French winemakers will transform wine that went unsold during the country's two-month coronavirus lockdown into hand sanitizer and ethanol to make room for the next harvest, a farming agency said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Wine sales and exports, particularly to the US, plunged at the height of the coronavirus crisis, leaving winemakers with millions of liters of unsold wine.<\/p>\n
\"From tomorrow, 33 licensed distillers will be able to collect the wine and distill it,\" said Didier Josso, head of the wine branch in the farming agency FranceAgriMer, at a video press conference.<\/p>\n
The alcohol resulting from the distillation is exclusively reserved for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry and the production of hand sanitizer, and for the production of ethanol.<\/p>\n
\"The distilled wine in no case is to be used to make spirits,\" said Josso.<\/p>\n
\"There will probably be a need to stock ethanol as well, but the volumes will be less significant than for wine,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Each winemaker has up until June 19 to indicate the amount he or she wishes to distill.<\/p>\n
In return, they will receive 78 euros in compensation if the wine is certified as belonging to a region and 58 euros if not.<\/p>\n
European public funds will finance the distillation of two million hectolitres of French wine after Brussels gave its green light for the exceptional measure.<\/p>\n
Experts said three million hectolitres were in need of distilling.<\/p>\n
Major wine-producing countries such as Spain and Italy have resorted to similar measures to regulate the excess, as well as to the exceptional destruction of young grapevines.<\/p>\n
The coronavirus pandemic has added to the woes of the French wine industry, which had already suffered a setback last year with a drop in exports to the US as punitive tariffs kicked in. (AFP)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
French winemakers will transform wine that went unsold during the country's two-month coronavirus lockdown into hand sanitizer and ethanol to make room for the next harvest, a farming agency said on Thursday. Wine sales and exports, particularly to the US, plunged at the height of the coronavirus crisis, leaving winemakers with millions of liters of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\n