Churchill's Connections

Odette Pol-Roger

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1911-2000
French businesswoman

  1. Introduction
  2. Stories
  3. Biographical summary
  4. See also
  5. Further reading
  6. References

1. Introduction

Odette Pol-Roger (née Wallace) was an executive for Pol Roger champagne and was its brand ambassador in the UK. She was the daughter of Georges Wallace, a French army general, and the great-granddaughter of Englishman Sir Richard Wallace, former owner of the Wallace art collection. She married Jacques Pol-Roger, grandson of the champagne company’s founder. She met Churchill in Paris in 1944 which led to a long and continuing friendship between them and their families. Odette sent Churchill a case of his favourite champagne for his birthday each year. Pol Roger’s premium vintage brand has been named after Churchill since 1984.

2. Stories

  • Odette’s great-grandfather was Englishman Sir Richard Wallace, whose extensive art collection is open to the public at Hertford House in Marylebone, London.
  • Churchill first met Odette in 1944 at the British embassy in Paris, beginning a long friendship.
  • Odette was passionate about fishing, gardening and raising chickens.
  • Churchill’s love of champagne and his iconic status was the basis of a successful new line of the Pol Roger brand.
  • Pol Roger is currently sold in metric quantities, but was also formerly sold in pint bottles, which could possibly be re-introduced.
  • Although less well known than the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, the Pol Roger-sponsored Oxford-Cambridge wine tasting match is also highly competitive.
  • Pol Roger remains a boutique family business with lingering connections with the Churchill family.

Odette’s great-grandfather was Englishman Sir Richard Wallace, whose extensive art collection is open to the public at Hertford House in Marylebone, London.

Richard Jackson is believed to have been the illegitimate son of Richard Seymour-Conway (Viscount Beauchamp, later 4th Marquess of Hertford) and Agnes Jackson, née Wallace. After six years with his mother in London, he lived for many years in Paris with his grandmother Maria Seymour-Conway, nee Fagnani, estranged from her husband Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford. At age 23, Richard took his mother’s maiden name Wallace as his own family name. Upon his father’s death in 1870 (unmarried and without legitimate issue), he unexpectedly inherited a large art collection and various properties in Paris, London and Ireland.

He had a longstanding relationship with Julie Amélie Charlotte Castelnau, daughter of a French army officer, marrying her thirty years after their child Edmond was born, Odette’s grandfather. He endeared himself to Parisians by giving substantial medical and other aid during the Prussian siege in 1870-71, and later presenting the city with fifty cast-iron drinking fountains to assist public health. Some of these still exist and many new ones have been added, known as wallaces, one of the symbols of Paris. They were partly associated with a wider movement of ‘temperance fountains’ to provide safe water supplies as an alternative to alcoholic drinks, a little ironic given his granddaughter Odette’s later role in promoting the consumption of champagne.

One of the properties inherited by Richard Wallace was the Château de Bagatelle on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, next to the future home of General Charles de Gaulle and the duke of Windsor (Edward VIII). It was constructed after a bet by Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, with her brother-in-law the Count of Artois (later Charles X of France) that he could not build it in under three months; it was completed in just over two months. A game called ‘bagatelle’ was invented there in 1777; a later version became the basis of the pinball machine.

Another of Wallace’s inherited properties was Hertford House in Marylebone, London. After his death in 1890, his widow gave the house and Wallace’s large art collection to the UK nation. It has been open to the public since 1900 and includes an internationally recognised array of eighteenth-century French art and other important works.

Churchill first met Odette in 1944 at the British embassy in Paris, beginning a long friendship.

Edmond Wallace had four illegitimate children, of whom Georges Wallace (Odette’s father) was the eldest. He was an army captain at the start of World War I and rose to the rank of general by its end. He was wounded five times, was mentioned nine times for bravery and was awarded the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest order of merit. Odette’s mother was Gabrielle Klein, a daughter of an army officer. Odette and her two sisters Jacqueline and Nicole were sometimes referred to in jest as the ‘Wallace collection’.

During her father’s later career, he was stationed in Épernay in the champagne-making region of north-east France, where Odette met Jacques Pol-Roger, grandson of the champagne company’s founder Pol Roger. Pol is a regional version of Paul and the family added it to their Roger surname in 1900 in his honour (the surname is hyphenated, but not the brand). Odette and Jacques were married in 1933.

The Pol-Roger family supported the French Resistance financially and Odette would sometimes act as a courier, cycling 8 hours each way between Épernay and Paris. She was once arrested by the Gestapo while wearing a brooch incorporating British Royal Air Force wings and was interrogated for five hours before being released.

