from the Cork Quality Council Named for the countless songbirds that occupy its dense canopy – the Whistler Tree is the most productive cork oak on record. The Whistler Tree grows in the Alentejo region of Portugal and is over 230 years old. It has been producing the finest quality wine corks every nine years since 1820. This year’s harvest …

September 16, 2015 The Portuguese Cork Association makes another stride in consumer education in China as it recently helped Qingdao Wine Museum, arguably the largest of its kind in China, revamp the cork exhibition area in its process pavilion. In order to give visitors a bird’s eye view on the close relationship between cork stopper and wine industry, the Portuguese …

Every time you buy a bottle of wine sealed with a natural cork stopper, you’re helping to sustain one of the world’s most biodiverse forests and protect an extraordinary ecosystem. While it might seem counterintuitive, the best way to ensure that there is no shortage of cork is to use more cork. That is because the greater the demand for …

By Vegas Wineaux | VegasWineaux.com | June 22, 2015 I was honored to have a great interview with Christopher Silva, the CEO of St. Francis Winery & Vineyards in Sonoma. We had been introduced because of my interest in one of several recent articles which noted that wineries are moving back to natural cork and beginning to eschew “alternative” closures such …

By Chris Rauber | San Francisco Business Times | May 31, 2015 Christopher Silva, a fifth-generation Sonoma County native, is big on sustainable agriculture and “green” alternatives. So back in 2013, he decided to stop using synthetic wine bottle closures on virtually all of his company’s wines and return to the natural solution: Cork. And he hasn’t looked back. Silva’s company and …

by Julia Buckley | HotelChatter | May 21, 2015 Cork: Often enjoyed, rarely appreciated before it’s cruelly cast aside in favor of opening another bottle. But one hotel is out to change all that. The Conrad Algarve, in Portugal, wants you to reevaluate your relationship with cork. There are two things we like about its new Cork Route Experience. One …

There’s no shortage of wines to enjoy this summer. But here’s a tip: Always look for wines finished with natural cork. Real cork is one sure sign of quality and an authentic signature of the winemaker’s art. And while some wineries have tried alternatives, a growing number are coming back because of cork’s leading qualities – it’s better for wine, and it’s sustainably harvested. Remember: …

By Ron Smith | Inforum | April 15, 2015 Want something to show off at your next Trivial Pursuit game? Try this: What natural material is lighter than water, nearly impervious to air, hard to burn, resists rot, so elastic that it can snap back into original shape after 14,000 pounds of pressure per cubic inch and, by the way, …

By Bill Swindell | The Press Democrat | February 22, 2015 For a product that has been around hundreds of years, the natural cork industry would seem to be the last type of business to have a need to advertise its product in Wine Country. But that’s what it did over the holiday season with a $300,000 campaign on local radio …