Video: Nearly 77 Million Bottles Worth of Wine Flood the Streets of Portugal Village After Two Tanks Fall Over The residents of São Lourenço de Bairro certainly had much to "wine" about on Sunday.
By Emily Rella
It's wine-o-clock somewhere, and apparently that somewhere is in the streets of Portugal.
The small village of São Lourenço de Bairro saw a sea of red on Sunday after two suitable-to-consumption wine storage tanks carrying the vino from the Levira Distillery flipped over and flooded the streets with 600,000 gallons of pure red wine.
To put it in perspective, 600,000 gallons is roughly 76.8 million bottles worth of an average-sized bottle of wine (25 oz).
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Footage from the incident shows an almost unbelievable sight as the alcohol gushes down the streets of the windy, hilly village with no signs of slowing down.
Two large wine containers broke yesterday in the town of Levira, Portugal, which lead to the streets being flooded with wine. pic.twitter.com/hw6avobgje
— Brain Quest (@AweInspireMe) September 11, 2023
"I would like to volunteer to help the community clean up from this devastating event," one viewer joked.
"Imagine literally drowning in wine," another said.
The Anadia Fire Department and environmental authorities were concerned that the wine would flow into the nearby Certima River and contaminate it, thus diverting the flow of the liquid into a nearby field.
A special treatment plan has been issued for the now-contaminated field.
"We assume full responsibility for the costs associated with cleaning and repairing the damage, having teams do so immediately," Levira Distillery said in a translated statement via Facebook. "We are committed to resolving this situation as quickly as possible."
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The company also said that authorities are currently investigating the incident to find the root cause and have encouraged residents to keep photographic records of damages caused by the spill and to contact the distillery to help resolve any issues that may have been incurred.
No injuries have been reported as a result of the incident though one resident did report that their basement had been flooded.
The Levira Distillery was founded in 1923 and is one of Portugal's largest distilleries, serving roughly 30% of the Portuguese market.
The distillery recently took in a large quantity of extra wine in storage due to the European wine surplus, which has been fueled by a lack of demand for the beverage in European countries due to inflation.
