As every year around this time (today, 25 July), we’re here to share the end of our cork harvest campaign.
Since today is a working day, the first thing we come across are the carts of cork stoppers produced on 23 July and washed yesterday using our triple-washing system. With about 14 hours of sunlight and three turns, in three days they’ll reach under 6% humidity—ready for ovalisation correction without requiring any further industrial process.
This year, once again, we’ve filled up the yard. Although we purchased slightly less cork, we had some left over from last year’s harvest. As you can see, piles 3 and 5 contain approximately 60,000 kg from the previous campaign. We plan to process pile 5 from 28 July onwards, and pile 3 after the September holidays.
We’re still punching last year’s cork at full capacity, with 16-hour daily shifts. Under the shed roof and at the end of the video, you’ll see cages of cork prepared for the second boiling. After their resting period, they’ll be ready to be punched.
As for this year’s campaign, we’re really pleased: everything went smoothly and without a single incident. Even better, the final cork quality has exceeded the expectations set by our technicians and advisors for the four estates we ended up purchasing from.
Not only is the quality outstanding, but the cork also has excellent thickness. This will allow us to produce stoppers with a 26.7 mm diameter and meet the growing demand for special corks for bottles or large formats.
We’ll be celebrating this good news today with a party for all our staff, local authorities, and the people and organisations we work with throughout the year. We’ll also be celebrating the 2025 SME Award, granted to us by the Chamber of Commerce of Ciudad Real and Banco Santander.
We’ll tell you more about the celebration and the first cork oak harvest in Valdepeñas in the coming days.