France to transform surplus wine into hand sanitizer

Paris: French winemakers will transform wine that went unsold during the country´s two-month coronavirus lockdown into hand sanitiser 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 litres of unsold wine. “From tomorrow, 33 licensed distillers will be able to collect the wine and distil it,” said Didier Josso, head of the wine branch in the farming agency FranceAgriMer, at a video press conference. The alcohol resulting from the distillation is exclusively reserved for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry and the production of hand sanitiser, and for the production of ethanol. “The distilled wine in no case is to be used to make spirits,” said Josso. “There will probably be a need to stock ethanol as well, but the volumes will be less significant than for wine,” he added.