Home › When the Cork Comes Out › Bottle 1

Bottle 1 — A Little Every Day, Clearly

ShortsPublished 2026-09-26 · 62 sec

The bottle

Wine note

Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label (Carte Jaune) NV

Father's rating 4.5 ★★★★½

The story in this episode

The first bottle opened at Bar Suda is Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label, the Champagne a 27-year-old widow put her name on. Veuve is French for 'widow'. When François Clicquot died suddenly at thirty in 1805, Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, under pressure to wind up the company, put her own name on it instead, and in 1814 she got 10,550 bottles into Russia ahead of every competitor and won over the court at St Petersburg. In 1816 she devised the riddling table: bottles set at an angle and turned a little each day so the sediment collects in the neck. That is how cloudy Champagne became clear. The yellow label followed in 1876 to mark dry Champagne for the British market, and in 1877 the colour itself was trademarked.

Dialogue

1. Haru

   Three months after Dad passed, Mum's bakery is opening its doors again. The bottle I picked to celebrate: Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label.

2. Haru

   Veuve… that means 'widow', right?

3. Master Seo

   Right. It's the name of a 27-year-old widow.

4. Master Seo

   Reims, 1805. Everyone pushed her to close the company, and instead she put her own name on it.

5. Barbe-Nicole

   I will not sell. From now on, this house is 'Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin'.

6. Haru

   The 'widow' everyone called her… she turned it into the sign over the door?

7. Master Seo

   In 1816 she set the bottles at an angle and turned them a little every day, until cloudy Champagne ran clear. Every house still does it.

8. Haru

   Turned a little every day until it runs clear… that's exactly what Mum's three months were like. For Mum, this one.

Terms

Veuve

French for 'widow': after her husband François died in 1805, 27-year-old Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin put her own name on the company, and it became Veuve Clicquot.

Riddling

Setting bottles at an angle and turning them a little each day so the sediment collects in the neck; Madame Clicquot devised the riddling table in 1816, and cloudy Champagne became clear.

Yellow Label

The yellow label appeared in 1876 to mark dry Champagne for the British market, and in 1877 the colour itself was registered as a trademark.

Cast

HaruMaster Seo