The History of Cork By: Patrick Duggan

What is Cork? Made from Quercus Suber. It is a type of tree that grows mostly in Portugal and the Mediterranean. It grows the cork as its bark to protect it from fire (mostly) and is used as insulation.

Past Corks were not used as stoppers for bottles and barrels of wine. A coating of pitch or gypsum were most commonly used. Oil was poured on top of the liquid so that the air wouldn’t get to it. Medieval times threw out the cork and only used twisted cloth or a piece of leather and sometimes sealing wax.

Present Today we still use cork to seal bottles of wine and barrels The reasons we use them today are because 1. cork is resilient towards liquids 2.stays the same at both high and low temperature and can last up to 20 years 3. cork is bio degradable Plastic and other man made corks are used but most vineyards like to use the classic cork

Fun Facts! Cork is used in life jackets due to its resilience towards liquids The cork trees are not cut down, but harvested by hand about every 9 years Cork forests keep 6.6 million acres of the Mediterranean basin from becoming a dessert

Citations http://www.beekmanwine.com/prevtopap.htm http://scribol.com/environment/14-facts-and-fictions-about-wine-corks