Mobster John Gotti’s wine collection is up for sale

The wine collection owned by American gangster John Gotti, including bottles of Petrus and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, has gone on sale in New York.

As reported by the New York Post, Gotti’s prized wine collection is currently up for sale at Long Island City wine shop Enoteca LIC.

Store owner Tony D’Aiuto was presented with the wines by Gotti’s son, John Angelo ‘Junior’ Gotti. Many of the wines were gifts to Gotti from friends and associates.

“I was completely blown away. These are some of the best wines in the world. They’re a piece of living history. You can’t get these wines anywhere else in the world – I don’t care if you’re a billionaire or trillionaire. You can’t buy a John Gotti wine unless you come to my store and buy it,” D’Aiuto said of the collection.

Among the wines on sale are nine bottles of Petrus, including a 1970 and 1982, four bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux, including a 1983, and bottles of Lafite and Mouton Rothschild, including a 1983 Lafite.

The Gotti collection is priced between $1,800 and $9,500 a bottle. The New York Post reports that D’Aiuto has already sold a bottle of Petrus for over $5,000.

Each bottle comes with a certificate of authenticity from John Gotti Junior, who will be donating proceeds from the consignment to charity.

“Wine is part and parcel of the mobster culinary experience. In a way, if you buy Gotti wine, there’s an element of, ‘I’m drinking like Gotti’.

“It’s like Capone’s gun – there’s this historical resonance to it that captivates both wine lovers and history lovers,” wine expert Mark Oldman told the New York Post.

Gotti was the head of the Gambino crime family in New York. At his peak, he was one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States.

He became known as ‘The Dapper Don’ for his expensive clothes, flamboyant style and outspoken personality, and later ‘The Teflon Don’ after being acquitted from three high profile court trials in the 1980s.

In 1992, Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, illegal gambling, extortion, and loansharking. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He died of cancer in 2002.

According to The New York Post, Gotti’s wife Victoria once used a thousand dollar bottle of Burgundy in the sauce of her chicken cacciatore for a family Sunday lunch in Queens without realising how expensive it was.

Click here for our round-up of 10 of the most notorious gangsters of all time, and what they drank on their days off.