The effervescent bubbles in KORBEL California Champagne would fall flat if not for the small stopper at the top of every bottle, known as a cork. While many have a love/hate relationship with getting those pesky objects out of the bottle, we’re grateful to them for keeping KORBEL fresh and delicious. However, few know where cork originates or how it’s harvested. In celebration of Arbor Day, KORBEL is spotlighting the sole producer of cork: cork trees.

Cork trees are evergreen oaks found in Western Europe – specifically Spain and Portugal. They grow up to 60 feet tall, and live for 250 to 350 years. A cork tree forms a thick, rugged bark on the outer edge of its trunk and the bark is harvested every nine to 12 years to produce cork. The harvesting of the cork doesn’t harm the trees, and once the bark is extracted, a new layer of cork immediately grows in, making cork a renewable resource. From there, raw cork is distributed around the world and transformed into the stoppers we see in our bottles today.

The next time you pop open a bottle of KORBEL, give a toast to the trees that help preserve your bottles of bubbly.