Respectfully, my post is clear that the two Domaine DC employees have nothing to do with the sale of wine by Mr. Lazar and his various entities. The reason that I named them was to “provide the evidence” that the individuals in question are not named as registered “managers” with ABRA for Cellar Trading, LLC and that the employees in question have no connection with the Lazar wine sales operations. I know that John Portillo is still employed as the DC warehouse manager. And yes there are two additional Domaine DC employees since mid-2015, one of whom replaced Alex. In deference to your views, I won’t add their names here, but to be clear, to the best of my knowledge none of the Domaine DC employees have any involvement in the sale of wine for either Cellar Trading LLC or any of Mr. Lazar’s entities. The purported DC sales operation is a total sham designed to try to “paper” sales made out of St. Louis with a fictional liquor license through Washington DC.
I would guess, without seeing the policy, that TDC would be the broker named on the policy. As a policy holder you would have coverage. To be safe- I’d make a call to TDC.
Don, I appreciate the follow up and additional clarity. The purpose of my post was to make it absolutely clear that the Domaine DC employees, both past and present, have nothing to do with this mess. As someone who has stored wine there for some time, I have nothing but the best things to say about the people who work there. Especially John. He’s the man.
Legitimate concerns, Andy, but at least at this moment we’ve got almost a half year before warm weather returns, and the Washington, DC facility is well underground. I store there and I’ve been amazed at how quickly the entire space was outfitted with lockers and the lockers rented/leased and filled with wine.
Seems like fraudulently operating, but not cheating customers?? I have wine purchased from Domaine Market that is ready to ship, but “FedEx logistic issues” prevent them from shipping after a phone call today. Hoping to avoid Premier Cru part II.
Both UPS and FedEx have halted shipping any wines for the Lazar entities based upon the misrepresentations that were made to them about Domaine/Cellar Advisors being licensed retailers. So you may not be able to get your wines shipped.
not justifying anything but i believe in missouri sodomy includes oral/anal/sexual penetration. Basically anything that’s not considered “traditional” sexual intercourse.
no disagreement here. But I’m betting the legal argument made may have to do with the fact that it wasn’t the sodomy we are thinking of when we see the word sodomy, at least for the commuted sentence. I’m not going to dig into it as the whole idea is disconcerting.
This is certainly not new information on Marc though. I believe Don posted about his criminal conviction in the Rudy thread before.
I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. Happens after working all night, sorry. Think of PC. IF the authorities step in they may not allow one to access their stored wine, if even for a time. Or if Marc owes rent and the landlord locks everyone out. You won’t know it’s going to happen until it does and then you’ll be really screwed.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve had my wine stored in Domaine NY over the last year and am quite concerned now. Has anybody been in contact with them? Are people planning to move their wine out immediately?
That’s a decision you’ll have to make. If it were me I’d move out for reasons I mentioned above. It’s cold there from someone’s comment so keeping it at home for a bit, until things sort out or you find a new place, I’d imagine would be ok.
This type of arrangement is very very common - you have a “wholesale” broker who puts together a program and a “retail” broker might be the one actually marketing to the ultimate consumer. Thanks to Don we know that insuremywine is not a licensed broker and have been taking commissions- totally illegal. But if you look at the policy the broker or agent will probably be TDC. Again I have not seen the actual policy, so I am guessing at some of this.