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The next time I crack open a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, I will be toasting the Widow Clicquot for her strength, resilience and creativity. The movie Widow Clicquot has inspired me about an amazing woman who defied the wine making hierarchy to develop the champagne we know and love today.
Haley Bennett plays Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, who marries François Clicquot (Tom Sturridge) in an arranged marriage organised by both their fathers’ who were in the textile business. Francois is different to the other wine makers in the Champagne region of France because of his love of the vines, which included singing to them.
When Francois died at the age of 30, Barbe-Nicole was left the widow and owner of the vineyard. In the early 1800s, the male hierarchy was unhappy with her continuing to run the business. However, with Louis Bohne (Sam Riley) as her wine distributor, they defied the rules during the Napoleonic Wars to sell champagne to Russia.
Widow Clicquot, originally released in 2023 at the Toronto International Film Festival, has arrived in Perth. It is a beautifully filmed movie, capturing the senses of 1800s Champagne region and the processes of making the wine. Sometimes I could almost smell the champagne aroma.
Like the process of making wine, the movie is gentle and deliberate. The story tells how the widow turned business around and developed many of the champagne making processes used today. We watch the lives of Barbe-Nicole, Francois and Louis evolve in a series of flashbacks, easily followed as she wears mourning black in the present and white in the past.
Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin was the first woman to take over a champagne house and the first female producer of champagne. We can thank her for riddling what transforms cloudy wine into clear champagne and rose champagne.
Santé to that.
Widow Cliquot is in cinemas now.