Portugal: Two large tanks filled with red wine accidentally spilled over, releasing 2.2 million liters of wine into the streets
The distillery responsible for the wine spill apologized to the local residents. The wine flowed down a steep hill and into the town’s streets, creating a river of wine. While this was surprising to watch, thankfully, no one was hurt. However, some wine may have entered a home’s basement, according to the distillery called Destilaria Levira.
This massive wine spill raised concerns about its impact on the environment because it was heading toward a nearby river. Firefighters stepped in and redirected the flow of wine away from the river and into fields.
The distillery explained that the spill happened when two storage tanks burst, but they are still trying to figure out why it occurred. They have taken full responsibility for the cleanup and repair costs and have already started the process.
To put this into perspective, the amount of wine spilled could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and more than 580,000 gallons of wine ended up in the streets.
The distillery mentioned that the surplus of wine was due to a European-wide problem caused by reduced wine consumption. Because people were buying less wine, there was too much of it in storage. Even the European Commission noticed this problem and planned to convert extra wine into biofuel.
Portugal was not alone in dealing with this surplus; other countries like France also faced similar challenges. To tackle the problem, Portugal and France introduced programs to use excess wine in different ways, thanks to government support.
