Park B. Smith Wine Auction to Benefit Holy Cross

By Carole Sloan -- Home Textiles Today, 9/4/2006 12:00:00 AM

New York — —

New York — Park B. Smith will auction a significant part of his vast, legendary wine collection — including 50 cases of the famed 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild — at a sale to be held at Sotheby's here in conjunction with Aulden Cellars on Nov.18.

A significant portion of the wine to be auctioned will include Smith's prized large format bottles, especially magnums and double magnums, and will focus on Bordeaux, Rhone and California.

The Chateau Mouton Rothschild carries an estimate of $600,000 to $1.2 million. Overall, the collection to be auctioned carries an estimate of $3.1 million to $4.8 million.

Smith, founder and chairman of his namesake home textiles company, is holding the sale to benefit his alma mater, The College of the Holy Cross, where he has been a major benefactor since his graduation in 1954.

From Rhone are wines from Chateauneuf de Pape, a region that named him honorary mayor and vigneron in 2005. Among his other awards in the wine milieu are Wine Collector of the Year in 2003 by Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, Calif.

Wines from Burgundy include cases of 1990 DRC La Tache, 1985 DRC La Montrachet, and imperials including DRC Romanee Conti. Wines from California include a number of rare cases of magnums, especially from Colgin Herb Lamb Vineyard 1992-2001.

Robert Parker, influential wine critic and a close friend, remarked, “In my lifetime as a wine critic I have never seen a wine cellar of such diversity, breadth and selection, and impeccable quality…I have known for some time that he realizes, that his compulsion for purchasing more wine than he, myself, and all of our wine drinking friends could consume in a lifetime, means some of his collection would have to be sold.”

A special dinner benefiting Holy Cross will be held at Veritas here, a restaurant featuring wines from his collection, founded by Smith and partners in 1998.