Cork Trees
There is no other manmade or natural material with all the characteristics unique to cork. What’s really neat is it all grows from a tree called a Cork Oak. Some of its incredible features include:
Some of the many products include:
About the Cork Tree: The cork oak grows in Portugal, Spain, and North Africa (Portugal accounts for 50% of the world’s total cork production). Cork oak produces a unique outer bark that is insulating and fire-resistant. It takes 15-20 years for the cork to be ready for harvesting for the first time. Harvesters carefully cut the cork and split it away from the tree and new bark will grow back in its place. 
The first harvest is unsuitable for most applications and products and is usually used for some type of mulching of filler. Every 8-10 years after the first time cork can be harvested again. Second generation cork is still not the best quality and is used for products such as floats for fishing nets. Additional generations of cork (still every 8-10 years between each cycle) produce higher & higher quality cork that is used for a wider range of products such as stoppers for wine.
A typical cork oak tree will be harvested until it is approximately 200 years old and multiple harvestings. You have to be patient if wanting to commercially grow cork because getting to the 3rd harvest where the cork is higher quality can take up to 52 years. A cork tree will yield 13 to 18 useful harvests in its full lifetime. History of Cork: Corks were used by the Greeks in the 5th century BC to close wine jugs and the Romans followed with their own versions. The most common closures in those ancient days was actually a coating of pitch and gypsum over the opening of a vessel or a film of olive oil floating on the surface of the wine.
Wine historians have linked the development of the glass bottle and its cork stopper as 2 necessities for the modern international wine trade. Wine no longer had to be put into bulky & awkward clay vessels or wooden barrels to ship. Cork stoppers prevented oxygen from spoiling the wine both in shipment and storage, and additionally helped in the maturation of the wine.
The cork oak tree is an amazing tree that will be in use for many years to come because it has properties that are still not duplicated by synthetic methods. |