Ring Seal Beer / Champagne bottles from False Creek Flats in Vancouver, BC

Ring Seal Beer / Champagne Bottles from False Creek Flats in Vancouver 

Champagne is considered one of the most exclusive wines in the world. It is a sparkling wine that comes from the Champagne region of France grown by Champenois  vine growers. The true Champenois growers grow grapes in the Champagne district on expensive land with expensive ground conditioning practices and are sold to Champagne producers. 

In 1900, the Victoria Daily Times (July 6, 1900 p.7)  had an add from Pither & Leiser in Victoria – wholesale agents: 

Within this ad it clearly shows that Champagnes were doing well in North American prior to weather problems that started in the growing season of 1902. Mumm’s did especially well in 1899:

By the beginning of the 20th Century, the cost of being a Champenois grower had made it prohibitive for most growers. The process of making Champagne was also expensive given the long labour-intensive process of producing Champagne, and loss due to exploding bottles. Weather conditions between 1902 and 1909 were wet and ruined many Champenois grower crops. 

The Province, November 14, 1908, p.9 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/499784052)

In 1908, undoubtedly due pressure from Champagne Producers, the French government announced that the term “Champagne” could be used on sparkling wines made from grapes grown outside of the Champagne region. A further weather disaster in 1910 with hailstorms and flooding affected production ruining about 95% of the true Champagne crop. The Champagne producers relied even more on growers outside of the region.

The Champenois growers petitioned the government to require 51% of the grapes in Champagne be grown in Champagne. Champagne producers wanted prices to be lower, so they fought back and argued that they would not buy from the Champenois growers unless they could produce the grapes at a lower price. Riots broke out in January 1911 with growers forcing “foreign” grapes into rivers and wine into the gutters. Soldiers were brought in and discontent between grower and producer continued for years – only ceasing with the outbreak of World War I. Sometime before mid-1910, Germany also started making sparkling wine and calling it “German Champagne” – something the French were unhappy with (Vancouver Daily World July 29, 1910). Sometime after the war, only wines produced from grapes grown in the Champagne region can be called “Champagne.”   

From Newspapers.com

I chose to include this historical vignette, because the dates of this archaeological site fit within the dates of discontent between Champagne growers and producers. So even if we could prove that the bottles were made in France, and that the bottles contained sparkling wine, we still could not claim that they contained true Champagne at that time. 

Champagne-shaped bottles, however, were used for a wide variety of carbonated beverages from many countries. This has led New Zealand researcher, Peter Petchey of the University of Otago, to call these Ring Seal Beer (RSB) / Champagne bottles (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275156195_The_Ring_Seal_BeerChampagne_Bottle). This style of bottle has very thick glass, so was definitely used for carbonated liquids, whereas a Bordeaux bottle in the collection (of virtually the same shape) was obvious as it was made of thinner glass.

Here are just two examples of the small RSB bottles being used for beer.

Bass Pale Ale bottle in the RSB / Champagne shape (24 cm tall)

Great Northern Brewery bottle, Aukland, New Zealand (25.1 x 6.8 cm)

Here is a list of characteristics of RSB bottles from Petchey (2013:2):

In this collection there are a minimum of 11 small bottles (~350 ml). 

Small (~350 ml) sized bottles and fragments

One Larger bottle (maybe 750 ml) is represented by a finish/neck fragment. The remains of a seal can be seen on it, and this one I would claim definitely contained some form of sparkling wine – maybe even real Champagne, but that cannot be proven. Below are photos of it in relation to the smaller size.

Large (~750 ml #305) size bottle neck and finish compared with small (~350 ml size #309)