The shock shuttering of New York Metropolis wine store Sherry-Lehmann was weird — however the liquidation of the enterprise has taken a good weirder flip.
A cache of memorabilia from the long-lasting vintner in Midtown Manhattan — which shut down in 2023 amid accusations over prize wines that went lacking — is now being supplied at wildly marked-up costs by a classic jewellery supplier who beforehand was busted for promoting stolen watches.
Gadgets up on the market on the supplier’s web site embody a 2001 Grand Cru Bienvenues Batard-Montrachet — a prize white Burgundy — for $4,995.
The catch: It’s an empty show bottle.
The worth for a full, unopened bottle averaged $1,033 final month, in keeping with Wine Searcher.
Elsewhere, a 2019 Chateau Bel Air Bordeaux is being supplied for $695. The bottle is “largely sealed, although it might have barely evaporated during the last 5 years, as its about two-thirds full,” in keeping with the itemizing.
“You should purchase a model new Bel Air Bordeaux for $20,” wine knowledgeable and writer Kevin Zraly, informed The Publish.
Daniel Posner, who owns White Plains, NY-based Grapes The Wine Co., was equally baffled by a $495 itemizing for a bottle of 2018 Lacroix Barton Bordeaux that’s “about 60% full”.
“When that bottle is totally sealed, it’s value $11 – and this one has been open for years,” he stated. “There’s nothing right here that is smart price-wise.”
The gadgets are a part of an property sale being carried out by APR57, an antiques store in Midtown Manhattan positioned at 200 W. 57th St., just a few blocks west of Sherry-Lehmann’s now-defunct retailer.
Sherry-Lehmann’s former landlord bought what was left within the retailer to APR57’s proprietor Lee Rosenbloom for “subsequent to nothing,” in keeping with a supply with data of the transaction.
APR57’s web site says that it “just lately bought all the stock of Sherry-Lehmann,” together with greater than 500 tchotchkes and a few booze, though it didn’t disclose the vendor.
Rosenbloom, who known as himself “Lee the Appraiser” on a WOR radio present he used to host, isn’t any stranger to controversy.
In 2002, he was arrested for allegedly promoting a stolen F.P. Journe watch value $30,000. On the time he informed The Publish that the cops by no means bothered to have a look at the receipt he had for the watch.
Rosenbloom additionally has landed on New York ABC affiliate Eyewitness Information’ “7 On Your Facet” shopper watchdog phase 4 instances for allegedly failing to pay consignment prospects for jewellery he bought and for not returning useful gadgets that he was requested to restore.
He appeared in one other TV information phase after he refused to let go of a Rolex watch that was introduced in to be repaired. He rebuffed the proprietor for 3 years till she enlisted the media’s assist, in keeping with a Pix11 report in 2018.
Rosenbloom didn’t return emails and phone calls looking for remark. His store — adorned with images of himself posing with stars like Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Martin Sheen and Kelsey Grammer — was closed for a number of straight enterprise days earlier this month, sources informed The Publish.
In December, picketers had appeared exterior the APR57 retailer through the holidays, warning prospects to remain away, in keeping with a rep on the FedEx retailer subsequent door.
In the meantime, the store’s web site is promoting a framed {photograph} of Andy Warhol at Sherry-Lehmann in 1978 signing a wine bottle.
The worth is $925 — wine not included. A scuffed-up, empty inexperienced field that used to include a bottle of Dom Perignon is listed at $295.
Among the many odd memorabilia on the market: a building onerous hat with Sherry-Lehmann’s disgraced former proprietor’s title emblazoned on the entrance – Shyda Gilmer – priced at $7,900.
The property sale is the most recent chapter within the Sherry-Lehmann saga, which incorporates an energetic FBI investigation.
Clients have sued store claiming they purchased contracts for thousands and thousands of {dollars} in wine that was by no means delivered. Others declare they’d dear collections within the firm’s storage facility that went lacking, as The Publish has reported.
Amid the chaos, its homeowners, Gilmer and Kris Inexperienced, deserted the enterprise leaving thousands and thousands of {dollars} of unpaid payments –greater than $3 million in unpaid hire alone — and an enormous thriller about what occurred to the wine that was saved in its Wine Caves facility.
Gilmer and Inexperienced didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Sherry-Lehmann’s former landlord, Hong Kong-based Wonderful Solar, couldn’t be reached for remark, in keeping with the agency’s lawyer, Edmund O’Brien.
“The model is just about useless,” stated one former Sherry-Lehmann worker who didn’t wish to be recognized. One other stated, “It’s like somebody died and that is the property sale.”
Supply hyperlink