The wine flowed freely in a single Portuguese city over the weekend.
Two tanks holding almost 600,000 gallons (about 2.2 million liters) of wine at a distillery collapsed on Sunday, sending a torrent of purple wine down the streets of the small city of Levira.
One tank, open on the high, collapsed due to a “structural failure,” stated Pedro Carvalho, the chief govt of the distillery, Destilaria Levira, within the Portuguese municipality of Anadia, about 140 miles north of Lisbon. The sheer power of the wine knocked over one other tank, inflicting the wine from each tanks to stream out of the distillery and into the streets.
The authorities are investigating the reason for the collapse, Mr. Carvalho stated.
It regarded “like a river,” stated Mr. Carvalho, who famous that there was not a robust odor within the air afterward as a result of it was “good quality wine.”
The spill lasted for not more than an hour, Mr. Carvalho stated, and the native volunteer hearth division helped clear up the roads. No accidents had been reported.
“We deeply regret the incident that occurred,” the distillery stated in a submit on Facebook, apologizing for any harm precipitated to the city and, specifically, a house’s basement.
“We take full responsibility for the costs associated with damage cleanup and repair,” the distillery stated. “We’re committed to resolving this situation as soon as possible.”
The tanks that collapsed had been a part of an effort to handle a broader downside: There’s an excessive amount of wine in Europe. Portugal, like different main European wine producers resembling France and Italy, is affected by an oversupply of wine, largely due to a decline in each consumption and exports. The tanks that collapsed had been getting used to retailer surplus wine, in line with the distillery.
In June, the European Commission, the executive department of the European Union, introduced measures to assist the area’s wine producers and scale back extra provides. The measures are in place via Oct. 15.
Inflation is one motive for the drop in consumption, and a superb harvest final 12 months and persevering with issues from the coronavirus pandemic precipitated an accumulation of inventory. The European Commission estimated a drop of 34 % in wine consumption in Portugal this 12 months. A the identical time, manufacturing of wine in Europe has elevated.
Wine exports from the European Union have additionally declined: In the primary quarter of this 12 months, exports had been about 8.5 % decrease than they had been in 2022, in line with the fee.
The surplus particularly impacts purple and rosé wines from areas in France, Portugal and Spain. The French authorities introduced this month that it might spend a further 200 million euros (about $214 million) to destroy tens of thousands and thousands of gallons of wine.
Source: www.nytimes.com