The Paris restaurant La Tour d’Argent recently auctioned off some of the 15,000 wines in its cellars.  To give you an idea of the size of their cellars, the wine list weighs in at 17-and-a-half pounds and has over 400 pages.  André Terrail, the owner, said they needed to make room for new wines.  They may have also wanted to free up some cash for improvements in an effort to regain two of the Michelin stars they have lost since 1996.

Meet the Duck Presser

In addition to its cellar La Tour d’Argent is famous for its pressed duck.  Here an entire duck carcuss organs and all is pressed with the juices mixed with marc de champagne and served in over the previously removed duck breasts.  Pressed duck at the lunch service will run around 70 euros ($100) a person while their fixed menu dinner menus start at 160 euros ($230) a person.

I attended the sale held at the auction house Salons Hoche and I was surprised by some of the prices that the wines were selling for but then again, its a rare occasion when you can acquire bottles of perfect provenance from a prestigious restaurant.  There is now a thriving market on eBay for empty wine bottles from prestigious chateaux that are then refilled with ordinary wine and then sold to unsuspecting customers.

Salons Hoche

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