The recent battle between J. Garca Carrin and Flix Sols, two large wine companies suspected of fraud in the D.O. Valdepeas region of Spain, has come to a head, and the conflict between two Spanish wine barons, Pepe Garca Carrin and Flix Sols, has also brought to light a series of regulatory loopholes in the D.O. Valdepeas The conflict between the two Spanish wine barons, Pepe García Carrin and Flix Sols, has also brought to light a series of loopholes in the management of the Appellation Regulatory Board of Valdepeñez.
Image courtesy of: Penin Guide Spain
In 2018, J. Garca Carrin was accused of selling millions of liters of Spanish pink wine as French wine, according to an investigation by the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Anti-Fraud. The conflict between the two wine companies began last April when the Avival Association, headed by J. Garca Carrin, filed a lawsuit against the Castilla-La Mancha Ministry of Agriculture and the Valdepérez Regulatory Commission, accusing Flix Sols not only of labeling new wines (Jven) as Crianza, Reserva and Grand Reserve. (Reserva) and Gran Reserva, but also that there are more wineries in the appellation that have committed violations.
In February of this year, the Ciudad Real (capital city of the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha) Public Prosecutor"s Office officially filed an application for investigation with the National Court of Justice. And in the recently revealed report document, the Valdepeñez Regulatory Board not only admitted that they were aware of the existence of such a situation, but also added to the market wines that did not match the label that exceeded the official figures for aged wines in Valdepeñez by almost half (total sales of the appellation in 2019 were 47.4 million liters, of which aged wines accounted for 29.7 million liters, while the official sales of aged wines published by the appellation were 15.9 million liters). The National Court of Justice has now launched an investigation into all the wineries in the appellation suspected of fraud.
As the fraud story continued to fester, J. Garca Carrin and the farmers' association threatened to leave the Appellation Valdepériguez, which did not mean that the appellation would be dissolved in situ, but it did force the Regulatory Board to begin a new administrative procedure.
