Veuve Clicquot
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and inventing the riddling table process to clarify champagne in 1816. In 1818, she invented the first known blended rosé champagne by blending still red and white wines, a process still used by the majority of champagne producers.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Madame Clicquot made strides in establishing her wine in royal courts throughout Europe, notably that of Imperial Russia. She played an important role in establishing Champagne as a favored drink of high society and nobility throughout Europe.
The house has borne its distinctive gold-yellow label since the late 19th century.
The company was purchased in 1986 by Louis Vuitton and continues to expand worldwide.
History
Foundation
Philippe Clicquot was a successful textile merchant, a banker, and an owner of vineyards in the Champagne country. In 1772, he established a wine business. He quickly decided to bring his champagne wines to foreign palates and soon expanded his clientele. His annual shipments varied from 4,000 bottles a year to 6-7,000 bottles in a good year. However, he kept the primary business focus on textiles.Nicolas Ponsardin also ran a successful textile business at the same time as Philippe Clicquot. In an attempt to consolidate the power of their two businesses, Ponsardin and Clicquot arranged a wedding between their children, which was common at the time.
François Clicquot and Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin were married on 10 June 1798.
After his marriage, François Clicquot was officially made his father's partner, and in July, the company name was changed to "Clicquot-Muiron et Fils". Sales increased from 8,000 bottles a year in 1796 to 60,000 in 1804. Little by little, all other activities unrelated to champagne industry were abandoned.
François Clicquot greatly expanded the company, putting it on a successful track. He also established a new practice: employing commercial travellers. In August 1801, François Clicquot began a long trip in Europe. Passing through Basel, he met Louis Bohne, who remained a faithful employee of the company all his life and a valuable adviser to Madame Clicquot, even though he was usually stationed far away.
In 1801, Philippe Clicquot retired and left control to his son François.
After various trips through Europe, Louis Bohne came back to Reims in March 1803 with a book full of orders from the largest merchants and most important individual buyers. In the summer of 1804, the Clicquot champagne business first began to grow.
In October 1805, seven years after their wedding, Francois fell suddenly ill with a fever similar to typhoid. He died some days later, at the age of 30.
Both Barbe-Nicole and Philippe were devastated by François' death, and Philippe Clicquot announced his intention of liquidating the company. The young widow decided, however, to take over her husband's business, becoming one of the first businesswomen in France.
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was born in 1777, in the decade before the French Revolution. Her childhood was influenced by her father, Baron Nicolas Ponsardin, a successful textile maker, who was involved in both business and politics. Formerly a royalist, he switched political positions to turn against the monarchy. Thanks to this move, Barbe-Nicole's family escaped the Revolution unscathed.When Barbe-Nicole married François Clicquot, she was 21 years old. When her husband died in October 1805, she was 27 and mother of their six-year-old daughter and only child, Clémentine.
In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic Code denied women civil and political rights, prohibiting them from working, voting, earning money, or entering schools and universities without the consent of their husband or father. At that time, widows were the only women in French society to be free and to be allowed to run their own business.
When Louis Bohne came back to Reims from Saint Petersburg, one month after François Clicquot's funeral, 110,000 bottles of champagne had been shipped during the course of 1805, nearly double the preceding year, thanks to his business trips. The Clicquot champagne business was promising.
Against expectations and considerable opposition, the widow Clicquot wanted to take over her husband's business. She went to her father-in-law with a proposal and convinced him to let her manage the business. Philippe agreed to her proposal under one condition: Barbe-Nicole would go through an apprenticeship, after which she would be able to run the business herself, if she could prove that she was capable. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot overcame convention to become the first woman to take over a champagne house and the first female champagne producer. She entered into an apprenticeship with the winemaker Alexandre Fourneaux, and tried to save the wine business and make it grow.
The House Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin
On 21 July 1810, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin launched her own company: "Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin".Barbe-Nicole exported the vast majority of her champagne out of France. Unfortunately, she was facing naval blockades that kept her from sending her wine abroad. Furthermore, Russian Tsar Alexander I issued a decree banning French products, cutting off a previously lucrative market.
