City Hall's wine cellar

The New York Times carries today an article about the auctioning off of wines by Paris's City Hall. Jacques Chirac, the city's first elected mayor (in 1977), noted for his epicurean tastes, began the city's wine cellar and the vintages acquired in the 70's and 80's are now worth a fortune. The current administration has offered the reasoning that the City Hall cellar where the wine is kept, on the Place de Grève right by the Seine, is below the height of a 100-year flood, and therefore at risk of being ruined. However, the auction is being interpreted as (of course) a political gesture -- Delanoë, the Socialist, is seen as promoting a "populist" and "austere" image just before the upcoming municipal elections.

Here's the website of the Crédit Municipal, where the auction is to take place, with a catalogue of the lots up for auction. According to Le Monde, the least expensive lots, for example, a case of Beaujolais, were marked to start bidding at around 50 Euros, but most of them are far more expensive... The auction is said to be attracting a lot of attention, even internationally, and prices on the first day were far higher than expected. Perhaps it is the cachet of owning one of the City of Paris's choice wines.