At an upcoming Sotheby's auction you can indulge your love of French wine and your passion for doing good. The Sotheby's London auction on September 23 will include selections from the copious cellar of Belgian billionaire Albert Frere. Frere is auctioning off his prized vintages to benefit the Charles-Albert Frere Foundation, a charity set up to support children and disadvantaged adults. It is named after Frere's son who died in a car crash 10 years ago.

Frere often buys his wine directly from the chateaux and has it sent directly to his private cellar so it is in peak condition. This is the third in a series of wine auctions of Frere's collection. Highlights of this auction feature vintages from 1985 to 2005 with offerings from Petrus, Haut Brion, Marguax and La Tour. Shown at right is the Carre d'As 2000 Groupe Duclot lot which features two magnums of Latour, two magnums of Margaux, two magnums of Haut Brion and two magnums of Petrus all presented in an octagonal wooden presentation case, wrapped in a plain protective cardboard outer. The name translates as four aces. It is estimated at $16000-21000.

Gordon Ramsay may have just come off the worst year of his life but that doesn't mean he is giving up on opening restaurants. He will be opening a new version of Petrus restaurant in the Belgravia area of London in September. His new place will be rather close to Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley where his former friend and protege who ran Petrus at London's Berkeley Hotel has set up shop. Wareing has two Michelin stars for Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley.

Ramsay is hoping to bring new fame to the Petrus name, one of his known marquee brands. "Petrus is a cornerstone of the group and this stunning new site is the beginning of the next chapter in the life of this restaurant," Ramsay said in an e-mailed statement seen on Bloomberg. The restaurant will serve modern French food like fillet of Angus beef with Swiss chard, wild mushrooms and red-wine sauce and baked line-caught sea bass with confit fennel and caviar sauce, a menu that Wareing called "familiar Gordon food" in a telephone interview quoted in the Bloomberg article.

Wareing says he wishes Ramsay the best of luck. The two have a long history, Ramsay was best man at Wareing's wedding and he helped finance the original Petrus for Wareing but last year Wareing resigned from Gordon Ramsay Holdings. It also bears noting that Jean-Philippe Susilovic,Wareing's maitre d' for five years, will be director of the new restaurant. I'm guessing more volleys will be traded back in forth once Ramsay's Petrus is closer to opening.

Most of the time we read about the a man selling off their huge wine collection but this time it's a woman who is selling off her carefully amassed wines. V. Cheryl Womack, who made her fortune in the insurance world, spent around 15 years creating a collection of almost 10,000 bottles. Like many collectors, she's in need of space and so off to Sotheby's she went. On March 15, Sotheby's will be holding a single collector sale of 4,775 bottles from her collection, freeing up nearly half of Womack's cellar space for new acquisitions. The sale is expected to bring in around $3 million.

Don't turn to Trader Joe's for a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck if you're looking for a good price on wine. The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports that more and more wine lovers are heading to auction houses like Christie's to shop - not for the ultra-expensive or rare bottles of wine, but for bargains. Many lots of good, ready-to-drink wines, perhaps "from overzealous collectors, who bought more than they [could] drink," sell for well under $100 per bottle.

When people consign their collections to the auction block, they almost always have several lower-ticket items in addition to the really expensive bottles of Chateau Petrus that the auction houses take one either because they must, or because they're hoping to attract new bidders. Whatever their reason for offering the wines, the budget bottles are a boon to wine fans who find cases of their favorite vintages for less than retail. The self-described "bottom feeders" say that it just takes a little research on the catalogue listings to sniff out the best deals, but to come home with some good wines at even better prices, it is worth the effort.

Sure, the aged vintage Petrus goes for big bucks but how about something a little fresher? Don't hold out your hopes of an inexpensive 2005 Petrus, Decanter reveals that the not-even-in-the-bottle 2005 vintage is selling at prices that work out to around $3000 per bottle. And this is before the emperor, Robert Parker, gives his final score. Parker has tasted the en primeur wines in the barrel but doesn't give a final score until the grape hits the bottle. So far he has given it a 96-100 which means that it could be one of Parker's famous 100-point wines, but then again maybe not. A lower score could cause a price dip but people aren't taking any chances and are already pre-ordering cases.

A recent Sotheby’s Fine & Rare Wines auction at New Bond Street, London ended yesterday. A particular sale that caught my eye was Lot 12, Chateau Petrus 1982. Hammer price was at about 23,036 US dollars. An ultimate collectors wine, Petrus comes from a small 28.4 acre vineyard named in honor of St. Peter. It is the only site where topsoil and subsoil are composed almost entirely of heavy clay rich in iron. Ironically clay is typically unsuitable for high-quality wines, as it tends to get water logged. Fermented in cement vats, the wine is aged in completely new oak barrels for 22 to 28 months, and right before bottling it is clarified with five fresh egg whites per barrel (they don’t filter). Sotheby’s notes of developed color with great character in the nose of prunes and spices. Licorice with sweet gummy definition and some sweet aniseed. Pruney finish with mocha as it lingers on the palate. At 10 bottles in the lot, average cost per bottle is $2,304.