Champagne symbolizes life as a celebration, sensuality, and new beginnings. Where other wines keep us grounded, champagne gives us wings and lifts us skyward. “Brothers, come, I am drinking stars,” Dom Pérignon is said to have exclaimed after, according to legend, inventing sparkling wine. No wonder that interest in all the material things that actually made the pleasure of drinking possible was, for centuries, virtually nonexistent. Almost all the old bottles, corks, and champagne capsules—the “earthly remnants,” so to speak, of all those sparkling dinners and tête-à-têtes—disappeared in the maelstrom of passing time.
The Veuve Clicquot Archives
This was also the case at Maison Veuve Clicquot, a beacon of the French art of living since 1782. And this despite the fact that the champagne house is one of the few to maintain its own “Pavillon du patrimoine historique,” its own historical archive. As meticulously as financial records and correspondence—above all, of course, those of the eponymous widow Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin—are preserved on Reims’ Rue du Temple, the actual physical legacy is sorely missed here. Had a collector not bequeathed to the house a small but exquisite collection of old champagne capsules and corks, the Maison would essentially know this part of its past only from books. A precious artifact, however, can be found among the files dealing with trademark and patent applications: Attached to the application for approval of a specific champagne capsule design submitted to the “Tribunal de commerce” of Reims on September 29, 1886, is a copper sample secured with wax—one of the earliest examples in existence.
Yet the invention of the capsule had already taken place over forty years earlier. Adolphe Jacquesson of the eponymous champagne house in Châlon-sur-Marne had filed a patent as early as 1844 for a new closure system for champagne bottles, which was granted the following year. In fact, he thereby solved a problem that had plagued the region since the discovery of sparkling wine production. Traditionally, wines in Champagne were sealed with prepared wood shavings, which, of course, were catapulted out at the slightest pressure. Monks who had come to Champagne via the Way of St. James from Santiago de Compostela had brought corks with them, which they used to seal their leather drinking bags. This, at least according to tradition, gave Pierre (“Dom”) Pérignon the idea to seal champagne bottles with corks secured by hemp strings. It was a solution that proved just as fragile as the champagne itself evolved into the “pressurized” beverage we know today through the perfection of the second fermentation on the lees.
Adolphe Jacquesson’s Innovation
Jacquesson’s major innovation was to insert a small sheet of tinplate between the cork and the strings or wires, designed to distribute the pressure evenly. In fact, it would take until the early 1880s for the first commercial implementations to appear on the market. A champagne capsule from the now-defunct Maison Kunkelmann dating from 1882 is the oldest surviving example, followed by those from Pommery and Moët et Chandon—only large, export-oriented houses could afford the costly process. The 1886 capsule from Veuve Clicquot represents an expensive detour due to the use of copper. Later, the house, like all the others, would switch to tinplate, i.e., thin cold-rolled steel sheet coated with tin. The house’s small collection exemplifies this further development. From the late 19th-century examples bearing only the embossed company name, through the color-printed pieces decorated with the company logo, to the capsules of the 1990s.
Italian expertise
While in the 19th century the production of champagne capsules, along with the wire cages that secure them, took place in-house at the Maison. Veuve Clicquot, like many other Maisons, now has them manufactured in Ivrea, northern Italy. For here, at the foot of the Alps, lies ICAS. It’s the global market leader in sparkling wine closures produced using the traditional method. Anyone familiar with the French sense of identity regarding their own cultural heritage will be surprised by the decision to have production carried out in Italy — especially near some major spumante producers. In fact, the prehistory of this unusual partnership dates back to around 1900, when the economically liberal, and, thanks to favorable infrastructure, a large workforce, and abundant hydropower from the nearby Alps, privileged Piedmont experienced its first economic miracle. A phenomenon which manifested not least in the founding of the automobile manufacturer Fiat in Turin in 1899 and the typewriter manufacturer Olivetti in Ivrea in 1908.
The market leader from Ivrea
This success story continued after World War II during the second wave of the Piedmontese economic miracle, a period that also saw the founding of ICAS, the “Canavese Company for Special Tools” (as the acronym stands for). Founder Bruno Getto had been producing wirework for a jeweler since the early 1950s. During this time, he had closely followed the shift in wire basket production in the sparkling wine industry from manual to semi-automatic manufacturing and integrated it into the business model of ICAS, which he founded in 1956. With seven to eight machines, he achieved a production of up to 7,000 units, which amounted to a million per year. His most important customer was the Cinzano company.
