Local Cork grown in SA

[ArcherFish]

Has anyone used South African grown cork on any of their rods.

[Ryan]

Has anyone used South African grown cork on any of their rods.

No. What information do you have on it?

[ArcherFish]

No. What information do you have on it?

Not sure what info you want, but I have some and was wondering if it has ever been used before.

[Ryan]

Not sure what info you want, but I have some and was wondering if it has ever been used before.

What is the quality like? Many pits? Does it crumble? Take a few snaps and send them or post them up here.

[dizzy]

I'm pretty sure someone was telling me about this recently....
IIRC one of the local well known builders has and does use local cork from the Stellenbosch area.

[Ryan]

I'm pretty sure someone was telling me about this recently....
IIRC one of the local well known builders has and does use local cork from the Stellenbosch area.

send me a sample....

[core fly]

If the price is right I will try some.

[ArcherFish]

If the price is right I will try some.

Ryan

The samples I have are from higher branches that fell on the ground and had been lying there for years. Its pretty good. If I strip the bark now it will be A grade, but in 9 years the second growth will be AAA

Core, not going to be selling it.

heres a crappy pic from my webcam

[Michael]

It's no secret that the best cork comes out of Portugal...have been for many years and things won't change. Has to do with the way it's grown, harvested, cleaned, treated, etc. It's not cheap to do either.
99% (if not 100%) of the wine makers in the Western Cape who use cork stoppers on their wine bottles use Portugese cork. There's even an S.A. Cork Society who regulates it.
The biggest problem is the wine you want to store for more than 10 years. You can't skimp on the quality there, or the wine will simply go off after a year or so. For wines meant to be consumed in a year or three...no real problems...but as soon as the wine is meant to be aged over more than 5 years or so, you have to use true flor grade (not A plus plus, AAAA, AAAA plus triple plus, or any other stupid names the cork guys try to give their sub-standard cork stoppers. Flor grade is flor grade, you can't get better than FLOR. Anything stated differently is worse quality. Some idiots even state flor ++, Flor plus, whatever...all BS anyway).

So, bottom line...any cork produced anywhere, is good to use on wines meant to be consumed in under 4 years (most times less than that).
But wine you need to store for a very long time, the cork needs to be top-notch Flor. And the best quality is out of Portugal. (And also then, you need to know which companies are best as well).

[ArcherFish]

It's no secret that the best cork comes out of Portugal...

Bunk. The best cork, like wood is that which grows slowly and is dense. Thus if the local or other cork grows slower it will be better.
Agreed. The best commercial cork comes from Portugal. But, that doesn't mean its the best available.