Francisco Peregrina, director of Liber distillery has falsified traceability records for many years according to former employees at Liber. Advanced laboratory tests of Liber's products show difference in content EVEN within the same lot/batch production number, which means alterations was done to the product after it was originally bottled. This is not only illegal but also means consumers can not trust the products made under REA 649GR, which is the official health and safety authorization number assigned to Liber distillery and which must be on the front/back label of all Liber productions. Furthermore that unique number must also be clearly visible on any private label brand produced at Liber, no matter the brand owner uses his own company name with an address in Madrid, Malaga or any other country on the labels to disguise the real location of the original producer, this number must always be the same, so look out for REA: 649GR (GR stands for GRANADA which is the Spanish province where Liber is located).
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For many years Francisco Peregrina, administrator unico de Distilerias y Distribuciones Liber S. L. and has proclaimed on their website and to both distributors and consumers that Liber’s ron miel is made using only the finest DOP “Thousand Flowers” honey from the Lecrin Valley of Granada, see link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180818131738/http://destileriasliber.com/ron/
There are 268 such screen prints and links about Liber’s web history in the wayback machine. I just picked one from 2018 and one from 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20210127043753/https://destileriasliber.com/ron/
These links demonstrate the story has not changed, only the design of bottles and labels. The content in the bottles is the same according to these historic websites. But in reality Liber has lied to consumers and taken advantage of the world famous image of Ron Miel Canarias to falsify, illegal labeling and export of Ron Mamut Miel from Liber distillery to European countries.
Tastes terribly artificial (link to vinos.de website)
"Absolutely not our taste. We actually like the Ron Miel from the Canary Islands very much, but this Spanish variant is significantly different, ie not rum with honey, left relatively natural, but mixed with various flavors. The smell alone is reminiscent of a perfumery and it tastes the same. Apart from the two tasting glasses, the bottle goes in the garbage without being drunk."
The reason behind this German customer dissatisfaction was explained to me by one of Liber’s chemical engineers, who revealed that Liber is adding 8.5ml of honey aroma from Metarom in Spain per liter 20% Vol. "ron miel" instead of the real honey which is supposed to be inside in order to comply with the Spanish law. Liber is also adding 25 liters of Pedro Ximénez wine per 1000 liter ronmiel at 20% vol. and a lot of cheap inverted sugar to make up for the missing honey flavor.
Ron miel (AKA Honey rum) is an EU geographical Spanish protected denomination product (PGI) and according to Royal Spanish decree specially protected in the Canarias, but can be produced in other parts of Spain as long as the ron miel contains minimum 2% real honey according to the law. In this case Liber Distillery has deliberately misused and damaged the international image of Ron Miel Canarias and honey rumat large by not adding honey to their two products.
I filed an official whistleblower report with SANTE Food Fraud in Brussels on April 19th and again on June 9th 2022 with additional documentation in regards to production, sales and export of ronmiel from Liber distillery in Padul (Granada) Spain to their client Wein & Vinos GmbH in Germany and for local domestic sales in Spain to Al Campo in Motril. The report contains production information, copies of Spanish and German invoices with batch/lot numbers. I personally visited shops in Germany selling Ron Mamut Miel and Mamut rum among other Liber products. It's the German shop assistant in the picture who is writing the lot number by hand on the official invoice at Wein & Vinos in Hamburg for the 6 bottles I bought there for laboratory tests. It has not been possible to track the sales in Denmark but screen prints from local advertising on the internet in Danish language has been included in the report also.
SANTE Food Fraud is the official institution under the European Commission in Brussels handling and coordinating actions against irregularities and falsification of drinks and food products inside the European Union. Last year 157 whistleblower cases were reported and investigated.
This is another phantom product from Liber distillery. According to my source Liber is adding 8 liters of oak aromas from Metarom and 10-12 liters of Pedro Ximénez wine to each batch of 1000 liter Ron Mamut 37.5% Vol. to simulate the flavor which many years of old Sherry cask aging would have done to the rum. Fran personally confirmed that when he printed the formula to me and offered it as a private label project for Solo Manolo containing 92% Ron Mamut with the exact same numbers of PX and Oak aroma! This is not only cheating and defrauding rum consumers, this is illegal according to the European regulations which states NOTHING AND NO FLAVORS CAN BE ADDED except for caramel coloring and sugar of maximum 20g per liter.
This Mamut gave Fran the nickname "Master of Fake Rum"
The director Francisco Peregrina at Liber Distillery (in the picture) with one of the date manipulated single malt whisky casks. Or Fran as he likes to be called, just loves to cut corners and invented a new aging system for whisky to profit faster.
