The freedom to dress up their champagne bottle or not. This is what the “Ca décoiffe en Champagne” collective is calling for. Bringing together around twenty winegrowers, including Adeline Bonnet, based in the Côte des Bar, in Bragelogne (Aube), he campaigns against the obligation of the cap, this metal apron which is the specificity of champagne bottles.
“Basically,” she explains, “we created a group to discuss alternatives to headdresses. When we learned that the Interprofessional Committee of Champagne Wines (CIVC) and the General Union of Winegrowers (SGV) wanted to impose the cap, even though Europe was lifting the obligation, we decided to step up to the plate. » The winegrower reminds that the headdress could be replaced by a paper strip, a staple, a collar stamp or even a simple fabric tie.
No question for the CIVC: the headdress constitutes for the profession “an identity code inseparable from champagne wines”, as confirmed by a group of experts. This is not false: the metal headdress was historically “invented” by the Champenois. When opening a bottle, you tear it and this contributes, in the collective imagination, to the magic of champagne.
However, the headdress only has aesthetic value but no longer technical utility. In the 19th century, it was used to conceal deposits stuck to the collar. “In the past, the storage conditions were different, the cap prevented humidity from reaching the cork stopper. But, today, we could free ourselves from this waste which no longer has any use. It’s a detail but it’s part of the efforts we can make for the environment,” asserts Adeline Bonnet. Often made of a mixture of plastic and aluminum, the cap represents 0.6% of the industry's greenhouse gas emissions!
The environmental impact of aluminum in question
Alas, in a notice from December, the CIVC confirms its intention “to include the obligation to affix the headdress in the specifications of the protected designation of origin (PDO)”. This is not yet the case but it would be a matter of months. Adeline Bonnet will release her latest vintage in May without a cap, as initially planned. “For me, it’s a test because most of my range is styled. On this new high-end vintage, I made an effort of creativity and took the risk of removing the cap. It's interesting to question ecology and see what the consumer thinks about it. »
In the current geopolitical context, the collective's winegrowers have no problem worrying about possible supply shortages of… aluminum. “If the Interprofession forces us to style our bottles and there is tension on the market, we risk no longer being able to market them,” underlines Adeline Bonnet. For their part, SGV and CIVC rely on customer studies carried out in France, the United Kingdom and the United States, which demonstrate that the cap allows the consumer to immediately associate a bottle with champagne.
It is therefore impossible to make it optional for the Interprofession. The winegrowers' union, however, declares itself sensitive to the environmental impact and evokes the alternative of paper caps, more virtuous and marketed since 2023. Not sure that this is enough to convince the collective which dreams of releasing the bubbles.