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A Viúva Clicquot (2008)

by Tilar J. Mazzeo(Favorite Author)

3.34 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Rocco

review 1: To her last surviving great-grandchild Madame Clicquot writes, "I am going to tell you a secret... You more than anyone resemble me, you who have such audacity. It is a precious quality that has been very useful to me in the course of my long life... to dare things before others... I am called today the Grand Lady of Champagne!"Coming from a genteel class, it was unusual in that day to run a business, these women instead, were expected to sit leisurely around drawing rooms in idle chatter but when only twenty-seven years old, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot became a widow. The hurdles of making wine and champagne: unreliable bottle quality, turmoil of war preventing export, unusually wet or hot weather, all became Widow Clicquot's worry.Wines that sparkled was a wine that had gone b... moread. And beginning in the Middle Ages in the Champagne region of France, it was happening more and more. To turn this seeming catastrophe into a success put Champagne on the map. Second fermentation, a disaster for wine, was coaxed into happening in a bottle of champagne.The Widow Clicquot became, in the nineteenth century, a premier name in Champagne. This book puts a face on that label.This book is not only the very interesting story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot but it is also full of very fascinating details about making wine, making champagne, labeling varietals, labeling quality. Second fermentation, the use of sulfur and wine remaining on the lees all makes sense to me now. If you love wine you will really enjoy the history of this fascinating woman and the process of making wine.The one detriment to this book is Tilar Mazzeo's overuse of the word "perhaps." It leaves the reader wondering just how much of the biographical information is accurate.
review 2: I really enjoyed this book. The author admits throughout that she is piecing together the story of this remarkable woman from scraps - I admire her for taking on the job and think she wrote an interesting, convincing story in a credible conversational style. Her point that women and their lives were not documented as reliably as those of men is completely valid and an important aspect of this book on its own. The author's gives an interesting explanation of how changing views of woman within the Widow's lifetime made her achievements even more impressive. I loved the details of the champagne business, especially the clear explanations about how it evolved from a low-level local trade into the international symbol of glamour that it is today. I recently led a tour of Reims that included a visit to the Pommery Champagne house so I was fascinated by the details of location in Reims and Champagne too, as well as the information about the Widow Pommery at the end. less

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