World’s Oldest Cork Tree

Wednesday, 02 December 2009 17:40

As you pilot your touring bike through the Alentejo wine country consider the fact that Portugal is home to 55% of the world's cork production, the majority of which comes directly from the Alentejo plain. Given its renewability, non polluting, non toxic and natural properties such as breathability, cork still holds a great advantage over other synthetic and plastic substitutes used in the preservation and production of wine. The Whistler Tree is the oldest and largest productive cork tree in the world. This magnificent cork oak, found in Águas de Moura in the Alentejo region, was named for the whistling sound it produced due to the high number of songbirds living in its mighty branches. The Whistler was planted in 1783, and measures 45 feet high with a circumference of almost 15 feet. The tree was harvested for the first time in 1820, and twenty times since then. Cork trees are harvested every nine years, where every part that is taken gets used  in some way, leaving no waste. Harvesting does not harm the tree and is carried out manually. The procedure is similar to peeling a banana. In 1991 the Whistler harvest produced 1200Kg of bark, good for more than 100,000 wine bottle corks. This amount is more than most trees produce in a lifetime. The cork tree population worldwide helps offset ten million tons of carbon in the atmosphere, each year. Compare that to the amount of carbon polluting the air in the production process of plastic cork.  The cork trees in Portugal are the natural nesting habitat to the local population of white storks or cegonhas throughout the river estuaries and grasslands of Portugal.