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It’s been difficult to write a second post for the WoW series. I must have over three entries started and a list of fine wine women in mind, but I end up getting so involved in the researching of these women’s lives I can’t seem to sort out the nuggets on worth focusing. They are such truly amazing and fascinating women, of course.

Nevertheless, I have stumbled upon the story of a fine lady who inspired me simply because of her height. Although, the wine industry is seeing more and more women in the field and in the tanks, women of small stature are hard to find. At 5 feet “on a good hair day,” Stephanie Putnam¹ of Far Nienté in California can hold her own among the heavy weights in the wine industry.

Stephanie Putnam²

Stephanie stumbled into winemaking when her dream of working as an FBI agent was cut short due to her height. Thus, her studies at UC Davis led her into the lap of the infamous viticulture and enology program, where she studied wine making. After many dedicated years she’s now the winemaker of the renowned Californian winery Far Nienté.

She’s an inspiration to those of us half-pints who actually can’t even remember they’re short.

Hey, who you calling short?

WineGirl

¹ As featured in Women of the Vine by Deborah Brenner

² Image by WineX Magazine

For my first entry on the WoW – Women of Wine, I  have chosen my mentor to be the Madame Veuve Clicquot.

Madame Clicquot was born in 1777 Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin. She was married at 21 to François Clicquot whose businesses were involved in banking, wool trading, and Champagne. His untimely death six years after their marriage in 1805 left Barbe-Nicole une veuve, or a widow. Fortunately for the world of sparkling wine, Madame Clicquot successfully developed her husband’s Champagne business into the elite Champagne company that still bears her name today, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, and is presently owned by Moët-Hennessy a shareholder of WINE and CO.

Madame Veuve Clicquot

Veuve Clicquot has been around for centuries producing stunning wine for an elite few. Madame Veuve was a Champagne innovator, perfecting the traditional production method known as Méthode Champenoise. She is credited with designing the riddling rack, a procedure by which the sediment from secondary fermentation (the fermentation that gives Champagne its bubbles) is slowly encouraged over months of bottle turning into the neck of the bottle in order to create superior clarity of the Champagne.

By 1814 Madame Clicquot’s Champagne was known around the world. Veuve Clicquot is still recognized around the world bearing the legendary yellow label and named for La Grand Dame.

Brut Carte Jaune

Other examples of prestigious Veuve Clicquot Champagne include La Grande Dame Rosé Demi-Sec, and Domino Grande Dame.

Brut Rosé

Demi-Sec

Domino Grande Dame

And last and my personal favorite, Veuve Clicquot is known for some of the most elaborate keepers of fine Champagne including the magic boxes, light boxes and the rivetted box.

Elite Bottle

La Grande Dame Rose and Coffret

Ouvert Coffret

Globalight

Champagne Riva

These fine Champagnes and magic boxes can be found by Wine and Co..

We’ll conclude this first episode of Women of Wine about Madame Veuve Clicquot with a quote by Anonymous: “Here’s to Champagne, the drink divine, that makes us forget all our troubles; It’s made of a dollar’s worth of wine, and three dollars worth of bubbles.”

Cheers,
ChampagneGirl

For more quotes of Champagne click here.

Dare I (WineGirl, little ol’ me) start a blog topic about Women in Wine?

I shall, I will. But only because I have decided a mentor is what I need. And since I have no mentor currently, nor do I know of any potential mentors, I am on the prowl for a model mentor to help guide my ridiculous vision and shed light upon my unlit path.

Do I have mentor requirements? No. But yes, maybe, I suppose. I guess I want her to be female, i.e. the title. I almost want her to be deceased, if that’s not morbid; but that might require research into the indiscriminate past… a past in a library and not on the internet. Ooo… Anyway, I am open to one who may be more current, or alive. Per chance there is even someone out there who wants to mentor someone like me. Me, an overly ambitious, determined and ferociously independent entrepreneur. Someone with serious visions of the future and the gumption to rival an L.M. Montgomery character like Anne of Green Gables.

Who could this mentor be?

Anyone who has gumption knows what it is, and anyone who hasn’t can never know what it is. So there is no need of defining it.
- L.M. Montgomery