Aubrey McClendon's Massive Bordeaux collection going to auction

From the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, who died in a car crash several months ago. Via Hart Davis Hart…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/late-shale-pioneer-mcclendon-s-wine-collection-up-for-auction

None of which I’ll be able to afford, unfortunately. Wish people would collect affordable Bordeaux

He died on March 2, just hours after his federal indictment for bid-rigging, when his vehicle slammed into a highway retaining wall.

Ain’t that a coincidence

I thought all his assets were frozen? Should have seen that Range Rover, pretty horrific.

actually it was a CNG powered Chevy Tahoe, but yes, horrific. It needed to be to ensure he didn’t survive.

Aubrey was pretty famous around here for his trophy wine collecting, he did everything big. I heard second hand that he once opened something old, rare and expensive for some guys on a golf trip. One of the guys said, “doesn’t it hurt a little to open such an expensive wine”? His response was something to the effect that there were only XX bottles left in the world and he owned half of them, so drinking one only meant his remaining stock increased in value to compensate!

Wonder how many are fakes…

Wow, just saw the pictures of the car for the first time. That is some serious speed to shove the hood back that far and for it to catch fire. On the wrong side of the road (driver’s side impact, go figure) into a solid concrete overpass wall. I’ll guess his seatbelt wasn’t on either. Someone with some cash will get some nice wines.

EDIT:

Police investigators concluded that when the oil-and-gas executive crashed his natural gas-fueled Chevy Tahoe into a bridge it was an accident, though suicide wasn’t officially ruled out. They previously disclosed that Mr. McClendon was > driving as fast as 89 miles an hour > in the moments before his sport-utility vehicle struck a concrete underpass, and quickly caught fire. He > wasn’t wearing a seat belt, according to the crash report.

And the police think this was an accident and not a suicide.

In this day and age, I am slightly grateful he only took himself out.

He also played a role in taking the Seattle Supersonics away from Seattle.

“On August 13, 2007, Aubrey McClendon, a minor partner of Clay Bennett’s ownership group, said in an interview with The Journal Record (an Oklahoma City newspaper) that the team was not purchased to keep it in Seattle but to relocate it to Oklahoma City.”

Did he have dirt on Hillary?

He was on his way to spill the beans about climate change.

Todd,

There is actually an ocean of affordable bordeaux in this collection. Don’t know how HDH will market/lot it, but Ive seen the whole collection and it spans trophys and more everyday stuff. He also had TONS of very large btls, 6 Liters and larger, which while impractical, I would expect to sell at a discount to 750s in many cases. So depending on how many friends you’d like to share bdx with, they could be some great buys!

Given everything that was going on in his complex life, leaving as he did was probably a mercy for all involved.

A man of huge appetites, but he also unleashed an era of potential energy independence for the US.

Perhaps the victors in the auction over his cellar will raise a glass to him someday.

Lot of mags and bigger bottles in that auction. He seemed to really like Mouton.

Pretty labels!

It’s the most boring catalog since the Lafite auction.

Now both of those posts are funny

So assuming this guy killed himself, looking over the catalogue what is one bottle you would have opened the night before?

Watch the obituaries for when I die…

Perhaps it is just my own misguided sense about what is right and wrong, but on a personal level, I find the idea that Hart-Davis-Hart rushed in to sell the Aubrey McClendon wines disturbing. Yes, I realize that HDH has sold wines from Aubrey McClendon before (as have Sotheby’s and on one known occasion Spectrum). But the situation is now different. Aubrey McClendon was indicted for felony bid-rigging in the oil and gas industry by the US Department of Justice. He apparently committed suicide rather than face the charges.

Having worked with the FBI and law enforcement on wine fraud related matters for the last eight years I know first hand how difficult it is to get the US Attorney’s office to bring criminal charges for business cases. To say the least, they don’t prosecute unless they consider the cases slam dunks. Criminal anti-trust claims are extraordinarily rare these days (I was engaged almost exclusively in anti-trust matters for the the first four years of my career) and for criminal charges to be brought against a CEO of a major company for directly engaging in bid-rigging? That’s something that hasn’t happened in a long time.

So why is HDH offering the McClendon wines now? And why is the collection being offered under McClendon’s name? If Aubrey McClendon had been indicted for say mail or wire fraud (also a felony), would HDH be offering Aubrey McClendon’s wines? What if the charges were based on a felony crime of violence? If the charge had been for knowingly selling counterfeit wines, would HDH be offering McClendon’s wines? All of these matters are felonies, so where does one draw the line?

Of all of the auction houses since 2000, Hart-Davis has had the most sterling reputation. Without any doubt, they’ve done a better job than any other auction house in authenticating wine and screening out counterfeits. Alan Frischman, who is responsible for vetting the the wines for HDH, is in my judgment currently the best wine authenticator in the world. (With no slight of my other esteemed colleagues intended.) HDH turned down consignments from Rudy Kurniawan and Eric Greenberg, when others did not. HDH has been the gold standard in terms of wine auction houses since 2000 and the wine world has come to realize that and it is reflected in their sales figures.

So, somehow I just expected better from HDH.

Another of my concerns is that I know that Aubrey McClendon bought a good deal of counterfeit wine from Rudy Kurniawan (via the Cellar I and Cellar II sales) and that such wines have previously been rejected by HDH and Sotheby’s in prior auctions of McClendon wines. I also know of two instances in 2014-15 in which counterfeit DRC Methuselahs that Mr. McClendon purchased that were made by Rudy Kurniawan were sold via a unlicensed North Carolina retailer. (More to come on that later.) While I have complete confidence that HDH won’t be offering any of Mr. McClendon’s counterfeit wines in the HDH auction (N.B. Almost all of the wines offered are bordeaux from more recent vintages), I am worried about what is going to happen to the remaining counterfeit bottles in the McClendon cellar that HDH isn’t offering.