Premier Cru trustee granted approval of $3.68 million in wine sales

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Sept. 2 – The Chapter 7 trustee for Fox Ortega Enterprises, Inc., which does business as Premier Cru, obtained court approval to sell thousands of bottles of wine, according to an order filed Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.

The trustee received approval to sell 73,785 bottles of wine that were the subject of a class action lawsuit for $3.55 million and 5,007 bottles of unfettered wine for $126,000 to Spectrum Wine Auctions.

Trustee Michael G. Kasolas said the wine would be sold free and clear of the liens of Community Bank of the Bay and ARF Financial, LLC, with those liens transferring to the sale proceeds to the same nature, extent, validity and priority that the liens had against the wine.

The purchase price for the bottles related to the settled class action lawsuit is subject to offset for bottles that have been opted out or redeemed, or that are damaged. The purchase price for the unfettered bottles is subject to offset for damaged bottles.

Cellar Trading, LLC is the back-up bidder, with a $3.45 million bid for the class action bottles and $136,000 for the unfettered bottles.

Premier Cru is a Berkeley, Calif., wine store. The company filed bankruptcy on Jan. 8, 2016 under Chapter 7 case number 16-40050.

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