Defunct NYC wine shop Sherry-Lehmann sues ex-owners, Pulitzer-winning NYT journalist over ‘press smear campaign’

Defunct New York City wine shop Sherry-Lehmann has filed a bizarre lawsuit that blames its spectacular implosion two years ago on its former owners — as well as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

The ill-fated vintner’s current proprietors — who shuttered the posh Park Avenue store in March 2023 amid mounting customer complaints over missing wine orders — claim New York Times columnist James B. Stewart conspired with Sherry-Lehmann’s former owners to create a “press smear campaign” against the shop for their “financial benefit and personal gain.”

The suit claims the 73-year-old scribe — best known for his 1991 book “Den of Thieves” about the Michael Milken insider trading scandal — also egged on law enforcement to raid Sherry-Lehmann, allegedly telling the US attorney for the Southern District of New York that the wine shop “was the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

The suit goes on to make the claim that Stewart and three of the shop’s former owners “orchestrated” a series of “false articles” in other publications — including the New York Post — that allegedly misrepresented Sherry-Lehmann to the public and to law enforcement.

That, Sherry-Lehmann’s owners alleged, amounts to a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, according to the May 27 suit filed in Manhattan federal court.

A spokesperson for The New York Times denied the RICO allegations, saying in a statement, “There is no merit to the claims and we plan to defend against the suit vigorously.”

In response to the allegations concerning The New York Post, a spokeswoman said in a statement, “These allegations are absurd, and show a complete lack of understanding of how journalism works.”

Sherry-Lehmann’s complaint alleges that Peter Hellman, a reporter for the trade publication Wine Spectator, collaborated with Stewart “in researching and writing their articles for Wine Spectator and The New York Times, with Hellman claiming to a representative for Sherry-Lehmann that he was the ‘gumshoe reporter’ for Stewart’s article.”

The suit also claims that Hellman tried to “impersonate an HVAC repairman” to enter Sherry-Lehmann’s temperature controlled Wine Caves facility in Pearl River, NY “before he was escorted from the premises.”

The complaint likewise alleges that Stewart allegedly “impersonated a customer of Wine Caves (which Stewart never was)” to gather information for his article and that he allegedly told a Sherry-Lehman rep that “this will win a Pulitzer Prize.”

Stewart has already won a Pulitzer — in 1987 for his coverage of the stock market crash when he was a writer for The Wall Street Journal.

A source familiar with the lawsuit told The Post that Stewart and Hellman have never met.

Stewart declined to comment. Hellman and Wine Spectator also declined to comment, citing “pending litigation.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of owners Kris Green and Shyda Gilmer, claims they missed out on a $20 million “merger” offer from “one of the largest vineyard owners in France” because of the negative press and that the former owners wanted to deep six the deal to sell the business, according to the complaint.

Gilmer and Green also claim the company was in the red long before they took over and blame the previous ownership’s management for its woes.

“The co-conspirators…have engaged in a strategic, well-coordinated collaboration… to spread damaging false information about Sherry-Lehmann … with the sole intention of sabotaging its reputation and destroying its operations so they might profit,” according to the complaint.

The suit singles out Stewart for a May 25, 2023, exposé in the Gray Lady entitled “An Iconic Wine Store and the Mystery of the Missing Bottles” which reported that some of the wine belonging to storage customers was illegally sold to others. Sherry-Lehman denied this in its complaint.

Sherry-Lehmann had been shuttered two months earlier after the State Liquor Authority issued a cease and desist order because the business had failed to renew its liquor license. 

The nearly century-old, debt-ridden wine shop failed to pay its landlord, vendors and state taxes while also reportedly stiffing its customers out of wine they had paid for. A separate wine storage business – Wine Caves – went dark on customers who tried in vain get their booze back, as The Post reported.

At the same time, the previous owners were dishing on Sherry-Lehmann’s current owners, according to the lawsuit, because they wanted to be absolved of potential liability from the landlord who is owed millions of dollars.

The previous owners, Michael Aaron, whose family founded Sherry-Lehman, Michael Yurch and Chris Adams are being sued in a separate lawsuit filed last year by Sherry-Lehmann’s landlord Glorious Sun, which claims they are liable for the unpaid rent.

Aaron, Adams and Yurch declined to comment on either of the lawsuits.

The previous owners argue that they long ago severed ties with the business and have no stake in it, according to court documents.

The final nail in the coffin for the business were multiple raids by the FBI, NYPD and US Postal Inspection Service on its store and wine storage facility in Pearl River, NY in July 2023.

The “unnecessary raids” in 2023 and as recently as 2024 resulted in canceled orders from customers, and potential acquirers, according to the complaint.

But notably, there have been “no indictments or arrests” as a result of these investigations, the suit claims.

“After withstanding [a] highly damaged reputation for over two years,” the lawsuit states, “[Sherry-Lehmann] can now finally come forward to tell the real story and to seek a remedy against all co-conspirators who profited from their misconduct, while fleecing Sherry-Lehmann in the process.”

A US Postal Inspection Service spokesperson told The Post that its investigation of Sherry-Lehmann is “active and ongoing.”