The Millennial History of Cork Processing: An Art Handed Down from Father to Son
The cork oak characterizes a large part of the Sardinian landscape; the largest cork forests are found in Gallura, Goceano, in the Mandrolisai area and in Sulcis Iglesiente. Cork is an important element of the Sardinian economy and characterizes the distinctive features of Sardinian craftsmanship. Its first applications may date back to about 3000 years ago.
Sardinia produces about 80% of the national cork production and has the largest area of land dedicated to cork oak, about 90,000 hectares of territory.
The cork oak is a tree that can be imposing (reaching up to 20 meters in height) with the trunk and branches covered by a layer - "the cork" - which acts as a protective patina for the plant, shielding and defending it from bad weather and potential fires. The plant has roots that sink into the ground for many meters, allowing it to adapt to difficulties such as lack of water. It can live up to three hundred years and prefers temperate and rainy climates and an altitude below 1000 meters.
This bark that surrounds the plant is extracted from the oak, and its characteristics of elasticity, strength, lightness, and impermeability make it usable in a wide variety of application fields, from clothing to footwear, from construction to craftsmanship, all the way to the winemaking industry for the production of stoppers.
The bark is extracted every 10 years and never before the tree is at least 18 years old.
Cork can be divided into 2 main types:
- Virgin cork: this is the cork extracted for the first time, very hard and irregular. The process by which virgin cork is extracted is called "demaschiatura" (debarking) and occurs when the oak has a circumference of at least 60 cm and a height of 120/130 cm.
- Gentle cork: this is the cork extracted 10 years after "demaschiatura," used for the finest products.
Cork is the undisputed material for the production of stoppers.
