Moet & Chandon
Moet & Chandon's caves
Veuve Clicquot
Coco Clicquot
Responsible for turning the world of wine sur pont, Madame Clicquot, Queen of Champagne is the unsung face of hedonistic luxuriance, the sparkling answer to Chanel. With the obvious connotations of her infamous surname put aside, Madame Clicquot remains fairly anonymous. In fact, she achieved something entirely astounding. Widowed in 1805 at the age of 27, she took the reins of her husbands burgeoning business, and transformed it into a worldwide phenomenon. It remains a little known fact, that every drop of champagne poured tentatively into each opulent flute is directly accountable to Madame Clicquot. More than just continue her husband’s business, she metamorphosed the entire brand.
Veuve, which translates directly into French as widow, is her hallmark, and you just may have heard of Veuve Clicquot. Madame Clicquot, having learnt a little about winemaking from her husband, revolutionised the production champagne following his death. En fait, she invented an entirely new process, the details of which are entirely painstakingly meticulous. If anything is certain, it is that she understood the properties of yeast far better than you or I. Science aside, it worked. Her exceptional taste and savvy business sense sent Veuve Clicquot into overdrive, creating wines of ‘only one quality, the finest’. Having acquired the best crus – that’s a really good vineyard to us – the house of Clicquot reins supreme from Reims, the Grande Dame de la Champagne, Madame Clicquot at the helm, presiding over a nation of bubbling elegance. Her story sits at the core of Clicquot house, inextricably interwoven with golden effervescence of the brand; she is the founding mother of resplendence, lacing her net of luxury across the globe.
More than the champagne the champagne itself, Madame Clicquot’s empire provides a vivre dans le luxe. Her mansions across France are the home to the essence of luxury itself, the floors having been danced across by the champagne soaked elite of the world. The company now belongs to the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey group of luxury brands, lying lavishly in the lap of wealth.
For a nineteenth century woman, the achievements of Madame Clicquot are entirely astounding. It is here that I draw the comparison with Chanel. Madame Clicquot, like Coco, is the brand itself. She remains to this day the cornerstone of Veuve Clicquot the sole reason for the triumph of the brand, through a heady combination of grit and elegance. However, unlike Coco before Chanel, there was no champagne before Clicquot.
Ben Schofield
Inside the cave
VIP Room
Veuve Clicquot HQ (Reims, Chamapgne, France)
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