MADAME POMMERY, Creator of Brut Champagne
"A tour-de-force of historical fiction, Madame Pommery is a deeply fascinating work that blends true-to-life details with artfully crafted elements."
~ Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize
Madame Pommery is a story of a woman's indomitable spirit in the face of insurmountable odds. Set in Champagne, France in 1860, Madame Pommery is a forty-year-old widow and etiquette teacher whose husband has passed away. Now she must find a way to support her family. With no experience, she decides to make champagne, but no champagne makers will teach her their craft. Undeterred, Madame Pommery begins to secretly excavate champagne caves under the Reims city dump and faces numerous obstacles to achieve her dream. From the Franco-Prussian war that conscripts her son and crew to the Prussian General Frederick Franz occupying her home, Madame Pommery perseveres. She even must choose between her champagne dreams and a marriage proposal from her former lover, a Scottish Baron. Inspired by a true story, Madame Pommery is a heroic tale of a woman's strength and determination to create a champagne legacy. If you enjoyed the novel Sarah's Key, you will enjoy Madame Pommery.
CHAMPAGNE WIDOWS, the First Woman of Champagne
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EDITORS CHOICE,
HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
This engrossing historical novel by Rebecca Rosenberg follows Veuve Clicquot, a strong-minded woman determined to defy the Napoleon Code and become a master champagne maker. In 1800 France, twenty-year-old Barbe-Nicole inherits her great-grandfather's uncanny sense of smell and uses it to make great champagne, despite the Code prohibiting women from owning a business. When tragedy strikes and she becomes a Veuve (widow), she must grapple with a domineering partner, the complexities of making champagne, and the aftermath of six Napoleon wars. When she falls in love with her sales manager, Louis Bohne, she must choose between losing her winery to her husband to obey the Napoleon Code, or losing Louis. In the ultimate showdown, Veuve Clicquot defies Napoleon himself, risking prison and even death. If you enjoyed books like 'The Widow of the South' by Robert Hicks or 'The Paris Seamstress' by Natasha Lester, you'll love 'Veuve Clicquot'.
Welcome, Rebecca!
Please make yourself at home. Would you prefer a cup of coffee, or perhaps something more…fortifying? A delightful glass of champagne, for example?
Champagne for breakfast? How you spoil me! Don’t mind if I do. Perhaps a fruity Veuve Clicquot, or perhaps a dry Pommery, please.
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Before we begin, please introduce yourself.
Absolutely! Hello everyone! I am Rebecca Rosenberg, champagne geek extraordinaire, lavender farmer and writer of historical novels about glorious women of our past! I live in Sonoma wine country and look out on the vineyards and our lavender gardens. I am a champagne historian and event host for Breathless Wines.
Could you tell us a little about your series and what inspired you to write about the Champagne Widows?
As I mentioned, I am a champagne geek and have been traveling to the Champagne region for a couple decades. When I discovered the “Champagne Widows”, women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that battled pandemics, mental illness, laws against women owning businesses, fifteen years of war, and Napoleon himself to forge their champagne empires, I could not wait to get started telling their stories!
When researching the Champagne Widows’ lives, did you come upon any unexpected surprises?
Astonishing surprises! Veuve Clicquot had an abnormally acute sense of smell that made her able to blend the most delicious champagnes. And that her husband suffered a heartbreaking mental illness.
Madame Pommery was widowed at 40 and needed to support her children, and she had no work experience. What were the twists and turns that enabled her to become one of the leading champagnes in the world? Especially when a Prussian general occupied her home and winery for two years!
What is it about champagne and its history that fascinates you so?
Champagne is twice as difficult and twice as long to make as wine. What is it about champagne that makes producers so dedicated to the difficult art of making it? And how did these women, who were not even legally allowed to own businesses, choose to make it.
Champagne has a mystery and an exquisiteness about it that draws people to do their very best effort to create the delicious sparkling drink.
Do you have any short anecdotes to share, from your research or your life involving wines and champagne?
A very crazy thing happened on the Madame Pommery novel. I had been working with the Pommery historian back and forth for a couple years. I finished the entire novel and it was at the publisher. THEN, I led a group on a Champagne Tour, and we visited Henry Vasnier’s (Madame Pommery’s Manager) gorgeous Art Deco home, and their historian told me that Henry Vasnier and Madame Pommery carried on an affair for twenty years! He was 15 years younger, and went from an apprentice to the General Manager. I had to rewrite the entire book to include the budding romance of Henry Vasnier! I loved that addition to her love life!
What an intriguing discovery! I'm not surprised you just had to include that affair.
What – or who – is your next writing project about?
Next, I will be writing the entirely different story about the third Champagne Widow, Lily Bollinger in 1950-70. She brought the glamour of champagne to the world stage by including it in James Bond books and movies, launching her champagnes in Venice with Peggy Guggeheim, and in New York with Diana Vreeland, editor in chief of Vogue Magazine.
I have a framed quote from Lily Bollinger that hangs in my office, which sums up how I feel about champagne!
And lastly, would you care to share your favourite brand of champagne?
I keep a ready supply of award-winning BREATHLESS SPARKLING WINE which is made in methode champenoise, the extremely labor-intensive double fermentation process. It is delicious! https://www.breathlesswines.com/
Thank you for your time, Rebecca.
Always a delight to talk about my favorite CHAMPAGNE WIDOWS! I invite people to join my monthly newsletter for champagne tidbits and news of upcoming novels! www.rebecca-rosenberg.com
This series is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Champagne Widows: The first woman of Champagne, Veuve Cliquot
Madame Pommery, Creator of Brut Champagne
Series Links:
Amazon UK • Amazon US • Amazon AU • Amazon CA
Rebecca Rosenberg
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