Sherry-Lehmann sold wine to New York for 89 years. It opened in 1934, the year after Prohibition ended, and Reuters notes that one of its founders had been a bootlegger, which is one way to know the customers. The state closed its Park Avenue shop in March 2023, by which point it owed millions in back taxes and unpaid rent. Customers who had bought or stored wine there began reporting that they couldn't get it back. The company called the coverage a smear campaign and sued; on September 29, a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed the case.

About 20,000 bottles that customers had stored with the company ended up in the basement of Blue Hill Plaza, an office tower in Pearl River, New York. According to the New York Post, the landlord, Glorious Sun, has returned 10,135 of them. The other 9,865 or so, part of what the Post calls a $16 million collection, are still waiting, and the landlord has taken out an ad in Wine Spectator: "We may have your wine."

A former employee told the Post the leftovers come down to "ignorance, wealth or relocations." So if you stored wine in Manhattan and have since moved, forgotten, or simply own a great deal of wine, Glorious Sun would like a word.

From October 6, Delta's SkyMiles members can fly a case of wine home from Northern California without paying for the bag. The case can hold up to 12 bottles and weigh up to 50 pounds, and it travels free on Delta flights from San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, named for the creator of Peanuts, to destinations across the US. Members have to be 21. The usual checked-bag size limit still applies; the fee doesn't. Delta adds that wine travels at the owner's risk.

It would be wrong not to mention that Alaska Airlines got there first. Its Wine Flies Free covers members flying from 34 airports in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California.

Every year Wine-Searcher ranks the world's most expensive wines by the average price of every vintage its merchants have on sale. For 2026, the top is Domaine Leroy's Musigny Grand Cru, at an average of $61,596 a bottle. Last year it became the first wine to average more than $50,000. The list is mostly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and a Riesling stands out among them.

Domaine Leroy belongs to Lalou Bize-Leroy, born in 1932. She took over her family's négociant house at 23, was co-director of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti from 1974 to 1992, and founded Domaine Leroy in 1988. Last month the merchant WineCap found that 17 of its 25 most expensive fine wines of 2026 come from her two domaines, Leroy and d'Auvenay.

She has farmed biodynamically since 1988, and her vines receive herbal teas tailored to the season and the weather. They appear to be working.

California has more wine than it can sell, and the good stuff is going cheap. Bloomberg reports that a bottle that commands $150 under a winery's own name can go for less than $30 under a store's label, such as Costco's Kirkland Signature. Costco recently cut its Kirkland Signature Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon to $19.99, from $22.99. Grocery Outlet, a discount grocer that has lived on other companies' overstock since 1946, sells a Napa Valley Cabernet that could fetch $45 to $85 under its maker's name, for as little as $9.99.

When Grocery Outlet's wine buyer started there in 2018, he was offered around 1,000 to 3,000 cases at a time. Now the offers run from 20,000 to 200,000. Napa's grapes still averaged $6,768 a ton last year, which at about 60 cases a ton is roughly $9 of fruit in every bottle.

Someone is losing money on that $9.99 Cabernet. For once, it isn't you.

Until Thursday.