A glitch at a wine storage facility in Spain’s southeast has produced a fast-growing lake of red wine amounting to tens of thousands of bottles. Bystanders filmed the local disaster as they watched in disbelief.
The culprit behind the incident was a leaking storage tank at a winery in Villamalea located in the southeastern Spanish province of Albacete. In the blink of an eye, it started pumping torrents of precious red wine, so cherished on the Iberian Peninsula and beyond.
An estimated 50,000 liters spilled out, according to local media. Those present at the scene filmed the vineyard and surroundings completely filled with red wine.
Wineries in Villamalea are in the middle of harvesting season, meaning that workers are busy picking fresh grapes and readying them for primary fermentation. Red wine is normally made of the pulp of red or black grapes, which gives the wine its color.
While heartbreaking, scenes of wine spilling over are not entirely new. Back in January, a whopping 367,000 liters of cabernet sauvignon spilled into California’s Russian River after a tank leak in a Sonoma County vineyard.
Two years ago, a massive, overflowing container of Prosecco created a huge fountain of sparkling wine in the Italian province of Veneto.
The latest spill happened at Vitivinos Wineries, which prides itself on growing grapes in the dry continental climate and in soil rich in clay. “This entire ecosystem is ideal for producing quality grapes for concentrated wines,” the company says on their website.
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