Cellar for Sale; Hot Dogs Separate

When the late wine collector Steven Verlin was dating his wife-to-be, Grae, he once asked her if she’d like to go out for a hot dog. “One and a half hours later, we’re in Queens, next to a cemetery, where there’s a battered blue truck that serves these special Sabrett hot dogs, which are made with extra garlic and a special casing,” Ms. Verlin said earlier this week. “I thought, ‘I hope the people in this cemetery didn’t die from eating those hot dogs.'”On Monday night, special Sabretts were served at a dinner hosted by Ms. Verlin in tribute to her husband, who unexpectedly died in his sleep last August at age 58. The dinner was held at Veritas on East 20th Street, a restaurant whose imposing wine list is founded on stocks from the cellars of Verlin and home furnishings magnate Park B. Smith. The two men, with other partners, opened the restaurant in 1999.The dinner at Veritas, chockablock with superb bottles, was hosted by Ms. Verlin as a preamble to next week’s auction in Chicago of the “Steven Verlin Collection,” comprising about 14,000 bottles ranging in size from halves to giant nebuchadnezzars, equal to 18 regular bottles. The auction house Hart Davis Hart called the sale the “largest single-cellar wine auction ever” and estimates that it will reap between $4 million and $6 million. That figure is dwarfed by the $24.7 million fetched by another single-cellar auction held last year in New York. But unlike that sale, which was limited to trophy bottles, the Verlin sale is sprinkled with wines of lesser pedigree. Although Verlin owned the best, he was also happy to drink modest wines.In keeping with Verlin’s quirky preferences, the Sabretts were served at Monday’s dinner with the 1968 vintage of Spain’s most honored wine, Vega Sicilia Unico. There was also popcorn popped in truffle oil partnered with a classic champagne, Krug 1985, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts were washed down with Chateau d’Yquem 1976.Each of these pairings had been devised, loved, and widely shared by Verlin. He even brought his beloved Sabretts to France to share with renowned northern Rhone winemaker Gerard Chave and wine critic Robert Parker, who wrote on his Web site: “He had at least 20 pounds of Sabretts, kosher mustard, and special rolls. I will forever remember the Chaves wolfing down the … special hot dogs with a meal that included terrines of foie gras, grilled rougets and spit-roasted baby goats.”The selection of Hart Davis Hart came as a surprise to auction watchers, since the powerhouses of the auction world are in New York, near Verlin’s temperaturecontrolled wine cellars in New Jersey. Neither Christie’s nor Sotheby’s would comment on any effort to snag the sale. The president of Zachys Auctions, Jeff Zacharia, said from France, “It would have been an honor to represent the Verlin collection.”Auction houses may offer financial incentives to the seller to secure the right to sell a valuable wine collection, just as they will with art. But Ms. Verlin said her priorities lie elsewhere. “My goal and desire is to ensure that Steven’s legacy lives on, and I felt that the people at this auction house team were in keeping with his personality,” she said Monday. “They are easygoing yet professional, modest yet knowledgeable. And how wonderful that they were willing to go along with exactly what I wanted to do at the auction, including serving Krispy Kremes and Yquem.” Hart Davis Hart also provided Ms. Verlin’s unusual choice of an invitation to Monday evening’s dinner: Each guest received a leather box containing a crystal decanter engraved with the times and locations of the dinner and auction.“A big reason for me to have this auction is that it’s a way for my two young sons to see something that beautifully encompasses an aspect of their dad,” Ms. Verlin says. “I love it that they will have this positive memory.” Verlin also had three older children from his first marriage.Verlin made his fortune in the food distribution business and bankrolled Veritas with Mr. Smith. “I’d asked Steve, ‘How would you like to have the best wine list in America?'” Mr. Smith said in a phone interview. “Our cellars were nonduplicative. He was a great collector of Burgundy and old Bordeaux, and I had all the Rhone wines and the boutique Australian, Italian, and American stuff. ‘If the two of us got together,’ I told him, ‘We should get three stars from the Times,’ which Ruth Reichl quickly awarded us.”Like Mr. Smith, Verlin had a weakness for oversize bottles. Next week’s auction includes 121 imperials (one imperial is equal to eight regular bottles), 106 jeroboams (equal to six bottles) and 231 double magnums (equal to four bottles), as well as even larger formats. Top big-bottle bidding is likely to be for an ultrarare nebuchadnezzar of the greatest white Burgundy, Montrachet, from Domaine Ramonet 1992 (estimated between $30,000 and $45,000) and for an imperial of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1947 $40,000–$60,000).For those with a more modest thirst — and budget — the sale is sprinkled with relatively afford able lots, like Langhe Rosso, Carlin 2001, a fine Piedmontese red, esti mated at between $350 and $550 per case of 12 bottles. Four individ ual case lots of Chateau Fougas Maldoror 2000, a Bordeaux, are estimated at between $180 and $280. An affordable rarity is a lot of two Vouvray sweet wines from the great 1947 vintage, estimated be tween $220 and $320.Given the volume of wine being sold, it might seem that Verlin’s cellar has been emptied. Not so “Steve had a tremendous amount of wine, and what’s being auctioned is only a fraction of his cellar,” the wine director at Veritas Tim Kopec, said Monday. Unlike some collectors, who buy wines only for investment, Verlin had a famously quick hand with a corkscrew. “In the restaurant Steve would often send a $1,000 wine over to a table, and not be cause he had sized the customer up as being a big spender,” Mr Kopec said. “It could be a 24-year old kid on a date who was intimidated to open up the wine list. If their reaction to the wine was, ‘Oh my God, what’s this terrific thing happening in this glass?’ that was fuel on the fire for Steve. He’d put 12 or 15 bottles in front of them That was his passion.”The Steven Verlin Collection, to be auctioned at Tru restaurant (676 N. St. Clair St., Chicago, 312-202 0001), May 4 and May 5. For more information, call Hart Davis Hart at 312-482-9996, or go to hdhwine.com.

Cellar for Sale; Hot Dogs Separate

Cellar for Sale; Hot Dogs Separate

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