Veuve Clicquot

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin

Industry	Champagne production
Founded	1772 (239 years ago)
Founder(s)	Philippe Clicquot-Muiron
Headquarters	12, Rue du Temple Reims, France
Key people	Cecile Bonnefond (President and CEO)
Revenue	€406 million (2009)
Parent	LVMH
Website	www.veuve-clicquot.com

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (French pronunciation: [vøv kliko pɔ̃saʁdɛ̃]) is both a champagne house in Reims, France, and a brand of premium champagne. Founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot-Muiron, Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a favored drink of haute bourgeoisie and nobility throughout Europe. The 1811 comet vintage of Veuve Clicquot is theorized to have been the first truly "modern" Champagne due to the advancements in the méthode champenoise which Veuve Clicquot pioneered through the technique of remuage.^[1][2]

History

Portrait of Madame Clicquot and her great-granddaughter Anne de Rochechouart-Mortemart

In 1772, Philippe Clicquot-Muiron established the original enterprise which in time became the house of Veuve Clicquot. His son, François Clicquot, married Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin in 1798 and died in 1805, leaving his widow (veuve in French) in control of a company variously involved in banking, wool trading, and Champagne production. Under Madame Clicquot's guidance the firm focused entirely on the latter, to great success.^[3]

During the Napoleonic Wars, Madame Clicquot made strides in establishing her wine in royal courts throughout Europe, notably that of Imperial Russia. By the time she died in 1866 Veuve Clicquot had become both a substantial Champagne house and a respected brand. Easily recognised by its distinctive bright yellow labels, the wine holds a royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Since 1987 the Veuve Clicquot company has been part of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group of luxury brands, and today owns a controlling interest in New Zealand's Cloudy Bay Vineyards.

Modernisation of production

Bottles of Veuve Clicquot ranging from "piccolo" (0.188 L) to "Balthazar" (12 L)

Madame Clicquot is credited with a great breakthrough in champagne handling that made mass production of the wine possible. In the early 19th century, with the assistance of her cellar master, Antoine de Müller, Clicquot invented the riddling rack that made the crucial process of dégorgement both more efficient and economic.^[4] Clicquot's advance involved systematically collecting the spent yeast and sediments left from the wine's secondary fermentation in the bottle's neck by using a specialised rack.

Composed much like a wooden desk with circular holes, the rack allowed a bottle of wine to be stuck sur point or upside down. Every day a cellar assistant would gently shake and twist (remuage) the bottle to encourage wine solids to settle to the bottom. When this was completed. the cork was carefully removed, the sediments ejected, and a small replacement dose of sweetened wine added.^[5]

Oldest bottle

In July 2008 an unopened bottle of Veuve Clicquot was discovered inside a sideboard in Torosay Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland. The 1893 bottle was in mint condition, having been kept in the dark, and was the oldest bottle known to exist. It is now on display at the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin visitor centre in Reims and is regarded as priceless.^[6]

In July 2010, a group of Finnish divers found 168 bottles from the 1830s aboard a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Åland Islands.^[7][8][9] The bottles were initially claimed to have been produced between 1782 and 1788. They were sent back to France for analysis. Shortly after this, the bottles were traced to a now-defunct champagne house Juglar. In November 2010, it was reported that the wreck indeed included Veuve Clicquot bottles as well.^[10][11] Veuve Clicquot stated that experts checking branding of the corks "were able to identify with absolute certainty" that three of the bottles were theirs. The other bottles examined were attributed to Juglar.^[11]

On 17 November, the local government of the Åland Islands announced that most of the bottles are to be auctioned off.^[12]

In January 2011, further info about the Åland bottles was released. 95 of them were identified as Juglar, 46 as Veuve Clicquot and at least four as Heidsieck.^[13]

See also

• Louis Bohne, sales agent for Veuve Clicquot
• Mireille Guiliano, former spokeperson, co-founder and CEO of Clicquot, Inc. in the US.

References

1. ^ G. Harding "A Wine Miscellany" pp 45–47, Clarkson Potter Publishing, New York 2005 ISBN 0307346358
2. ^ H. Johnson Vintage: The Story of Wine pg 337 Simon & Schuster 1989 ISBN 0671687026
3. ^ Don and Petie Kladstrup, Champagne: How the World's Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times (New York: William Morrow, 2005), p. 77. ISBN 0060737921.
4. ^ Don and Petie Kladstrup, Champagne, p. 78.
5. ^ Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson, The World Atlas of Wine, 5th ed. (London: Mitchell Beazley, 2001), pg 79. ISBN 1840003324.
6. ^ "'Priceless' champagne discovered". BBC News. 28 July 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7528691.stm. Retrieved 17 July 2010. 
7. ^ The World's oldest champagne – Official web site of the Åland islands, Finland
8. ^ "Treasure bubbles to the surface". The Australian (News Limited). 18 July 2010. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/treasure-bubbles-to-the-surface/story-e6frg6so-1225893652279. Retrieved 18 July 2010. 
9. ^ "'World's oldest champagne' found on Baltic seabed". BBC News. 17 July 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10673322. Retrieved 17 July 2010. 
10. ^ Lechmere, Adam, Decanter.com (17 November 2010). Champagne still 'fresh' after nearly two centuries in Baltic
11. ^ ^{a b} "Veuve Clicquot: Shipwrecked champagne was ours". Yahoo! News. 17 November 2010. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101117/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_finland_ancient_champagne;_ylt=AroQnMBGNes2yu19nHLsFmes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFlM2VubTliBHBvcwM4NARzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX2J1c2luZXNzBHNsawN2ZXV2ZWNsaWNxdW8-. Retrieved 17 November 2010. 
12. ^ Auction of the World's oldest champagne – Press release of Aland, Finland
13. ^ "Ahvenanmaan samppanjahylystä löytyi uusi juomalaatu". Helsingin Sanomat. 17 January 2011. http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Ahvenanmaan+samppanjahylyst%C3%A4+l%C3%B6ytyi+uusi+juomalaatu/1135263111322. Retrieved 17 January 2011. 

External links

• Champagne Veuve Clicquot
• Video of the oldest bottles being recovered BBC News