Which Champagne producer is associated with the invention of the riddling rack?

Veuve Clicquot is traditionally associated with the invention of the riddling rack, or pupitre.

Riddling gradually moves yeast sediment from the side of a bottle toward its neck after the second fermentation. The bottles are placed in angled holes and regularly turned and tilted. This concentrates the sediment so it can later be removed during disgorgement, leaving the wine clear.

The improvement is credited to Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin and her cellar team in the early nineteenth century. Before this development, sparkling wines could remain cloudy because removing the sediment cleanly was difficult. The riddling rack made large-scale production of clear, bottle-fermented sparkling wine more practical.

Modern producers may use automated gyropalettes instead of traditional manual riddling, but the underlying objective remains the same. The process should not be confused with disgorgement: riddling collects the sediment, while disgorgement expels it from the bottle.