Facing bankruptcy, Barbe-Nicole took a business gamble: she decided to send her champagne to Russia, when peace returned, ahead of her competitors. While the war's naval blockades paralyzed commercial shipping, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne secretly planned to sneak a boat through the blockade to Russia.
Russians used to love the kind of champagne she was making: a very sweet champagne that contained about double the amount of sugar in today's sweet dessert wines. She knew that European courts would celebrate the defeat of Napoleon as soon as his wars ended. After Napoleon Bonaparte had been sent into exile on Elba, both British and Russians toasted his defeat.
With the French monarchy restored, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne put the plan they had been preparing for five years into execution. In 1814, as the blockades fell away, the company chartered a Dutch cargo ship, the "Zes Gebroeders", en route to Königsberg, to deliver 10,550 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne to the Russian market, taking advantage of the general chaos, while their competitors still believed such a move to be impossible. The boat left Le Havre on 6 June 1814. Meanwhile, Russia had lifted the ban on importing French products. The whole shipment was quickly sold. A few weeks later, another ship left Rouen laden with 12,780 bottles of champagne destined for St. Petersburg, which were sold out as soon as they arrived. When the champagne reached St.Petersburg, Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, Tsar Alexander I's brother, declared that Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin champagne would be the only kind he would drink. Word of his preference spread throughout the Russian court.
1814 was a turning point in the history of the Veuve Clicquot company. With her "Vin de la comète", Madame Clicquot reinvigorated her business which began to take off again, thanks to the success of the Russian venture that made the name Veuve Clicquot famous overnight. She went from being a minor player to a brand name that was known to all. During the years that followed, Russia continued to buy Veuve Clicquot wines. Sales rocketed: from 43,000 bottles in 1816, they climbed to 280,000 in 1821 and increased until the 1870s. Within two years, the widow Clicquot had become famous and was at the helm of an internationally renowned commercial business.
Under Madame Clicquot's guidance, the firm focused entirely on the last, to great success.
Champagne also became a vehicle for celebrating events. Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a preferred drink of high society. Champagne became an essential ingredient for festivities in European courts, and then amongst the bourgeoisie. Champagne then began turning up, in cabarets and restaurants.
Death of Madame Clicquot
Sales of Veuve Clicquot champagne in Russia continued to progress. Madame Clicquot decided to establish herself in other markets, such as United Kingdom. Edouard Werlé, who joined the company, started to make a whole series of trips through Central Europe. From 1841 on, when Edouard Werlé officially became head of the company, annual sales never dropped below 300,000 bottles. In 1850, it sold 400,000 bottles.Edouard and his son Alfred ran the business in the following years developing it further: they acquired new vineyards and in 1877 began utilizing a yellow label for the wines, an unusual color for champagne at the time. They registered the label under the trademark "Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin" Yellow Label.
While the company was pursuing its expansion, Madame Clicquot died at the Château de Boursault on 29 July 1866, at the age of 88.
Madame Clicquot is considered one of the world's first international businesswomen. She was the first to take over management of a company and guide it, through hazardous times. She brought her wine business back from the brink of destruction turning it into one of the most successful champagne houses. She also spread champagne across the globe.
When she died, sales had reached 750,000 bottles a year. Veuve Clicquot was exporting champagne from France to all Europe, the United States, Asia and elsewhere. Veuve Clicquot had become both a substantial Champagne house and a respected brand. Easily recognised by its distinctive bright yellow labels, the wine held a royal warrant from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Because she built her champagne empire on audacious decisions, Madame Clicquot was called by her peers "la grande dame de la Champagne". Newspapers all over the world paid tribute to her.
By the terms of an agreement made earlier, Edouard Werlé was already her official successor appointed by Madame Clicquot herself, and in August 1866, a new company was formed: "Werlé & Cie, successors to Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin".
Bertrand de Mun, who married Edouard Werlé's granddaughter, joined the company in July 1898 and became a partner in 1902. In 1911, under de Mun's direction the house of Veuve Clicquot achieved the sales figure of 2,000,000 bottles. The company was slowed down by the 1914-18 war.