An older cork tree amongst a plantation of younger examples
Quercus suber is a type of oak tree native to the Mediterranean region. The tree has adapted to problems of fire and drought by growing thicker bark as a protective layer. This cork layer has many industrial uses and huge open forests have been developed to benefit from its sale in 7 countries bordering the Mediterranean sea. Spain is the second largest producer at around 25% of the world supply, following Portugal.
Cork oak trees are not felled, the bark is stripped, by hand using a special axe, at harvest time. This layer slowly regenerates, therefore creating a sustainable crop. Areas are harvested every 9 to 12 years, often with little work carried out in between these times. With this in mind you can envisage the importance to wildlife that these forests hold. A tree will be approximately 50 years old before its bark will be suitable for a wine stopper and may live to be 200 years old.
This tree has a test cut to see the cork thickness
Beginning in the 18th century cork has become widely used in industry, particularly after the development of the cork stopper by Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk well known for creating the first champagne. Other varied uses are flooring, engine gaskets, wall covering, sound insulation, fishing floats, shoes and life-buoys
Environmentalists, WWF and ornithological groups are campaigning to save the cork industry from decline by making the end user (wine drinkers) more aware of their power in choosing cork only bottles rather than metal screw tops or resin stoppers.
The following report by the World Wildlife Fund on cork forests of the Mediterranean region goes into great detail on the strong link between corks in wine bottles and the survival of these beautiful and important natural habitats.
Read the report here. (PDF document published May 2006)
The WWF conclude that if current trends to use alternative stoppers continue to grow that three quarters of these natural woods and forests could be lost through neglect, fire, diversification and over-grazing during the next 10 to 15 years.
Raw cork and manufactured wine stoppers "corks"
Where to see cork trees in Iberia?
"Los Alcornocales" is a forest of Cork oak trees in Western Andalucia, the largest in Iberia and therefore important to the worlds cork supply. Find out more information about the area by clicking here.
Talk about it and ask question's
There is a discussion on corks, corkage and cork trees at this iberianature forum topic... Please feel free to join in.
Below is a fascinating and well thought out re-worked précis of the lecture Frank McClintock gave at the British Birdfair in August 2009. Frank owns and runs Quinta do Barranco da Estrada - Rural Portugal Holiday Retreat
Paradise in Portugal listing page at Wildside Holidays can be found here.
1/ The UK buys over 1.3 billion bottles of wine per annum and with Germany is the largest importer of wine in the world. The supermarkets sell over 75% of the all the wine sold in Great Britain and they are crucial to the continued success of the flourishing cork industry that remains its present size. Apart from one supermarket - the Co-op who is far more environmentally caring - they all want to drive down the price of wine to rock bottom especially at the cheapest end of the market. Because the supermarkets dominate the retail market there and the United Kingdom is so influential on the world market for wine, the attitude of the buyers in the supermarkets is critical to the survival of a vibrant cork industry.
2/ Because of cost the cheapest 10% of wine, especially wine being shipped from distance (Australia, Chile, Argentina South Africa and the USA), is imported in bulk and bottled here. A safrap container holds 32,000 hectolitres of wine whereas a 40 foot container, which occupies the same space in a ship's hold only holds 21,000 hectolitres of wine in bottle, so there is a considerable saving in cost in shipping wine in bulk from countries distant to the UK and getting the wine bottled there.
3/ Five years ago 80 million natural wine corks were purchased in the UK. Today the quantity is down to 8 million. Why? Simply cost!! The TCA problem has largely been solved, but unfortunately the Portuguese cork manufacturers have been too slow in bringing in a rigid hygiene protocol and the wine industry got fed up because of the number of bottles of wine that were spoiled by TCA and it is this followed by price that has brought about the change of closure in wine.
All the way through the 1990's sales of wine world wide and therefore the sales of cork kept rising (wine sales have continued to rise until the present economic downturn when they have levelled off) and I am afraid the cork closure manufacturing industry which is a mass of small companies dominated by four or five major companies was too slow in upgrading hygiene standards in the manufacturing process which begins in the forest with the correct stacking of cork bark after the strip. For far too long after there was a remedy, TCA remained a problem and this proved the tipping point in the attitude of wine buyers in the UK. They were persuaded to trial alternative closures because of TCA and once they found the attitude of the wine buying public ambivalent about the closure, cost kicked in and was off down the road toward a cheaper closure.
I am afraid the leaders of the cork closure manufacturing industry in Portugal, especially APCOR, have a lot to answer for in not insisting upon the tighter hygiene protocol that now exists at an earlier stage. APCOR are the Portuguese Federation of Cork Manufactures but they do not represent the whole industry. Membership is voluntary and the Federation is dominated by smaller companies of whom many were reluctant to introduce improved levels of hygiene because of cost and only did it when it was too late. Today beside a very considerable upgrade in manufacturing method to prevent TCA, there are methods to screen for TCA by taking random samples from the manufactured production that are large enough to be representative of the whole consignment.
