In early 19th-century France, the owner of a textile business in Reims who had a small sideline in wine-making, Phillipe Clicquot, married his son François (Tom Sturridge) to Barbe Nicole Ponsardin (Haley Bennett), the daughter of a neighbouring industrialist.

This arranged marriage grew into love, even as François showed himself to be a volatile man prone to flights of fancy who not long into the marriage killed himself.

His legacy was to interest his wife in the wine side of the business. The Champagne district was famous then for its still whites, and while sparkling wine was being made, champagne as we know it was not.

Soon after Barbe Nicole inherited the Clicquot estate, the Moët family were sniffing around, hoping to make the land and vines theirs. She had other ideas.

Barbe Nicole studied wine with her husband and came from a wine-making family; when he died, she persuaded her father-in-law to back her new venture.

A cinematic portrayal of what the real Veuve (Widow) Clicquot achieved, set among a sea of rolling vineyards, could hardly be more French, yet here it is part of the British Film Festival with British actors speaking English and directed by Thomas Napper, who worked on Atonement (2007) and directed Jawbone (2017), about a former boxing champion.

Film marketing being what it is, the decision was probably sound, and – with the exception of the entire French nation – who would quibble?

Barbe Nicole was an astute businesswoman and a thoughtful wine maker. Photo: Vertical

It is an incredible story. Barbe Nicole was an astute businesswoman, as well as a thoughtful wine maker who took an audacious gamble in evading blockades from the Napoleonic wars by shipping her champagne to Amsterdam and then to Russia, where she had a buyer.

Obstacles abound, as we can expect, but she rolls up her sleeves and gets her skirts muddy. Her male backers are increasingly sceptical, possibly jealous, and a shipment is lost after it spoils in the heat. She sells off her valuables and starts again, her sights once more on Russia.

Haley Bennett’s background in Hillbilly Elegy (2020) and Girl on a Train (2016) did nothing to set her up for this, but she delivers an attractive, soft-focus performance about the trials of a woman whose gifts set her apart from her male competitors.

She is shown staring earnestly into vials of champagne, swilling and tasting to get the proportions just right.

It seems remiss not to have devoted more screen time to understanding what the real Widow Clicquot did, which was to use her palate to guide her through a pioneering process that allowed the yeast sediment to be tipped off, leaving a clean sparkling wine with finely beaded, flavour-enhancing bubbles.

The process, called riddling, was such a heavily guarded secret her workers were sworn not to reveal it.

In a particularly romantic touch, Barbe Nicole’s first great batch was based on the miracle French vintage of 1811, which she batched as the “comet” wine, marking the year in which the Great Comet passed through.

However, the storytelling leans towards the superficial as Barbe Nicole becomes the lover of the rakish merchant who markets her wine, Louis Bohne (Sam Riley), yet turns down an offer that would have cost her the vineyard.

The Widow Clicquot created an empire based on a style of wine so exemplary that a century later the area gained exclusive rights to sell under the regional name of Champagne. It’s all very French.

Widow Clicquot is part of the British Film Festival, which continues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Byron Bay and Ballarat until December 8.