It is one of the world’s oldest and most celebrated restaurants and it possesses one of the finest wine collections, with 450,000 bottles locked behind reinforced steel doors deep in subterranean Paris. The wine list alone weighs more than 8kg (18lb).
Today, however, in an auction that has wine-lovers around the world salivating, La Tour d’Argent will sell off part of its cellar under a plan to restore its declining reputation.
David Ridgway, the restaurant’s British head sommelier, will put up 18,000 bottles under the hammer in an attempt to create space for new wines and to raise at least €1 million (£900,000). It is the first time that the restaurant has sold its cellar since opening in 1582.
“It’s like seeing your children leave,” said Mr Ridgway, who has worked in the establishment by the River Seine since 1981. “We are selling a little bit of ourselves.”
Among the classics going under the hammer are a 1788 Clos du Griffier cognac, estimated to be worth €2,500, and an 1895 Corton, a red burgundy, estimated at €1,000.
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Mr Ridgway said that both bottles could be drunk and enjoyed despite their age, having been preserved in the ideal conditions of 12C (54F) in winter, 14C (57F) in summer and at 85 per cent humidity.
Other famous bottles in the auction — the largest in Paris since the sale of Paris Town Hall’s cellar in 2006 — include a 1983 P?trus, a 1982 Château Latour, a 1949 Château Cheval Blanc and a 1970 Château Margaux.
Many of the lots — notably the Burgundies and Bordeaux — are priced at several hundred euros.
Mr Ridgway, who has bought more than 300,000 bottles in his time at La Tour d’Argent, is also selling some lesser-known wines from southern French vineyards and the Loire Valley for as little as €5 to €10.
The sale is likely to attract interest not only because of the collection, but also because of the conditions in which it has been kept.
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All the wines were bought directly from vineyards and none has left the cellar at La Tour d’Argent, guaranteeing buyers against the familiar risk of splashing out on a bottle that turns out to have been ruined.
Andr? Terrail, the third generation of his family to run the restaurant, said that the sale would have no impact on its wine list, which would still feature 15,000 references. “It’s not necessary to keep 60 bottles of the same wine; a dozen are enough,’ he said, adding that there was less demand for highly ranked, ancient vintages than in the past.
He said that the auction was driven by the need to renew the cellar under Mr Ridgway’s stewardship.
The sommelier, however, said that the restaurant needed cash as it sought to retrieve past glory.
In 1996 Mr Terrail’s late father, Claude, was mortified when La Tour d’Argent was downgraded from three to two Michelin stars. “I am profoundly hurt,” he said.
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Worse followed a decade later when the restaurant lost its second star. Mr Terrail is determined to regain a three-star rating for his establishment, where each duck served has its own number and where the one millionth was cooked in 2003.