Corky the Cat?

Spanish wine producers have rejected the plastic cork so popular with many new world wines, but why? The answer is the Dehesa.

A Dehesa is a traditional Spanish land-use system in which wood collection, raising livestock, and agriculture are all carried out in one area. Pigs and sheep graze on acorns and grass amongst oak woodland interspersed with orchards and cultivated fields. This combination of different land-uses has developed over thousands of years and is well adapted to the local environment. Dehesas are thought to be the most ancient land-management system still in existence in Western Europe.

The Dehesas of Spain along with the Portuguese equivalent, the Montados, cover more than six million hectares of the Southern Iberian Peninsula. They are remarkably sustainable and productive system that supports people, plants and animals.

The most important tree in the Dehesa both economically and culturally is the cork oak. Dehesas are responsible for producing three quarters of the world"s cork. Cork oak, in Spanish, alcornque, can live to be 400 years old. A cork oak will be ready to be stripped of its bark from the age of 20 years onwards, but the best cork is produced once it reaches 50. Removing the cork takes a great deal of skill and requires a special curved axe – if you cut in too deep you can kill the tree.

Because the Dehesa system is so varied it supports a rich diversity of flora and fauna, in fact it's home to more species than it would be if it was left to become natural, unmanaged forest. The cork oak forests are home to both the Imperial Eagle and the Iberian Lynx. However the Dehesas are shrinking, the result of rural depopulation, Eucalyptus plantations, and deforestation and clearing for mechanized cropping, road building, and dams. Once abundant, the Iberian Lynx is currently recognized as the world's most threatened big cat. Today it is thought that less that 200 survive.

Using cork, even if it only means buying wine with a cork stopper rather than a plastic one, will help to justify these cultural landscapes and help protect the species that rely on them.