Residents in a Portuguese village awoke to a river of crimson wine gushing through the town when two massive storage tanks at a nearby winery ruptured.
The flood was 2.2 million litres (500,000 gallons) of wine.
On Sunday morning, anks at the Destilaria Levira in Levira, Anadia exploded, with thousands of gallons of ready-to-drink red wine flowing into the town. Locals’ videos captured the extent of the industrial mishap, with the alcoholic beverage rushing past parked cars and down the hill.
According to the fire department, the wine was rerouted to a waste treatment plant, and the local council announced on Sunday evening that the wine was stopped from reaching the local Cértima river, averting a “environmental disaster.”
The cause of the loss of two wine tanks is being explored. Destilaria Levira, the company involved, appears to have been proactive in reaction, turning over its entire employees to clean up.
In a social media post, the vineyard asked residents to take photos of any wine-related damage to their property and submit them to them, pledging to pay for repairs.
According to the firm, the wine was held in such big vats as part of a government scheme to assist winemakers affected by the economic impact of a wine glut in the country.
Portugal had roughly 58 million litres of excess wine, and the government was spending millions of Euros to remove the excess and keep wineries in business.
This event certainly recalls the London Beer Flood of 1814, when up to 300,000 gallons of fermenting beer were released when a 22-foot-tall wooden fat burst under the pressure, knocking out other vats as it did and releasing more beer.