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1855 placed into liquidation by French court
Online wine merchant 1855.com has been placed into liquidation by the Tribunal de Commerce in Paris after a key investor pulled out of supporting its recovery plan.
A screen grab from the website
The troubled merchant, now known as Heracles, was forced into liquidation on 9 January less than two moths after the court agreed a compensation plan for its creditors.
The merchant owed millions of euros to creditors and buyers who never received the wines they bought en primeur.
Last November, the Paris commercial court accepted a recovery plan put forward by 1855’s founder Emeric Sauty de Chalon and managing director Fabien Hyon.
Among the terms of the plan was the intention to reimburse consumers who were owed classed growth en primeur wines from the prestigious 2005 vintage with inferior Bordeaux Supérieur 2012.
The deal fell through in December when Luxembourg-based investment fund, Precision Leading Fund 1, withdrew its pledge to cover the merchant’s debts.
Some 11,000 creditors are owed wine by Heracles to the value of over €40m, with claims dating back to the 2002 en primeur campaign.
1855.com was founded by Sauty de Chalon and Hyon in 1995, and specialised in selling en primeur Bordeaux. The company was renamed Heracles in September 2013.