Oklahomans Turn Out for Auction of McClendon's Wines
September 18 2016 - 9:00PM
Dow Jones News
Aubrey McClendon's fine wine collection sold for $8.4 million
over the weekend, as bidders from the late oilman's home state
helped the auction exceed expectations.
In the 15 years before he died this March, Mr. McClendon had
become one of the world's most prominent wine collectors,
specializing in Bordeaux and unusually large bottles. His
collection, which he had pared down over the years with several
multimillion-dollar sales, was expected to fetch between $5.1
million and $7.7 million.
The sale Saturday was part of the unwinding of the Chesapeake
Energy Corp. co-founder's estate, a tangle of debts, trophy assets,
and more than 180 business interests that is being sorted out in
Oklahoma City probate court. He died in an auto wreck in Oklahoma
City.
The wine auction, held at an upscale restaurant on Chicago's
Gold Coast, attracted nearly 1,000 bidders from 17 countries, many
of whom participated online, according to Ben Nelson, president of
Hart Davis Hart Wine Co., which ran the sale.
All 1,057 of the lots offered were sold. They ranged from single
bottles to cases of 24, and several sales broke records, Mr. Nelson
said.
A Jeroboam of 1989 Haut Brion—the equivalent of six standard
bottles—set what he said was a new high at $33,460. Lots containing
three double magnums of the same wine, which Mr. Nelson said was
Mr. McClendon's favorite, notched world records in the $36,000
range. A case of three double magnums of 1989 Chateau Petrus was
the priciest lot, selling for $65,725.
A double magnum, containing wine that would fill four regular
bottles, was one of the large formats, along with the
eight-bottle-equivalent Imperials, which Mr. McClendon
preferred.
"When I first saw an Imperial of wine… I said to myself, this is
a work of art. This is beautiful. And it's approachable. It's
sharable. It's understandable, and at the end of the day it's
consumable," Mr. McClendon said, according to promotional materials
ahead of a 2009 auction of some of his wine.
He was known in Oklahoma for uncorking his rare giant bottles at
business dinners and football tailgates, eager to share a pricey
pour with all comers. That generosity was indicative of how he
shared the riches he extracted from the oil patch with his
hometown, to which he helped bring a professional basketball team,
lured upscale shops and bankrolled fancy restaurants.
Results from Saturday's auction show that many of Mr.
McClendon's least expensive bottles sold for multiples of their
estimates. That is a sign that many bidders came from beyond the
realm of serious collectors and connoisseurs and simply wanted to
own a bottle that had been in Mr. McClendon's cellar, according to
Mr. Nelson.
"I think he would have been proud to know that we had more than
10 times the usual number of Oklahoma bidders on this record
breaking day," he said.
Write to Ryan Dezember at ryan.dezember@wsj.com and Kevin
Helliker at kevin.helliker@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 18, 2016 20:45 ET (00:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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