Tequila!

Brown-Forman employee spills tequila

An employee at Louisville-based Brown-Forman spilled as much as 1,800 gallons of Pepe Lopez Tequila at the company' s distillery in Louisville, according to Phil Lynch, vice president of corporate communications and public relations.

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Fire units were dispatched to the scene a little after 8 a.m. after the tequila poured into a holding tank surrounding a storage tank at the distillery.

The spill occurred when an employee attempted to unload a tanker truck full of tequila into a receiving tank that already was full, Lynch said, calling it a case of human error. The tequila was shipped from Mexico and was being stored for bottling at the distillery.

The tequila overflowed at the rate of 100 gallons per minute, resulting in 1,500 to 1,800 gallons of the product entering the holding tank. The 80-proof tequila, which is flammable, was diluted with water by fire units and emptied into the sewer.

Lynch did not know how much the lost tequila was worth, he said. He added that the employee, who was not identified, still is employed by the company.

" Obviously, you' d like not to lose any (tequila)," he said. " But in perspective of things, it' s a relatively small amount."

Louisville-based Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BFa, BFb) is a diversified producer and marketer of consumer products, including liquor, wine, china, crystal and luggage.