cork factory

Next stop was a cork factory. They harvest a given tree every 9 years. Then they dry the slabs for about 3 months. There is Russell standing in front of a drying pile. Then they boil the cork for an hour to make it more malleable. That big machine is the boiling vat. Then they sort and grade for quality and wait 30 days and then boil for one more hour. Then they package them in pallets. The best grades go off to the wine cork producers (about 18% of the total factory production) and the wine corks end up costing between 5 cents and 1 dollar per cork.

I hope you were paying attention, there will be a test later.

One thing they do with cork that isn't quite wine grade is cut it into very thin sheets with a felt backing and it can be used to make all sorts of stuff. We kind of went crazy in the gift shop.Read more