Wine critic sells condo at former Westbury Hotel

Peter Meltzer, a Wine Spectator columnist and author of “Keys to the Cellar: Strategies and Secrets of Wine Collecting,” has sold his condo at the former Westbury Hotel at 15 East 69th Street for $4.95 million. Meltzer, who also wrote the guidebook “Passport to New York Restaurants,” bought his 2,476-square foot unit for $3.32 million in 2003. He said he would miss his personal wine locker in what was the Westbury’s old wine cellar, where he kept almost 1,000 bottles in a climate-controlled space watched over by a security camera.

In 1999, London-based Chelsfield restored and converted the 1927 hotel, which is a block from the Frick Museum. The hotel’s long-time chief concierge remained on staff, and the condos sold quickly. In 2005, Vornado paid $6,647 per square foot to buy the building’s Madison Avenue retail space for $113 million. TRD