Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon may have sold off wine at an auction earlier this year but he still has cases and cases to go. The Wealth Report draws our attention to the "The Aubrey McClendon Collection" sale scheduled for November 21 at The St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California. Spectrum Wine Auctions will be simulcasting the sale in Hong Kong, which appears to be where the big spenders on vintage wine are these days. The sale will feature more than 3,000 bottles and may bring in as much as $3 million.

The auction website includes a video interview of McClendon conducted by Mario Sculatti, director of sales and consignments for Spectrum Wine Auctions. McClendon has signed an Imperial of 1990 Lafite Rothschild that will be offered during the auction with commissions earned to be donated to charity on behalf of McClendon and Spectrum Wine Auctions.

McClendon's collection spans a range of the most collectible wines. Particularly prized are two bottles of 1945 Chateau Latour. McClendon also collected large format bottles. The auction offers several six-liter Imperials (the equivalent of eight standard bottles) including a 1982 Cheval Blanc in the original wood case, a 1989 Haut Brion and several vintages from Chateau Mouton Rothschild. McClendon's wine philosophy is simple: "Like anything in life, if you're going to enjoy something you really ought to try to enjoy, I think, the best of the particular pleasure that you're seeking, and so I would encourage people to go after the best wines."

I've heard of this technique happening in jewelry stores, the classic distract and grab caper where one person distracts the salesman and other people come and and nab the jewels. This time though the jewel in question is a bottle of 1945 Chateau Mouton Rothschild worth around $20,000. A Massachusetts liquor store owner says two men walked off with the rare bottle as well as a couple of other pricey vintages while a woman kept the sales clerk busy with a serious series of questions. The Boston Globe reports that the owner of Hopkinton Wine & Spirits, Inc., has surveillance camera video of two men stealing the wine, which was kept in a cooler with other rare wines. His insurance will cover most of the loss but the owner Clelland Johnson is planning tighter security measures.

UPDATE: The wine has been returned unopened and no arrests have been made.

As Wall Street continues to disappoint you may find yourself seeking alternative money-making strategies as opposed to stocks and bonds. While wine is obviously fine for enjoyment it can also act as a unique investment option. It's important to note that putting your money on fine wine does not incur a capital gains tax since it is considered a 'wasting asset' only expected to last fifty years. Your best bet is a first growth from the Bordeaux region and Vanquish Wine, a bespoke wine service for private clients, suggests these top five:

Every year since 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild has had its labels designed and illustrated by different contemporary artists, including many famous names -- Prince Charles did the honors last year (yes, he apparently dabbles in watercolor). This year is no exception, and so for the much anticipated 2005 vintage Italian artist Guiseppe Penone has created the above design, which represents the growth of the vine leaf and an open hand coming in to grasp a glass of Mouton.

Although it's considered quite an honor to have the opportunity to create a label, no payment is made to the artists -- instead they're given cases of Mouton, including (of course) bottles from the year in which their label was used (a value of $170-$800/bottle).

The new vintage of Chateau Mouton Rothschild is always a bit of an event but this year it is even more intriguing because Prince Charles has lent his talents to the label. The Prince of Wales is also a painter and his watercolor of pine trees at Cap d'Antibes on the Cote d'Azur, was selected by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild to adorn the 2004 vintaage of Mouton Rothschild. Decnater reports that Charles is in good company, Braque, Picasso, Chagall and even Andy Warhol have had their works featured on the pricey bottles. The wine goes on sale this week and can be found for around $160.

As expected, those 50 cases of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild that were up for sale this weekend sold big. The estimate for the treasure trove of elegant Bordeaux was $ $600,000 to $1.2 million and they sold for $1.05 million. The wines were just part of Park B. Smith's cellar auction which benefitted his alma mater, Holy Cross. According to Daniel Taub of Bloomberg, the 1982 Mouton went to an anonymous European phone bidder and the auction raised $5.33 million with buyer's premium. One can only hope that the new owner will pamper the wines the way Smith did in order to make the most of the investment. Smith bought the cases in 1997 for $420,500 and given the prices on Bordeaux as of late the new owner might be able to make quite a profit of his own in a decade's time.

One of the most impressive wine auctions this fall is the sale on Saturday, Nov. 18 at Sotheby's in New York City. Park B. Smith will sell around 14,000 bottles of wine from his collection to benefit his alma mater, Holy Cross College. The sale should bring in at least $3-5 million. The big ticket item is a lot of 50 cases of Château Mouton Rothschild 1982, bought by Park B. Smith at Zachys / Christies New York in April 1997. The cases had only one previous owner and are in pristine condition making them a rare and precious commodity. The 1982 Mouton Rothschild is one of Robert Parker's 100-point wines, one that he, at a tasting this year, predicted will "peak between 2010-2015, and last for 5-6 decades thereafter." The estimate is : $600,000-1,200,000 and I'm guessing it will be toward the higher end of the range.