Veuve Clicquot

Most champagne houses talk about tradition. But ‘Veuve Clicquot’ created them. The riddling table, on which virtually every bottle of champagne produced today is riddled; the region’s first vintage wine; and the first blended rosé, all three innovations were devised by a single 27-year-old widow in the early 19th century. The yellow label appeared later, but the house’s reputation had already been established long before that.

History

The house was founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot, a banker and textile merchant from Reims, who also owned vineyards in Ambon and Bouzy. In 1798, the business passed to his son François, who married Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin that same year. François died suddenly in October 1805, leaving his young wife, who was 27, with a three-year-old daughter and a wine business in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. Contrary to the expectations of almost everyone around her, Barbe-Nicole persuaded her father-in-law to let her run the company.

Over the course of a decade, she transformed the world of champagne. In 1810, she produced what is recognised as the first vintage wine to go on sale in the region. In 1816, she invented the bottle-racking table, a simple device with slanted slots into which bottles could be inserted and rotated by hand, gradually pushing the sediment towards the neck for removal, which for the first time made it possible to produce crystal-clear wine. Two years later, she created the first rosé wine by blending red and white wines, a method still used by most Champagne houses today. In 1814, she took a calculated risk by loading 10,550 bottles onto a ship bound for Russia immediately after the trade blockade was lifted, arriving there ahead of all her competitors. The Russian market made ‘Veuve Clicquot’ a fortune.

She died in 1866 at the age of 88, leaving behind the motto: ‘Only one quality , the very best’. The yellow label was registered as a trademark in 1877. In 1986, the house was acquired by the LVMH group. Today, the team of winemakers is led by chief winemaker Didier Mariotti.

Vineyards

The house owns 390 hectares of vineyards, located in 12 of the 17 villages in Champagne with Grand Cru status, and in 20 of the 44 villages with Premier Cru status. In total, 86 per cent of Veuve Clicquot’s vineyards are classified as ‘Grand Cru’ or ‘Premier Cru’. The grapes are pressed at six pressing facilities across the region, where each variety, fraction and cru is processed separately to preserve the individual character of each plot.

Terroir

The vineyards are situated on the chalk subsoil characteristic of the Champagne region, which regulates the water balance and imparts the wines with their signature mineral freshness. The cool climate slows down ripening and preserves natural acidity, whilst the hillside location allows for maximum use of sunshine hours during the short growing season.

Grapes

The vineyards are planted with 47 per cent Chardonnay, 36 per cent Pinot Noir and 17 per cent Pinot Meunier. Although Chardonnay predominates in the vineyards, it is Pinot Noir that dominates the house style and blends, reflecting Madame Clicquot’s original preference for the structure and body of this variety.

Winemaking

The grapes are harvested by hand into small containers weighing less than 50 kilograms to avoid crushing the berries. At the pressing facilities, only the ‘cuvée’, the first and highest-quality pressings, is used, whilst subsequent pressings are discarded.

After fermentation in stainless-steel tanks at a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius, each of the approximately 700–800 samples of base wine is tasted and assessed by a committee of eight oenologists led by the chief winemaker.

The final blend for the ‘Yellow Label’ is composed of around 50 different crus, with the addition of between 25 and 50 per cent reserve wines aged for between one and 30 years. Since 2018, malolactic fermentation has been suspended in some batches to preserve the freshness of wines from warmer vintages.

A small proportion of the wines for the vintage and ‘Cave Privée’ ranges are fermented and aged in large oak barrels. The house’s 482 chalk cellars near Reims, carved out of former quarries, are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Wines

The flagship wine is ‘Brut Yellow Label’, a non-vintage blend of 55% Pinot Noir, 15% Pinot Meunier and 30% Chardonnay, aged for at least three years before release.

La Grande Dame, a prestigious cuvée launched in 1972 to mark the house’s bicentenar, is crafted from approximately 90 per cent Pinot Noir sourced from historic Grand Cru vineyards.

Both wines are available in a rosé version.

The range also includes Vintage, Brut Rosé and Rich, a sweeter style intended to be served over ice, continuing the house’s tradition of exploring new markets in unconventional ways.