Though the Cork Oak can flourish in many climates, the conditions that favor commercial use lie in a fairly narrow swath that cuts through Western Europe and Northern Africa along the Mediterranean coast. Together they provide 2,200,000 hectares of natural cork forest. This number, owing to the mutual efforts of the EEC and various environmental groups, is expected to increase due to the active efforts to protect existing forests and sponsorship of significant new plantings. The existing cork forest together with the new plantings that have occurred in the past twenty years represent an immense and steady natural resource of cork stoppers that will serve the wine industry for the next century. Cork suitable for wine stoppers is not harvested until the following 9-12 year cycle, so farmers have invested over 40 years before natural wine corks are produced.
Cork bark is removed from trees in spring or summer.
At this time of year the cork comes away easily from the trunk because the tree is growing, the new, tender cork cells being generated break easily. Harvest difficulties occur if the process is not carried out when the tree is in full growth. As soon as it is evident that the cork is being stripped too early or too late in the season the stripping is brought to a halt, a year s delay in cork extraction is preferred to damage to the tree. The past two years have provided an end to the drought conditions that had occurred in the mid 90's. This allows the harvesting period to extend to a normal length - and has shown a significant improvement in annual production.