Wine Trapped in Retailer Bankruptcy

Customers scramble to retrieve their wines from bankrupt Internet retailer Underground Cellar

Underground Cellar’s founder Jeff Shaw with a glass of red wine and multiple bottles in front of him on a table
After Underground Cellar filed for bankruptcy, their customers' stored wines were seized by the court. (Todd Johnson/San Francisco Business Times)

Underground Cellar was a San Francisco-based internet retailer that bought and stored wine for over 24,000 clients across the Bay Area and beyond. But last April, one of the cellar’s lenders called in an $8 million loan, pushing the firm into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. All the stored wine, instead of belonging to the firm’s customers (who had already paid for it), abruptly shifted to the control of a court-appointed trustee, and an ugly legal battle has ensued. Read on to get the full story. 

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