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Corks are cleaned in this tank. Then sent to a drying
room.
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Corks waiting for cleaning stage. I think the tanks
are to color the corks which is optional.
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| After cleaning and drying, the corks are sorted according to quality. The first step is an automated process. The left photo shows several of these machines in operation. Each is fed from hopper on upper level. The corks are sorted into 8 grades. The photo at right is one side of the sorting machine showing 4 of the 8 shoots. You can see the corks being fed into the spectrometer (This is some type of infrared reflectance spectrometer. Basically the instrument scans both the sides and then the ends for holes or imperfections in the cork.) |
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| The readoout from one instrument. If you look carefully you can see this is a bar graph for 8 grades of corks. If you look carefully at the lower left frame, there are a total of 3 Super corks: 3,560 of Grade2: 10,408 of Grade 3: 5,294 of Grade4: and 266 of the lowest Grade8 (these are rejected and not sold). This gives you an idea of why Super corks are so much more expensive [3 out of nearly 20,000!]. Photo at right compares two corks from different baskets. |
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| After the machine sorts the corks, each Grade is then visually inspected by these women. Two women per line pull off the corks that don't meet the grade. You might notice that the factory is remarkably clean. |
 The
corks are inspected once more to insure consistency. |
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Printing the corks.
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| Top secret process for insuring against TCA in our corks. Corks undergo a final treatment of soaking in two solutions, known only to our cork producer, along with ozone sterilization/drying. This step, along with a host of quality control measures from harvesting of the cork to packaging, ensure TCA free corks. |
 The
emulsifiers (paraffin and silicone) are added through the white funnel
on front of these tumblers. |
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| The corks are being counted and put into bags in left photo. Machine in right photo evacuates the bag, then fills with SO2, then seals. |
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T-Corks are being assembled here.
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| Every batch undergoes a series of tests in the labs. The photo at left shows a machine that tests stiffness or compressibility or something (left in photo) and I'm not sure about the other machine. The photo at right shows several cork samples stored in water. The Organoleptic Lab will evaluate these both analytically and by a panel of tasters at regular intervals. |
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