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Sonoma Winery Spills Nearly 100K Gallons Of Red Wine Into Russian River

HEALDSBURG (CBS SF/AP) — Crews at the Rodney Strong Winery were cleaning up a massive wine spill Thursday after a blending tank sprung a leak and dumped more than 97,000 gallons of red wine onto the ground and into a nearby creek.

Christopher O'Gorman, the winery's communications manager told KPIX 5 that the leak was detected at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"The leak resulted in some wine flowing out of the building with a portion entering a creek at the winery," he said. "In addition to working as fast as possible to contain the leak, per our emergency protocols we immediately notified the California Office of Emergency Response and Healdsburg Fire Department. We have been working closely with those agencies in addition to the Sonoma County Sheriff and California Department of Fish & Wildlife."

He said it appears an "apparent mechanical failure" caused the leak.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that the Cabernet Sauvignon, enough to fill eight large tanker trucks, spilled 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.

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