The life span of the trees ranges from 200 to 300 years, that’s why it’s clear why many generations have been engaged in cork production in this area. Cork trees also grow in other Mediterranean countries to a lesser extent; however, Portugal and Spain are the main producers of cork both with regard to quantity and quality. It is an extremely environmentally friendly material, and is used for so many different things. We use it in our Cork collection both for stoppers and protective sleeves with different motifs.

We went down the narrow winding streets in the village, that were lined with white houses, until we reached Miguel’s workshop. He was so happy to see us, as our orders are an important source of income for two families. We first took a look in a small shop, where a whole range of products were on display – from artistic clocks and bird’s nest boxes, to women’s purses and wallets.

Miguel Pacheco has been engaged in crafts for 20 years. He spoke about cork with great enthusiasm, although his expression was a little sad. There are 6,000 people in the village who all used to live from cork. After reaching the new millennium, their industry experienced a huge crisis and only a handful of people managed to survive out of 70 small village companies. The wine industry has massively switched to aluminium or plastic stoppers, and wine is now even being packaged in Tetra Pak packaging. There are no debates in the wine industry about the negative impact on the environment, only a few enthusiasts emphasize that cork stoppers positively affected the taste of the wine.

The finished protective cork sleeves are delivered to our company by express mail, where different designs are engraved into them. The Flower of life was our first motif, which quickly became very popular. We soon added “The New Beginning” motif to the collection, and also this year the “Emoto Peace Project” Flaska bottle depicting the crystal “Love and Gratitude”. Cork Flaska bottles are also becoming increasingly popular in the segment of personalized Flaska bottles due to their message and their practical value.