Champagne Anyone?
Champagne. Just the word brings visions of special celebrations and fizzy bubbles. But behind it is a rich history that we love stepping into with two wonderful books about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, the “First Widow of Champagne."
One book is Champagne Widows, the novel by Rebecca Rosenberg, and on the non-fiction side, The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J. Mazzeo. Both books take us to France during a time of strife with the
Napoleonic wars, social upheaval, and Barbe-Nicole with her inherited vineyard. The issue is that, as a woman in 1800s France, she has no control over the property unless she becomes a widow. Almost like something from a romance novel, her childhood sweetheart reappears in her life, owning a family vineyard of his own, and they soon marry. Six years later she is widowed with a young child in a society not ready for a twenty-seven-year-old to run her own business. Through it all, she has her father’s support (if not always her in-laws), and history now knows her as an
innovator in champagne making. While certainly not written as companion books, we love how these two titles complement each other and pull both lovers of fiction and non-fiction into the fascinating history of this fashionable drink.