Published: 2024-01-29 by, Chiswick Reviews Team in the Food & Drink news category

Over £1m Of Wine Has Been Stolen from Restaurant that Inspired Disney Pixars 'Ratatouille' Animated Movie

Wine valued at more than £1.3m has disappeared from La Tour d'Argent, one of Paris' most renowned restaurants and the inspiration for the film Ratatouille.

Among the missing bottles is Romanée Conti, one of the world's most expensive wines, taken from the 442-year-old establishment.

The disappearance could have occurred anytime since January 2020.

French police received a complaint last week, but no evidence of theft has been uncovered.

The discovery of the loss came during a routine inventory of the restaurant's 300,000 bottles, located in what's known as the "largest cellar in Paris," as reported by Le Parisien.

Based on the last inventory in 2020, an estimated 83 bottles are believed to be missing.

Given that the bottles are numbered, selling them discreetly would prove challenging for any potential thief, according to a sommelier.

The missing bottles include wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a Burgundy estate renowned for producing high-priced vintages.

Individual bottles from this estate can fetch five-figure sums, with a 1966 Grands Échézeaux Domaine De La Romanée-Conti Grand Cru Nicolas priced at £4,057, according to recent estimates.

In 2018, a bottle of Romanée-Conti from 1945 sold for €482,000 (£410,905), becoming the world's most expensive bottle at the time.

The investigation has been entrusted to the Third Division of the Paris Judicial Police.

La Tour d'Argent has been intertwined with historical events on multiple occasions. During the Nazi invasion of Paris in 1940, the restaurant's owner, Claude Terrail, hid his most prized bottles behind a false wall in the cellar, as German troops seized control of the premises.

Situated in the 5th arrondissement, overlooking the River Seine and Notre Dame Cathedral, La Tour d'Argent is often referred to as "the oldest restaurant in Paris," with a history dating back to 1582, although this claim is disputed by historians.

According to Patrick Rambourg, a researcher at Université Paris Cité and author of "History of Gastronomic Paris, from the Middle Ages to the Present Day," the restaurant's assertion of being the city's oldest eatery is a "tall tale."

La Tour d'Argent gained prominence in the 19th Century for its signature duck dish, canard au sang, which translates to "bloody duck" and utilizes the bird's juices to create a sauce.

Following a comprehensive renovation in 2022, the restaurant reopened in August of the following year, featuring a ground-floor bar, luxury hotel suite, rooftop terrace, and an open kitchen in the dining area.

In celebration of its reopening, a catalog detailing its cellar contents was compiled. The wine list, weighing approximately 8kg, is wheeled out to diners on a trolley.

Over the years, the restaurant has welcomed numerous heads of state and monarchs, including Queen Elizabeth II, who dined there in 1948.

Famous patrons have included Charlie Chaplin, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Salvador Dalí, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie.

Moreover, the restaurant served as the inspiration for the 2007 animated, Disney Pixar film Ratatouille, recounting the tale of a young rat aspiring to become a chef at a renowned eatery.

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