Before a champagne bottle can be corked, its metal fermentation cap must be removed.
The Methode Champenoise that produces champagne requires that the wine be fermented twice, or, more precisely, have one extended fermentation that is interrupted when the wine is moved from vats to bottles, capped, upended and given regular twists to send its yeasty sediment to the neck of the bottle. Later, the bottle's metal cap is taken off, the sediment is removed, and the bottle corked and wired shut for its second and final stage of fermentation. When done by hand, tools are required to remove the metal cap from the bottle.
Champagne Facts, Caps and Corks
In the first part of champagne's fermentation process, the bottle is capped, not corked.
It was Madame Barbe Clicquot -- who became famous as the "veuve" (French for widow) of "Veuve Clicquot" champagne -- who in the 17th century discovered the process of remuage, in which the yeast and sugar lees that create champagne's bubbles are moved to the neck of the bottle by upending it and regularly twisting the bottle for almost two months. The lees are then removed in a process called disgorging, which involves removing the metal crown cap and taking out the yeast lees. The bottle then is topped off with a small amount of wine and sugar, and is given its final seal of a cork with a wired hood.
Le Church Key, C'est Si Bon
The old-fashioned church-key-style bottle opener gets the job done.
The classic tool for removing the metal cap by hand from a bottle of fermenting champagne is something that is found in almost every kitchen: the ubiquitous metal bottle opener, also known by the slang term "church key." Today, champagne makers remove lees by lowering bottles of fermented champagne upside down into a freezing brine bath for about 10 minutes. This freezes the yeast sediment in the top 3 inches of the bottle's neck. The bottle is raised to just above horizontal and the metal crown cap is removed using the church key. The 80 psi of pressure inside the bottle causes the plug of frozen lees to pop out of the bottle neck and it is removed. The bottle is then topped off with a small mixture of wine and sugar and sealed with a cork and wire hood.
Alternative Decapping Tools
According to the Metropole Midi website, a second kind of handheld decapping tool is found in wine shops in France. Resembling a long-handled pot hook, this kind of decapping tool hooks over the bottle cap and pulls it away from the path of the extruding frozen lees plug, keeping the user's hands clean.
Automation
Most champagne makers have automated ridlling, decapping and disgorgement.
While some prestige champagne makers continue to carry out the age-old practices of remuage and disgorgement by hand (which explains, in part, their hefty prices), many champagne producers have turned to automation for riddling, decapping and disgorging. According to the Friends Eat foodie website, these processes have now been automated by almost all the champagne makers in France and abroad. Riddling is done on large "gyropalettes" that achieve remuage in mass production numbers. Automated riddling cuts the time for the process from 56 days to less than 10 days. Decapping and disgorgement also have been automated.
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