(NYPost) - John Fox was irresistible.

Collectors of high-end wine would feel a twinge of excitement when his name materialized in their e-mail inboxes, offering vintages that made oenophiles salivate. Through his Berkeley, Calif.-based Premier Cru, the dealer sold rare wines at crazy discounts — like the $2,600 bottle of Petrus that typically went for $4,000 at auction.

Of course, if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

It was revealed in August that Fox ran a $45 million Ponzi scheme for 23 years, making him the Bernie Madoff of wine. Clients purchased futures — essentially, wine before it’s bottled — under the presumption that Premier Cru would deliver in six months to two years. By buying early, they received reduced prices of 10 percent to 30 percent.

“If a guy sent $1 million,” said Daniel Posner, owner of Grapes the Wine Company in White Plains, “Fox would ship wine to 20 of his $50,000 guys.”

But where did the rest of the money go? A large chunk was diverted to Fox-controlled bank accounts opened under phony names. The married merchant bought himself a $165,000 Ferrari and blew $900,000 of client cash on women he met via the Internet.