Welcome to Europe, where the wine flows like water, literally.
Earlier this week in the quaint Portuguese town of São Lourenço do Bairro, a local winemaker unintentionally unleashed a torrent of 2.2 million litres (600,000 gallons) of red wine onto the street. This unexpected deluge, resembling a water rapid, cascaded down a steep hillside after two massive tanks owned by Levira Distillery burst suddenly. The astonishing scene was posted on social media, showing baffled locals watching the Biblical scenes pass them by.
According to the Daily Mail, the amount of liquid could have filled an “Olympic-sized swimming pool”, causing local officials to issue an environmental alert, as the wine could have potentially contaminated the nearby Certina River. Thankfully, the local fire department was able to block it off and divert the wine river’s path before reportedly draining the liquid and transporting it to a nearby wastewater treatment plant.
The spill caused no hard to residents, but the municipality of Anadia has reported road damage and noted at least one residential basement near the winery that has been affected. Levira has since apologised, issuing a statement on social media about how they plan to rectify the unfortunate situation.
“Although the incident did not cause any injuries, we want to express our sincere concern for the damage caused in general,” the statement reads. “We assume full responsibility for the costs associated with cleaning and repairing the damage, having teams do so immediately.”
The entire incident will undoubtedly be a costly ordeal for the local distillery. When you consider the volume of wine spilled and multiply it by the standard bottle prices, it’s clear that this will be a significant financial hit. We’ll leave the math to you, our astute readers. Hopefully, they have insurance…
Now, let’s imagine a mishap like that occurring with, oh, let’s say, Victoria Bitter. Well, you can bet we’ll be on the scene with our surfboard and schooner glass, ready to lend a hand in redirecting that liquid gold straight into our mouths.
