CHAMPAGNE WIDOWS by Rebecca Rosenberg

CHAMPAGNE WIDOWS: Veuve Clicquot, Grande Dame of Champagne, is the first in a series about real-life widows in France (1800-1950) who made champagne a worldwide phenomenon. Veuve Clicquot, Grande Dame of Champagne Champagne, France, 1800. Twenty-year-old Barbe-Nicole has inherited Le Nez (an uncanny sense of smell that makes her picky, persnickety, and particularly perceptive) from her greatgrandfather, a renowned champagne maker. Her parents see Le Nez as a curse that must be hidden and try to marry her off to an unsuspecting suitor. But Barbe-Nicole is haunted by her Grandmere’s dying wish for her to use Le Nez to make great champagne. When she learns her childhood sweetheart, Francois Clicquot, wants to start a winery, she rejects her parents’ suitors and marries Francois despite his mental illness. Barbe-Nicole (Veuve Clicquot, Widow Clicquot) must now learn to use Le Nez to overcome Francois’ suicide, the difficulties of starting a winery, and the Napoleon Codes preventing women from owning a business. All this while Barbe-Nicole’s father forges a military uniform contract with Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who wages six wars against the European monarchs, crippling her ability to sell her champagne. Using Le Nez, she beats the impossible hardships of Napoleon’s wars, often challenging Napoleon himself. When Veuve Clicquot falls in love with her sales manager, Louis Bohne, who asks her to marry, she is forced to choose between losing her winery to her husband, as dictated by Napoleon Code or losing

Louis. In the ultimate showdown, Veuve Clicquot conquers Russia with her champagne, just as Napoleon loses his war with Russia, killing five million soldiers in the Napoleonic wars. Barbe- Nicole and Napoleon have used their gifts opposite ways with vastly different results. Barbe-Nicole learns to use Le Nez to support her family and community of ‘Champagne Widows’ created by the Napoleonic wars.

"For anyone who loves champagne, a must-read novel about Veuve Clicquot." —Judithe Little, author of The Chanel Sisters

Rebecca Rosenberg fell in love with méthode champenoise in Sonoma, California, where she lives. Over decades of delicious research, she has explored the wine caves and cellars of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and California. When Rebecca discovered the real-life Champagne Widows, she knew she'd dedicate years to telling the stories of these remarkable women.

Rebecca is a champagne historian, tour guide, and champagne cocktail creator for Breathless Wines. Her other award-winning novels include The Secret Life of Mrs. London and Gold Digger, the Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor.