Champagne belongs to women, from the ground and the grape, to the fermentation, bottling and drinking. Marie Antoinette noted that champagne made women beautiful and Empress Josephine enjoyed her Ruinart, although her supply was cut when she refused to pay her bills after her divorce. Odette Pol-Roger, a BFF with the late Sir Winston Churchill, was enamored with Odette’s elegance and beauty as well as her champagne. He even named one of his race horses after her and left instructions that Odette was to dine with him when he was in Paris. When Churchill died the Pol-Rogers labels were bordered in black and a selection was named in his honor, Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill.
Great champagne houses have been built by women. Madame Clicquot took over her husband’s failing winery, turned it into a multimillion-dollar operation and became the first international business woman in the world. Mme Clicquot invented the remuage system (the gradual tilting and turning of the bottles in which the wine ferments so that the sediment slips into the neck, from where it can be efficiently be removed) that continues to be used.
To celebrate women and Champagne, Blaine Ashley, New York Champagne Week Founder, brought together a group of distinguished women in the Champagne industry. Read the full article at wines.travel.
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