CHK Chesapeake Energy Corporation

Aubrey McClendon's fine wine collection sold for $8.4 million over the weekend, as bidders from the late oilman's home state helped the auction exceed expectations.

In the 15 years before he died this March, Mr. McClendon had become one of the world's most prominent wine collectors, specializing in Bordeaux and unusually large bottles. His collection, which he had pared down over the years with several multimillion-dollar sales, was expected to fetch between $5.1 million and $7.7 million.

The sale Saturday was part of the unwinding of the Chesapeake Energy Corp. co-founder's estate, a tangle of debts, trophy assets, and more than 180 business interests that is being sorted out in Oklahoma City probate court. He died in an auto wreck in Oklahoma City.

The wine auction, held at an upscale restaurant on Chicago's Gold Coast, attracted nearly 1,000 bidders from 17 countries, many of whom participated online, according to Ben Nelson, president of Hart Davis Hart Wine Co., which ran the sale.

All 1,057 of the lots offered were sold. They ranged from single bottles to cases of 24, and several sales broke records, Mr. Nelson said.

A Jeroboam of 1989 Haut Brion—the equivalent of six standard bottles—set what he said was a new high at $33,460. Lots containing three double magnums of the same wine, which Mr. Nelson said was Mr. McClendon's favorite, notched world records in the $36,000 range. A case of three double magnums of 1989 Chateau Petrus was the priciest lot, selling for $65,725.

A double magnum, containing wine that would fill four regular bottles, was one of the large formats, along with the eight-bottle-equivalent Imperials, which Mr. McClendon preferred.

"When I first saw an Imperial of wine… I said to myself, this is a work of art. This is beautiful. And it's approachable. It's sharable. It's understandable, and at the end of the day it's consumable," Mr. McClendon said, according to promotional materials ahead of a 2009 auction of some of his wine.

He was known in Oklahoma for uncorking his rare giant bottles at business dinners and football tailgates, eager to share a pricey pour with all comers. That generosity was indicative of how he shared the riches he extracted from the oil patch with his hometown, to which he helped bring a professional basketball team, lured upscale shops and bankrolled fancy restaurants.

Results from Saturday's auction show that many of Mr. McClendon's least expensive bottles sold for multiples of their estimates. That is a sign that many bidders came from beyond the realm of serious collectors and connoisseurs and simply wanted to own a bottle that had been in Mr. McClendon's cellar, according to Mr. Nelson.

"I think he would have been proud to know that we had more than 10 times the usual number of Oklahoma bidders on this record breaking day," he said.

Write to Ryan Dezember at ryan.dezember@wsj.com and Kevin Helliker at kevin.helliker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 18, 2016 20:45 ET (00:45 GMT)

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