Big Apple wine lovers are going through a bitter season.
It’s been a difficult year for people who spend a lot of money on rare bottles and entrust them to luxury New York City wine merchants for proper storage and aging.
First, in February, venerable Sherry-Lehmann wines were raided by the FBI and exposed for malpractices that allegedly included mishandling bottles.
Potentially among them: two cases of 1982 Petrus Bordeaux, valued at $90,000.
Then Chelsea Wine Storage, a facility tasked with storing millions of dollars’ worth of rare vintages, came under fire with accusations of mishandling collectible bottles, delayed delivery and quickly confiscating bottles from customers who owed storage fees, even when the valuations of the wine far exceeded the sum owed.
The two calamities have shocked the elite world of wine collecting, a hobby that for most urban practitioners requires high-quality storage, which may not come cheap.
Wine lovers want wine from establishments like the venerable Sherry-Lehmann. They can’t always get paid. Robert Miller That’s how the FBI raided Sherry-Lehmann’s Park Avenue store amid accusations that she was ripping off customers. James Keivom In Chelsea, Chelsea Wine Vault was long a storage option for some of the world’s most expensive and famous wines, but it changed its name to Chelsea Wine Storage and moved the vintages. William Farrington
As one oenophile told The Post: “They need to keep the wine at the right temperature and humidity while keeping it away from light…And give you your wine whenever you want it.”
Attorney Asher Rubinstein told The Post, “Collectors are literally losing sleep over this.”
Among the worst claims: Sources alleged that Chelsea Wine Storage, far from carefully caring for bottles that could become family heirlooms, dumped them under the former TGI Fridays in Times Square and stored some in cardboard boxes.
They include bottles of Coche-Dury Meursault 2011, a white Burgundy that sells for $1,200 a bottle, and a Domaine Faiveley Bâtard Montrachet valued at $490 a bottle, according to inventories seen by The Post.
Since early November, a source told The Post, increasingly panicked customers requesting delivery of their harvests have found it difficult to contact wine company representatives.
This is where Chelsea Wine Storage stores wines, to the fury of some of its customers, at this now-disused TGI Fridays in Times Square. Angel Chevrestt Photos shared with the publication show how Chelsea Wine Storage stored four-figure bottles of wine while disgruntled customers, according to a lawyer, launched “a constant stream of calls and emails” to get their wines back. Obtained by NY Post
In one such situation, a Chelsea Wine Storage customer was trying to recover a collection “of significant value,” Rubinstein told The Post.
“We worked with Chelsea to get the wine,” he said. “It took a constant stream of calls and emails for about two months. [Rubinstein’s client] “I was proud of accumulating the collection and was quite stressed about not getting it back.”
Chelsea’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
While Chelsea’s owners have previously attributed it to staffing issues, Rubinstein, a wine collector (who has no bottles with Chelsea), sees the problem as going beyond someone being upset about having to wait for a few bottles. precious for the holidays.
The chaotic scene inside Chelsea Wine Storage beneath a former Times Square TGI Fridays restaurant. Wine owners told The Post they are losing sleep over what is happening to bottles they planned to keep for decades. Obtained by NY Post
“I think about this on a macro level,” the lawyer said. “You are an investor, you collect wine and accumulate thousands of cases.
“We are talking about charges of $500,000 and you can’t talk to these guys on the phone. What would happen if you had an equivalent amount of money in the bank and the bank stopped taking your calls? How would that be acceptable?
The claims are not the first against Chelsea Wine & Storage, which abandoned Chelsea Market last year.
In 2018, he was sued by client Michael Moriarty, who accused him of embezzling his collection of “about 1,200 bottles worth approximately $100,000 to $200,000.”
Kris Green is one of two defendants over Sherry-Lehmmann’s alleged failure to stock customers’ wines. He is seen holding the owner of the premium wine store with a bottle of Lanson champagne that sells for around $50. Kris Verde/Instagram
When Moriarty tried to get his products back, he was told they had been “removed for non-payment of storage charges.”
According to court documents, Moriarty owed about $7,000 in fees and offered to pay the money back. But, according to the complaint, “the offers were rejected.”
Moriarty alleged that the wine “was not actually discarded, but is on the shelves… for sale.”
Rubinstein, who represented Moriarty, told The Post: “Moriarty purchased wine at auction and the labels were inscribed with the name of Moriarty’s son in the early 2000s.
Shyda Gilmer, a former Sherry-Lehmann salesperson, is a co-owner of the embattled store. Seen with a 1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil champagne, which currently sells for about $2,500 a bottle, she is being in demand by customers. New York Post
“He entrusted the wines to Chelsea and those bottles were found upstairs in Chelsea’s retail store. Someone he knows saw them for sale. “Chelsea simply denied it.”
The case was settled in 2019. Chelsea’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Sherry Lehmann’s disappearance has also generated anger.
“I asked them to deliver my wine and it was stupid,” a former customer who is missing thousands of dollars on a rare Bordeaux told The Post angrily.
“I’m excited about the missing wine, but also because I was scammed financially.”
Sherry-Lehmann was founded by former owner Michael Aaron’s bootlegger father, and was last run by Kris Green and Shyda Gilmer.
Michael Aaron, whose father founded Sherry-Lehmann, sold it to Gilmer and Green after two generations, making it New York’s premier wine store. Cristina Aaron
Now they are being sued by at least one former client. Gilmer and Green did not return calls for comment.
Even as he awaits a court date in May, the former client said, “I’ve written him off emotionally. I do not wait [the owners of Sherry-Lehmann] appear in May for a civil hearing.
“It pisses me off that guys [have been accused of] Stealing good wine, living good lives and drinking what doesn’t belong to them.
“Sometimes I will be enjoying a glass of wine and thinking about my lost cases. I wish I had them and that they were aging over the next 10 years.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn