Spanish police are investigating four Spanish wineries and bodegas in the Valdepenas region for fraud and misleading advertising. According to the public prosecutor's office, the companies sold crianza, reserva and gran reserva wines throughout the country that did not comply with the production regulations of the protected designation of origin (PDO). The information on the minimum duration of maturation, the maturation in oak barrels and in the bottle was wrong. The public prosecutor's office has filed a complaint against the companies Félix Solís, García Carrión, Bodegas Navarro López and Bodegas Fernando Castro with the National Court.
As early as 5 April, Judge José Luis Calama heard the serious accusations of misleading advertising, fraud and falsification of documents, reports the Spanish daily Diario de Sevilla. According to the judge, the labels of the wine bottles were labelled Reserva or Gran Reserva, although the wine was "produced without respecting the barrel ageing times indicated in the specifications". This was "misleading". The court therefore ordered the Special and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) and the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the police to determine exactly how many bottles of the offending wine had been sold and at what price.
The producers are also accused of having sold significantly larger quantities of the wine than they had declared to the supervisory authority. According to the report, the judge had pointed out "that all the wineries involved have been doing business for many years and know what is expected of them".
(uka / Source: Diario de Sevilla, EuroWeekly)