Mom wins big in ‘sour grapes’ case

PROVIDENCE — A jury this week settled a bitter family dispute over dueling wineries in the matriarch’s favor, awarding $450,000 to the owner of Coventry’s defunct ShelaLara Vineyards and Winery.

The jury reached the verdict Monday in a lawsuit brought by ShelaLara’s owner, Sheila Gold, against her son, Andrew Gold, and The Purple Cat Vineyard and Winery and its owner, Daniel Ribeiro, a former sales manager at ShelaLara.

The jury found that Andrew Gold, ShelaLara’s former winemaker, Ribeiro and The Purple Cat had misappropriated trade secrets — namely, the process used to infuse wine with fruit essences and transform it into slush. In addition, the jury concluded that the parties breached confidentiality agreements and converted ShelaLara’s assets for their own gain.

The jury awarded Sheila Gold and the winery she once operated with her sons $300,000 in compensatory damages, plus $150,000 in punitive damages. Of the punitive damages, Andrew Gold and Ribeiro are each to pay $25,000, with $100,000 to come from The Purple Cat Vineyard, in Chepachet.

The jury rejected, however, claims that The Purple Cat, Ribeiro and Andrew Gold had engaged in racketeering.

“I’m very sad any of this happened at all,” Sheila Gold said Tuesday. She added, “The jury has spoken unanimously and I feel vindicated.”

The parties will now negotiate what to do with the recipes used to infuse the wine, according to John J.E. Markham II, the Boston lawyer who represented Sheila Gold.

“We don’t know whether to say, ‘OK, you can have them’,” Markham said, adding that they would move to collect the damages.

“The business is still viable. It’s just not operating,” he said of ShelaLara, which announced its closure in 2015.

“It was a great idea for a niche wine. They were really growing. It could have been a contender,” Markham said.

Gold said she did not plan to reopen the winery.

The damages won’t be paid without a fight, as Ribeiro has vowed to appeal.

“I think the evidence was just misconstrued,” Ribeiro said. “Purple Cat never made a drop of fruit essence wine.”

“This case is a case of sour grapes ... this is more of a family dispute that should have been settled in Family Court,” Ribeiro said. “I look forward to being vindicated.”

“My clients continue to deny that they took any client lists, property, recipes or any employees formerly used by ShelaLara,” said Corey Allard, a lawyer for The Purple Cat.

Allard asserted that the recipes used were widely available and that ShelaLara had never made a profit due to its flawed business practices.

“What it indicates to me is that they felt bad for Sheila,” Allard said of the verdict.

According to the lawsuit, Sheila Gold funneled $2 million into the winery at the urging of her son, Andrew, a former Rhode Island lawyer who was disbarred after being convicted of insurance fraud.

With Andrew and her son Jason, who joined the business later, the family operated ShelaLara Vineyards and Winery Inc. out of a warehouse. Along the way, the Golds hit on the idea of chilling the concoctions nearly solid, a drink they dubbed Gaspee Wine Slush “because it’s revolutionary.” By 2012, they had a patent pending for the process and had hired a sales manager, Ribeiro, to help the winery grow.

In suing, Sheila Gold accused Andrew and Ribeiro of undermining the winery’s financial success, despite giving assurances to the contrary. She charged that they then abruptly left the business, taking valuable records and recipes and using that information to launch The Purple Cat.

U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. presided over the trial.