natural corks of different ages and lengths
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Cork, bottle stoppers, stock photography samples, by Per Karlsson, BKWine — This is only a selection of samples. Use Image SEARCH to find more photos — Cork, that we can call “natural cork”, comes from the bark of the cork oak tree. The biggest producer of cork is Portugal that has some 80% of all the world’s cork production. Over the last few decades there has been a tremenduous development in the production of bottle stoppers (which is a broader term: the “natural cork” has lost market share. Instead of this we have become used to seeing plastic corks, screw caps, and even glass stoppers.
The natural cork has no been immobile either. First they have worked hard on improving the manufacturing process and improving the quality of the corks (e.g. by reducing the incidences of cork taint from TCA; 2,4,6-tricholoroanisole). They have also developed various new techonologies, e.g. Diam and Mytik with the same purpose.
In summary, there are:
– natural corks (chunks of the cork bark)
– technical corks, made e.g. from glued together grains of cork, or by special processes
– synthetic corks, corks made from various types of plastic
– screw cap, made from aluminium with a plastic (silicon) liner
– glass stoppers (also with a silicon liner)
All images © copyright Per Karlsson, BKWine. Images may not be used without our permission.
Cork – stock photo samples – Images by Per Karlsson