The Widow Clicquot (25 page)

some unlucky people find that it gives them a pounding headache
: Medical scientists distinguish between a typically mild reaction to red wine known as “red wine headache,” or RWH, which is thought to result either from a histamine or prostaglandins response or from a reaction to tannins, and a sometimes much more serious and potentially fatal sulfite allergy. See, for example, A. T. Bakalinsky, “Sulfites, Wine and Health,” in
Wine in Context: Nutrition, Physiology, Policy: Proceedings of the Symposium on Wine and Health
, eds. Andrew L. Waterhouse and R. M. Rantz (Davis, Calif.: American Society for Enology and Viticulture, 1996); C. S. Stockley, “Histamine: The Culprit for Headaches?”
Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal
11 (1996): 42–44.

known as “powder number three”
: Godinot, p. 65.

the skill in French cooking of clarifying a consommé
:
The Professional Chef: The Culinary Institute of America
(New York: John Wiley & Son, 2002), pp. 300–303.

a good eye to track the sediment and an excellent thumb
: André Jullien,
Manuel du sommelier, ou Instruction practique sur la manière de soigner les vins
(Paris: Encyclopédie de Roret, 1836), p. 189.

chemical process called “autolysis”
: Carlo Zambonelli et al., “Effects of Lactic Acid Bacteria Autolysis on Sensorial Characteristics of Fermented Foods,”
Food Technology/Biotechnology
40, no. 4 (2002): 347–351.

fine champagne its characteristic rich, nutty flavors
: Stevenson, p. 9.

its northern location prevents the grapes from developing too many natural sugars
: Liger-Belair, p. 137.

without being overshadowed by foliage
: Hervé This,
Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor,
trans. M. B. Debevoise (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), p. 232.

ordering bottles could be maddening
: See
Champenoises: Ecomusée de la région de Fourmies Trélon
(Trélon: Atelier-Musée du Verre de Trélon, 2000), courtesy of the resource library, Champagne Moët et Chandon, which describes Barbe-Nicole’s problems with ordering bottles in consistent size and quality. Champagne production required specialized bottles, in form, color, resistance to pressure and acidity, and
embouchure
(bottle opening), and poor glassware was a significant obstacle to the development of the industry. By the 1820s, Barbe-Nicole was precise in the orders that she placed to her manufacturers, but the glassmakers “had serious technical difficulties and reticence about fabricating this model,” because she wanted functional, cylindrical, and aesthetically pleasing bottles “before their time” (p. 80). She disliked, in particular, the appearance of pear-shaped bottles, writing: “This form is without elegance” (p. 152; letter of March 1856). By the 1830s, Barbe-Nicole was also beginning to regard bottle shape as a marketing device, and she insisted that her suppliers not sell bottles made to her “form” to her competitors (p. 151; letter of October 1831, to Haumont). As a result of her persistence and buying power (she purchased approximately sixty-five million bottles over sixty-five years in business), the glassmaking industry in wine developed rapidly during the mid-nineteenth century, and the company archives, with over seven hundred letters on the topic, reveal a great deal about her “role in the elaboration of the champagne bottle” as we know it today (p. 148).

Until then, wine bottles were blown by hand
: Dumbrell, p. 16

Perhaps she was what wine experts today sometimes call a “supertaster”
: Jamie Goode,
The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass
(Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005), p. 170.

Sulfur gives a cool summer’s glass of
sauvignon blanc: This, p. 236.

white wines are aged “on the lees”
: Ibid., p. 250.

CHAPTER SIX: THE CHAMPAGNE WIDOW

Sales in France were now a mere 7 percent of their sales
: Etienne, p. 269.

from Prussia and Austria or not at all
: During the period, control of central and eastern Europe was divided largely between two powers, the Austrian or Hapsburg Empire and the independent kingdom of Prussia. Although territorial boundaries shifted, especially during the Napoleonic period, Prussia generally included parts of the modern states of Germany and Poland, territories along the Baltic, and several former Soviet states. The Austrian Empire included much of modern Austria, Hungary, Romania, and numerous Adriatic states, including the northeast territories in modern Italy. The Ottoman Empire, although in decline during the early nineteenth century, controlled the large extent of territories to the south, including modern Turkey, some of the contested Adriatic states, most of the areas around the Black Sea, and significant parts of the Near East, Middle East, and northern Africa. For a more complete account of early-nineteenth-century political geography, see Christopher Clark,
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947
(New York: Penguin, 2007); and Andrew Wheatcroft,
The Hapsburgs
(New York: Penguin, 1997).

“The excess of luxury [here] means that the broker”
: Quoted in Etienne, p. 262.

“The commerce in this place is excessively rotten”
: Alain de Vogüé,
Une maison de vins
, p. 5.

“Foreign companies are seen as nanny goats”
: Quoted in Etienne, p. 263.

Russia…would account for an astonishing third of their sales
: Ibid., pp. 269, 95.

black crust of infection, and everywhere, he ached
: William Buchan,
Domestic Medicine, or, A Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases, by Regimen and Simple Medicines: With an Appendix, Containing a Dispensatory for the Use of Private Practioners
(Philadelphia: Richard Folwell, 1797), ch. 10.

she could only feel relief to hear that François was dead
: Fiévet,
Madame Veuve Clicquot
, p. 59.

Question Agitated in the School of the Faculty of Medicine at Reims: Jean-Claude Navier,
Question Agitated in the School of the Faculty of Medicine at Reims…on the Use of Sparkling Champagne Against Putrid Fevers and Other Maladies of the Same Nature
(Reims: Cazin, 1778).

“It contains,” Dr. Navier wrote
: Ibid., p. x.