Shortly after the liberation of Paris in 1944, Churchill and Odette were guests at a party held by Duff Cooper, British ambassador to France. Churchill was immediately taken by her charm and good looks, and they conversed over some of her family’s champagne. She said later, ‘My first encounter with Churchill was around a 1928 vintage. […] He immediately won me over with his thoughtfulness, his courtesy and his good manners.’1 At the time Churchill was nearly 70 and Odette was 33, but they began a long-lasting friendship. Clementine and her family were also very fond of her.

Churchill instructed the embassy that Odette was to be invited to dinner whenever he was in Paris. One of these occasions was in 1947, at Duff Cooper’s leaving party, when Churchill and Odette opened the dancing. When visiting the UK on business trips, Odette would call on Churchill and his family at home.

Odette was passionate about fishing, gardening and raising chickens.

Odette owned Château St Paul in Normandy, on the River Andelle, well known for its trout. She would invite friends there, many from Britain, and enjoyed fishing on its banks. In 1970 she said, ‘The other night I was in Paris, dining at the Embassy with Christopher Soames [Churchill’s son-in-law], and afterwards I got into my car and drove to Normandy. As the sun was coming up I was thinking of getting a bit of sleep when I looked down from my bedroom window and saw a huge trout in the stream which runs through the property. So I grabbed my rod and rushed down and caught him – still in my dinner gown. Well! Life must be enjoyed, no?’2

The château warden had been woken up by the arrival of her Bentley limousine. He did his rounds shortly afterwards and saw Odette in her waders in a pool with a fly fishing rod in one hand and holding her gown above the water with the other. She asked him to get a net which she used to land the trout. Local fly fishing enthusiasts are disappointed that there is no record of what fly she used or the weight of the fish.

Like Churchill, Odette enjoyed spending time in her garden and kept chickens. She was president of a gardens association in the Épernay region for 26 years and was awarded the Mérite Agricole for her services to agriculture. Although devoted to her father-in-law Maurice, Pol Roger’s eldest son, she did not adopt his passion for boar hunting. Maurice shot 525 boars in his lifetime and it is said that on being asked when he conducted company business, he replied, ‘between saying my prayers and the time I go out to shoot’.3

Churchill named one of his racehorses Pol Roger, which Odette and Churchill saw run, without success, in Brighton in 1952. ‘Oh that mare,’ she said, ‘we had such trouble with her.’4 However, Pol Roger won at Kempton Park the next year on the day of the Queen’s coronation. Churchill telexed Odette, ‘POLROGER WON SPLENDIDLY TODAY SO THERE IS A SMALL PROFIT FOR YOU ON BOTH RACES BEST LOVE = WINSTON’.5

Churchill’s love of champagne and his iconic status was the basis of a successful new line of the Pol Roger brand.

Napoleon Bonaparte is alleged to have said, ‘In victory, you deserve champagne. In defeat, you need it.’ Churchill supposedly adapted this to, ‘I cannot live without champagne. In victory I deserve it; in defeat I need it’ (undocumented). In 1915, he wrote to his brother Jack, saying that he had all he needed: ‘hot baths, cold champagne, new peas and old brandy’.6 He reputedly told his World War I troops, ‘Remember gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for; it’s champagne.’7 It was a sign of sheer desperation about his finances in 1926 that he wrote to Clementine that ‘no more champagne is to be bought’,*8 although this resolution did not last long.

His first recorded purchase of Pol Roger was in 1908, and he would remain a lifelong devotee of the brand. After Odette had got to know him, she sent him a case of champagne for each birthday; initially the 1928 vintage until it ran out, then 1934, followed by 1947.

When Churchill died in 1965, Odette attended his funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. As a memorial, Pol Roger put a black border around its White Foil label, which was maintained until 1990, when the border was lightened to navy blue, a reference to Churchill’s role as first lord of the Admiralty. From 1984, the Pol Roger premium vintage has been named after Churchill, initially launched at his birthplace, Blenheim Palace. The 1989 launch took place at Chartwell.

The ‘Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill’ is only produced in the best years and only from areas which had vines in Churchill’s day, with the qualities that he sought in a champagne: robustness, a full-bodied character and relative maturity. Its precise blend is a secret but has a high proportion of pinot noir to chardonnay. New releases are approved by Churchill’s descendants before being marketed, the latest being 2015.

Churchill never managed to visit the Pol Roger offices at 44 avenue de Champagne, Épernay, which he is said to have called ‘the most drinkable address in the world’.9 As an apology, he sent Odette a copy of his memoirs, inscribed ‘Cuvée de Réserve, mise en bouteille au Chateau de Chartwell’.10 Pol Roger’s postal address is 1, rue Winston Churchill, 51200 Épernay.

* This is the origin of the title No More Champagne by David Lough (see ‘Further reading’).

Pol Roger is currently sold in metric quantities, but was also formerly sold in pint bottles, which could possibly be re-introduced.

