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"  What does one of the world&amp;#039;s most reviled financial schemers drink to relax? Well before beginning his 150-year sentence in a federal prison in North Carolina, Bernie Madoff seems to have had a taste for French wines, good Scotch, and the occasional amaretto. Now that he&amp;#039;s behind bars, his liquor cabinet bounty will go to the highest bidder. The booze, among the assets that U.S. Marshalls seized from Madoff&amp;#039;s Palm Beach, FL, home in 2009, is being sold by Morrell &amp;amp;amp; Co. Fine Wine Auctions. Online sales begin today with a live auction on June 4. Proceeds of the sale will go to compensate victims of Madoff&amp;#039;s $65 billion pyramid scheme. The wine and liquors have been divided into 59 lots, which range from single bottles to cases of 12. More from Delish: Prized Bottle of Whisky Auctioned for Almost Half Million Dollars The most expensive lot in the collection is a 12-bottle case of 1996 Ch\u00E2teau Mouton-Rothschild, the bidding for which will begin between $3,200 and $3,800. A similar case recently went for $8200 at London&amp;#039;s Sotheby&amp;#039;s. But despite Madoff&amp;#039;s taste for fine real estate, cars, and watches, his wine cellar and liquor cabinet were less impressive. &amp;quot;He was clearly not a connoisseur, or a serious wine collector,&amp;quot; Morrell director Kimberly Janis told Bloomberg, which reports that Madoff&amp;#039;s collection includes a mini-bottles of Smirnoff Vodka and Grand Marnier liqueur, as well as an assortment mid-range wine and spirits.  On its website Morrell acknowledges that Madoff&amp;#039;s collection doesn&amp;#039;t live up to the auction house&amp;#039;s usual standards. &amp;quot;As artifacts of history they are unique, which is why we have chosen to offer all of the bottles seized, including those which normally wouldn&amp;#039;t pass muster and make it into our auction. Some of the bottles are better viewed as conversation pieces rather than valued for their contents, but conversation pieces they are.&amp;quot; More from Delish: How to Read Wine Labels Indeed. CNN Money speculates that Madoff used the booze in his entertaining of potential pyramid scheme victims. The auction is expected to raise about $15,000 for those victims. At auction in 2009, three of his powerboats went for just over $1 million and assortment of personal effects, including his Mets sports jacket and his wife Ruth&amp;#039;s diamond earrings were sold for $900,000. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38582/bernie-madoff-wine-auction/>