For years Liber sold very little whisky, so little that when I met them they were not distilling a single new batch for 18 months. Then I started the international marketing of Liber and the sales of Liber whisky grew many hundred percent and today the pots are running non-stop to fulfill orders from Osborne Group.
Getting greedy, Fran decided to use the calendar year and not the actual age based on when the whisky cask was filled to scam a few extra Euros out of his clients. So every year on the 1st of January the many casks at Liber magically turned one year older according to him and the invoices!
Let's use cask no. 71 in the picture as the perfect example for his little scam. That cask was filled on November 11, 2006 (according to the date on the cask. Pls. Note all historic PX casks at Liber carry the filling date), so it will turn 16 years old on the 11 of November 2022. But already on March 17, 2022 he bottled it for Spanish Whisky Club and issued an invoice for 16 years old whisky no matter if there were still 8 months to the whisky inside cask no. 71 would actually reach that date!
In this case I filed a complaint and request for investigation on June 9th 2022 with SWA - The Scotch Whisky Association and they answered within 24 hours..., I sent the additional documentation requested, pictures and invoices to Andrew Swift at SWA. I also informed him that I included the whisky date manipulations in my latest update to SANTE. Within a few days Andrew answered based on the documentation he received as you can see below.
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After discussing the fraud at Liber with our clients of Spanish Whisky Club, I did not label the cask no. 71 as 16 years old despite that's what Liber sold it as on their invoice. I labeled it correctly as only 15 years old. However this is just one of many casks Fran is date manipulating and it makes me wonder if Osborne, now the biggest client at Liber, is aware? Osborne bought over 25.000 liters of Liber low wine* and single malt whisky in the last 8 months, presumably to be used in their new Double V whisky blend after Osborne acquired this 90 years old Andalusian whisky brand from PERNOD RICARD. This is not the first transaction between them. In 2008 Osborne bought a lot of a Spanish activities/brands from PERNOD RICARD. Several other companies are making their whisky brands at Liber!
*( Low wine is the result after the first pot distillation, normally 22-29% vol. alcohol. The second distillation will be done by Osborne themselves probably at one of their brandy distilleries, but they did not have the grain mill, mash tun/tub and pot stills to make the first run. So in the end this will be some kind of hybrid whisky distilled in two locations).
To further demonstrate the creative mind of Fran; he buys DYC column still grain alcohol to create many of Liber’s products. And Liber is buying “their” organic alcohol for gin and vodka in Italy. All organic products made at Liber like their own MAMUT Organic Vodka and the private label AIREM Organic Vodka are in fact based on 100% Italian alcohol just added Spanish water to claim “SIERRA NEVADA” fame! Liber do also not distill their own rum, they buy 95.8% sugar cane alcohol from Azucarera del Guadalfeo S.A. Aguardiente de caña de Azúcar – Alcohol destilado de melaza de caña de Azúca in Motril and mix it as mentioned above under Ron Miel and Ron Mamut. I guess this concludes the circle!
Below you find two recent articles from Spanish newspapers regarding wine and spirits fraud and its only the top of the iceberg. While investigating Liber I have learnt of other cases and food industries, which I will post on this twitter account SpanishWatchdog @CrimesinSpain to alert and warn tourists and consumers.
Justice has the focus on the Reserva de la Tierra group as allegedly responsible for a triple wine fraud: not only were both the certificates and the quality analyzes of four Catalan Designations of Origin falsified, but the company also sold wines from low quality as a great reserve. The most affected are the DO Terra Alta and Priorat, followed by those of Montsant and Tarragona.
Now in Priorat, many confirm that the exponential growth of Reserva de la Tierra in recent years had a trick. A trick that has led to a cocktail of criminal offenses: the Reus judge Diego Álvarez de Juan is investigating six leaders of the group –President Felipe G., his wife and his sister, among them– for crimes against industrial property, fraud , misleading advertising and falsifying documents and certificates. The magistrate has summoned the defendants for the end of September.
This newspaper has unsuccessfully tried to obtain the version of the Reserva de la Tierra group, which has recently declared bankruptcy and has been acquired by the venture capital fund Sherpa Capital. After the case broke out in October last year, the group defended itself by attacking the complaining Designations of Origin for "protecting" some wineries.
The magistrate's order, however, highlights that the investigation has found "clear indications, not mere conjecture" against Reserva de la Tierra. To begin with, 752,000 bottles of fraudulent wine and 3.2 million false guarantee labels were seized at the entrance and registration of the company's facilities. The judge halted the sale of the group's 18 brands of wine.
The analysis of the Mossos d'Esquadra has focused on Catalan supermarkets, but it is suspected that the fraudulent wine bottles reached the shelves throughout Spain and even abroad, given the great export activity of the group, which sold its wines in the US and China.
