French Winelovers Fight to Cork Their Bottles
THE TELEGRAPH: French defenders of natural wine corks have launched a multi-million pound offensive to counter the rise of the screw cap and plastic stopper, which they argue kill the mystique of bottle-opening.

Debate has been raging for years over whether the familiar sound of popping corks should be ditched in favour of alternatives that reduce the risk of a "corked" wine.

Cork stoppers have been used for centuries, but their dominance has gradually dropped from 95 per cent of the world wine bottle market to 70 per cent over the past 15 years.

But France's cork federation has hit back at those who say the spongy bark has had its day with a poll suggesting that almost nine out of ten French people prefer the traditional stopper.

They are using the figure to spearhead a massive poster campaign featuring wine and champagne bottles with bizarre alternative stoppers - from a perfume spray top to a plastic duck – with the slogan: "Always imitated, never equalled".

Eight out of ten French people, the Ipsos poll suggests, also equate real cork with quality wine, well-preserved aromas and long conservation. Almost all said cork perpetuated age-old savoir-faire. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, June 03, 2010

THE SHREWD ECONOMIST: Put a cork in it! >>>

WATCH SHORT BBC VIDEO: Cork harvest >>> | Friday, September 05, 2008

LISTEN TO BBC AUDIO: Cork industry under threat: Cork has been described as 'the ultimate green product', but the industry is under threat. >>> Paul Henry | Friday, September 05, 2010

The Cork Industry under Threat. Cork Is the Ultimate Sustainable Resource; So Put a Cork in that Bottle of Wine!
Photo of man stripping bark courtesy of the BBC
BBC: "It's not just a tree we are trying to protect here. It is a whole environment," says Antonio Ferreira, who has been a land owner and cork farmer in the Coruche district of Portugal for many years.

"The forest you see around you now has been like this for hundreds of years. It is meant to be this way".

Antonio points to the cork oaks whose roots hold the soil together in Portugal's increasingly extreme climate, where deluges can be followed by many weeks entirely without rain.

Not only is there none of the creeping desertification here which marks much of the southern Iberian peninsula these days, there is an abundance of life.

Between the oaks, wildflowers flourish, sustaining bees and honey production.

Some of the animal, bird and insect life is unique to the cork forest.

Mushrooms are harvested that sprout from the root fibres. Livestock like sheep and pigs feast on acorns in the autumn and in turn help fertilise the soil.

It being harvest day, these woods are buzzing with people and tractors.

It is exactly nine years since the trees were stripped of the bark that is the main source of income for landowners.

And the cork has grown back, several centimetres thick and ready for collecting.

Farmers do not risk letting anyone loose on these trees with a sharpened axe. The men putting carefully placed cuts in the bark, and peeling back people-sized chunks of outer tree trunk, have been doing this job for years.

"It's like cutting cloth for dress-making", says Mr Ferreira.

Conceicao Silva, who works as a forest engineer for the organisation overseeing environmental standards in the industry, adds: "Bring the axe down too hard on the branch and permanent damage could be done, which will rule out generations of future harvesting.

"If it's properly managed, what we are looking at here is the ultimate sustainable resource." Urging Vintners to Put a Cork in It >>> By Paul Henley, BBC News, Portugal | September 18, 2008

BBC Audio: Does the screw cap spell the end for Portugal’s cork production? >>>

BBC video: Once every nine years: How cork is harvested >>>