Champagne could be purchased in pints until a European Union regulation in 1973, after which sparkling (but not still) wine had to be sold in a standard quantity of 0.75 litre (1.32 pints or 25.4 US fluid ounces), or in a half quantity, or in multiples. For example, a Magnum of champagne is 1.5 litres, a Jeroboam is 3.0 litres and a Reheboam is 4.5 litres. The largest is the Primat at 36 litres (the Malchizedek at 40 litres is only used for still wine). The names for the bottle sizes come mainly from biblical characters. Magnum and Primat are derived from the Latin for ‘great’ and ‘first’.

In the 1960s, around two thirds of UK champagne sales were in pint bottles. Churchill believed that a pint (57 cl or 19 US fluid ounces; four glasses) was perfect for lunch for two or dinner for one. It also fitted well into a coat pocket. Pol Roger’s Hubert de Billy remembers Churchill saying that if he drank a standard metric bottle, Clementine would not be happy, and that if he drank only half a metric bottle, he would not be happy.

There was an attention-grabbing claim in 2014 that Churchill drank 42,000 bottles of champagne in his lifetime, based on a random assumption of two bottles a day (of unspecified size, so implying today’s 0.75 litres) from a random age of 34 (and none before). Using a glass size of 0.15 litres, the claim is therefore that he drank an average of eight glasses of champagne every day from age 20 to 90, apart from whisky and any other drinks, adding to the long list of Churchill-related myths.

There is a pint bottle of Pol Roger 1914 champagne among the Churchill memorabilia in the Cabinet War Rooms in London. Following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, some champagne and sparkling wine companies have considered making sales in pints. However, bottles need to withstand six bars of pressure (nearly 90 pounds per square inch), for which there is currently no capacity for mass production in pint size.

Although less well known than the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, the Pol Roger-sponsored Oxford-Cambridge wine tasting match is also highly competitive.

The match has been running annually since 1953. Six white wines and six red wines are chosen by a Pol Roger executive with an MW (Master of Wine) qualification, one of only 370 Masters of Wine worldwide. Points are awarded by two judges who examine each taster’s notes on grape variety, country of origin, viticultural region, vintage and – most importantly – comments on the identification of the wine. Each member of the winning team wins a bottle of vintage Pol Roger and is invited to visit the company’s operations in Épernay. The taster with the highest individual score wins a special prize, such as a magnum of Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.

Competitors in various Oxford-Cambridge sports matches win the honour of a ‘blue’ for major sports or a ‘half-blue’ for others, including frisbee and lifesaving. There is even a ‘quarter-blue’ for tiddleywinks. There has been some debate about whether wine-tasting should qualify. Wine magazine Decanter managing editor Amy Wislocki gained a half-blue at Cambridge for pool, but has said that ‘a Blue is for a sporting achievement. However talented you are I don’t see wine tasting as a sport.’11 Nevertheless, some ‘mind sports’ such as chess and bridge earn half-blues and the Olympic Games used to include activities such as art (see Paul Maze).

Pol Roger also sponsors the Duff Cooper Prize, which has been awarded for non-fiction writing since 1956. Former minister of information and ambassador to France (see above), Cooper died in 1954, after which his friends set up a trust to endow the prize in his memory. The prize was first awarded to Alan Moorehead for Gallipoli (1956), which supported David Lloyd George’s comment that ‘The Dardanelles failure was due not so much to Mr. Churchill’s precipitancy as to Lord Kitchener’s and Mr. Asquith’s procrastination’.12 The 2024 prize was awarded for a book on Philippe Pétain, one of Churchill’s many adversaries.

Pol Roger remains a boutique family business with lingering connections with the Churchill family.

The Pol-Roger name has been largely replaced by de Billy through marriage, with the first of the sixth generation of the family joining the company in 2020. The last senior Pol-Roger, Christian (died 2020), was godfather to Sir Winston’s great-great-grandson John Churchill, born in 2007.

Apart from consultations on the Churchill Cuvée, a continuing reminder of the family connection is the presence at Chartwell of some replacement trees, funded by Pol Roger, following the ‘Great storm of 1987’. The storm killed 18 people and destroyed 15 million trees, including many of Chartwell’s beeches.

Meanwhile, Pol Roger has continued as a boutique business, selling around 1.7 million bottles of champagne per year, making it a small enterprise compared to the likes of multinational LVMH whose brands include Moët & Chandon (around 28 million bottles per year) and Veuve Clicquot (around 19 million). Over 80% of Pol Roger’s production is exported, with its main market being the UK.

