Sardinia, cork and cork trees
The world at large may well be getting used to wine bottles with plastic corks or screw-tops, but the countryside of Sardinia is still peppered with half naked trees whose thighs have been stripped bare to provide traditional corks for traditional bottles. Over 80% of Italy’s cork production comes from Sardinia.In Sardinia cork is put to all sorts of uses, as you’ll discover should you venture into any gift shop whilst holidaying on the island, but where does it come from, this cork?
As you head out of the airport towards your coastal paradise, you’ll pass many a dry dusty field, often containing a small flock of sheep (whose milk will have been used to make the fine pecorino cheese you’ll shortly be tasting in your hotel, magari with a chilled glass of local vermentino) as well as one or two trees that are missing bark on the first metre or so of their trunks. Seen like this – just one or two trees – you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the animals simply eat this bark, or perhaps rub the trunks bare in trying to scratch that elusive itch. But you’d be wrong, as the bark has been cut away in large sheets, and is destined to ‘mature’ for a few months before being boiled, flattened and then processed.
Should you venture into the interior mountains of Sardinia you’ll come across large woodlands of Cork Oak (Quercus Suber), and below you can see a selection of photographs.
Sardinia gets under your skin – it’s a very hard place to visit just the once – and there are hotels to match every taste and budget. Head over to our booking site for a wide range of hotels in Sardinia.
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