Liber Whisky warning published in the interest of international consumer protection. The Scottish Whisky Association (SWA) was made aware about this scam at Liber in February 2023.
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Liber whisky formulation to Asian market including cost calculations for this scam
- picture taken with Geo location in Liber's laboratory (see below). |
A whistleblower at Liber distillery discovered that Fran Peregrina (the director of Liber) intend to manipulate thousands of liters of whisky for export to Korea by adding unlawful flavor components to imported whisky and blend it up with 10% Liber whisky from cask 20 (this is Fran's own handwriting in the picture). The formula is of course in Spanish, but put simple; the laboratory at Liber was requested to mix 90% of the imported whisky with 5-15% (recommended 10%) Liber whisky from Cask 20 and add 1% of Pedro Ximénez or Oloroso plus one sample also had added vanilla flavor! The reason Fran want to add these components to the whisky is to simulate that this flavors came from years of cask ageing, making the "Korea" whisky taste much older than it really was, and of course in the end make it taste much better than the natural cheap imported whisky used in this Korea project!
According to EU regulations it's not allowed to add vanilla and fortified (Sherry) wines to whisky. Furthermore Liber is classified as a distillery and do not hold a license or permission to store, buy and blend wines by themselves. In fact Liber is only allowed to work with pure alcohol between 15% and 95.8% alc. vol. for production of liquors and spirits. So Fran was hiding the PX from the local custom inspector as he also needed PX for his Mamut Rum and Honey rum.
I informed Andrew Swift at the Scottish Whisky Association (swa.org.uk) on Feb 23, 2023 about this intended Korea whisky fraud project since SWA together with Guardia Civil are responsible for that the European whisky laws are enforced in Spain and consumers are protected against whisky fraud when produced in EU. Spain do not have any regulative whisky body or association like Scotland and USA. This makes it really hard to trust whisky from Spain!
Who can guarantee other Liber whisky or private label products have not been manipulated before bottling? If Fran Peregrina add vanilla and Sherry wines to whisky at Liber it's easy to win a gold medals....
Julio Gomez Gomez from Hacienda(the local customs office) is responsible for checking that ALL alcohol activities at Liber are legal. But he missed some containers and plastic drums at Liber, if not, he would have found the hidden PX Sherry also used for many years in the production and written formulas of rum and honey rum at Liber according to employees, which by the way is illegal in rum too, but that's for longer story on RonMamut.com/RonMamut.es next year.
The important part here is not if it was Slovenian whisky("ESLOV" in the formula is short for Eslovenia in Spanish), it could as easily have been any other low grade whisky from any country Fran decided to "spice up" in one of his consumer scams! This is not the first time - here you can find other scams by Fran Peregrina.
It's all about the intend because that tells everything about who Fran is and what he is prepared to do in the name of PROFIT!The intend is clear since Fran worked out this specific formula and NBM created the 3 samples in the picture all based on Fran's printed and handwritten instructions. No one would ever invent this unique formula out of the blue or be able to produce these 3 samples unless they actually had some kind of foreign whisky contact and planned to carry it out(i.e. export to Korea as stated on the formulation paper upper left corner), plus the price calculations for this scam is also extremely detailed. This plain and simple constitutes: INTEND to commit fraud!
My recommendation is that first of all the current board members and shareholders of Liber should demand access to the company emails about this export project and check if there are other fraud activities going on at their distillery. Secondly the shareholders should terminate Fran Peregrina in order to clean up the image of Liber and stay within the law.
If you have any question about this consumer warning or like to receive the above formula picture in a high 11mb (more readable) resolution you are welcome to contact me.
Jan Vistisen
President
Spanish Whisky Club ®
Reg. in Madrid No. M4033786
info@spanishwhiskyclub.com
Private label whisky bottled at Liber and imported by 99bottlesco.com for Taiwan and China. Plus EBS-ERIE BEVERAGE SOLUTIONS in USA. Have they been manipulated "KOREAN style" by Fran Peregrina too? For consumers paying USD 200 per bottle..., I hope not!
And it's not only wine and spirits which are manipulated or falsified in Spain! It's also Olive oil...,
Police in Spain and Italy seize 5,000 litres of adulterated olive oil in raids
Police in Spain and Italy have arrested 11 people and seized more than 5,000 litres of adulterated olive oil after breaking up an international gang that allegedly sought to profit by passing off cheap oils as their more expensive equivalents.
The investigation, carried out by the Guardia Civil in conjunction with Italy’s carabinieri and Europol, led to raids in both countries and the searching of olive-processing cooperatives in the Spanish provinces of Ciudad Real, Jaén and Córdoba.
Suspicions were first raised when Guardia Civil officers discovered “a series of anomalies” while inspecting a lorry that was transporting olive oil in Ciudad Real region. They soon uncovered a two-pronged operation in Spain and Italy that was designed to distribute adulterated olive oil on the global market.
“In Spain they used a company that was linked to the acquisition of lower-category oils to make changes to cloudy and poor quality oils to turn them into virgin and extra virgin and then sell them by falsifying documents,” the force said in a statement.
“They mixed cloudy oils – a sub-product of the olive oil producing process – with better quality olive oil so as to obtain the correct levels of fats and [other substances] to allow them to be sold. They also impeded traceability by not registering their companies’ oils.”
“Eight simultaneous searches were carried out in Spain and Italy and 11 people were arrested,” the statement said. “As a result of the searches, more than 5,200 litres of market-ready, adulterated olive has been seized, along with €91,000 [£78,000] in cash and four high-end vehicles. A number of bank have also been blocked.”
“A mix of various factors, such as the general inflation of prices, reduced olive oil production and increasing demand, have created the perfect breeding ground for fraudulent producers,” Interpol said.
“Mixing consumer-grade olive oil with lower grade alternatives allowed the criminals to offer competitive prices while entering legal supply chains. This illegal practice can not only cause a public health risk, but also undermine consumer trust and thus have further economic repercussions.”...., copy-paste link below to read the full article;
SOURCE - https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/04/police-in-spain-and-italy-seize-5000-litres-of-adulterated-olive-oil-in-raids
Nobody knows how many hundred thousand liters they managed to sell before they got caught! So think before you buy your next Spanish olive oil -:)
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These pictures below are also Geo tagged at Liber Distillery. Just to avoid any discussion or confusion. Clearly Spanish Whisky Club can no longer endorse any products from Liber until Fran Peragrina has been replaced as director.
