Put a cork in it.

September 20, 2015 5:22 PM

Cork.
posted by loquacious (15 comments total)

eponysterical
posted by SNACKeR at 6:04 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

k: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JewMikbKOI0

I'm sure Google nixes certain words in randomly generated video IDs. Mildly surprised this one made it through.

But anyway: I always wondered why the part of the tree above the harvest doesn't die, a la girdling.

r/askscience has a decent post about it. Cork bark isn't really the bark as we normally think of it, but rather a protective outer layer around the regular phloem bark.
posted by anarch at 6:26 PM on September 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

What amazes me is that they can do that without killing the tree.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:30 PM on September 20, 2015

Cork (Hubbert, actor under 5 feet tall who was in the comedy "Under the Rainbow" as a short actor trying to break into Hollywood who becomes the tallest Munchkin in the Wizard of Oz... and made a better impression on me than the movie's official stars, Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher).
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:15 PM on September 20, 2015

So one of the videos said that cork has only been in use for about 300 years. What did they seal wine with before that?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:22 PM on September 20, 2015

I guess pacifist bulls only sit under the cork trees in Spain (cause I didn't see any cattle in your linked videos.)
posted by vespabelle at 7:28 PM on September 20, 2015

The 300 year figure is only for Portugal, elsewhere when available cork has been used to seal bottles for millennia. When and where cork wasn't available, linseed oil soaked rags (linseed oil hardens as it oxidizes), boiled wood, clay, wax, and just about anything that would make a good seal was used.
posted by Blackanvil at 7:31 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

300 years ago glass was expensive and not specifically used to make bottles. The wine was not sold in bottles like is done nowadays, it was kept in large wooden pipes (barrels) and you have to bring your own container to carry the wine you bought. When the use of glass bottles became popular and more affordable, the use of cork to seal the bottles was adopted as needed.
posted by CRESTA at 8:20 PM on September 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is great, and far more interesting than i would have imagined. Still, though, i think these all would make the perfect presentation for a Film Production class since they basically all present the same few bits of information in varied formats. I have so many other questions though, about these trees, their landscape, ecology and geology. What else evolved up around them? One video makes reference to the low rainfall coupled with heat and high humidity, but still, why these specific oak trees? There must be others somewhere in the world. And what kinds of gall wasps or other parasites coexist with them? are they propagated or are the different oak groves allowed to develop naturally? I want to know more. Thank you. It's either a long night of google book searches or a pre-work visit to the NYPL.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 8:51 PM on September 20, 2015

Tangentially related: Harvesting spaghetti in Switzerland
posted by not_on_display at 11:26 PM on September 20, 2015

How many fingers have been lost by cork punchers?! I cringe!
posted by TheCoug at 12:56 AM on September 21, 2015

If you ever travel to Australia, you’ll notice that screw caps are on nearly every single bottle in the country.
posted by three blind mice at 2:58 AM on September 21, 2015

Next, the fingers are visually inspected and given a grading from AA to F.
posted by flabdablet at 6:54 AM on September 21, 2015

You forgot Cork.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:01 AM on September 21, 2015

Also tangentially related: marshmallow farming.
posted by Dr. Send at 9:18 AM on September 21, 2015 [1 favorite]