Illustrious Parisian restaurant puts cellar up for auction

Famous Parisian restaurant La Tour d’Argent is auctioning a portion of its wine collection to raise money for refurbishment and allow cellar space for a more eclectic wine range. It hopes to fetch at least €1 million (£900,000) from 18,000 bottles.

Some of the wines and spirits on offer are so rare it’s believed bids could soar.

The oldest items going under the hammer in early December will be three bottles of Clos du Griffier Cognac from 1788 with a starting price of €2,500, although a range of younger wines is also up for sale from as little as €10.

The decision to sell a portion of the vast cellar containing 450,000 bottles from 15,000 different references is partly to allow space to bring in a wider range of wines and also to raise funds to refurbish the restaurant.

David Ridgeway, chief sommelier at La Tour d’Argent, who has worked at the restaurant for 28 years, said that the cellar was full and in need of some “trimming”.

He explained that diners’ tastes have diversified and space was required for a wider range of wines as well as more from newer high quality vintages.

Alexis Velliet, chief auctioneer at Piasa, which is conducting the sale, expects interest from outside France, in particular Russian and Chinese among the prospective buyers.

La Tour d’Argent was founded in 1582 and is currently owned and operated by the Terrail family. It has, however, seen better times, having dropped from its 3-starred status to 2 stars in 1996, and to a more modest one star in 2006.

Patrick Schmitt, 29.10.09