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Production processes

from the forest to the bottle
there are no secrets:
just quality

The production process of our cork stoppers starts with the extraction of the raw material from the cork oak forests and finishes with the shipment of products ready to close the best still and sparkling wines in the world. 

At Trefinos, this process is divided between two production centres: Augusta Cork, in Extremadura, with a surface area of cork oak forests of the most excellent quality worldwide, and Trefinos, in Catalonia, in an area with the best tradition and in a strategic position for distribution throughout the world.

Augusta Cork

maximum efficiency,
minimum environmental impact

Augusta Cork is in San Vicente de Alcántara, Badajoz, at the foot of the Sierra de San Pedro, one of the largest cork oak areas in Spain. Set in the western part of Extremadura, the Sierra de San Pedro is a Special Bird Protection Area and its ecosystem is one of the few natural paradises in which forests, meadows and thickets coexist.
San Vicente de Alcántara is currently the most important cork production and preparation centre in Spain, an activity which has had a great tradition since the 19th century. 

Augusta Cork, created in 1997, rigorously selects the raw material to be transformed from raw cork for the production of the necessary elements for manufacturing cork stoppers: discs and granulated cork. Our strict follow-up on the raw material starts long before the cork is stripped, working jointly with the owners of the land to provide our technical knowledge, which allows the soil conditions to be improved, as well as the quality of the cork itself. 

In parallel with this process, through a controlled plan set up by Trefinos’ quality control department, analyses of samples from a point of view of the quality of the cork and its performance are carried out, as well as through HPLC-SPME. The quality and sensorial results of each forest increase our database year after year, which is essential for determining the profile of the best forests from which our raw material will be selected. 

The raw cork arrives at Augusta Cork from selected forests, where it is identified according to its origin, year and any other variable that allows us to guarantee full traceability throughout the entire production process. 

On arriving at Augusta Cork, the raw cork is placed in storage platforms specially designed for fast evaporation of the humidity and other organic residues. At the same time, this cork undergoes rigorous quality controls before being definitively approved to become part of the production chain. These controls go beyond the standard regulations of the industry. 

Once the selection of raw cork has been made, it is boiled in stainless steel boilers with continuous water filtering systems. All the boiling processes carried out at Augusta Cork are designed to optimise efficiency at the same time as minimising environmental impact. Once a six-month stabilisation period is over, an innovative hygienisation process based on pressurised steam leaves the cork in the best condition to start its transformation. Thanks to the quality control plan, the physical, chemical and sensorial parameters of the cork that will be transformed into granulate and discs are examined.

Trefinos

the highest technology
with a single objective: quality

Trefinos is in Palafrugell, Girona, between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Les Gavarres massif, an area with a long tradition in the cork and cork stopper industry thanks to the large extensions of cork oak forests as well as its strategic situation for distributing the product throughout the country and exporting it to the rest of the world.  At present, the area of Girona and Les Gavarres concentrates 15% of the world production of cork stoppers for sparkling and still wines.

A strict control of the physical and sensorial parameters of the raw material received takes place before the manufacturing of the different varieties of cork stoppers, a product for which Trefinos is one of the main producers on the world market.
 
The final phase of the production chain at Trefinos consists of the moulding, gluing, manual and electronic selection, marking and final treatment before packaging and shipping to the wineries.

Each of these stages in the production process is parameterised with continuous physical, sensorial and microbiological quality controls that enable us to increase the quality and global productivity of the entire process. Finally, the last quality controls are the ones that definitively validate the shipment of the product for its optimum use.

From the forest to the bottle, there are no secrets or miraculous techniques in the process to produce a cork stopper: only a careful, integrated productive method with efficient quality controls, from the purchasing of the raw material through to the finished cork stopper. Only in this way is the best product obtained and, consequently, only in this way do we achieve the customer's complete satisfaction..

Each of the different production phases is duly and meticulously recorded, allowing a complete traceability control.

Thor process

Latest generation technology for the extraction of organic compounds (TCA, TeCA, TBA and PCA) and volatiles. This technology allows us to reach non-quantifiable levels of releasable TCA. Sustainable and environmentally friendly technology with low energy consumption.

• 4 extractors of 1000 liters of individual capacity.

• 3 separators of 500 liter each, that allow the fractionation of extracts.

• Pressure pumping system of up to 350 bars with injection of cosolvents.

• Integral CO2 recovery equipment.

• Equipment for conditioning raw materials to the optimum processing conditions.

• Temperature heating system up to 100ºC with two thermal circuits coupled to achieve maximum energy efficiency.

• Clean room for final product packaging with inert atmosphere packaging option for unstable products..

TD3 process