More than 97,000 gallons of red wine spilled from a tank at the Rodney Strong Vineyards in Healdsburg and eventually leaked into the Russian River, an accident officials said could hurt water quality in the 110-mile tributary flowing into the Pacific Ocean.
The cabernet sauvignon, enough to fill eight large tanker trucks, spilled at the Sonoma County vineyard Wednesday after a door near the bottom of a large blending tank popped open, spilling all of the wine it was holding into a sanitary sewer system on the property, the Press Democrat reported.
The wine spilled into a drainage ditch that feeds into Reiman Creek and eventually made its way to the Russian River.
The winery is conducting an internal investigation and cooperating with authorities, Rodney Strong spokesman Chris O’Gorman said Thursday.