Supplier: Sweden rejected wine for being 'better' than samples

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 14 (UPI) -- A Swedish alcohol supplier said the country's state-run liquor monopoly sent back 6,000 bottles of a Spanish wine because it tasted better than the samples.

Kare Hallden, chief executive officer of alcohol supplier Spruce Up, said state-run liquor store monopoly Systembolaget chose to stock Spanish albarino wine Fulget after choosing its samples over 50 competitors in March, The Local.se reported Friday.

However, Hallden said the store sent the 6,000 bottles back to the company in May because the wine delivered was "clearly better" than the March samples.

"I believe that taste-wise it is exactly the same wine," Hallden told the Livets Goda wine magazine. "Systembolaget, on the other hand, believes that the wine that has been delivered to the stores is much better than that which won the tender in the beginning of the year."

Systembolaget spokesman Lennart Agen said Hallden's statements aren't entirely true.

"We never said it tasted better. We've said it tasted different. It is simply a different wine," Agen said. "Whether the wine that was delivered tasted better or not is his value judgment."

Spruce Up said it is being forced to pay the cost of returning the bottles, losing tens of thousands of dollars in the process.