Anyone who has looked into what it takes to actually make wine knows that it’s hard, sometimes backbreaking work. Hand harvesting, hauling tons of grapes, putting them through the crusher, scrubbing big tanks, driving forklifts, etc. There’s a reason mostly migrant workers do that stuff. It’s brutal. I had no idea how dangerous it was, however. This week a worker at a South African winery was killed when the wine tank he was mixing literally exploded underneath him. Apparently a spark from the mixing machinery ignited some fumes in the tank (wine fumes? gas fumes?) and the whole thing blew. Poor guy. I’m glad that sort of thing doesn’t happen too often, but who knew it could happen at all?