FBWorld.com
 

 

Google
WWW
FBworld.com



ARTICLE

Cork as a Sustainable Managed Resource


Story By: Mike Walsh
Photos By: Mike Walsh & Roger Archey

Cork is the only sustainable natural closure.

Cork is an ancient, sustainable, ecologically friendly and successfully managed resource with the vast cork forest supporting the people and cultures of North Africa and Spain, but mostly Portugal.

Click on Image for caption and to enlarge

Cork trees can only be harvested every ten years, so to wind through miles of cork forests with the rustic orange shades of bare bark accenting the hues of the 100+ year old trees, means they have been just harvested. 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 10 years later. The very fact of driving through miles of cork forest, with every tree having a number on it creates a feeling of confidence that the people of Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula use an ancient common sense to preserve and sustain their living off of the land.

Cork production employs over 60,000 people in the tiny little country of Portugal, with a significant portion of the production coming from small family farms and operations that do not have the resources that the large, factory style cork operations have, and this has contributed to our current cork taint problem.

This is a sensitive issue, because the corporate culture of one of the largest cork companies in Portugal, Amorim Cork, does not want to take away the living of the smaller farmers, rather they want to incorporate what they are producing into their own factories, giving the farmers, as well as the cork industry as a whole, the benefit of their multi million dollar investment into the improvement of cork production and the elimination of cork taint.

Amorim Cork, one of the world's big 5 cork makers, has invested millions of dollars in the cure for cork taint and their patented process has truly made a difference in reducing the problem dramatically. Additionally, a new huge modern state of the art plant in the middle of the cork forest serves to maximize the quality control. Ellen & I visited this plant to see first hand a plant in which the cork is boiled, checked, rechecked, tested, sampled and then run through the secret patented process code named "Rosa" after the inventors daughter. Although a huge company that employs eleven hundred people, this is still an Amorin family owned business, employing families who are the children of the families who started with the Amorim company generations ago.

Amorim Cork Plant

The art and science of cork have come together. Cork is still the only thing that works to hold Champagne, because it shrinks and expands to fill the space and it is the only thing that allows great wine to age. In fact, at the recent tasting in England of large numbers of plastic corked & screw topped bottles, the wine tasting panels found that 4% of the wines were tainted using the plastic only. This means the wineries need to keep looking for the problem. It's not always the cork's fault.The following article by journalist Bob Ecker (and fellow traveler) is about the rigorous and exacting cleaning and testing methods of the Amorim Cork Company.

 

Other Related Links:
Cork as a Sustainable Managed Resource
Cork: History, Production, TCA Issues & Solutions
Amorim & Irmãos, S.A., Portugal's Cork Company
Quinta Nova Winery and Hotel Rural Quinta Nova
Quinta de Crasto
Green Bottles Hit Europe
Excessive Copper in Screw Capped Wine Bottles
Cheers to Willamette Valley Vineyards:
Oregon-based Winery First to Use Certified Sustainable Cork Stoppers

Fresh Seafood in Cafe In Lisbon, Portugal
Napa Valley, Vintners in Paris

Events |  Food & Beverage International |  NutraFoodies |  California the Magazine
Home |  Food |  Wine |  Chefs |  Restaurants |  Advertisers |  Recipes
Travel |  Forager |  Who's News |  Directories |  Newsletter |  About Us |  Media Kit

©2007 Food&Beverage International
All rights reserved. | Contact Us | 
Feedback