French Wine now Fueling Cars.  Add/Read Comments

France has periodically turned lowly table wines into vinegar and ethanol. But bottles of quality French wine have been piling up on supermarket shelves and in vineyard cellars across the country, to the point that some of it is now cheaper than bottled water. France recently requested from the European Union permisson to distill 150 million liters of Appellation Contrôlée wine. This will be turned into ethanol which in turn is sold to oil refineries and used as an additive that is mixed into petrol.

International Herald Tribune
"Do you want to try what will be going into your tank?" he asks ruefully, pouring a visitor a glass. "If my grandfather could taste what I'm turning into alcohol, he'd turn over in his grave."