Could wine provide Australias next source of biofuel?

Using red wine as motor fuel could bring new meaning to the term “drink driving”.

Australia’s wine industry is investigating whether its current 263-million-litre glut of wine would be better used as biofuel to power cars, trucks or even aircraft.

Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Lee McLean said the vast majority of the oversupply was red wine and it made sense to consider alternative uses for the surplus product.

“We’ve certainly got plenty of red wine in storage in Australia at the moment,” he said.

“With the current fuel situation, it seems sensible to at least explore the economics, barriers and opportunities related to converting some of this into biofuel.”