable episode as she explores the remarkable story of Barb Nicole Ponsardin, better known as 'The Widow Clicquot.' Discover how this incredible woman revolutionized the champagne industry and built the iconic Veuve Clicquot brand we celebrate today. From her groundbreaking techniques to expanding into international markets, Barb Nicole's journey is a tale of resilience, innovation, and breaking barriers. Tune in to learn about her legacy and her lasting impact on the world of champagne. Cheers!
⭐️ This is the second episode in the Label Legends Series.
0:00 Veuve Clicquot: The Woman Behind the Iconic Label
02:33 The Beginning
04:36 A New Role
05:47 Riddling - A Key Process
07:06 Expanding Markets
08:20 The Iconic Label
09:45 Her Death
10:28 The Oldest Bottle
11:09 Closing
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Have you ever enjoyed a beautiful glass of booth? Clicko champagne if you have your not alone, but as you've been sipping on those beautiful elegant bubbles, have you ever thought about who is the booth Cleco, which translated means The widow Clicko. And in today's episode, I have a truly inspiring tale to share with you all about Barb, Nicole. Sedan, the incredible woman whose name is on all of those beautiful bottles of booklet. Clayco champagne. All around the world. So if you love history, a good story, and of course, a beautiful glass of bubbles. Let's get started and dive right into today's episode. Hi everyone. And welcome to the wine shop talk. I'm your host, smelly Erin Rosar. And I'm so happy that you're here with me today. If we haven't met before, it's lovely to have you here. And if we have welcome back. Now for those of you are new, you should know that I've been a professional smile over 20 years now. And it's my passion, my privilege to make learning about wine, not only fun and easy, but also practical. I want to make sure that you leave every single episode with some real life practical tips that you're able to use right away to help you find bottles of wine that you're going to love and enjoy, and be able to share with family and friends. I want you to think of me as your very own practical Smalley. And before we get started, I want to call out that if you have not yet had a chance to visit the, the free resource section on my website, you're going to find the link below and I have some great resources. If you love entertaining or cocktails, or you want to play a fun round of summer wine, bingo, click the link below, Now let me introduce you to this incredible and iconic woman within the wine industry, specifically within the champagne world of the wine industry. Let's start at the beginning in that Barb, Nicole ponsor Dan. Dan, and I just want to pause your right at the beginning and her maiden name was pawn star. Our den and the POS are dead. If you're looking at an older bottle of with click Koshin paid. You may actually see both CLICO her married last name and Her maiden name on the label. There was a time where both names are the hyphenated version. If you will, would have been put on the label over time, plus a den has been dropped and it is just Clicko. But I wanted to let you know that her maiden name was and you may see that name on older vintages or special vintages potentially in the future. But let's get back to the story. Does that a little side segue there, Barb was born on December 16th, 1777 and rents, France. And this was about 10 years before the French revolution. And she was born into a family that valued hard work and resilience and little did they know at the time as this beautiful little girl was born, that she would grow up to. Revolutionize the champagne industry and one of the most well-known champagne labels around the world. Now her father, Nicholas Posar dad at the time had a very successful textile business. And with his friend, Felipe Clayco. They go, they arranged for the marriage of their children, which would, constellate the power of their two businesses together and so in 1798, Are happily married, Francoise, Tiko. And their life together began. Now Francois was deeply involved in his family's wine business, which was growing at the time because they were also involved in textiles. And after the marriage, Francoise father made him an official partner barb became involved in her husband's passion for the the family's business. When you're after they were married, they happily welcomed their daughter Clementine into the family and she would be their only child. Now their marriage seem to be the promise of a very bright future, both for their relationship and for their company that they were both passionate about as it was growing. But tragically Francois passed away in 1805 at the age of 30, just seven years after they were married. Leaving Barbara widow at just 27 years old with a young six-year-old daughter to care for. And this is where the name. comes from. As booth is the French term for widow. Now faced with overwhelming grief, Barb made a bold and impressed into decision for the time when she went to her father-in-law and asked if she could take over and continue to be part of the wine business. She wanted to take on her husband's role and continue growing the business that they were both so passionate about. Now, this is unprecedented because at the time there were laws that women were not allowed to hold positions in business and in different roles as such in society. But because she was now a widow, some of those rules did not apply and she could actually worked in the family business. Now the story goes that when she asked her father-in-law, if she could take over and continue her work in the business, that he basically gave her a challenge in that he wanted to make sure that she was set up for success and that she truly understood the business. And so he put together a program, an apprenticeship, if you will, that she needed to complete before he would fully agree to her taking on the role. And we won't know for certain, if he felt that she was going to succeed. Or not. But he gave her an opportunity to prove herself. And I think we can all say that we are definitely benefiting from her drive and her passion to do well in the role. now she was in a role of navigating a male dominated industry. That was no easy feat, but her determination and business acronym, which she learned from her father-in-law and her father, before that set her apart. One of her most significant contributions to the production of champagne was a process called riddling. Now reeling is a special process used in Champaign production that basically helps to filter it. It's a layer of clarification that basically takes the sludge out from inside the bottle to make bubbles in