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 enduring 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 vendor who beforehand was busted for promoting stolen watches.
Objects up on the market on the vendor’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 “mostly sealed, though it may have slightly evaporated over the last five years, as its about two-thirds full,” in keeping with the itemizing.
“You can buy a brand new Bel Air Bordeaux for $20,” wine professional and writer Kevin Zraly, informed The Put up.
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 fully sealed, it’s worth $11 – and this one has been open for years,” he mentioned. “There is nothing here that makes sense price-wise.”
The gadgets are a part of an property sale being performed by APR57, an antiques store in Midtown Manhattan situated 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 “next to nothing,” in keeping with a supply with data of the transaction.
APR57’s web site says that it “recently purchased the entire inventory of Sherry-Lehmann,” together with greater than 500 tchotchkes and a few booze, though it didn’t disclose the vendor.
Rosenbloom, who referred to 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 price $30,000. On the time he informed The Put up that the cops by no means bothered to take a look at the receipt he had for the watch.
Rosenbloom additionally has landed on New York ABC affiliate Eyewitness Information’ “7 On Your Side” client watchdog section 4 instances for allegedly failing to pay consignment clients for jewellery he bought and for not returning priceless gadgets that he was requested to restore.
He appeared in one other TV information section 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 searching for remark. His store — embellished 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 Put up.
In December, picketers had appeared outdoors the APR57 retailer throughout the holidays, warning clients 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 development exhausting hat with Sherry-Lehmann’s disgraced former proprietor’s identify emblazoned on the entrance – Shyda Gilmer – priced at $7,900.
The property sale is the newest chapter within the Sherry-Lehmann saga, which incorporates an energetic FBI investigation.
Prospects have sued store claiming they purchased contracts for hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in wine that was by no means delivered. Others declare that they had dear collections within the firm’s storage facility that went lacking, as The Put up has reported.
Amid the chaos, its homeowners, Gilmer and Kris Inexperienced, deserted the enterprise leaving hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of unpaid payments –greater than $3 million in unpaid hire alone — and a large 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 Superb Solar, couldn’t be reached for remark, in keeping with the agency’s lawyer, Edmund O’Brien.
“The brand is pretty much dead,” mentioned one former Sherry-Lehmann worker who didn’t need to be recognized. One other mentioned, “It’s like someone died and this is the estate sale.”
