A capsule covering the cork, which usually contains an imprint referring to the wine or producer. This capsule is the uppermost part of a film that tightly encloses the neck of the bottle. This protects the cork from drying out, contamination by bacteria, for example, and infestation by cork moths and their egg-laying, and also slows down the OTR rate (gas exchange rate ) between the contents of the bottle and the outside world or the entry of oxygen. Last but not least, it also fulfils a decorative purpose.
Materials
The capsule can be made of different materials. The formerly common toxic lead capsule, which was also trivialised as a tin foil capsule (originally a lead-silver alloy), has since been banned in viticulture. Today, capsules are made from the neutral, non-toxic tin (also known as tin foil), aluminium, which is much cheaper but not as close to the neck of the bottle, but also from plastics such as PET, polyethylene, PVC or PVDC, especially for simple wines.
Opening the bottle
Before the cork can be pulled out of the bottle, the foil must be cut all the way round with a capsule cutter (picture left with the four round rolling knives in the cutting arch) and then the capsule cap removed (picture centre with still loosely attached capsule cap). However, there are also films with a flap that can be used to expose the capsule cap all the way round and then remove it (arrow in the picture on the right). Sparkling wine bottles (champagne, sparkling wine) have a metal capsule between the agraffe (wire mesh) and the cork.
Placomusophilia
Collecting these coveted objects is known as placomusophilia. According to EU regulations, it was mandatory to affix a protective film over the cork, capsule, agraffe and bottle neck on sparkling wine bottles. This is no longer required since December 2023. See also alternative bottle closure types under closures.
Capsule cutter: Chiara-Kochlust
Bottles: © Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer
