The Widow Clicquot (23 page)

wearing blood-red ribbons around their necks
: Mary Sophia Hely-Hutchinson,
Fashion in Paris: The Various Phases of Feminine Taste and Aesthetics from the Revolution to the End of the 19th Century
(London: W. Heinemann, 1901); Aileen Ribiero,
Fashion in the French Revolution
(New York: Holmes & Meier, 1988).

“coiffure of white tulle and celestial blue ribbons”
: Manuscript,
Memoirs of Madame Maldan
, quoted in Crestin-Billet, p. 15.

bureaucrat conceded was a poetic “ardent” blond
: Etienne, p. 22.

white dresses were more than just a popular—and populist—fashion
: See Ribiero; on the national dress code and the French Revolution, see James H. Johnson, “Versailles, Meet Les Halles: Masks, Carnival, and the French Revolution,”
Representations
73 (Winter 2001): 89–116.

Madame Tallien
: Thérésa,
née
Cabarrús (1773–1835), Parisian socialite during the Revolution and political opponent of Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794), the man credited with leading the deadly purges during the Terror (1794); Madame Tallien later married into the noble Riquet family of Chimay (Belgium), becoming the Princess de Caraman-Chimay in 1805. Louis de Chevigné encountered her son during exile in Chimay during the Franco-Prussian War (p. 231). See Arsène Houssaye,
Notre-Dame de Thermidor: Histoire de Madame Tallien
(Paris: H. Plon, 1866).

the Catholic rites were criminal
: The state authority of the Catholic Church in France is widely considered by historians as one of the causes of the Revolution, and by 1793 practice of the religion was formally banned, soon to be replaced, first, by the Cult of Reason and, later, by the Cult of the Supreme Being. Antireligious sentiment was at its height during 1794, although clergy were particular targets of revolutionary violence throughout the period. These strictures were relaxed during 1795, after the execution of Robespierre, but Catholicism remained formally outlawed and legally punishable until 1801. See Claude Geffré and Jean-Pierre Jossua,
1789: The French Revolution and the Church
(Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1989); and Nigel Aston,
The End of an Élite: The French Bishops and the Coming of the Revolution, 1786–1790
(Clarendon: Oxford University Press, 1992).

in a damp cellar
: Chimay, p. 3; Gmeline, p. 15.

bridal bouquet of roses and orange blossoms
: Pierre-Louis Menon and Roger Lecotté,
Au village de France, les traditions, les travaux, les fêtes: La vie traditionnelle des paysans
(Entrépilly: Christian de Bartillat, 1993), pp. 43, 101, 138.

married Citizen Ponsardin on June 10, 1798
: Diane de Maynard,
La descendance de Madame Clicquot-Ponsardin, preface de la Vicomtesse de Luppé
(Mayenne: Joseph Floch, 1975), n.p.

Barbe-Nicole’s great-grandfather had invented the industry
: Robert Tomes,
The Champagne Country
(New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1867), pp. 94–95: “The Viscount of Brimont [Jean-François Irénee Ruinart de Brimont] is known to champagne drinkers by his family name of Ruinart. He is a descendant—a collateral one, it is supposed—of one Dom [Thierry] Ruinart [1657–1709], who was of the convivial and holy brotherhood of the monastery of Hautvillers…the wine manufactory of which he is proprietor is one of the most ancient in Champagne…. His wine was in former times in considerable vogue, and his bottles may now occasionally be seen.”
The Ruinart champagne company was originally established by Nicolas Ruinart (1697–1769) immediately after the royal decree of May 25, 1728, which granted the merchants of Reims the exclusive right to transport the local sparkling wines in bottles. After his death in 1769, Marie-Barbe-Nicole Ruinart’s brother Claude ran the family wine trade. He was married to the daughter of another champagne house, Hélène Héloïse Françoise Tronsson, of Champagne Tronsson. After the death of Claude, his son Irénee (1770–1850) inherited the business; also the mayor of Reims for a period and a local recipient of the French Legion of Honor, Irénee was a close associate of Nicolas Ponsardin. According to company promotional materials, Champagne Ruinart was producing on the order of forty thousand bottles of champagne a year by 1769, making it the major champagne house of the late eighteenth century, along with Champagne Moët; by the early nineteenth century, it was a contracting business. Marie-Barbe-Nicole Le Tertre,
née
Ruinart was born c. 1733.
For scholarly accounts of the Ruinart family and the business climate of eighteenth-century wine brokers in the Champagne, see Patrick de Gmeline,
Ruinart, la plus ancienne maison de champagne, de 1729 à nos jours
(Paris: Stock, 1994); Charles Henri Jadart,
Dom Thierry Ruinart…Notice suivie de documents inédits sur sa famille, sa vie, ses œuvres, ses relations avec D. Mabillon
(Paris: n.p., 1886).

