I was asked to pick up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne for a thank-you gift. I was accompanied by a 5-year-old and she asked what it meant. I explained that it was “the widow named Clicquot” and that she had taken over a business previously run by her husband, but that she proved to be a far more able manager than he. Then I said “I wonder if that guy was the first empty suit?”
What do readers think? Who besides Francois Clicquot is a reasonable candidate for the honor?
It’s not fair to say that Francois was an empty suit. He assumed control of the family business in 1801 and died in 1805 of typhoid (at age 30). It’s impossible to say what he would have accomplished had he lived for another 60+ years as his wife did. There were rumors that he committed suicide because business was going badly but typhoid appears more likely. And the widow had an enormous lucky break – she received an endorsement from the Czar of Russia, so soon every Russian with money wanted what the Czar was having (incredibly sweet champagne – in each liter there was 300 gms (a cup and a half) of sugar. Even in the Soviet period, when they were cut off from the West, the Russian continued drinking incredibly sweet domestic champagne in the style that the widow introduced.