Champagne lovers who struggle to rip or cut off the metal foil wrapper covering the cork, which has long been de rigueur, now have cause for celebration.
The requirement for the foil is being scrapped in a move aimed at reducing champagne’s carbon footprint.
In what Le Parisien called “une petite révolution”, champagne makers are now free to decide whether to wrap their bottle necks in foil.
The change comes after a two-year legal battle by the champagne producers’ trade association, which was contesting an EU ruling that the foil should be made optional.
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Now, however, the row appears to have been little more than a storm in a champagne flute. The Comité Champagne, the industry association, has dropped its opposition after a recent survey showed the absence of foil would not affect sales or damage champagne’s image.
The Comité had long regarded the foil wrapper, or la coiffe as it is more elegantly called in French, as “an identifying marker inseparable from champagne”.
Not all producers agreed, pointing out that the foils, many of which contain plastic, accounted for 0.6 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from champagne production. Adeline Bonnet, a producer who lobbied to make the foil optional, said: “We had feared that it would remain compulsory and the association would never reconsider.”
String, strips of paper or staples can be used as more eco-friendly alternatives, or the wires that hold the cork in place can simply be left bare.
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The Comité said: “The absence of a coiffe does not change consumers’ preference for champagne.” However, it added that many consumers did prefer champagne bottles to have one because they saw its removal as part of the experience.
Le Parisien commented: “This is indisputably a breach of an old tradition, perhaps for a good cause.”
The coiffe originated in the 19th century, when it was used to hide sediment that collected in bottle necks.
It was then made of tin, but its function became obsolete after champagne bottles started being “riddled”, or turned neck-down in increments to gather the sediment at the top, and then disgorged — which means opening them to eject sediment using the pressure in the bottle. Today coiffes are decorative.
Champagne was the first French wine-growing region to evaluate its carbon footprint, in 2003, and has since taken measures to reduce it by at least 15 per cent. Climate change has led to earlier harvests in Champagne and more spring frosts, which damage vines.