As early as 1960, the company made the leap into its first foreign markets: wire frames and capsules for simple French crémants as well as for Californian sparkling wines from producers of Italian descent. Spanish cava producers followed in 1967, sparkling wines from Australia and New Zealand in 1970, and soon after, a number of cider producers. In 1977, the company merged with a major competitor, Philipp Schneider – Draht- und Metallwarenfabrik from Bad Münster am Stein. The two companies subsequently divided markets and product lines among themselves. The most significant outcome: Schneider took over the so-called swing tops, which were primarily used for sparkling wines produced via the tank method. While ICAS retained the classic wire frames—the so-called four-wire closures—for traditional sparkling wines.
The Move to France
By the time Bruno Getto died in 1980, the company was already producing 250 million wire frames with capsules annually, now fully automated. But the most important step was yet to come. Under Bruno’s son Piero, the Champagne region in particular was targeted as a market—the few remaining competitors in France were significantly less capable. But the political climate was unfavorable. Under François Mitterrand, France had become a testing ground for socialist economic policies that strictly shielded the market from foreign competition. It took the liberalization following 1986 and close personal connections in the region before ICAS France could be founded in 1987.
Through a steadfast commitment to technical innovation, low production costs, high product quality, and excellent customer service, the company eventually became the global market leader. In 2021, the main plant in Ivrea alone, with its 85 employees and 40 machines, produces approximately 1.4 billion wire frames annually—in up to twelve different colors. The latest-generation machines already produce 240 units per minute. Compared to wire frame production, capsule production is technically simple. For this, a nearby printing company supplies printed metal sheets, which are punched out, shaped, and inserted fully automatically into the wire baskets in Ivrea. Compared to the mind-boggling ballet the machines perform to transform a simple wire into a champagne cage, this is child’s play.
A New Collectible
For Daniel Aubertin, however, Ivrea is precisely for this reason a place he visits often. Aubertin is a collector—and not just any collector, but with his collection of over 20,000 pieces, arguably the most renowned collector of champagne capsules in France—so it’s no wonder he’s good friends with Piero Getto. It was around 1980 in Vertus in Champagne, at the southern end of the renowned Côte des Blancs—where the finest Chardonnay champagnes originate—that the collecting of champagne capsules first began, with Daniel Aubertin as one of its pioneers. Back then, however, his passion lay primarily in stamp collecting, organized through the local club. His friend (and current club president) Daniel Saguet was also a member of that club. One day, a young employee at the savings bank where Saguet worked asked him to save champagne capsules for him.
Saguet subsequently received a large number of different capsules from winemakers he knew through the club, which his daughter also played with at home. Eventually, he and his club colleagues realized the collecting potential of these colorful caps. A few years later, Claude Mailliard, one of the members, coined the term “placomusophilia” (from “plaques de muselets,” the French term for champagne caps) as the technical term for this new field of collecting. In 1989, the club organized the first champagne capsule exchange fair in Vertus with great success.Aand soon after, the internationally attended event took place every year on November 11, transforming the small village into the “Capitale Mondiale de la Capsule,” the world capital of champagne capsules.
The Collector from Vertus
Among the early collectors, Daniel Aubertin was particularly enthusiastic. As director of the Paul Goerg champagne cooperative, he had excellent connections within the industry, including with Le Muselet Valentin, France’s leading producer of champagne capsules, and, of course, with Piero Getto of ICAS. A friend gave him a case of particularly old specimens, which remain the backbone of his collection to this day. In the early 1980s, however, there were only about 1,000 different pieces. It wasn’t until the major houses discovered the small disc as a marketing platform in the mid-1980s that the diversity literally exploded. Today, there are around 40,000 champagne capsules and an equal number of sparkling wine capsules from other regions, with about 4,000 new releases per year. Completeness has long since ceased to be a goal, and Aubertin therefore recommends selecting specific areas of focus, such as themes based on motifs or origins, including major houses or cooperatives. He himself is a true specialist in “mousseux,” traditionally produced sparkling wines from outside France, not least German winemakers’ sparkling wines.
