Exclusive | Clients of NYC wine shop – Business News
After more than two years, Sherry-Lehmann’s long-suffering prospects are lastly beginning to get their wine back.
The iconic Park Avenue vintner – which shut its doorways for good in March 2023 because it didn’t renew its liquor license after 89 years in business – famously went silent as tons of of prospects of Wine Caves, its decades-old storage service, clamored in useless for his or her prize vintages.
Sherry-Lehmann was an establishment in New York City for 89 years. Robert Miller
Now, after a flurry of headlines, a pair of FBI raids and a drawn-out courtroom battle between Sherry-Lehmann’s homeowners and its landlord, the costly booze is starting to trickle out again – and it’s candy.
“I’ll share one of these bottles with my father, who is 101,” mentioned one Boston-based collector who simply secured his stash valued at $80,000 – together with a case of 1982 Petrus and one other of assorted prize Bordeaux together with Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
“These were the first serious bottles I bought and I bought them in the 80s,” the collector informed The Post, asking to not be recognized. “My father gave me a book by Robert Parker, the most influential wine critic in the world. I saw these two wines had been given 100-point scores by Parker. It was an impulse buy.”
Wine Caves is stuffed with uncommon and expensive bottles of Bordeaux like this 1982 Petrus. Shutterstock
During the previous a number of weeks, dozens of different Wine Caves prospects have begun to gather their long-lost vintages from the basement of a nondescript workplace building in Rockland County – the newest weird twist in a course of that’s now being supervised by Sherry-Lehmann’s former landlord.
Hong Kong-based real estate firm Glorious Sun stays Sherry-Lehmann’s greatest creditor – nonetheless owed $5 million in back rent on the nook retail space it occupied on the foot of its glass-and-steel workplace tower at 505 Park Ave. When the store closed, Wine Caves turned unreachable.
Sherry-Lehmann transferred the prize vintages – some 32,000 bottles price $16 million, in keeping with court docket paperwork – in 2022 to Blue Hill Plaza, a company park in Pearl River, NY – the place most of them have remained to at the present time, stacked in an air-conditioned basement alongside stacks of laptop servers.
Wine Caves’ storage business relies at Blue Plaza Office tower in Pearl River, N.Y. Google Maps
“The wines there are the highest level in the world,” mentioned Kevin Zraly, writer of the “Windows on the World complete Wine Course,” who additionally taught wine courses at Sherry-Lehmann. “Only 1% of all wine in the world can age over 5 years and wines being kept at Wine Caves is that 1%.”
Thus far, Glorious Sun has despatched 820 letters informing prospects that their wine is at Pearl River and asking for proof of possession. A “minority” of the letters have been returned as a result of the shoppers had moved, Glorious Sun’s lawyer Edmund O’Brien informed The Post.
“The next phase is dealing with the difficult cases,” O’Brien mentioned, saying it may take more than a 12 months to find shoppers it hasn’t reached. “We have lots of ideas about how to handle those situations but we are not there yet.”
According to Zraly, “A lot of people bought wine from Sherry-Lehmann and forgot about it. Some of the customers may be too old to care or they forgot they have it there.”
In September, issues took a weird flip when Sherry Lehmann’s Wine Caves storage arm sued Glorious Sun, accusing it of holding the trove of uncommon Burgundy and Bordeaux “hostage” – and submitting for a momentary restraining order that halted the redistribution course of for six weeks.
At the time, Glorious Sun had begun returning about 1,000 bottles to 13 fortunate shoppers between June and September, in keeping with court docket filings. On Oct. 14, New York state Judge Thomas Zugibe lifted the restraining order — and Glorious Sun restarted the “laborious” effort, in keeping with court docket papers.
The FBI raided Sherry-Lehmann’s Park Avenue store in 2023. James Keivom
Wine Caves additionally accused the owner of grossly underestimating the scale of the stash, which it pegged at 300,000 bottles, in keeping with court docket papers. Glorious Sun countered that a 2023 FBI raid of the Blue Hill facility put the rely at 32,000. The landlord says it merely needs its space back – and notes that it’s spending 1000’s of {dollars} reaching out to Wine Caves prospects.
According to court docket filings, Wine Caves new majority proprietor is James Galtieri, a former Sherry-Lehmann provider who for 20 years was the unique US importer for Château Lafite Rothschild – among the many most coveted wines on the planet with new bottles fetching upwards of $700 every.
According to court docket papers, Galtieri was introduced in by Shyda Gilmer, Sherry-Lehmann’s former CEO who landed in a legal firestorm over the wine shop’s closure and scandals. After Wine Caves acquired an eviction discover from Blue Hill Plaza in November 2024, Gilmer agreed to maneuver the wine out within 35 days and pay the $27,500 in back rent however the negotiations failed so the wine stayed put, in keeping with court docket filings.
Shyda Gilmer was the CEO of Sherry-Lehmann. New York Post
Galtieri met with O’Brien in April and provided to pay the rent arrears plus different bills the business had racked up, O’Brien mentioned. But Glorious Sun took a move after Wine Caves wouldn’t offer an indemnity settlement defending the owner within the occasion the shoppers sued, in keeping with O’Brien.
“I think for very good reasons my client doesn’t trust these people and we don’t want to look at a situation where customers sue us for turning over their wine to these people,” O’Brien informed The Post.
James Galtieri is a veteran wine importer. James Galtieri / LinkedIn
Galtieri didn’t return calls or emails requesting remark.
Wine Caves’ lawyer John Balestriere mentioned in a assertion, “Wine Caves is not only an active business it is actively taking steps to protect its clients’ wines, and to move forward in the wine business relying on the decades of experience and achievements of its owners.”
Glorious Sun claimed in court docket filings that Wine Caves “wants the wine so that it can collect (at a minimum) storage fees” which quantity to some $1.6 million. Wine Caves’ own lawsuit seemingly confirmed that, alleging that Glorious Sun is “depriving” it of “the right to possess the wine, causing it millions of dollars in damage, including a loss of substantial storage fees.”
James Galtieri and his spouse. Getty Images for Gaucho – Buenos Aires
“Wine Caves will soon have all the information it needs regarding its clients’ wines so that it may finally help them get their wine back and move forward with its business,” Balestriere added.
In its heyday, Sherry-Lehmann had a steady of movie star clientele, together with model Elaine Learson. Getty Images
For some Sherry-Lehmann prospects, not less than, that ordeal is over – amongst them the Boston-based oenophile who – now 68 – was in his 30s when he scooped up his treasured Petrus and Mouton Rothschild.
While his recovered stash is price a fortune, it’s not fairly what he thought it will be, noting that the labels weren’t pristine and the crates had been opened when he acquired them. He guessed there was “sweating” from temperature adjustments, though the fill ranges have been excellent.
“I feel lucky it wasn’t stolen,” he informed The Post on Friday. “I will probably have it over Christmas with a roast with loved ones and family.”
