The Champagne Widows ; This Week Britons Will Quaff 10 Million Bottles of Champers. But As You Raise a Toast, Spare a Thought for the Three Grieving Women Without Whom We May Never Have Tasted Bubbly at All ...

Summary

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FOR SEASONED champagne drinkers, there is no time when bubbly, fizz, shampoo, champers, Bolly call it what you will is inappropriate. The ultra-stylish Coco Chanel, France's greatest couturier, declared that she drank it on only two occasions when she was in love and when she wasn't.

To Casanova, it was 'essential for seduction'.

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The Champagne Widows ; This Week Britons Will Quaff 10 Million Bottles of Champers. But As You Raise a Toast, Spare a Thought for the Three Grieving Women Without Whom We May Never Have Tasted Bubbly at All ...

Madame de Pompadour, exotic mistress of Louis XV, loved it because it was 'the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it'.

And Madame Bollinger, creator of one of the best-known brands, said: 'I drink champagne when I am happy and when I am sad.

Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it when I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it unless I am thirsty!' This is a sentiment with which millions of people in this country would agree. We are champion consumers of champagne. In Britain this year we will, between us, drink upwards of 40 million...

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