The cork you find as bottle stoppers in wine bottles has many other uses. Cork is harvested commercially from Cork Oak tree (Quercus suber) and half the production comes from Portugal. It is the elastic properties and near-impermeability of cork that has made it popular as a bottle stopper. But with plastics being used more and more; cork needs to diversify into other areas. One such area is cork flooring and I would suggest you keep an eye out for developments in this arena in the next few years.