"We could not imagine that the magnitude of the tragedy would be so great," admits Just, who nevertheless celebrates that the consumer has maintained confidence in the wines of the affected DOs that do do their job well. Over time, Just reflects and confirms that the exponential growth of Reserva de la Tierra –it came to appear in the Spanish 'top 10' with a turnover of almost 100 million in 2019– was “unusual” in such a complicated sector with margins as tight as the wine sector.
"It was a kind of economic miracle that wasn't normal," adds Just, who trusts that the scam will help consumers realize that it is "impossible" to buy quality wines for three or four euros. "Nobody gives hard to four pesetas, especially in a sector where the price of grapes is high and with the yields per hectare that we have," Just asserts.
According to the calculations of the Mossos d'Esquadra, sales of fraudulent wines from the scammed DOs are equivalent to approximately 50% of the total wines marketed by Reserva de la Tierra, which means between 15 and 17.5 million bottles per year . Translated into euros, between 2019 and 2021 fraud is estimated at around 25 million euros.
The resolution of the instructor, after a thorough investigation by the Mossos d'Esquadra, details the mechanics with which Reserva de la Tierra managed to market its “fraudulent wine”. The fraud, as described by the judge, was threefold: wine sold as if it were from one of the four affected DOs, but in reality it did not come from Montsant or from the rest of the Catalan vineyards, so it was not subject to quality control of the Regulatory Councils; bottles marketed with false indications of aging –crianza, reserva or gran reserva–; and wine sold with quality characteristics and prizes that were not such.
Each of the companies in the group, continues the judge, had a role in the fraud: either bottling or marketing the fraudulent wines. The instructor also exposes the actions of the different companies of Reserva de la Tierra "to give the appearance of legality" to the fraud: one of them registered its own brands in the Regulatory Councils of the DO and requested the quality labels but, in parallel , another brand of the group, commissioned a Murcian company to print stickers that imitated "quite precisely" the design of the quality labels of the Catalan DOs.
There have also been cases of wines labeled as if they were from a DO, but with brands not notified to the Regulatory Councils. Especially, in bottles dedicated to export, where the possibilities of control "are less", the instructor abounds. It so happens that external tanks for rent that the group had in Albacete and Cuenca have been located in intercepted internal mail.
Regarding the fraud on the aging indications, the judge found that thousands of bottles were presented to the consumer using the Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva categories without respecting the necessary bottle and barrel aging times. The judge points out that the company not only deceived the consumer and the affected DOs, but also the supermarket chains such as LIDL, Mercadona or Consum that marketed the product without knowing that it was false.
What's more: the investigation has uncovered that one of the supermarkets sent emails in 2020 and 2021 to Reserva de la Tierra complaining that several consignments of wine were pungent and sour, to the point that the group proposed to destroy an entire batch of three brands . At another chain of post offices, it is even proposed to empty non-alcoholic wine bottles, add disinfectant and rebottle them.
The judge has also intercepted internal emails in which one of the imputed directives transfers to different departments the measures to be taken before an inspection by a Regulatory Council: hide the main warehouse "as if it were another company", avoid showing the shipments to LIDL, transfer those from Mercadona to another warehouse and hide references and boxes and labels, as well as not bottling DO Tarragona, Terra Alta and Catalunya products. In short, the judge has obtained an avalanche of evidence about the wine fraud as well as instructions from Reserva de la Tierra to try to hide it.
Original article in Spanish here https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/triple-fraude-vino-estafa-familia-vendio-millones-botellas-denominacion-origen-falsa_1_9234065.html
This second combined story involved police authorities from 72 countries, which has resulted in 120 detainees in total and seizure of 25000 bottles of wine. The Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of La Rioja, in a joint operation with the Tax Agency, investigated a criminal organization dedicated to the falsification of stamped effects imported from China, crimes against public finances, against industrial property and against public health. Actions were carried out in the provinces of La Rioja, Jaén and Ciudad Real and nearly 300,000 bottles, 171,200 forged tax seals, 47,660 liters of whiskey and 9,550 liters of alcohol were seized for the preparation of the fraudulent product. This operation culminated in a total of 14 people arrested and investigated.
Operation Opson X, led in Spain by the Civil Guard, in collaboration with Europol and Interpol, for the investigation of food fraud has uncovered the existence of three winery companies in the province of León that allegedly engaged in the fraudulent bottling and labeling of wines with designations of origin or protected geographical indications at a low price compared to other commercial brands that use the same grape variety. This was already advanced at the beginning of the month by the Sub-Delegate of the Government in León, Faustino Sánchez, on a visit to the Leonese region.