Dr. Navier’s brother-in-law was none other than Jean-Rémy Moët
: Jacqueline Roubinet and Gilbert and Marie-Thérèse Nolleau,
Jean-Rémy Moët: A Master of Champagne and a Talented Politician
, trans. Carolyn Hart (Paris: Stock, 1996), p. 38.

experiments with wine cures
: See, for example, Jacques Moreau,
De la connoissance
[sic]
des fièvres continues, pourprées et pestilentes
(Paris: Laurent D’Houry, 1689); and William Guthrie,
Remarks upon Claret, Burgundy, and Champagne, Their Dietetic and Restorative Uses, Etc.
(London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1889).

“Champagne, if pure, is one of the safest wines that can be drunk”
: Charles Tovey,
Champagne: Its History, Properties, and Manufactures
(London: James Camden Hotten, 1870), p. 105; reiterated in Charles Tovey,
Wine Revelations
(London: Whitaker, 1880), p. 38.

“Nothing…can ever assuage the deep sorrow I feel”
: Quoted in Crestin-Billet, p. 69.

the slain revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat
: Jacques-Louis David, “The Death of Marat” (
La mort de Marat
), ca. 1794, oil on canvas, Reims, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Reims, gift of Paul David, 1879 (879.8); Marat was murdered by Charlotte Corday during the Revolution.

“The malignant fever is generally preceded by a remarkable weakness”
: Buchan, ch. 10.

“Do not abandon yourself to a sort of melancholy gloom”
: Quoted in Etienne, p. 12.

“While big with this magnificent project”
: Tomes, p. 66.

“profound depression”
: Alain de Vogüé,
Une maison de vins,
p. vi.

“the
bourgeoisie
of yesteryear who had tended the [company] books had…metamorphosed
”: Smith, p. 46.

CHAPTER SEVEN: PARTNER AND APPRENTICE

tune of nearly half a million dollars
: Etienne, pp. 179–181; using a one-to-twenty ratio.

Under the laws of the Napoleonic Code
: According to statute, a “wife [could not] plead in her own name, without the authority of her husband, even though she should be a public trader,”
Code Napoléon
, ch. 6, sect. 4.

She and Alexandre had each invested 80,000 francs
: Etienne, pp. 178–181. Currency in nineteenth-century France was a complex system; for the sake of clarity, all references are to francs, although many continued to refer to values in “livres” or even “napoleons.” The livre—abolished in 1795 by the revolutionary government—had near parity with the franc during the period.

thirty years later an unskilled laborer
: Contemporary figures from L. and D. Noack, “Cost of Living in Daumier’s Times,” available at www.daumier.org/index.php?id=176; see also Gilles Postel-Vinay and Jean-Marc Robin, “Eating, Working, and Saving in an Unstable World: Consumers in Nineteenth-Century France,”
Economic History Review
45, no. 3 (August 1992): 494–513; British comparative data is included in Liza Picard,
Dr. Johnson’s London
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).

Philippe brought to the table another 30,000 francs
: Etienne, p. 180.

“Renouncing the commerce in textiles”
: Alain de Vogüé,
Une maison de vins,
p. 5

approximately 75 percent of the wines sold by this new company
: Etienne, pp. 39–41.

“Sea commerce is totally ruined”
: Alain de Vogüé,
Une maison de vins,
p. 8.

ideally be stored in cool darkness at around 55°F
: This, p. 254.

5 percent of the wine sold to customers is “corked”
: Goode, p. 145.

and they would sacrifice taste in order to achieve it
: Etienne, p. 74.

Likely, the culprit was problems that had begun during the cask stage
: See C. R. Davis et al., “Practical Implications of Malolactic Fermentation: A Review,”
American Journal of Enology and Viticulture
36, no. 4 (1985): 290–301; and Émile Peynaud,
Knowing and Making Wine
, trans. Alan F. G. Spenser (Chichester, UK: Wiley Interscience, 1984).

“I prayed to the Good Lord”
: Quoted in Etienne, p. 116.

“I pray to the Good Lord day and night to send some corsair to take them”
: Alain de Vogüé,
Une maison de vins,
p. 8.

“This country has lacked even money for the worst vintage this past year”
: Ibid., p. 10.

“What a blessing for us”
: Ibid., p. 16.

Avoid “talking politics,” he pleaded
: Ibid., p. 20.

“In the name of God, don’t ever talk of politics”
: Ibid., p. 28.

The empress had given birth to a daughter in the autumn:
Reputed to be the son of her lover, Adam Czartoryski, a Polish prince, the child was born Maria Alexandrovna and lived just fourteen months (1799–1800); Henri Troyat,
Alexander of Russia: Napoleon’s Conqueror
(New York: Grove Press, 2003), pp. 43–46.

Today, the region is limited to 323 classified villages
: According to the Office of Champagne’s Cultivation Regulations (the United States representative of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, or CVIC), grapes grown within the “champagne” appellation are limited to strictly controlled vineyards, and growers must agree to abide by restrictions governing everything from the distance between vines to the extent and timing of vine pruning, the maximum yield per hectare, and the dates of harvest; details available at www.champagne.us/index.cfm?pageName=appellation_cultivationregs.

Even the descriptive term
champenoise,
or “champagne style”
: The use of the label
méthode champenoise
on wines produced outside the champagne AOC was outlawed in the European Union in 1994 (
SMW Winzersekt GmbH v. Land Rheinland-Pfalz Ase C-306/93 [1994], European Court Reports 1994
, p. I-05555). The legal status of the term in the United States is the subject of complex litigation, but the use of the term is increasingly controversial. The history of American “champagne” is documented in William Heintz et al.,
A History of Champagne in California and the United States: With Particular Emphasis on How the Word “Champagne” Has Been Used by Journalists and Writers and the Understanding of Its Definition by the American Wine Consumer
, unpublished archival collection, 1984, Saint Helena Public Library, Napa, California.