Innovative, a risk-taker, and utterly relentless in her will to overcome all obstacles, one woman not only matched but beat her competitors in the male-dominated champagne industry to establish the brand with the inimitable mango-orange label. Madame Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin (1777 to 1866), better known to the world by the name of her champagne, Veuve Clicquot ('Widow Clicquot'), was one of the greatest entrepreneurs not just of her own but of any age.

The invention of sparkling champagne wine is credited to Dom Pérignon (1638 to 1715), a monk and cellar master at the Benedictine Abbey of Hautvillers near Reims in France. Dom Pérignon was an expert at blending wine, the mysterious art that the unique taste of champagne wine depends on. The lengthy production process of champagne makes it expensive, but there has never been any shortage of customers to pay a premium for its fine bubbles and taste. However, it was not until the 19th century that champagne makers began to use clever marketing tricks to create an aura of luxury around their wine that differentiated it from other sparkling wines. None was more market-savvy than the 'Veuve Clicquot'.

The Clicquot champagne house was founded in 1772, a little later than some of the other great houses like Ruinart (1729) and Moët (1743). Clicquot had some catching up to do to establish its name at the forefront of the myriad of champagne producers. Thanks to the trade fairs and cloth barons of the town of Champagne, the region's sparkling wine had already won international admirers, but much more could be done yet to make champagne the go-to drink associated so closely today with style, celebration, and, above all, winning.

In 1805, Madame Clicquot-Ponsardin (née Ponsardin), the daughter of a Reims textile manufacturer, lost her husband, François, to typhoid fever when she was just 27. It was her father-in-law, Philippe Clicquot Muiron, who had founded the Clicquot champagne house. Now, Barbe-Nicole decided to take over the business herself, even if, to add to her personal grief, 1805 was a decidedly bad year for the grape harvest. Madame Clicquot did have the help of her late husband's assistant, Monsieur Bohn, and others, but it was the widow who was about to change the world of champagne.

Madame Clicquot benefitted from society's more tolerant attitude to widowed women and the rights set out for them in the Napoleonic Code. A widow could run her own business in a way a married or single woman simply could not. Clicquot did not just run the business, though; she greatly expanded it, literally from the vine roots up. One of her shrewdest moves was to buy ten new plots of vineyards, and they were ten of the best. She favoured plots with the Pinot Noir grape, her personal favourite, which was not then the grape of choice for most champagne makers.

Madame Clicquot took a keen interest in every part of production, as shown by her invention of the riddling table. This device was a wooden kitchen top turned at an angle and with holes made in it. With this device, the bottles could be placed neck first and at a suitable angle so that sediment in the wine could gradually settle to the top of the bottle (where it was later removed). The process, known as remuage, involves turning the bottle just a little every now and then. The end result of the lengthy remuage process is a much more appealing, clearer wine. All champagne producers and other winemakers adopted this new method as soon as they found out the secret.

One particular problem of reaching new drinkers around the world was the difficulty in getting the wine to them in the condition it was meant to be drunk. Consequently, Madame Clicquot insisted that her glass suppliers provide her with stronger, taller, and more elegant bottles. Other innovations included creating the first vintage champagne (using grapes from one year only) and the first blended rosé champagne.

Even when the wine was bottled and ready to drink, Madame Clicquot was thinking of more innovations that would ensure her particular nectar dominated the market. She frequently worked from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and as an unrepentant perfectionist, she personally supervised every single aspect of production and sales. At the time, the only identifying feature of a champagne house on a bottle was the colour of the wax covering of the cork or the cork itself, with Clicquot corks using a logo with an anchor, a traditional symbol of hope. Madame Clicquot had the idea to add labels to her finer bottles, which reassured clients they were drinking the genuine article.

By the 1810s, despite all the effort put in over the last five or six years, the business was sinking. Capital for expansion remained a problem. Madame Clicquot sold her family jewels, which included a huge diamond and several necklaces of rose pearls. The champagne market in general was in serious decline as Europe wallowed in the turmoil of war and revolution. But Madame Clicquot was a risk-taker. In 1814, the Napoleonic Wars were finally coming to an end. Peace had still not been formally declared, and there was still an Allied blockade preventing goods from reaching Russia. Ignoring the ban on exports, Madame Clicquot took a huge gamble and sent not one but two shipments of her fabulous 1811 vintage, around 23,000 bottles, to Russia. The risk was clear: if the contraband cargo was discovered by the authorities, Clicquot's finest champagne would be lost and with it the company's future. The wine arrived safely, and Madame Clicquot's audacity ensured she cornered one of the most important markets in the world. Wine merchants fought over themselves to pay ridiculous prices for Russia's first champagne shipment in years. Even better, for someone who prided themselves on making the finest wine possible, customers were enchanted with the taste of the sweet 1811 vintage that packed a powerful alcoholic punch. Veuve Clicquot champagne even became the favourite of Tsar Alexander I, who declared he would never drink another brand.

The triumph in Russia ensured Madame Clicquot became known as 'la grande dame de la Champagne', the great lady of champagne. And she used her wealth well. Her daughter was given a château as a wedding present. Madame Clicquot supported charity efforts for workers in times of poor harvests, she financed the restoration of the Roman triumphal arch in Reims, and founded a home for orphans. She also paid for a public drinking fountain for Épernay, and joked that at least now her rivals could wash their empty bottles properly.

Madame Clicquot died in her home, Château Boursault, in July 1866 at the age of 88. In one of her final letters, the 'grande dame' encouraged her granddaughter to live her life as her grandmother had: always be inventive, bold, and audacious.

Today, the business is still going strong, of course, its yellow-orange label as distinctive as ever, and each one carrying a reproduction of Madame Clicquot's signature. Millions of bottles of Veuve Clicquot are produced each year; the most expensive are the finest vintage champagnes, which carry the 'Grand Dame' label, a lasting tribute to the woman who revolutionised champagne. These particular vintages are made only from grapes grown in the vineyards Madame Clicquot herself bought at the very beginning of her champagne success story. Veuve Clicquot maintains its strong connections with women business owners through its Bold Woman Award, an annual prize for outstanding female entrepreneurs.