The story of the visionary young widow who built a champagne empire showed the world how to
live with style and emerged a legend Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour style and
luxury. But who was this young widow?the Veuve Clicquot?whose champagne sparkled at the courts
of France Britain and Russia and how did she rise to celebrity and fortune? In The Widow
Clicquot Tilar J. Mazzeo brings to life?for the first time?the fascinating woman behind the
iconic yellow label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. A young witness to the dramatic events of
the French Revolution and a new widow during the chaotic years of the Napoleonic Wars
Barbe-Nicole defied convention by assuming?after her husband's death?the reins of the fledgling
wine business they had nurtured. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial
reversals she became one of the world's first great businesswomen and one of the richest women
of her time. Although the Widow Clicquot is still a legend in her native France her story has
never been told in all its richness?until now. Painstakingly researched and elegantly written
The Widow Clicquot provides a glimpse into the life of a woman who arranged clandestine and
perilous champagne deliveries to Russia one day and entertained Napoléon and Joséphine
Bonaparte on another. She was a daring and determined entrepreneur a bold risk taker and an
audacious and intelligent woman who took control of her own destiny when fate left her on the
brink of financial ruin. Her legacy lives on today not simply through the famous product that
still bears her name but now through Mazzeo's finely crafted book. As much a fascinating
journey through the process of making this temperamental wine as a biography of a uniquely
tempered woman The Widow Clicquot is utterly intoxicating.
