The Audubon Magazine has an article, ‘Cork Screwed‘, on the environmental damage caused by the increasing use and acceptance of screw caps and other artificial closers found on many of today’s wines. Cork forests are important in preserving the Mediterranean ecosystem. These are very large forests which are home to many species of birds and animals, many of which are endangered.
Farming cork has never been a job for the impatient. The earliest age at which a tree can be stripped is 25; a second stripping comes 9 or 10 years later. Pale and highly corrugated, the cork from these first 35 years of bark production can be used in flooring or other lower-revenue products, but it’s not until a tree is 43 to 50 that it will start yielding wine-quality cork. Thereafter it can be stripped every 9 to 12 years for the next century and a half…
To read this very interesting article which describes both the farming and harvesting of cork as well as its importance in the ecosystem go to ’Cork Screwed‘.
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