The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It

As a lover of all things wine, history and women accomplishing amazing feats, this book had it all. Some in our book club felt the book was a bit too technical and had a limited story line in the relationships of the characters. I believe the author worked hard to be factual. There is very little written about the Widow as far as her relationships, so the author did a good job of sharing the facts and touching on the rumors that surrounded Barb-Nicole and her family. This is a great story of a driven, talented, successful woman in the world of champagne. The bibliography contains many sources for those who may crave more.

An interesting story, very poorly told. This woman's life was clearly interesting, and she defied the norms of her day to do amazing things. I appreciated the historical context, but the author was (as she admits) working with limited source material and the book is full of speculation about what might have happened or what must have been happening. A little of that is fine, but here it went on for pages, and the speculations about her love life were totally unnecessary and added nothing. Left out is information that would have rounded out the story without requiring speculation, such as: How is champagne actually made? Where all all the referenced places (maps would have been useful!)? In addition, the book would have benefited from serious editing to remove repetitive material and reword the sections where the author inserts herself into the story.