a bottle. We have to do a second fermentation inside the bottle itself and to do that winemakers put a bit of extra yeast and sugar and put a lid on the bottle. When yeast eat sugar, they leave behind a bit of a residue. And if you've ever made gravy where it looks like flour and water mixed together, that's. It's kind of what it looks like inside the champagne bottle. Obviously nobody wants to drink cloudy champagne. And so what she came up with with her winemaker was a way to get that sludge to the top of the bottle, to be able to take it out well, clarifying the other wine inside. And that's what riddling is as the quick TV version. This innovation developed with her cellar master and Twanda midair allowed the, her to stand out in the market. There was a time where she had the only riddled, the only filtered, if you will. Bubbling sparkling wine in the industry. Now her vision did not stop there. And not only was she determined to continually improve the quality of our product, but she was also determined to expand her market, to grow her business. And in doing so she set her sights on a Russia. and despite challenges posed by the Napoleonic war and a continental blockade. that Russia at one point put in place not to take in products from France. She was able to find a way around that blockade and get her wines to the Russian market. And in doing so her persistence paid off and her champagne became a favorite of the Russian court. And this solidified her wines, international reputation. Of a luxury product for royalty. And the higher class. And so not only was her wine, the loved within France. It was also loved outside of France. as well. Now it is important to know from a style point of view. Many of the sparkling wines at the time were sweeter styles, not to strive, but sweeter styles. So the wine that went to Russia would have been filtered. So the bubbles would have been very beautiful, but it would have been a sweeter style as well, historically. She continued to grow her business and solidify her wines, international reputation. It became synonymous with celebrations. The Highlife and high society. Her business savvy didn't end with distribution and being at the right place at the right time. She also created the now iconic yellow label, which made her wine stand out. In a crowd among others. And so it became instantly recognizable for guests at a party and very easy to identify and to ask for, from loyal customers. Now, not only was she a remarkable business woman, but also a dedicated mother and she ensured that her daughter Clementine received a good education upbringing. And Clementine eventually married a gentleman by the name of Louie bone. And he was a key figure in live click. CO's history. And he helped to expand the brand's reach even further. Then Barb had done. By 1850 lift click. Champagne was selling over 400,000 bottles. And acquiring new vineyards and in 1877. They registered the label under the trademark move ClickHole plus a den. The yellow label. And so this was the date that the yellow label. Of of Cleco champagne really became a global name. Now even legends can't live forever. Madame Clicquot died at the shadow deeper soul on the 29th of July in 1866. She was 89 years old. And to this day, she is considered one of the founding fathers, if you will, of the champagne industry, but also for women in the wine industry as well. Her vision of where she wanted her company to go, her determination. The drive to always pursue a better quality product to make her as different and the ability to make sure that her wines were at the right place at the right time, helped propel, this brand into the global sensation that we still enjoy today. Now as a fun fact, you should know that in July of 2008, an unopened bottle of Viv click. champagne was discovered inside a castle of the isle of mull on Scotland. This bottle was from 1893 and was in mint condition. Having been kept in the dark the entire time. Now this bottle is now on display at the. visiting center in rent. So if you happen to visit the winery, which I would highly recommend, then you'll be able to see the oldest bottle bearing the yellow label that is now kept in the collection. Now I hope that you have enjoyed learning about Barb Nicole's story and you realize it's not just about business success, but it's her story about resilience, innovation and breaking barriers or glass ceilings, Whatever phrase you'd like to use. She was a visionary leader who against all odds built an empire that still thrives today. Uh, her legacy lives on with every bottle of the Coca-Cola that is enjoyed and opened and celebrated with, and is a Testament to her pioneering spirit. And now that I hope the next time you open up a beautiful bottle of Clayco champagne, that you'll raise a glass and you will remember this incredible journey of a woman who dared to dream took a chance when outside the norm of society of the time and change the world of champagne forever. Her story is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved with determination and ingenuity. I hope her story has inspired you as much as it inspires me. And if you haven't yet, you must treat yourself to a bottle of cocoa and toast to this remarkable woman behind the label. When you think of a young woman who got married when she was 21 years old and became a widowed mother at 27 with a six-year-old daughter to look after where she took her life. And this business is just incredible. So on that note, I hope that you have enjoyed this week's episode. Second episode in this series of label legends, the lives behind the wines, I'm enjoying bringing some of the history of the people behind the names on the labels to you last week's episode, if you haven't yet listened to it. I covered Kim Crawford and from the New Zealand wine industry. And. for next week's episode, we'll be heading to California as I shared the story behind the Beringer winery. So I hope you join me next Tuesday as I bring you the story behind Berenger. Now as always, if you have any questions or comments about today's episode, I would love to hear from you. Please reach out. You can reach me@helloatwinegirlacademy.com or come say hi and Instagram or Tik TOK, where you can find me at wine girl academy. Now, if you are new here, it's lovely to have you here. I hope you'll tune in every week. And if you haven't yet had a chance to do your pellet personality quiz, which is my signature quiz, you're going to find the link in the show notes below, so be sure to discover your pellet personality by taking the short fun quiz. As always. I want to thank you for hanging out with me today. I want to wish you a wonderful week tears to you. Bye now.