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We’ve been using this indispensable gadget since it first entered our consciousness, back in our college days. Yet, when we use it in front of guests, most look on with amazement—they’ve never seen a Champagne resealer before.
So today’s tip is: Get one if you enjoy a bottle of bubbly. They’re less than $10 in chrome, and we received a plastic version as a freebie from [yellowtail] that works just as well.
For the price, it’s painless to include one when you give a gift of Champagne or other bubbly. They’re also a nice touch as wedding or anniversary party favors.
We proceed in a moment, but first:
> The history of the Champagne resealer/recorker follows.
> The history of Champagne.
> There’s also a brief history of Champagne below.
> Also below, the year’s 9+ Champagne and other bubbly holidays.
Elsewhere on The Nibble:
> The different types of Champagne.
> Eight affordable alternatives to Champagne.
HOW IT WORKS
A Champagne resealer (also called a recorker or a stopper) creates a tight seal at the mouth of the bottle, so the bubbles stay in. In the one we use (photos #1 and #2) rubber or silicone seal under the chrome cap fits the mouth of the bottle, and the two “wings” clamp down to create the seal.
It works like a dream, and we wondered why it wasn’t created centuries before—until we explored the history of sealing Champagne bottles, below. (Champagne has been around since the early 1700s, and rubber has been manufactured since around 1820.)
We use this marvelous device:
To keep the fizz in the bottle in-between pourings.
If we want just a glass or two but not the whole bottle.
If we need just a cup or so for a recipe.
If we have “leftovers” at the end of the evening.
You can buy a Champagne recorker wherever kitchen gadgets are sold; and depending on your state of residence, maybe in the store where you purchase the bubbly.
The Champagne recorker keeps the wine fizzy for several days. The fuller the bottle, the fizzier it stays (i.e., if there’s only an inch or two of wine at the bottom of the bottle, there’s a lot of air into which the effervescence can evaporate).
We just finished a bottle that was opened six weeks ago to taste just half a glass—and it was “like new.”
THE HISTORY OF SEALING CHAMPAGNE BOTTLES
The Champagne recorker evolved from early efforts to seal bottles of bubbly. When champagne was first produced, the pressure of the sparkling wine was maintained by wooden plugs sealed with oil-soaked hemp cloth and wax—an ineffective way to consistently prevent leakage or blowing out of the stopper.
The next step was cone-shaped corks secured with twine and wax. Around 1670 Dom Pierre Pérignon came up with the idea of using cork, but it took years to catch on. It wasn’t easy to get cork, which comes from the bark of the cork oak, which grows in the Mediterranean [source].
Cork bark had been used as a bottle stopper in Roman times—it has been dated to the sixth century B.C.E. in Tuscany but its use was discontinued during the Dark Ages [source].
Cork became popular again around the end of the 16th century [source], and by 1680 its use was “far from uncommon” not just for wine but also for other alcoholic drinks [source].
Exploding corks remained a problem. Hand-squeezing corks into bottles, tying them with twine, and sealing them with wax was a dangerous task for cellar workers. Here’s more about the process.
After workers began to lose eyes in explosions, Champagne earned the nickname “the devil’s wine.” Workers began to wear wire-and-gauze masks [source].
In 1844, Adolphe Jacquesson of the Champagne house Jacquesson & Fils received a patent for a metal wire cage/hood (muselet) to secure corks. He also received a patent for a metal disk (the plaque), placed between the cork and wire to distribute pressure.
These two items prevented leaks and made the cork stopper more secure. Better sealing solutions developed over time to manage the intense pressure within the bottle.
For almost 300 years, from the end of the 17th century until the 1980s, wine in glass bottles was invariably sealed with cork. In the 1980s, the increased use of cork and the nine years required for a tree toe grow a new batch led to the use of plastic stoppers, especially for inexpensive wines not meant to be aged. The late 1990s saw screw caps.
But the Champagne cork, placque, and cage remained status quo. Refined production techniques made it a safe option.
But unlike still wines, once the cork came out of the bottle, it expanded to a mushroom shape and could not be squeezed back in.
So what to do with an open bottle that still contains a lot of bubbly?
Thank Goodness For The The Champagne Resealer (Recorker)
Also called a wing-style or lever-style stopper, the resealer as we know it today——chrome-plated steel with two wings or levers—became a must-have in the mid-20th century.
When the levers are pushed down over the opening of the bottle, they hook under the collar at the top of the neck. This creates a downward force that compresses a silicone or rubber plug into the neck.
The dual-wing lever stopper was introduced to the consumer market in the late 1950s and early 1960s, created in response to the postwar “cocktail culture” boom.
The wing design was an adaptation of the “winged corkscrew,” a double-lever wine corkscrew patented by Dominick Rosati, an Italian bartender living in Chicago, in 1930. It was targeted to bartenders and other professionals.
In 1942, in the metalworking hub of Lumezzane, Italy, Giuseppe Pedrini, a master metal caster, introduced his version of the double-lever corkscrew. Lighter and more compact than Rosati’s, and ergonomic, it was an easy home version that is the worldwide standard (photo #6).
By the early 1960s, these stoppers began appearing in upscale department stores and barware catalogs.
The 1980s saw a massive spike in the global consumption of sparkling wine, with no need to wait for a special occasion: affordable Cava and Prosecco and Cava became everyday drinks.
Manufacturers realized that the same double-lever physics used to pull a cork out of the bottle (photo #6) could be reversed to lock a stopper in.
The item became a staple in upscale shops like Williams-Sonoma and The Sharper Image.
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