Day 7 - Cork Harvest in Los Alcornocales Natural Park
Today is our 44th wedding anniversary and it has been the most active day of the trip so far. We began by having breakfast in the square of the town downhill from the hotel. Breakfast consisted of fruit, bread, coffee and scrambled eggs.
We were surprised to learn that wineries suffer the cost of a bad wine that is returned from a customer, not the retailer that ultimately sells the wine. In the 1980's, as wineries suffered more losses from corked wine, they approached the cork harvesters to appeal for ways to address the issue. The Cork business was not quick to react. They began to take it seriously only after they lost 25% of the market. The loss is now 40%. In the late 80's, Australia took the lead in a move to screw caps instead of corks. The Cork industry has worked hard to improve their processes and they now guarantee their corks.
Patrick relayed a concern that there is much misinformation about the availability of cork. In Europe it is illegal to cut down a cork tree unless it is diseased. So, when cork harvesters cut diseased trees, the wine industry became worried about a shortage in cork. However, the reality is that cork forests today contain enough cork to supply all of the wine produced for the next 100 years.
The hills in the Alcornocales Natural Park are so steep that mules are used to bring bark down the hills where the trucks can then be loaded. The mules do not need humans to guide them down the mountain - they know the way. However, the mules are smart and will not come back up the mountain unless they are led back up.
Don Jaime Gonzalez Gordon, part of Spanish aristocracy, is the owner of the cork forest we visited. His family owns, and he was the former president of one of the largest wineries that produces Tio Pepe. This very sweet gentleman drove four of us (Ralph, Donna, Gerry and Myra) to the cork harvesters and later to his home for appetizers and Sherry from his winery.
He spoke about his wife and how sorry he was that she was not with him but she was sick and could not make the trip. When we told him that it was our anniversary he toasted us by saying "I married her because I liked her, now I love her!
His pet pig loved the cream on Myra's legs.
We ended our evening in Cadiz by having a dinner of wine and tapas (baby squid, dogfish or shark, anemone, shrimp, padron peppers, flat tortillas with shrimp) and listening to flamingo players. Although we disliked the singing, the interchange between the guitar player and the singer was pure art - Myra could have stayed for several hours, Gerry could not! The 10 of us were the only tourists around - this was an authentic flamingo performance!
One of the highlights of this day occurred as we were busy watching the mules being loaded with cork bark to be taken down the steep hills and watching the harvesters as they cut the long strips of bark. As we were watching, we saw a harvester cutting around a knot on the tree. When he was finished, he had a natural cork bowl!
These Cork bowls from the Iberian Peninsula are coveted and are ideal serving pieces as the interior of the bowls are antibacterial, and non-absorbent. As you can imagine all eight of us on this trip wanted that bowl. We were surprised when they gave our guides the bowl to take and our guides promised to raffle it at the end of the trip.
Today was truly a highlight. Tomorrow we are off to Ronda, a winery tour and an olive oil factory tour.
Comments
Post a Comment