French alcohol producers have had a bad year. With restaurants and bars closed for two months during the pandemic, the industry has suffered from low sales across the board, reports Forbes.
Champagne sales fell particularly sharply and people haven’t been drinking high-end wine, such as Chablis, in the same quantities as usual. This means that a lot of wine has been left unsold, sitting in the cellars of wine producers across France,
A scheme was backed and financed today by the EU and, as reported by The Guardian, 33 distilleries have been given the all clear to collect 2 million hectolitres and turn it into ethanol to make hand sanitizer. (One hectolitre is the equivalent of 100 litres).
FranceAgriMer, the country’s farming agency, said there is around 3 million hectolitres sitting in cellars which needed to be turned into hand sanitizer because of low sales – the wine needs to be removed to make room for this year’s harvest.
Winemakers can join the scheme before June 19th and will be paid 78 euros per hectolitre for AOP wine and 58 euros for non AOP wine. AOP wine is that which is linked to a specific area, made with very specific guidelines about the type and quantity of grapes allowed in each bottle.