Internationalized the champagne market

Clicquot’s husband François died in 1805, leaving his widow (veuve in French) in control of a company variously involved in banking, wool trading, and champagne production. Under Madame Clicquot's control, the house focused entirely on champagne, and thrived. Under her management and her skill with wine, the company developed early champagne using a novel technique called riddling. Prior to this invention the second fermentation of wine to create champagne resulted in a very sweet wine with large bubbles and sediment from the remains of the yeast used in the fermentation in the bottle (which creates the bubbles in the wine) resulting in a cloudy wine. After this second fermentation was complete the bottles were held upside down. The bottles were regularly turned so that the dead yeast would all gather near the cork (riddling). Once the settling was complete, the wine near the cork was removed, followed by an addition of wine to refill the bottle.

riddling table

Category:
Food Sciences

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
N/A

Co-Inventor:
none