Crisis distillation: Portugal also destroys wine
Wine sales in some European countries are collapsing. Now Portugal is also distilling surplus stocks of red and rosé wine.
Sales of Portuguese wine will be worse this year than they have been for a long time: EU forecasts predict a 34 percent drop in demand, even though the Portuguese are the population that consumes the most wine in the world. The average Portuguese drank a full 67 liters of wine in 2022.
As a result of the war in Ukraine, sales are now declining and the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture has allocated a sum of 20 million euros to be used for the distillation of surplus stocks of red and rosé wines. The raw alcohol obtained from distillation may subsequently be used exclusively for industrial purposes or as biofuel.
Only DOP and IGP quality levels are eligible for distillation in Portugal, so quality and local wines are destroyed in order to put the alcohol obtained from them to a new use.
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