gray cobblestone street known as rue de la Vache
: Etienne identifies this as present-day rue de la Nanteuil; p. 10, n. 9.

he played the violin beautifully
: Detail from Crestin-Billet, p. 36.

François’s spelling, however, was dismal
: Bertrand de Vogüé,
L’Éducation d’un jeune bourgeois de Reims sous la Révolution
(n.p.: Marsh, 1942); also Etienne, pp. 10–17.

begged his son to fight melancholy
: Etienne, pp. 11–19.

an appointment to the medical corps
: Etienne, pp. 11–14.

“retired from active service”
: Charles Tovey,
Champagne: Its History, Properties, and Manufactures
(London: James Camden Hotten, 1870), p. 50; also in Fiévet,
Madame Veuve Clicquot
, who writes, with questionable accuracy, “an officer retired from active service on account of his injuries,” p. 55.

system of the
échelle des crus: Tom Stevenson,
Champagne and Sparkling Wine Guide
(San Francisco: Wine Appreciation Guild, 2002), p. 204; see also the official website of the Syndicat Professionnel des Courtiers en Vins de Champagne for details on the early-twentieth-century history of regulation and ratings in the wine industry: www.spcvc.com/historique.php?go=3&art=2.

Robert Joseph explains that
: Robert Joseph,
French Wine Revised and Updated
(London: Dorling Kindersley, 2005).

“the nature of the
terroir
contributes greatly”
: Denis Diderot,
Encyclopédie; ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
(Neufchastel [
sic
]: Samuel Faulche, 1765), vol. 17, p. 292.

properties in the heart of the French wine country
: Champagne Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, tasting-room promotional materials.

Traveling in an open carriage
: Detail in various sources, including Gmeline, p. 16; Chimay, p. 3.

in the Champagne the roses come tumbling out of the sides of the vineyards
: David G. James, “Opportunities for Reducing Pesticide Use in Management of Leafhoppers, Cutworms, and Thrips,” conference proceedings of the Washington State Grape Society (2002), available at www.grapesociety.org. James writes: “Roses have been cultivated in and around vineyards in Europe and Australia for many years and for many reasons…as an indicator for powdery mildew,” p. 3.

the Cattier family
: Interview, January 19, 2007, Philippe Bienvenue; also Champagne Cattier promotional materials.

small commission of around 10 percent
: Brennan, p. 269.

CHAPTER THREE: CHAMPAGNE DREAMS

Clicquot-Muiron were shipping about 15,000 bottles
: Brennan, p. 269.

champagne is ranked from driest to sweetest
: Stevenson, p. 200; see also Syndicat Professionnel des Courtiers en Vins de Champagne, available at www.spcvc.com/memento.php?go=6.

The Russians liked it sweeter still
: Tomes, p. 68; also Henry Vizetelly,
Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines, Collected During Numerous Visits to the Champagne and Other Viticultural Districts of France and the Principal Remaining Wine-Producing Countries of Europe
(London: Ward, Lock, & Co., 1879), pp. 192, 198, 214.

Château d’Yquem
: Promotional fact sheets, 2001 vintage, available at www.yquem.fr; promotional fact sheets, Grgich Hills, available at www.grgich.com.

“a faint redish colour like Champane wine”
:
OED
, “champagne”; according to the same entry, in 1903 “champagne” was “a beautiful shade of pale straw, with a suggestion of pink about it.”

