Nearly 600,000 gallons of wide spilled onto the streets of Levira, Portugal, this past weekend after two storage tanks collapsed at the Destilaria Levira wine distillery.
According to the New York Times, the first tank fell due to a structural failure, with its open top releasing hundreds of thousands of gallons of the alcohol. The ensuing flood pushed over the second tank, releasing even more wine onto the streets. The spill lasted for no more than an hour and no injuries appear to have occurred during the incident.
“We take full responsibility for the costs associated with damage cleanup and repair, with crews available to do it immediately. We’re committed to resolving this situation as soon as possible.” – Destilaria Levira
The tanks were reportedly being used to store surplus wine, a trend that’s become quite popular across Europe. Currently, throughout the continent, there’s a major oversupply of wine, because of a lack of both consumption and exports (partially due to inflation, a strong harvest, and lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic).
Can you imagine waking up to this? First of all, it looks like a river of blood, a truly apocalyptic type of event. Even getting over that and realize it’s just wine (the smell would probably help), though, I would still be convinced it was some omen.
I want to see someone kayak down a river of wine now. That would make for a pretty crazy video clip, would it not?
Also, apparently the French government is planning to spend millions of dollars to destroy surplus wine. I think they should just send it to college students across the United States, with classes having started just a few weeks ago at most schools…
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Image Credit: Global Eye News via X