Buy Veuve Clicquot Champagne
A brilliant woman, she boldly succeeded in the business world, becoming in just a few years "the great lady of Champagne". Guided by her innate sense of innovation and a perpetual quest for perfection, she invented the riddling table, and made possible the first rosé blend champagne. Maison Veuve Clicquot bears as its uncompromising requirement the motto: "Just one level of quality, the very best".
buy veuve clicquot champagne
Despite the desirable quality of these first few vintages, Madame Clicquot faced significant political and economic challenges in her early years at the head of the business. When the Russian tsar placed an embargo on French wines, she instructed Bohne to package the champagne bottles into coffee barrels. As soon as Napoleon was sent into exile, she swiftly chartered a Dutch ship to convey a huge order of bottles to a major Russian port on the Baltic coast. It arrived in time to celebrate the end of hostilities and was sold immediately. At that moment, Veuve Clicquot Champagne became a symbol of celebration among the Russians. A shrewd pioneer of brand positioning, Madame Clicquot also supplied her champagne to the Congress of Vienna, which convened in 1815 to determine the new boundaries of Europe, as well as to the parties that followed.
Estate-owned vineyards account for roughly 20% of the total fruit used to produce the champagnes of Veuve Clicquot. The rest comes from 400 carefully selected and trusted winegrowers, most of whom have been partnered with the House for several generations.
At Veuve Clicquot, the grapes are harvested by hand into short bins with a capacity of less than 50kg to prevent the delicate fruit from being crushed on its way to the winery. The fruit is pressed in whole bunches at one of the six Veuve Clicquot pressing centers. The grapes are divided by variety and plot and vinified separately in stainless steel vats with the alcoholic fermentation taking eight to ten days. Then, malolactic fermentation is carried out to soften the acidity of the wines. These roughly 700-800 base wine samples are tested and ranked regularly by the winemaking team, led by Cellar Master Didier Mariotti. Each year, the Tasting Committee chooses the blend from roughly 50 different crus, including reserve wines. The decision is also made whether or not to produce a vintage champagne in a given year.
The Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label is the signature non-vintage brut champagne of the House, produced from roughly 30-45% reserve wines from 50 to 60 different crus. The blend is dominated by Pinot Noir, which gives it a certain structure, while Chardonnay lends it elegance and Meunier a touch of roundness. After a minimum of 3 years spent aging in the cellar, the Veuve Cliquot Brut Yellow Label offers the perfect combination of strength and silkiness, with rich yellow and white fruit aromas, along with vanilla and brioche notes on the nose. This cuvee serves as the ideal introduction to the signature style of the House.
The very first blended Rosé Champagne, created in 1818, the Veuve Clicquot Rosé Champagne is based on the signature blend of the Brut Yellow Label but with 12% still red wine blended into the white wines for a touch of fruitiness. The House produces a non-vintage Demi-Sec cuvée with a dosage of 45 grams per liter. This slightly sweet champagne offer rich ripe fruits, tarte Tatin and caramel aromas.
The distinctive, 90+ rated, Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut has been in production since 1877. It is distinguished by the dominance of Pinot Noir in its blend, which gives strength, complexity and elegance to the champagne.
Veuve Clicquot Champagne is produced in Reims. The Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne house was established in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot-Muiron. Veuve Clicquot Brut is a leader among luxury champagne brands, and is instantly identified by its distinct yellow label. Pinot Noir dominates in the blend for the Brut giving the wine solid structure and racy, crisp fruit flavors. Imported by Moet Hennessy USA, Inc. Product of France.
The Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut is an amazing champagne that is simply put, elegant. It has a creamy note to it and it consists of flavors that include ground ginger, Gala apple, white pepper and kumquat. The Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut has remarkable flavor, beautiful notes that have a great finish and you will find extremely pleasing to your palate. It pairs well with a variety of cheeses, sushi, fried chicken, caviar and lox.
Philippe Clicquot was a textile merchant, a banker and an owner of vineyards in the Champagne country.[14][15] In 1772, he established a wine business[16][17][15] He quickly decided to bring his champagne wines to foreign palates[16] and soon expanded his clientele.[16] His annual shipments varied between 4,000 bottles a year to 6-7,000 bottles in a good year.[16] However, he kept the primary business focus on textiles.
