She was a pioneer in many ways, the Veuve that Veuve Clicquot champagne is named for, veuve, the French word for widow. Barbe Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin was born in 1777 and was widowed at the age of 27 yet she took her own destiny into her own hands, rare for a woman of the time, and she dared to take over the champagne house founded by her father-in-law in 1772, today’s Veuve Clicquot. They call her the Grande Dame of Champagne country and she is regarded as having invented the first pink champagne made from assembling together different grape varieties when she decided to blend her red wines from Bouzy with her white wines. Prior to that pink champagne was made by a dyeing process which consisted in macerating red grapes in elder flower water then combining the liquid with the white grapes. And that blended rosé or pink champagne that Barbe Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin created is made to this day for the house of Veuve Clicquot has just brought out its La Grande Dame Rosé 2015. 

The Grande Dame had identified the parcel of the vineyard in Bouzy known as the Clos Colin as the best place for growing Pinot Noir grapes. Recent studies have shown that because of its exposure to intense sun and the make-up of its soil which includes sand and silex rather than the chalk typical of Champagne country, it produces incredible high quality grapes and is an exceptional terroir or good earth to grow red wine grapes, producing full bodied and structured wines which impart both strength and finesse to La Grande Dame Rosé champagne. 

The secret of the blending has been handed down from Veuve Clicquot’s cellar master through the generations for the past 200 years and currently it is Didier Marotti who is perpetuating the tradition. La Grande Dame Rosé 2015 has been carefully aged for seven years and can be kept potentially for 15 years. And in a first this year, the house has brought in an artist to create the gift box that the champagne is presented in. Italian artist Paola Paronetto, a master of creating colors, has chosen the color Pesca Chiaro for the gift box, a delightful pink that complements the delightful pink beverage within. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. https://www.veuveclicquot.com/en-us/home