Revealed: Madoff Drank Lousy Wine

And he hoarded minibar bottles
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 11, 2011 3:52 PM CDT
Revealed: Madoff Drank Lousy Wine
This photo taken Sept. 8, 2009, in New York shows a case of wine in the laundry room of Bernard Madoff's penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Apparently Bernie Madoff didn’t spend much of his Ponzi loot on wine. US marshals plan to auction off Madoff’s wine collection, and though the estimated $15,000 price tag might sound like a lot to Joe Sixpack, wine experts are scoffing at his taste. “He was clearly not a connoisseur, or a serious wine collector,” one wine auctioneer tells Bloomberg.

“He had some good Bordeaux,” says another wine writer, “but I am surprised that this is all there was. The guy was a gazillionaire.” Just how pedestrian were Madoff’s tastes? Well, one lot in the auction is a collection of 2-ounce bottles of Smirnoff, Bombay Gin, and Grand Marnier that Madoff apparently hoarded out of minibars. “That’s hilarious actually,” the wine auctioneer says. “Who knew that’s what he’d collected?” (More Bernie Madoff stories.)

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