corks for bottles...interesting how they are harvested!

[Pip]

Have you ever wondered where that cork in your bottle of wine comes from?

The answer is most likely to be Spain or Portugal, where over half of the world’s cork is harvested.  In fact it is the “National Tree” of Portugal.  However, unlike other forms of forestry, the production of cork never involves the death of a tree.  Instead, they are gently stripped, leaving a strange but fascinating landscape of denuded trunks.  All of this takes some time.  Cork trees can live to over 200 hundred years but are not considered ready for their cork to be removed until they are at least 25 years old.  Even then, the first two harvests do not produce cork of the highest quality.

[stewart]

you would be a real deva at a trivia night Pip :)

[Pip]

I love finding out obscure facts and got this from a yahoo group I belong to.