Portugal is the world’s largest cork producer but now competition is coming from Provence. Well, France will never have the volumes they have in Portugal. Portugal is still by far the world’s biggest cork producer. But this year 800,000 bottles will to be sealed with wine corks from cork oaks growing in the Massif des Maures and Massif de l’Estérel down in the Provence.
This exploitation of the Provencal cork oak is a collaboration between the Provence wine cooperative Estandon Vigneron and Diam, a French producer of technical corks. The Diam cork is a natural cork that undergo a special treatment that removes the molecule that may cause cork taint.
The Provence corks are marked with “Liege de Provence ‘(oak from Provence). So consumers will know that the cork comes from locally grown oak. There are 45 000 hectares of cork oak in Provence and around 800,000 in Portugal, mostly in Alentejo. Read more lavigne-mag.fr
