There is so much surplus red wine in Portugal, it’s flooding the streets. That’s one way of deciphering the incredible scene that unfolded in São Lourenço do Bairro, a small town where millions of liters of wine recently overwhelmed the roads.
The roughly 2.2 million liters of wine (some 581,000 gallons) poured out of two burst tanks at Destilaria Levira on Sunday, according to local newspaper Diário de Coimbra. A viral video from the scene shows a “river of wine” coursing down a hilly street, sluicing over its curbs.
The company issued a statement saying it “profoundly laments” the incident, pledging to bear the costs of the cleanup. São Lourenço do Bairro sits near Portugal’s coast, roughly an hour’s drive south from Porto.
No one was hurt by the torrent of wine, but it did reportedly flood at least one cellar. Local officials are now working to repair the damage done, and also to prevent the alcoholic liquid from affecting local farms, vineyards and water supplies.
The large amount of wine was being stored at the distillery through the government’s “crisis distillation” program, which aims to use incentive funds to remove a glut of wine from the market pipeline before this year’s harvest. It was slated to be converted into alcohol.