In the wave of true stories leading series and films, even more so, biopics associated with successful brands have grown over the years, blurring the lines between branded content and original content even more. That certainly seems to be the case with the new film Widow Clicquot, which opens in theaters on July 19, 2024. That’s right, it’s the film about the creator of the most popular champagne in the world, Veuve Clicquot.

Starring Haley Bennett and Tom Sturridge, the production will rescue the incredible story of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, who created her family’s brand and helped it become the giant it is today.

The pioneering businesswoman at the beginning of the 19th century was born in 1777 and married François Clicquot (Sturridge), whose work, inherited from the family, was the wine trade. After François died in 1805 (this is no spoiler!), Barbe-Nicole – aged just 27 – took over the business, something unusual at the time when women had very limited rights and opportunities.

Super curious because those turbulent years before the French Revolution had already marked the childhood of Barbe-Nicole, close to her father, whose political sagacity spared the family from the worst years that marked France. A rarity for a rich bourgeoisie family.

Both her family and that of her future husband were linked to textiles, and François’ marriage to Barbe-Nicole was good for business. The couple really understood each other and fell in love, but François was more interested in growing the Clicquot family’s small wine business than taking care of the textile company and this created problems at home. After all, after the Revolution, the French were now facing the Napoleonic Wars and wine did not seem to be a profitable venture. The couple disagreed.

In 1805, François and Barbe-Nicole were on the verge of agreeing to Philippe Clicquot’s judgment because the champagne business had stagnated. That was when François suddenly fell ill with a fever and in just 12 days he was dead. There is controversy over this death, some suggesting a desperate initiative by François, but it may have been typhoid fever. Everyone connected to him was devastated and decided to give up the winery, everyone except Barbe-Nicole, who invested even more.

Astute, Barbe-Nicole bet on the Russian market that she loved champagne. To stop the war, she smuggled most of her best wine from France to Amsterdam, where she awaited the declaration of peace and arrived in Russia before her competitors. Tsar Alexander I announced it was the only kind he would drink, a natural marketing effort that helped make the product beloved.

Even with high demand, Barbe-Nicole delivered quality products. Within a few years, she was leading a global empire, and by the time she died in 1866, Veuve Clicquot was exporting champagne around the world. An irony for a woman who has never traveled outside France. She never remarried (but they say she wasn’t exactly alone). Seeing how Thomas Napper’s film will retell this story. Toronto Film Festival critics liked it!

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