Que Syrah Syrah.
A Manhattan construction company CEO claims his vengeful ex ruined his $300,000, 400-bottle wine collection just weeks after their June 2023 divorce was finalized, according to a lawsuit.
Michael Clarke Jr. said he only discovered the shocking loss after a visit to the couple’s $3 million, 6,207-square-foot ski chalet in upstate New York.
The home in Windham includes six bedrooms, six baths, and 11-foot high ceilings along with a “game room w/wine closet,” according to an online listing that boasted about its wide plank wood floors, fitness room and “gracious” master suite.
It’s where Clarke, who heads JC Elite Construction, kept his wine “under the protection of refrigerated conditions,” he said in his Manhattan Supreme Court filing against ex, Concetta Clarke, 44.
Michael Clarke initiated divorce proceedings against his wife in Nassau County in 2021, records show. The couple have two kids.
Their split was finalized in June 2023, but sometime in September 2023, Concetta, who lives in Long Beach, allegedly had Michael’s name removed from the New York State Electric and Gas account for the home.
She also removed her own name and transferred the account to an unnamed “third party,” Michael contended in the legal papers.
With his name off the account, Clarke said he stopped getting notices about the property’s electric and gas and didn’t realize anything was amiss.
Three weeks later, Michael Clarke visited and found “the destruction” of the booze, which had been exposed to fluctuating temperatures with the power loss, he said in court papers accusing his former spouse of “disinterested malevolence.”
Concetta Clarke ruined his investment without “any excuse or justification for her actions,” he claimed.
Michael Clarke is seeking $300,000 damages.
Concetta Clarke could not be reached.