A Toast to the Ladies of Champagne

Sparkling wine is fun, it is sexy, it is inherently feminine.  Its history is also rich with female leadership. Many of us will chill, pop, and toast with a bottle of bubbly this New Year’s Eve.  While I look forward to this most luxurious libation, I cannot sip in celebration without thinking of two women of wine -–  Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin and Lily Bollinger.

You may know Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin better as Veuve Clicquot.  It was partly her status as “widow” (veuve in French) that lead to her famous title “La Grande Dame.”  After her husband died in 1805, she became a woman of industry in a period when women were not seen as leaders.  She built the family champagne house into the household name we know today.  It was she who defied Napoleanic blockades and shipped wine to Russia in 1814; she who found export markets in almost every European court; she who in 1810 created the first recorded vintage champagne in the region. Her ingenuity, that began with an experiment using her kitchen table, was the precursor to the riddling process used in modern sparkling wine production.

In 1941, a different time – but still a man’s world, Lily Bollinger loses her husband and simultaneously steps into the leadership role in the family owned champagne house – Bollinger.  Lily Bollinger ran the champagne house for 40 years.  During this time she dramatically increased land holdings, doubled sales and added two new labels.  She oversaw the vineyards by foot and by bike and hid in the cellars during WWII German bombardments. She is also credited with this quote,

             “I only drink Champagne when I’m happy, and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”
— Lily Bollinger

If these stories have piqued your interest click here for an article from Wine Spectator exploring the history of women and champagne.  You may also enjoy the book The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo.