Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour and style, with tribute paid everywhere from Lord Byron to Casablanca. But who was this young widow - the 'Veuve' - Clicquot, whose champagne sparkled at the courts of France, Britain and Russia, and how did she rise to celebrity and fortune? The Widow Clicquot brings to life the woman behind the label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin (1777-1866), a daring and determined entrepreneur, who during the tumultuous years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars became one of the richest women of her time - singlehandedly founding a champagne house that remains a distinguished name. Newly widowed, she assumed the reins of the fledgling wine business she and her husband started, steering it through huge political and financial reversals to succeed as a single woman in a man's world. Visitors flocked to see this cultural icon and taste the vintages she imbued with magic. Her winemaking inventions and experiments changed the history of champagne. As much a fascinating journey through the process of making this temperamental wine as a biography of a uniquely tempered woman, The Widow Clicquot is a read to savor.