The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It | Paperback | Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour, style, and luxury. 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, a daring and determined entrepreneur who, newly widowed during the chaotic years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, assumed the reins of the fledgling wine business she and her husband started, steering it through huge political and financial reversals to become one of the richest women of her time.