Cork Trees in Andalucia, Spain

Yesterdays post about Fine Wines in Sancerre, France got me thinking about the cork that is used to stopper the wine bottles.

Part of the excitement when travelling is discovering tidbits of information about something that we take for granted; cork for instance. I have always known that cork was a renewable bark and stoppered the fine bottles of wine that I purchase, was used for flooring and corkboards and likely numerous other products but living here in North America I hadn’t thought much about cork trees, I don’t even know if we grow them. How do they harvest the bark and what does the cork tree look like? Well, I finally found out when lost in a valley somewhere in Andalucía, Spain, maybe near Gaucín? What struck me most was the colour of the trees right after the bark has been removed. Pretty cool!

Cork tree near El Colmenar, Málaga, Andalucia, Spain
Cork tree near El Colmenar, Málaga, Andalucia, Spain
Cork bark stacked to dry near El Colmenar, Málaga, Andalucia, Spain
Cork bark stacked to dry near El Colmenar, Málaga, Andalucia, Spain
Cork bark stacked to dry near El Colmenar, Málaga, Andalucia, Spain
Cork bark stacked to dry near El Colmenar, Málaga, Andalucia, Spain
Corks and heads in Paris, Île-de-France, France
Corks and heads in Paris, Île-de-France, France

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