To say wine “flows like water” metaphorically signifies carefree abundance, but in the case of one small Italian town, it briefly became a reality.
On Wednesday, residents of the village of Settecani (located around eight miles south of Modena in Northern Italy), were pleasantly surprised to find Lambrusco suddenly coming out of their taps, English-language Italian news agency The Local reports.
Unlike the biblical water-into-wine Miracle at Cana, there was no divine intervention to credit in this case. Rather, it was just a valve malfunction at a local winery, Cantina Settecani, which is connected to the public water supply.
“The pressure of the wine was greater than that of the water and the wine flooded into the public water network,” Cantina Settecani representative Luisa Malaguti told The Telegraph.
The issue went unnoticed at the winery for about an hour before the valve was fixed and the town’s free wine supply cut off. In that period, the winery estimates it lost 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of its premium Lambrusco Grasparossa, some of which had been bottled by quick-thinking Settecani residents “to enjoy later [at] lunch or dinner,” according to the Gazzeta di Modena.
Cantina Settecani later apologized for the inconvenience in a Facebook post, but assured that it “did not involve any hygiene or sanitary risks.” While some residents posted concerned comments about the security of their town’s water system, others made light of the situation.
“Next time open the valve from 7:30 onwards — [for] happy hour,” one resident suggested.
