$1 Million Of Wine Destroyed In Forklift Accident
If you are a wine lover, you might want to close the browser window now, and move on. This could be painful. You’ve been warned.
In the blink of an eye, a third of this year’s production of Mollydooker Velvet Glove shiraz wine went down the drain, as a forklift malfunction accidentally dropped 462 cases of the $185 per bottle wine. The total loss was valued at over $1 million.
Robert Parker, considered one of the most influential writers covering the wine industry, has been noted as saying Mollydooker’s offerings such as Velvet Glove are some of the “greatest red wines in existence,” having previously graded the destroyed wine at 99 out of a possible 100 points. This makes the loss all the more painful for oenophiles, as wine lovers like to call themselves, who might treat the bottled loss the way an art lover would view watching a Monet sink into the deep ocean’s depths.
Adelaide, Australia-based shipping manager Brett McCarthur of Kerry Logistics says “it was very hard to make that call” to the wine producer, adding that he thought is was a trick being played on him by employees when first told of the accident.
“We just couldn’t believe it,” said Sparky Marquis, who owns Mollydooker Wines, along with his wife Sarah. Including the Velvet Glove shiraz, the Marquis’ have produced wines that have won them prestigious awards, including Australia’s winemakers of the year, and the Bushing Award a record three times in a row.
As the Marquis go through the damaged cases to see what can be salvaged, shipping workers told the Australian Associated Press that the scene of destruction “smelled phenomenal.”
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