These corks are immersed in either a neutral white wine or in water for 24 hours and the wine or water is then heated to give of vapour which is then concentrated and electronically checked for TCA. The sensitivity of this process is so accurate it can determine the presence of TCA down to 1 part per trillion. This level is below the sensitivity of the human palate which at its most sensitive can detect levels of TCA down to 2 parts per trillion in delicate white wines. The general public's normal detection level starts at 5 parts per trillion (5 ppt) and for red wine the starting point is higher.
The sensitivity amongst differing individuals varies hugely e.g. the palates of smokers are far less sensitive, but a good wine buyer will be able to taste TCA defects down to 2 ppt in white wine and 5 ppt in red wine. Testing for TCA for all the smaller companies is usually not done in house but by independent outside laboratories which charge for the analysis and issue certificates of cleanliness. The larger companies have their own in-house laboratories doing the same tests. The system is not perfect but on the whole it works. The main problem is that certification is voluntary and not mandatory and batches of cork can be sold onto the market without certification or in extreme circumstances the certification can be false.
4/ Unfortunately testing for TCA and the improved levels of hygiene in manufacture are expensive and have added to cost (not a lot and this was before the drop in the price of cork bark which is the major cost of manufacturing production) and these costs have to be passed on to the wine bottler but at the moment at least these overall costs can be contained because of the fall in the cost of raw cork bark.
However, a wine bottled using a cork requires a secondary seal (a capsule or sometimes a small wax disc) as opposed to a screw cap which is a one application and therefore is cheaper. Unfortunately the economics get worse; there is an enormous difference in bottling line speed between cork and screw caps. The highest bottling line speeds achievable using corks and capsules are 5000 bottles per hour whereas the highest line speeds achievable using screw caps are 25.000 bottles per hour. (Plastic corks are slightly cheaper in price than a medium/low grade cork and line speeds are similar to cork so there is not a lot of cost saving).
The cost difference between bottles sealed by cork and those sealed by screw cap is in the region of 5 pence per bottle. This does not sound a lot but Tesco' sell over 300 million bottles of wine per year and 5 pence per bottle is a very considerable cost saving to them. Whilst on the subject in the late 1990's Tesco's declared intent was to change 50% of their sales of wine to bottles with screw caps. They have more than achieved this target and other supermarkets have followed in their footsteps.
5/ Not only is the ecology of the cork tree so good for the environment in the forest. It is equally good in the factory. The conversion of bark into wine corks requires relatively low levels of energy and there are no toxic chemicals used in production whereas the energy used in the manufacture of aluminium screw caps and plastics is absolutely huge and there are also a number of pretty toxic chemicals used in the production of both. This statistic is not widely known. There has been a study by the University of Friburg into this.
6/ Wine that is ready to drink i.e. wine bottled today for drink tomorrow can be sealed by any closure; however quality red wine and some quality white wine (chardonnay and Sauternes in particular) that are going to develop in bottle must be sealed under cork and champagne in the luxury market continues to use cork as the preferred closure of choice. But aromatic and fruity white wines keep fresher when sealed under screw cap. Red wine and the other types of white wine need minute quantities of oxygen to develop.
Screw caps provide a total seal and this largely prevents any wine development in bottle or if left for a very long time a very different development which usually results in a less pleasant flavour. Therefore it is likely that good quality red will continue to use cork as the preferred closure of choice, but the cork industry can not rely on good quality red wine alone. I am happy to advise that plastic closures are less efficient than cork at keeping out air because they do not have the elasticity of cork and air can leek down between the side of the cork and the neck of the bottle especially opposite the neck ring of the bottle. Basically good quality wine requires a cork. Hurrah!!
7/ What can be done to stem the tide to alternative closures on quick consumption wines which are 80% of all wine that is consumed? Not a lot, unfortunately but there is a groundswell of opinion beginning to make itself apparent as the facts become known.
The Portuguese government should be combining with Italy and Spain and to a lesser extent France to become far more proactive in protecting the cork industry by making far greater efforts within the EEC to ensure environmental labelling showing whether the closure is natural cork or a synthetic. They should also be spending money to point out the critical environmental importance of the cork forest to south west Europe and the low energy use in production. In the Rioja distirict of Spain natural wine corks are mandatory.
The Cork Industry in the UK is very small but now most of the Federation's cash has been spent in the development of their School's website, www.planetcork.org.
In the UK we have a duty to try and make the general public more environmentally conscious. This is what the Federation are attempting to do by developing their Schools website, but this is a long term strategy. In Germany the general public are far more aware and that country's green party is much more powerful. Everyone concerned about this issue in the UK should be writing/e-mailing their MP and MEP to get this on the agenda. The debate on how the cork industry can best react to the present situation and how best to promote its unique advantage needs to continue and be as vigorous as possible.
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