OK - my bad - how could I forget about cork and Eileen's 2 favorite things - trees and wine!


Just a short post, with a few pictures and a video. It really is quite incredible to see this process and the fact that these trees have been protected since the 1200’s because of their amazing ability to reproduce the bark that is used. The first bark harvest happens after about 25 years of growth, and every nine years thereafter. They say the bark isn't suitable for wine corks until the tree is at least 40+ years old. In the meantime they make many other products from cork. We were told the richest man in Portugal owns the bulk of cork trees in his region.



The process is amazing - this video (not mine) is only maybe 5 minutes, but a very good overview of the entire process.



Driving anywhere in the Algarve region, and especially from Lagos up to Lisbon, you are likely to see Cork trees - either recently harvested or with numbers spray paint on them indicating how many years until the next harvest. Here are a few of our pictures as we were driving through the area.



Short post - I just didn’t want to forget it and don't forget to drink more wine with corks to support this industry.


All the best,

Tim & Eileen