Some 20,000 bottles of rare wine worth $16 million sit unclaimed in a Rockland County basement more than three years after the collapse of Sherry-Lehmann, the iconic Park Avenue vintner — a stash of elite excess so vast its owners literally forgot it existed while working Americans count pennies at the grocery store.
The collection, housed at Blue Hill Plaza, became the property of Hong Kong-based landlord Glorious Sun after Sherry-Lehmann's storage business defaulted on its rent. Now the landlord is running ads in Wine Spectator begging people to come get their wine so it can rent the space to a paying tenant. Only a third of the bottles — 10,135 — have been returned.
The reason so much luxury sits abandoned? According to a source who worked for Sherry-Lehmann, the remaining wine hasn't been claimed due to "ignorance, wealth or relocations." The people who really wanted their property back have already gotten it, said Edmund O'Brien, an attorney representing Glorious Sun. "Now it's time to find the people who haven't been paying attention."
Sherry-Lehmann shut its doors in March 2023 after 89 years in business, failing to renew its liquor license or pay rent. The collapse came after a 2023 New York Times report alleged the retailer was selling wine belonging to its storage customers to outside collectors. The FBI and US Postal Inspectors raided the Blue Hill facility. Sherry-Lehmann denied the allegations and sued Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Stewart, claiming a smear campaign. A federal judge dismissed the case Tuesday.
The company's complaint noted that despite "as many as 200 agents at the Blue Hill facility for five days" and a multi-day search by the US Attorney's Office, "there have been no arrests nor any indictments." But O'Brien says the FBI told him the case isn't dead — investigators contacted him over the summer for updates on the wine and on a lawsuit Wine Caves filed against Glorious Sun accusing the landlord of withholding wine.
The New York Post framed the story as a mystery of lost luxury, spotlighting the absurdity of forgotten fortunes. What went unremarked: the sheer scale of indifference. Americans are paying record prices for food and fuel, and the elite class has millions in vintage Bordeaux collecting dust in a suburban basement — so unimportant to its owners that they can't be bothered to claim it.
The FBI investigation continues. No one has been held accountable. And thousands of bottles that cost more than most families' monthly grocery budgets wait for owners who may never come.
