Wine Fest Executive Director Countersues Business Partner

Nancy Bean, the Nantucket Wine Festival’s executive director, has responded to the lawsuit filed earlier this month by business partner and festival minority owner Roy Jay, calling his accusations inflammatory while accusing him of attempting to take over the festival in a counter lawsuit filed on Wednesday.

“Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Roy Jay crossed the line when he betrayed Nancy Bean and breached his duties to the LLC of which they were both members by conspiring to take over the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival and cut out Ms. Bean,” the countersuit says. “When a liquor retailer tried and failed to acquire the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival, despite Mr. Jay’s duties as a minority partner in it, he coordinated with this liquor retailer to paralyze the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival and to obtain instead an interest in a new event. Those efforts failed, however, and the 2025 Nantucket Wine & Food Festival continued its longstanding success. Nevertheless, as Mr. Jay and his co-conspirators intended, their illicit efforts caused Ms. Bean to suffer significant out-of-pocket expenses and damage to her reputation. Mr. Jay remains liable for his defamation against Ms. Bean, and for his intentional participation in a conspiracy to commit extortion against Ms. Bean by, among other things, inflicting emotional distress on her, falsely disparaging her, and forcing her to incur extraordinary expenses.”

Jay filed a lawsuit on July 8^th seeking more than $700,000 while alleging that Bean and fellow wine festival business partners Mark and David Goldweitz failed to pay him $250,000 in shortfall payments, consult with him on major decisions regarding the festival, its operations, and power structure after securing a minority stake, and failing to provide him with insight into the Wine Festival’s finances.

Bean claims Jay played a role in the feud last summer between Bean and Gordon’s Fine Wine, when the liquor retailer appeared to claim they had purchased the Wine and Food Festival before retracting the statement and subsequently saying they were simply scheduling an entirely new event with the White Elephant, the wine festival’s longtime host up until this year, on the same dates as Bean’s festival.

But Bean says that Jay’s lawsuit is filled with “demonstrably false allegations” that have already been dismissed in federal court following her lawsuit last summer (NOTE: a partial settlement was reached where The White Elephant agreed not to conduct any event with Gordon's or any wine festival in May 2025 or May 2026).

“No matter how many times Jay tries to sue her because he regrets the terms on which he entered into his personal letter agreement with Mark Goldweitz, Mr. Jay’s claims against Ms. Bean are frivolous,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Jay ignores clear terms of operative agreements and the simple math that gave Ms. Bean and Mr. Goldweitz the power to make business decisions.”

Bean goes on to say that Jay actively sought to undermine the LLC “by launching a malicious crusade” to commercially disparage and defame Ms. Bean to the festival’s liquor retailer, which she claims prompted Gordon’s Fine Wine to take the “extraordinary step of fraudulently claiming the annual festival as his own and announcing this falsehood to a worldwide audience.”

“Although that effort ultimately failed and the 2025 festival was held successfully, Mr. Jay’s actions caused significant and irreparable disruption to this year’s annual event and inflicted real harm on Ms. Bean, including reputational damage, emotional distress, and substantial out-of-pocket expenses,” the suit says. “Mr. Jay is not entitled to relief in his favor, but rather, he must answer for the damage he deliberately inflicted through his falsehoods and effort to harm Ms. Bean and cripple the enterprise he was entrusted to support.”

Bean’s lawsuit contains three counts against Jay, including defamation, conspiracy, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

Bean is demanding a jury trial on the matter in Superior Court and is requesting the Court dismiss Jay’s complaint in its entirety; award Bean her fees and costs incurred in defending against Jay’s court actions and any other relief the Court deems appropriate; judgment in favor of Bean; award all damages, multiple damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, prejudgment and post-judgment interest as allowed by law; and award such other and further relief as this Court deems just and proper.