The journey of a cork
It all starts in a forest in Portugal or Spain. Cork oak is harvested every nine years once they reach maturity. It doesn’t harm the tree and the cork bark regrows.
Natural cork is punched out, leaving a skeleton of cork that gets ground up with glue to make Agglomerated corks, which allows the cork bark to be made into even more corks.
The first stage of cork production process is boiling the bark, to soften the cork and also to clean and sanitize them. The water is cleaned and filtered regularly to remove contaminants. Then the clean cork bark is aged for about 6 months.
Next the cork planks are graded and cut into workable pieces.
Premium cork is hand or machine punched, the remaining cork is ground up and mixed with glue to make Agglomerated corks.
Another option to seal your bottles is reusable plastic stoppers. These are a short-term option, so we don’t recommend them if you plan to age your wine in a basement or cellar.
Yet another solution is to use Bag-in-a-box dispenser. These bags come in 4L, 5L, 10L and 20L sizes. These are great for space saving and also for convenience!