The public prosecutor's office in Bad Kreuznach has expanded its investigations against the Rhine-Hessian winery Welter. As reported, the investigators had initially identified one million litres of possibly falsely declared wine. In the meantime, they have taken about six million liters out of circulation. On the basis of confiscated files, they now want to trace the origin of the wines. The public prosecutor's office further accuses the winery of having filled unacceptable blends of wines from different growing regions and of different quality grades. Furthermore, it is possible that a small amount of organic wine has been wrongly declared.
A spokesman for the Welter winery said that the "wine industry" continued to be accused of misdemeanours by private individuals, and not the winery itself. The public prosecutor is investigating the former manager of the company as well as five employees.
The authorities expect the proceedings to take a long time, as it is still unclear what the dimensions and scope of the investigations will have to clarify.
(uka)