Who Was Dom Perignon And Veuve Clicquot? In the past, Old World winemakers struggled with bottles that would re-ferment when hot, creating unintentional bubbles and causing bottles to burst.
However, during the 17th century, French winemakers began to improve the process and developed various methods to produce sparkling wine.
However, sparkling wine production could not go further without the two distinguished people who contributed to improving champagne winemaking, Dom Perignon and Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin.
In a perfect world, everyone would have a glass of Champagne every evening.
– Willie Gluckstern
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Dom Perignon
Dom Pérignon was a French Benedictine monk. He was born in 1638 in the Champagne region of France. Pérignon studied in an abbey, then at a Jesuit college, and later ended up leading a monastery. He worked in the abbey wine cellar, which doubled its vineyard size.
But this remarkable monk is also credited with improving the méthode champenoise wine-production style.
At the time, re-fermentation in bottles was seen as a huge problem. When temperatures increased, yeasts would come back to life and create abundant CO2 in the bottles, causing the bottles to burst.
Pérignon was instrumental in studying how to avoid the explosions by warding off re-fermenting. He became an advocate for harvesting in excellent conditions, reintroducing the cork as a more effective bottle seal, small crops, and blending grapes before sending them to the press. He also popularized practicing winemaking methods using naturally occurring processes.
Initially, Dom Pérignon developed the monastery’s wine production to help it with its financial difficulties. However, his technical understanding of winemaking made his white wines to be sold in Paris and London.
Because of the rapid growth, he labeled his wines after his own name, making the champagnes be sold for twice price as much as other ones.
In 1937, Moët & Chandon bought the brand name Dom Pérignon. Today is the most highly prized champagne in the world as part of the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton empire.
Veuve Clicquot
Madame Clicquot Ponsardin, known as the “Grande Dame of Champagne” was the Widow of François Clicquot.
Born in 1777, Nicole grew up as the eldest daughter of one of the wealthy textile industry tycoons: Ponce Jean Nicolas Philippe.
She married François Clicquot, the son of another wealthy textile family.
Her new husband, François, always dreamt of entering the Champagne business, which became possible in the first months of marriage.
Nicole worked alongside her husband, learning winemaking and working in the vineyards.
But, where does the name “Veuve Clicquot” come from?
Veuve means “widow” in French. When François died due to Typhoid Fever in 1805 at just 30 years old, Nicole took over the company and became the “Widow Clicquot” or Veuve Clicquot.
Nicole handled everything from an international strategy to wine production.
She made noteworthy developments in marketing and technology innovation and was constantly working on the brand image of Champagne Veuve Clicquot to make it feel luxurious.
Madame Clicquot created an identity for Champagne outside of France, making it popular in Russia. She bottled the first recorded vintage Champagne in 1810.
Clicquot innovated the Remuage system – a technique that clears sparkling wine of cloudy yeast after fermentation. She made the first rosé Champagne with red wine when she blended red Pinot Noir with Champagne.
Thanks to Dom Perignon and Madame Clicquot’s contributions to winemaking improvement, we can today drink the most refined champagnes worldwide.
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