Wine auction house Hart Davis Hart holds its Feb. 3 sale at a new location - award-winning TRU restaurant in the posh North Michigan Avenue retail district.

Those attending will feel at home. Contemporary art, including Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn,” hangs on the dining room walls. Tasting menus are called “collections.” Guests may order from the 20,000-bottle wine cellar to accompany the elegant $75 lunch.

“We’re expecting this will top all previously held wine auctions in Chicago,” Hart Davis Hart President Paul Hart says. The company, a partnership of Hart and wine veterans Michael Davis and John Hart, held its first sale in January 2005 at the Chicago Athletic Association. Last year it pulled in almost $14 million, up 45 percent from 2005.

Among the 841 offerings are a 20-case lot of 20 vintages of ultra-rare Chateau Lafleur (estimated at $300,000 to $450,000), a prized Pomerol that rivals its neighbor Petrus; and five vintages of California cult cabernet Colgin in 18-liter melchiors (the equivalent of two cases of wine in a single bottle, estimated at $400,000 to $600,000), one of only two sets in existence. Both are from the immense cellar of a private U.S. collector.

Posted: 01|25|07 at 9:20 am. Filed under: US News.