Monsieur Cliquot was an 18th Century successful champagne producer who met with a premature death. At that time his widow, the widow Clicquot or, in french, La Veuve Clicquot, took over. She expanded the business, shipping her champs to czars of Russia, but more importantly made breakthroughs in champagne production. Up until then champagne actually was cloudy, due to sediment that developed in the bottles from the secondary fermentation that champagne undergoes in the bottles. People just dealt with it and usually served it in etched or multifaceted champagne glasses, so you woudn't see it. (huh, right?) La Veuve Clicquot drilled holes in the storage work table so that the bottles were now at 45 degree angles and then would have them rotated by 15 degrees each day. This created a solid layer of sediment around the cork which could be uncorked, removed and recorked, leaving behind the crystal clear bubbly we know and love. She is revered by the French to this day on the level with Joan of arc and Madame Curie.
Who knew, right? I mean, I have always loved the stuff, but she is like a saint over there! Good for her. Now drinking Veuve is really a toast to feminism and inguinuity!
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