Corking Upcycling Project

This year we saved every single cork we popped from our vineyard tours at Trotton Estate Vineyards. We found ourselves with about 90 sparkling wine corks and no idea what to do with them. 

After a quick google of upcycling projects with corks we fell down a YouTube rabbit hole of crafting with corks. The decision was made we'd make a Christmas Wreath, romantically we even thought how lovely it would be to make wreaths and sell them at local Christmas Craft Fairs or start a little Etsy Shop. Turns out you need an extreme amount of corks to make just one wreath so that idea was quickly quashed.  

With our 90 corks, a brand new glue gun, a template wreath made from grapevines (naturally), a handful of artificial holly berries and snowy pine flowers we set about making a mess and burning things. Glue guns get very hot very quickly and very drippy, they also don't smell very nice. 

In total it took about 3 hours to make over 2 days, it was fiddly, finger tips were burnt and lots of excess glue needed scrapping from the kitchen tops but completely love the end result. If we had a wine cellar it would go on the entrance, if we ran vineyard tours and tastings in the winter it would go on the gate of the vineyard but instead it will go on the front door of HQ from the 1st December. 

Going forward we'll be keeping all our wine corks and during the winter months when we aren't running vineyard tours we can keep ourselves busy making wreaths, placemats, coasters, pin boards and maybe even a bath mat if we save enough corks. 

For now, we are back to planning the 2022 vineyard tour season. We are already seeing bookings come through for May next year and Christmas must on the mind for some as plenty of gift vouchers have been purchased over the last few weeks. All our vouchers are valid for a full 365 days so plenty of options during our five month tour season to come along and taste the award winning wines.