After his marriage, François Clicquot was officially made his father's partner, and in July, the company name was changed to "Clicquot-Muiron et Fils".[16] Sales increased from 8,000 bottles a year in 1796 to 60,000 in 1804.[15] Little by little, all other activities unrelated to champagne industry were abandoned.[16]
After various trips through Europe, Louis Bohne came back to Reims in March 1803 with a book full of orders from the largest merchants and most important individual buyers.[16] In the summer of 1804, the Clicquot champagne business first began to grow.[16]
Both Barbe-Nicole and Philippe were devastated by François' death. Philippe Clicquot announced his intention of liquidating the company.[11] The young widow (veuve in French) however decided to take over her husband's business, becoming one of the first business women in the early 1800s to run an international business[3] in a world dominated by men.[17][18][10]
When Louis Bohne came back to Reims from St.Petersburg, one month after François Clicquot's funeral, 110,000 bottles of champagne had been shipped during the course of 1805, nearly double the preceding year, thanks to his business trips.[16] The Clicquot champagne business was promising.
Against all expectations and considerable opposition, the widow Clicquot wanted to take over her husband's business.[19][14] She went to her father-in-law with a proposal[11] and convinced him to let her manage the business[15] Philippe agreed to her proposal under one condition: Barbe-Nicole would go through an apprenticeship, after which she would be able to run the business herself, if she could prove that she was capable.[11] Barbe-Nicole Clicquot flouted every convention to become the first woman to take over a champagne house[10] and the first female champagne producer.[19] She entered into an apprenticeship with the winemaker Alexandre Fourneaux, and tried to save the wine business and make it grow.[11]
Barbe-Nicole exported the vast majority of her champagne out of France.[11] Unfortunately, she was facing naval blockades that kept her from sending her wine abroad. Furthermore, Czar Alexander I banned French products.[16]
Facing bankruptcy, Barbe-Nicole took a business gamble: she decided to send her champagne to Russia, when peace returned ahead of her competitors. While the war's naval blockades paralyzed commercial shipping, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne secretly planned to sneak a boat through the blockade to Russia.[11]
Russians used to love the kind of champagne she was making: a very sweet champagne that contained about double the amount of sugar in today's sweet dessert wines.[11] She knew that European courts would celebrate the defeat of Napoleon as soon as his wars ended.[11] After Napoleon Bonaparte had been sent into exile on Elba, both British and Russians toasted his defeat.[15][6]
With the French monarchy restored, Madame Clicquot and Louis Bohne put the plan they had been preparing for five years into execution. In 1814, as the blockades fell away, the company chartered a Dutch cargo ship, the "Zes Gebroeders", en route to Königsberg,[6] to deliver 10,550 bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne to the Russian market,[15][6] taking advantage of the general chaos, while their competitors still believed such a move to be impossible. The boat left Le Havre on 6 June 1814.[15] Meanwhile, Russia had lifted the ban on importing French products. The whole shipment was quickly sold. A few weeks later, another ship left Rouen laden with 12,780 bottles of champagne destined for St. Petersburg, which were sold out as soon as they arrived.[15] When the champagne reached St.Petersburg, Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, Czar Alexander I's brother, declared that Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin champagne would be the only kind he would drink.[11] Word of his preference spread throughout the Russian court.[11]
Champagne also became a vehicle for celebrating events.[6] Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a preferred drink of high society. Champagne became an essential ingredient for festivities in European courts, and then amongst the bourgeoisie. Champagne then began turning up, in cabarets and restaurants.[15]
Sales of Veuve Clicquot champagne in Russia continued to progress. Madame Clicquot decided to establish herself in other markets, such as United Kingdom. Edouard Werlé, who joined the company,[15] started to make a whole series of trips through Central Europe. From 1841 on, when Edouard Werlé officially became head of the company,[16] annual sales never dropped below 300,000 bottles. In 1850, it sold 400,000 bottles.[15]
Edouard and his son Alfred ran the business in the following years developing it further: they acquired new vineyards and in 1877 began utilizing a yellow label for the wines, an unusual color for champagne at the time.[17] They registered the label under the trademark "Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin" Yellow Label.[17] 041b061a72