By: Don Driggers

Representatives for Sherry-Lehmann, the embattled, 90-year-old high-end wine store, told New York Post reporter Lisa Fickenscher last week that they were “excited” they would reopen the shuttered shop on Tuesday. But as of Friday, a window sign touted only, “Grand reopening coming soon!”

As Fickenscher first reported, the venerable vino vendor was shut down by the State Liquor Authority last month after its liquor license expired.

The Patch.com reported that Sherry Lehman faces customer complaints about wine they bought that went undelivered, lawsuits from shippers who say they never got paid, and the store must pay millions in delinquent taxes, according to city, state, and online records.

The tax problem is so large that Sherry-Lehmann appears on the New York’s Taxation and Finance department’s list of top delinquent taxpayers, ranking ninth in the state with $3.16 million in outstanding tax warrants, as Patch previously reported.

Speaking to the Post, James Gazzale, a spokesman for the Department of Taxation and Finance said of Sherry Lehman, “They are high on this list. We are trying to communicate with them and find a mutually beneficial way to have them resolve it as quickly as possible. If we can’t come to some arrangement, we [can] seize the business.”

Sources have also told the Post that vendors of the store are justifiably expressing concern about payment for goods and are demanding unusually strict payment terms from Sherry-Lehmann’s current owners.  The current owners are Kris Green, a former hedge fund executive who took an undisclosed stake in the business in 2013, and Shyda Gilmer, a veteran employee who is now its chief executive, the Post reported.

According to their website

“ 2023 marks 89 years for Sherry-Lehmann, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to share a bit of our history with you, our great clientele: from Jack Aaron’s founding of Sherry Wine and Spirits, Sam Aaron’s love of wine, our first Bordeaux futures campaign for the 1959 vintage, the evolution of the Sherry-Lehmann Catalog, to Michael Aaron’s decades long stewardship and growth of our store. At every point in this growth, we’ve always focused on offering our clients exceptional service, competitive pricing, and the best selection possible.

During Prohibition, Jack Aaron was a well-known supplier of spirits and was regarded as a great connoisseur of whiskey. Naturally, after repeal, he decided to take his ready-made client base and go into the liquor business. So, on March 6, 1934, he founded Sherry Wine and Spirits Co., Inc.

The  first store was in the Louis Sherry building on Madison Avenue at 62nd Street; the building that is now home to Hermes. (In fact, the store took its name from the building — not from the fortified wine of Spain.) In 1935, Jack was joined by his brother, Sam Aaron. Sam almost immediately developed an interest in a beverage that was hardly consumed in those days, wine. In 1937, Sherry Wine and Spirits moved one block south to 61st Street and Madison Avenue, to a site that is now New York’s famed Carlton House.

In 1948, when Sherry Wine and Spirits moved across the street to 679 Madison Avenue, the original wood paneling from our second location (designed by the architect of the “21 Club”) was used to decorate the new shop. In 2007, we moved again, this time to a three-floor, 10,000+ square foot location just two blocks south, at 59th Street and Park Avenue. Even here we made every effort to replicate the charm and warmth of the old store”.