In France the foil is called a capsule CRD (capsule representative de droit) and it's a seal of official approval - a guarantee that all taxes due on the wine in France have been paid. The enduring symbol of French state sanction, the profile of Marianne, sits reassuringly in the middle of the foil.
Around the edge of the foil there's a sequence of numbers and letters. The sequence starts with a two-digit French département number telling you where the wine was bottled (and normally produced). '11' would mean it was bottled in Aude, '30' in Gard, and so on. A single letter usually follow this number and describes who bottled the wine . 'R' stands for récoltant (literally 'harvester' ), 'E' for an authorised warehouse and 'N' for a négociant (merchant). The last number, usually three digits, is the database number assigned to the bottler.
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| Which colour is 209c? |
Until five years ago the colour of the foil always had a specific meaning. Green designated top- quality AOC(AOP) wines and blue vin de table or vin de pays. In 2011 the French authorities allowed purple foils to be used instead of either green or blue. The purple is supposed to be representative of the colour of wine lees (the dead yeast cells left after fermentation) and, with a characteristic eye for bureaucratic detail, the authorities even nominated an approved pantone number for the shade of purple closest to lie de vin.
For any colour anoraks out there, the number is 209c. It may not have been entirely intentional but French foils now have appealing variations on the prescribed colours - vive la différence!