Collecting in the Early Years
In the early days, collecting itself was still quite archaic. Most often, people traded, in clubs or at flea markets, and the rule was more or less “capsule for capsule.” Some used tricks, like the wealthy collector who drove his limousine to every champagne house one by one, but before each visit swapped the car for a bicycle he’d brought along and put on an old work smock before innocently asking for a few old capsules. Or the roofer who built up his collection through the many finds in old roof trusses in the region, where traditionally the old corks, along with the capsules, were used as insulation material. Since corks, wire caps, and capsules were recycled in the early days of the champagne trade, entire sacks full were frequently found—in the cellars of Parisian restaurants as well as in the attics of winery employees.
Gradually, many realized that these finds were pure gold, for in 1996 Laurent Lambert had published his “Répertoire des placques de muselets du Champagne.” This directory, updated every few years, lists estimated prices that would revolutionize collecting by attracting people who viewed Champagne capsules as an investment. From then on, prices for both the early era—from manual to semi-automatic production—and the so-called “Semi-Moderne” period from the 1960s to the mid-1980s were set to rise significantly in value—and the internet was poised to become the number one trading platform. When the wealthy Catalan Josep Albó Juncà entered the collecting business in a big way in 1998, the colorful metal discs finally fetched record prices—after the 2008 financial crisis and the collector’s death in 2012, the overheated market cooled off somewhat.
The collector’s happiness here lies in collecting happiness
Most champagne capsules, of course, are valued at no more than 1 to 3 euros in the Guide Lambert, which corresponds to a street price of 20 cents to 1 euro. With a catalog price of 10 euros, Daniel Aubertin refers to it as a “bonne capsule.” But of course there are also the magical pieces, foremost among them the holy grail of collectors: the capsule from the 1923 Pol Roger vintage champagne. In 1906, Pol Roger was the first house to equip its vintage champagnes with capsules printed in color and bearing the vintage year, which makes these pieces very valuable in and of themselves. Because the entire 1923 vintage had been bought up by Winston Churchill, it seemed for a long time as if all the capsules had been lost. Today, three examples are known to exist: estimated price 14,000 euros each.
It is quite peculiar. Champagne and collecting—they really shouldn’t go together at all. On the one hand, the joy of life and the pure present; on the other, pedantic cataloging and a gaze into the past. And yet it is precisely the classically designed champagne capsules that convey a unique form of sensuality, with their opulent coats of arms, vibrant colors, and elegant lettering. And doesn’t each one represent a remnant of a precious moment? For the capsules speak of “Once upon a time”: Once upon a time there was pleasure, joy, celebration… The collector’s happiness, of which Goethe once spoke—here it is nothing less than the act of collecting happiness.
Notes
The technical term for the subject of this article in France is “Plaque de muselet.” These days, “Capsule de Champagne” is used just as commonly. This is why Vertus calls itself the “Capitale Mondiale de la Capsule.” In English-speaking countries, too, the term “Champagne Caps” is most commonly used. That is why, in German, I have preferred the term “Champagnerkapsel” to the dry technical designation “Champagnerdeckel,” even though I know that the latter actually refers to the entire aluminum foil covering the bottle’s closure.
This article is an edited reprint from FINE – Das Weinmagazin 02/2021. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Maison Veuve Clicquot, ICAS Muselet, and Daniel Aubertin for their support
Captions
1. The feature photo and the images in the section on ICAS were taken on-site at the headquarters in Ivrea, northern Italy.
2. The first image in the main article was taken in Barcelona at the “Dom Pérignon Decoding Lab” at the elBulli Foundation.
3. The images for the Veuve Clicquot section are from the Maison’s archives. They show old order books in the Maison Veuve Clicquot archives, the oldest known sample of a Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin plaque from 1886, and the donation of old capsules to the company.
4. The flyer is an advertisement for the champagne capsule exchange in Vertus in 2017.
5. The display shows all the capsules featured in my 2021 book “Champagne: The 100 Most Important Maisons, Winemakers, and Cooperatives.”
6. Below are examples of various designs of champagne capsules from the Maisons Mumm and Pol Roger.
7. The book cover shows the current edition of the “Guide Lambert” from 2024.
8. The final image shows capsules of the Cuvée Louise at the premiere of the 2008 vintage at the Parisian restaurant Lucas Carton in the spring of 2026.
Image rights
Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
