Heres a short video showing the harvesting of a cork tree. All trees are harvested this way and have been done so for nearly 1000 years. Its completely sustainable too as the tree will grow a new coat of bark over the next 9 years or so. Cork production accounts for about 50% of the economy in the north of Portugal and a huge amount of people are employed and earn their living from it. I love the traditional and natural aspect to this product. It seems a perfect fit with the handmade and natural image of wine.
No one would deny there were major issues associated with cork taint. Of course it prompted a number of wine producers to change to alternative closures such as screwcaps. Utlimately though, this reaction may have proved the catalyst that the cork industry (a monopoly) needed in order to improve. Already the quality Diam (http://www.tcafreecorks.com/) closure goes some way towards that.
In NZ producers went mad over the screwcap as some kind of wine saviour. Practically the whole country had adopted screwcaps in a blink of an eye. This occured largely before any research on screwcap issues related to bottling and wine quality had been undertaken or released. You have to wonder if so many wineries would have changed over so quickly had the price of screwcaps not been so cheap.
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