Skip to Content
You may be using an older version of the Adobe Flash Player. To enjoy multimedia content on WGBH.org, please click here to upgrade to the latest version of the free Flash player.

The Widow Clicquot: The Champagne Empire

December 16, 2008
Tilar Mazzeo writer, assistant professor, English, Colby College

Tilar Mazzeo tells the story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, the legendary veuve (widow) of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

The Widow Cliquot tells the story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, a young woman, newly widowed during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, who became one of the richest women in France by her late thirties. She assumed the reins of the fledgling wine business she and her husband started, and steered it though huge political and financial reversals to become the legendary veuve (widow) of Veuve Clicquot champagne. An inventor and daring businesswoman, she took champagne from marginal to mainstream and made it synonymous with style.

WGBH
Boston Athenaeum
Image of The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It
Author: Tilar J. Mazzeo
Publisher: HarperBusiness (2008)
Binding: Hardcover, 288 pages