From ancient oak forests south of Lisbon to state-of-the-art processing facilities near Porto in the north, tracing cork’s route from the tree to the finished product turned out to be a fascinating journey across Portugal.
Since the trip, I no longer take for granted a cork stopper whenever opening a bottle of wine (and I have developed an educated disdain for screw caps and synthetic stoppers). I see cork applications all over the place as well – not just the walls of my house either, but shoes, gadgets, housewares, toys, flooring, furniture … Cork is an incredibly versatile material and as green a resource as any.
I hope you enjoyed reading my Cork Report. To help you browse all the posts in the series, here’s a list with links to them all:
• Popping Down to Portugal
• From the Forest
• Stop and Go
• So Much More to Bark About
• Bringing It Back Home
• Obrigado
Amorim
Publishing this series of posts would not have been possible without hospitality and support from Amorim – the largest producer of cork solutions and the most international of Portuguese companies. Everyone representing Amorim whom Kemey and I encountered went out of our way to guarantee a thorough, safe and fascinating tour, and to ensure an open-door policy to whatever we wanted to learn about with respect to the company and cork production.
It was a pleasure to be Amorim’s guests. Kemey and I wish to thank all those involved in making our time with the company so interesting. In particular, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Joana Mesquita, PR at Amorim, for working so hard to coordinate our trip and for sharing with us her love of her country and her amazing hometown of Porto.
If you ever have the pleasure of working with this family-run, decades old company committed to sustainable innovation and preserving one of Europe’s most important natural resources, you’ll be in good hands.
Find out more about Amorim at amorim.com.