Due to these facts, police proceedings were initiated for the alleged crimes of illegitimate use of the Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication, as well as fraud, falsehood and continued fraud. In the registry in the three winery companies, more than 25,000 bottles of wine with fraudulent labeling were seized.
Police authorities from 72 countries, 26 of which were member states of the European Union, have participated in the Operation, as well as members of the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety, the European Union Intellectual Property Office, national regulatory authorities food industry and private sector partners.
Around 68,000 controls have been carried out, with 663 arrests at a European level and an economic fraud of around 53.8 million euros has been estimated, with a total of 15,451 tons of food seized.
Among the outstanding actions in Spain, in addition to the one carried out in the province of León, there is another that took place in Pontevedra, where the Headquarters of Seprona and the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard, in coordination with the GNR of Portugal , with the support of Europol and Eurojust, dismantled the largest international network dedicated to the trade of bivalves unfit for human consumption, culminating in the arrest of eight people, seven commercial companies investigated, and the seizure of 120,000 euros, 25 vehicles and 12 boats.
For its part, the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of La Rioja, in a joint operation with the Tax Agency, investigated a criminal organization dedicated to the falsification of stamped effects imported from China, crimes against public finances, against industrial property and against public health. Actions were carried out in the provinces of La Rioja, Jaén and Ciudad Real and nearly 300,000 bottles, 171,200 forged tax seals, 47,660 liters of whiskey and 9,550 liters of alcohol were seized for the preparation of the fraudulent product. This operation culminated in a total of 14 people arrested and investigated.
In Barcelona, the Seprona team of the Civil Guard investigated a criminal organization dedicated to the commercialization of equine meat not suitable for human consumption, using supposedly falsified equine identification documentation to introduce the meat of the animals into the food chain. The operation culminated with 33 detainees and two investigated for crimes against public health, professional intrusion, the crime of false documents and another of belonging to a criminal organization.
Original article in Spanish here: https://ileon.eldiario.es/actualidad/operacion-internacional-investiga-tres-bodegas-bierzo-fraude-incauta-botellas_1_9506110.html
He is not only Liber's house lawyer and the one writing to me -:)
Click here. I have dedicated a special ethics website to him and future documents.
He works at https://www.iberumabogados.com/
I hold the EXCLUSIVE and WORLDWIDE sales and distribution rights for ALL whisky distilled at Liber and sold over 46% vol. And my contract states I’m the official CASK MANAGER at Liber. I worked with Liber Distillery for 3 years, during that time their whisky sales exploded but there are some illegal short cuts done at Liber, which I can’t allow my name and international reputation to be invloved in. I’m not hiding behind the Whistleblower anonymous identity that SANTE Food Fraud in Brussels offered me. I wanted my knowledge to become public knowledge!
One thing is all the rum and ron miel falsifications, I’m not selling that, but my name is attached to the distillery and I created the value Liber whisky brand has today. So I informed Fran that his manipulations with whisky casks were not acceptable. Instead of doing the right thing he denied me access to Liber’s bodega to do my job as a Cask Manager. He is selling whisky and casks behind my back no matter our contract states these decisions must be taken together. Therefore the moment has arrived where I can no longer endorse Liber.
I have spend over 300 hours on this investigation so far and many thousand kilometers to visit Vinos in Hamburg and Munich. I even went to the "Honey Lady in Padul" (pictured) to buy the honey supposed to be in Liber ron miel, and then sent it off to molecular analyses.
Different batch numbers of Liber Ron Mamut Miel and Ron Miel Gran MANIGUA from 2020, 2021 and 2022 have been submitted to technical analysis together with an original honey rum from Canarias for reference and jars of the Lecrin honey which is supposed to be inside according to traceability laws based on Liber’s own auto-control. But Liber gave out the honey to its employees instead of adding it to their product...., Even I got one of these honey jars myself from Fran and have a picture of it in my phone, the phone states the day the picture was taken at Liber a few days after a new production batch. This is when I raised the question to Fran the first time why the honey was not added to the ron miel (honey rum) production? Fran told me; “It’s creating settlements in the bottle so to avoid that, we don't add the honey but only honey aroma” little did I know about the actual honey rum law in EU at that time, but I told Fran this is not acceptable nor good for Liber’s image as I have been promoting Liber as a luxury and fine spirits producer. From this day Fran of course starts to work against me at the distillery.
Now is the time for Liber's shareholders to remove Fran from his position as director of Liber and give that job to someone who is more serious and care about the future of this distillery.
If you have any questions in regards to this information or ongoing investigation feel free to contact me.
Saludos! www.janvistisen.com
President of Spanish Whisky Club ®
spanishwhiskyclub@protonmail.com
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