Cork As A Sustainable Managed Resource

(Edited from an original article by Bob Ecker in F&B International)

Natural cork is an ancient, sustainable and ecologically friendly forest product that has been supporting the people and cultures of the Mediterranean Basin for thousands of years.

Portugal, at the far southwestern corner of Europe has been producing wine for a long, long time. Vineyard planting really took off after the Reconquista, which ended in 1249, where the Portuguese and Spanish took back the lands from the anti-alcohol Moors. The rise of wine and the symbiotic Portuguese cork as an efficient bottle closure has been of vital interest to the Portuguese economy, as well as the International Wine industry today.

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Cork has a long and colorful history indelibly linked to wine. Pierre “Dom" Perignon, (born in 1638) a Benedictine Monk at the Abbey of Hautville near Riems, experimented with sparkling wines in the latter part of the Seventeenth century. Though some were produced before him, Dom Perignon's work produced a standard and process for the production of Champagne, and also established the use of cork stoppers as effective closures. The entire cork industry owes a massive debt of gratitude to that wonderful monk.

Contrary to popular myth, cork trees are not cut down and can be harvested every nine years throughout the nearly 200-year lifecycle of the tree. The white painted numbers on the bark indicates what year the tree was harvested. If you see the number 6 painted on the bark, that means it was harvested in 06 and should not be harvested again until 2015.

Cork production employs over 60,000 people in the tiny country of Portugal and another 40,000 elsewhere, with a significant portion of the production coming from family operations.

The worldwide production of natural cork wine stoppers is nearly 13 billion annually. Amorim is responsible for over 25% or 3 billion corks worldwide.
The total acres under cork production is over 6 million (2.6 million hectares). Portugal accounts for approximately 70% of world production.

One of the most important benefits of protecting our cork forests is the forestsí ability to retain CO2 emissions by a staggering 10 million tons each year. And every cork plays a role in ìcapturingî and retaining nearly 9 grams of CO2 each. This remains within the cork for its entire life. Recycling and reuse just adds to the capture time and usefulness of the cork.

How Corks Are Made:
The cork is delivered to the factory and is stacked in the open air on a drainable cement surface to prevent contact with the earth. After 6 or more months of open air seasoning, the cork is ready for sorting and boiling.

Then, the pallets of cork are gently boiled for approximately one hour to remove organic solids and bring the moisture content to around 14%.

Next, pieces are hand sorted. In fact, only about 30% of the best wood ends up as a wine stopper. From here, pieces of bark are then cut into smaller pieces, and sorted by size, thickness and color. The pieces are sorted and cut, sorted and cut, sorted and cut. Planks go to different areas of the factory for varying types and sizes of corks. At each stage, men and women are constantly examining pieces of cork for all sorts of defects and discarding rejects. Much of that wood is recycled, used for flooring or is ground up and utilized as fuel for the plant itself.

Natural Corks are “punched," by skilled craftsmen working leg-activated or semi-automated punches. Since this is an entirely natural product, the men have to look at each 15 inch piece of wood and move it slightly left or right, up or down based upon the grain and unique characteristics in the wood. Each piece of wood bark yields about 9 corks.

After the whole corks and disks are punched, they go through an extensive sorting, washing and polishing process that involves computerized photo sorting as well as careful examination by teams of trained workers. Once the cork have been graded and tested for TCA and other contaminants, they are ready for custom printing and coating. Amorim produces over 3 billion corks each year making them the largest producer of natural wine cork closures in the world.

To meet a growing worldwide demand for high quality natural cork wine closures, Amorim has invested over 12 million Euros in modernization and quality control. The strategy has paid off. Through the use of advanced (GCMS) chemical analysis, patented quality assurance steps and strict preventative protocols, the scourge of the cork industry, TCA taint, has all but been eliminated from the companyís products.

Amorim Cork Plant

The future for Amorim is bright. Given the companyís financial strength and reputation as an innovator and leader in the cork industry, it has taken on a new challenge as a role model for sustainable business practices and environmental stewardship. Amorim is the first cork company in the world to offer FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified corks to the marketplace. The company is also sponsoring cork recycling efforts in Australia and the United States. Just like he trees it relies on, green is the color of Amorim.