“Oiel du Pedrix”:
Anonymous [S. J.],
The Vineyard, Being a Treatise Shewing the Nature and Method of Planting, Manuring, Cultivating, and Dressing Vines
(London: W. Mears, 1727), p. 46.

brandy often tinted the wine a light golden brown
: Phillips, p. 243.

“Gray wine is made with black grapes”
: Charles Joseph Ligne, Prince de,
Mémoires et mélanges historiques et littéraires
(Paris: A. Dupont, 1827–1829).

Under current French law, champagne is still made
: Liger-Belair, p. 19. Complete guidelines for winemakers in the Champagne AOC are provided by the governing professional bodies, including the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, available at www.champagne.fr, and the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, available at www.inao.gouv.fr. For a scholarly account of the history of champagne regulation, see Kolleen Guy,
When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making of National Identity
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).

nobody put labels on their bottles
: André Simon,
History of the Champagne Trade in England
(London: Wyman & Sons, 1905): “During the second half of the eighteenth century…there were no labels of any shape or form and the consumer never inquired about the name of the man who had made the wine,” p. 59.

half the pressure champagne makers use today
: Liger-Belair, p. 15; champagne today is generally bottled at up to 6 atmospheres (14.7 pounds per square inch) of pressure. Because the internal pressure is reduced when the temperature is lowered, bubbles last longer in chilled champagne.

appearance of vines in the area around Reims to the fourth century AD
: Roger Dion,
Histoire de la vigne et du vin en France
(Paris: Flammarion, 1959).

finding a way to get rid of the bubbles
: Various sources, including Liger-Belair, p. 9; see also René Gandilhon,
Naissance du Champagne: Dom Pierre Pérignon
(Paris: Hachette, 1968); François Bonal,
Dom Pérignon: Vérité et légende
(Langres: D. Guéniot, 1995).

extends across the English Channel to Great Britain
: On recent growth in the British sparkling wine industry, see Mark Phillips, “Global Warming Spawns Wine in U.K.,” CBS Evening News, September 25, 2006, available at www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/25/eveningnews/main2037991.shtml; and Valerie Elliott, “English Wine Sparkles as Global Climate Warms Up,”
The Times
, September 11, 2006, available at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article635009.ece. Historical evidence suggests that Great Britain once had a flourishing wine trade; see D. Williams, “A Consideration of the Sub-Fossil Remains of ‘Vitis vinifera’ L. as Evidence of Viticulture in Roman Britain,”
Britannia
8 (1977): 327–334; and William Hughes,
The Compleat Vineyards, or, A Most Excellent Way for the Planting of Wines Not Onely
[sic]
According to the German and French Way, but Also Long Experimented in England
(London: W. Crooke, 1665).

wine known as
piquette: Classified in the “Working Paper,” European Commission Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development: Wine, Common Market Organisation, 2006, which bans its export; see http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets/wine/studies/rep_cmo2006_en.pdf, p. 21.

the devil’s wine
: Kladstrup, p. 46.

Hautvillers didn’t even start bottling their wines
: Brennan, p. 251.

wealthy British consumers
: An argument first put forward by Tom Stevenson,
World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine
(San Francisco: Wine Appreciation Guild, 1999).

Great Britain was producing far stronger and less expensive glass
: See Ward Lloyd,
A Wine Lover’s Glasses: The A. C. Hubbard Jr. Collection of Antique English Drinking Glasses and Bottles
(Yeovil, UK: Richard Dennis, 2000); Roger Dumbrell,
Understanding Antique Wine Bottles
(San Francisco: Antique Collector’s Club, 1983).

Charles de Saint-Évremond
: Born Charles de Marguetel de Saint-Denis, Seigneur de Saint-Évremond (1610–1703); an edition of his writings on gourmet pleasures has been edited by Claude Taittinger,
Saint-Évremond, ou, Le bon usage des plaisirs
(Paris: Perrin, 1990). On Saint-Évremond’s time in Great Britain, see Walter Daniels,
Saint-Évremond en Angleterre
(Versailles: L. Luce, 1907).