In 2018, some drilling was being done at Pol Roger’s Épernay property for a new building. After some broken glass was found, further investigations led to the retrieval of 26 intact bottles from a void, undiscovered since a cellar cave-in in 1900 which destroyed 500 casks and 1.5 million bottles, nearly bankrupting the company at the time. The contents were in good condition and a tasting was held in 2020.

The vineyard hillsides, cellars and champagne houses of Épernay, Rheims and nearby are a UNESCO world heritage site. Around 150 miles (240 kilometres) of tunnels have been dug through the chalky earth, providing a constant cool temperature for maturation and storage. Pol Roger has 4.5 miles (7.5 kilometres) of cellars and is one of the last leading brands to ‘riddle’ (turn) many of its bottles by hand instead of by machine, to help remove sediment. Many champagne houses have tours and tastings, part of what is known in French as Œnotourisme (‘wine tourism’, from ancient Greek oinos, ‘wine’), but Pol Roger maintains its distinctive approach by not opening its doors to the public.

3. Biographical summary

OccupationBusinesswoman
CountryFrance
CareerPol Roger brand ambassador, particularly to the UK, after World War II. Pol Roger company director after her husband died (1964). President of the Society of Horticulture, Viticulture and Family Gardens of Épernay and Region (1965-91). Mérite Agricole for services to agriculture (1970).
Born1911, in Reims, eastern France (37 years younger than Churchill)
FatherGeorges Wallace (1872-1941); French army officer; grandson of Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890), art collector; eldest of four illegitimate children of Captain Edmond Richard Wallace (1840–1887). Edmond (baptised Georges Henry Edmond Castelnau) was the only child of Sir Richard Wallace and Amélie Castelnau, born 30 years before his parents’ wedding.
MotherGabrielle Klein (1885-1974), daughter of an army officer
SiblingsEldest of three sisters:
1. Odette Georgette Suzanne Claire (1911-2000)
2. Jacqueline (1916-2003); married Georges Vernes
3. Nicole (1919-2007), health executive; married Guy Schyler-Schröder, wine merchant
Education 
SpouseJacques Pol-Roger (1905-1964), m. 1933 until Jacques’ death, aged 58; grandson of Pol Roger, champagne company founder; family name changed from Roger to Pol-Roger in 1900; Odette outlived him by 36 years
Relationships 
Children–
Died2000 in Épernay, north-east France, aged 89 (35 years after Churchill)
BuriedFuneral service held in chapel of l’École militaire, Paris
ChartwellVisitors’ book: one recorded visit (1947)
Other Club–
Nickname–
Height 

4. See also

French Resistance

Churchill’s other French connections

1987 Great Storm

Controversies

  • Health and lifestyle

5. Further reading

Odette Pol-Roger

Wallace family

Pol-Roger family

  • Parzych, Cynthia, C.M.E.P. Turner, and John Turner, Pol Roger (Cynthia Parzych, 1999)
  • Pol Roger, ‘History‘ (polroger.com)

Churchill and champagne

Champagne

  • Epstein, Becky Sue, Champagne: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2011)
  • Faith, Nicholas, The Story of Champagne (Infinite Ideas Limited, 2016)
  • Mazzeo, Tilar J., The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It (HarperCollins e-books, 2009)
  • Walters, Robert, Champagne: A Secret History (Allen & Unwin, 2017)

Winemakers, war and the French Resistance

  • Kladstrup, Don, and Petie Kladstrup, Champagne: How the World’s Most Glamorous Wine Triumphed Over War and Hard Times (Wiley, 2006)
  • Kladstrup, Don, and Petie Kladstrup, Wine and War (Hodder & Stoughton, 2011)

Duff Cooper Prize

  • The Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, ‘Our Story’ (duffcooperprize.org)

Miscellaneous

  • Lough, David, No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money (Head of Zeus, 2015)

6. References

1. Bernard Cornuaille, Femmes D’exception En Champagne (Le Papillon Rouge Editeur, 2016), pp. 269–77.

2. Telegraph, ‘Odette Pol-Roger’, Telegraph, 2000.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. France 3 Grand Est, ‘Champagne : Winston Churchill et La Maison Pol Roger, Une Longue Histoire’, YouTube: France 3 Grand Est Channel. From 01:29.

6. Martin Gilbert, In Search of Churchill: A Historian’s Journey (John Wiley & Sons, 1994), p. [000].

7. Kolpan, Steven, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 336. No original source is given.

8. Winston S. Churchill, ‘WSC Memo to CSC, CSC Papers 3/24, CAC’, August 1926.

9. Pol Roger, ‘Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill 2015‘, polroger.co.uk

10. Ibid.

11. Adam Lechmere, ‘Oxford and Cambridge Chase Wine Blues – Decanter’, Decanter, 2007.

12. David Lloyd George, War Memoirs of David Lloyd George (Odhams Press limited, 1942), p. 139.