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<\/a><\/p>\nThe tour was scenic and extremely educational.\u00a0 Definitely a “must do” if you are in Portugal!<\/p>\n Cork trees take 15 years to mature to the point where you can make the 1st extraction, and then every 10 years thereafter.\u00a0 The first 2 extractions produce cork that is used in various ways, but not wine stoppers, where the real money is \u00a0 You can’t make cork for wine bottles until the 3rd extraction, so you have to wait 35 years!<\/p>\n Portugal has very strict rules on the owners of the cork forests.\u00a0 They are not allowed to remove a cork tree unless it is dead.\u00a0 Even if it is dead, they have to have a government official come to the estate and inspect the tree to make SURE it’s dead before they can remove it.\u00a0 They are also not allowed to plant new trees.\u00a0 That process has to happen naturally.<\/p>\n When a tree has it’s cork extracted, they mark the tree with the year of extraction.\u00a0 The recently extracted trees have a reddish color that turns black by the next year.\u00a0 For 1st and 2nd extractions, they only remove half the height of the main bark of the tree, as this is better for the young tree. In this photo you can see the freshly extracted tree next to a tree that will be extracted next year.\u00a0 The freshly extracted tree is 25 years old.<\/p>\n From that point forward they can extract further up each time.\u00a0 The tree in these photos is about 75 years old.<\/p>\n To make wine corks, the cork is boiled, and they stamp out the corks either by hand, or via machine.\u00a0 Here is an example of some corks stamped by a machine.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n