Liquidation Ordered For High-Security Manhattan Wine Cellar

Wealthy clients whose high-security wine cellar was flooded in Hurricane Sandy will not be getting their pricey vintage back anytime soon. The storage company has struggled for more than a year to recover from mounting bills, unable to grant customers – including a financier whose wine stash is valued at more than $5 million – access to their wine. A number of high-powered lawyers have been hired, including Gary L. Kaplan, a partner at Fried Frank, who represents a former chairman of Exxon Mobil, a hedge fund manage, a partner in a private equity firm, and a real estate investor. (Their combined collections are only worth $1 million.) Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Gerber did cede to the wishes of the clients, allowing the facility to be liquidated. But along the way he has  rebutted a small group of collectors represented by high-powered counsel, who wanted their wine back immediately, telling them, “There were thousands of victims of Hurricane Sandy, most of which suffered a great deal more than [you].”