Pushkin.

Tim Harford here with a bonus episode of Cautionary Tales.

I have got an incredible story for you today about a pioneering businesswoman who disrupted the champagne industry,

and in so doing, changed it forever.

This episode is sponsored by Chase for Business,

and I'm joined by Ben Walter, who is the CEO of Chase for Business,

and the host of his own rather brilliant podcast, The Unshakeables.

Ben, welcome to Cautionary Tales.

Tim, thank you for having me.

It's great to be here. Well, it's great to have you. So, Ben, what comes to your mind when I say the word champagne? You know, obviously celebrations. I suppose the other thing that comes to

mind for me is quality. Don't cheap out. Because for any of us who've ever been drunk on cheap

champagne, you know that that's a one-time affair and you never do that again. I wouldn't know

anything about that, I'm sure. So these associations of luxury and possibly of excess come to mind.

What if I told you that all of this comes down to a single, rather remarkable 19th century

businesswoman? I didn't know that. On our podcast, we've had a number of incredible female

entrepreneurs who've achieved quite a lot, but hearing that it happened in the 19th century is a whole

different followax. She is quite a character. Barb Nicole Clico-Pontsardin. She essentially created champagne as a category, as we know it today.

And she also took a struggling family-run champagne house and she turned it into a global empire.

And I should say it was partly about the way she marketed things.

She drove behavioral change around sparkling wine.

I'm trying to picture what you have in your head.

This is the 19th century women.

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