The book is poorly written. It struggles between being nonfiction since there is limited information. At the same time, the author appears to have a wealth of letters between the widow and her sales and that she skims over. The editor would have been wise to advise her to either make the book historical fiction or not to speculate so much in the book. ( )

Interesting story, only mediocre writing style (too little known so too many conjectures)

This book is particularly interesting if you love champagne and have visited the cellars in France. I was just a bit disappointed because a substantial amount of the story was extrapolated from shreds of information. I love to read Non-fiction books so that is my own issue. The author does bring the life of a remarkable woman to us and that has great value. ( )

I expected a biography; however, it became apparent early into the book that Mazzeo simply did not have near enough material to write one. Instead Matteo uses the arc of Clicquot's career to show the development of the champagne industry against the backdrop of enormous political and economic changes in nineteenth century Europe. Although Clicquot was unique in terms of being a female CEO, she was not that unique in terms of the particular industry she was in . I did learn some new facts about champagne, including the fact that it originally was very sweet, with about 300 grams of sugar per bottle - more than say sauternes. There is also a suggestion that champagne originally was invented by the British, Moreover it was the British preference for dryer wine that lead to the development of the brut which is the favored modern style. Sacrebleu! ( )

This is the story of probably the most famous female "CEO" (had such a title existed at the time) in history, and the product to which she gave her name. Widowed young, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin struggled to create what became one of the great champagne houses. How she did it is a fascinating story.

What sets this book apart from mere biographies is the way Mazzeo relates birth and growth of Veuve Clicquot to the political and social history of France and Europe. Barbe-Nicole was born to an ambitious bourgeois family in Reims a decade before the French Revolution. Her father threaded his way successfully through revolution and régime changes, and his daughter clearly inherited his ability to move with the tides of circumstance. The Napoléonic Wars, with their shifting alliances, made the shipment and sale of her product hazardous at best, but she persevered.

Mazzeo, rightly, I think, also points out that Mme. Clicquot-Ponsardin's timing was fortuitous. She was building her business right at the time when manufacture was transitioning from small, family-owned businesses to larger firms. As a result, women were transitioning from being active partners in these businesses to being the visible sign of success, but being relegated to the domestic and social scene. She was not too early to take advantage of the first change, nor so late that she was restricted by the second. In comparing Barbe-Nicole's life to that she desired and achieved) for her daughter and grand-daughter, Mazzeo teaches us something not only about the lives of these women, but of an entire class of women.