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...