The cork we use is from Portugal a bit south-east of Lisbon area. The trees are neither watered, nor treated with chemicals. All our barks are from FSC certified forests.

It is boiled, stored for several months and sliced.

These slices are applied on the linen.

Porto in portugal, the country of cork

Portugal is the cork expert

Since the company creation we have been working with cork from Portugal and we have never been disappointed. Not only is Portugal the biggest producer of it worldwide (34 % of forest surface), but the quality is also the absolute best.

Portugal has a very long history in cork-oak forests and pays attention to many details. The portuguese association of cork APCOR does their very best to communicate about the industry but as well to educate about it.

Some wrong ideas received:

  • The oak trees are cut down to harvest cork – Only the bark is cut off and only by specialists without harming the tree

  • Plastic stoppers are better for wine as the wine cannot have “cork-taste” – indeed the wine cannot be corked [which basically means that some fungus left in the stoppers develops some taste to the wine], but the wine cannot breath neither. Your wine can not age with plastic stoppers. And last but not least one plastic stopper emits 10 times more CO2 than a natural cork stopper. (Aluminium 24 times more)

  • There is a shortage in cork. – No. It is a natural material and of course limited as any ressource, but there is no shortage. This false information was spread by the plastics industry to sell their wine stoppers. (see point 2)

  • The bark is hard and breaks easily. – Cork indeed is a bark and not soft, but if you work it correctly and thin is is very flexible. Additionally: It is super elastic! You don’t believe us? Open a champagne bottle and you will see that the stopper gets back in its original shape with the famous opening sound.

Cork in Portugal numbers and statistics