Paris Restaurant That Inspired 'Ratatouille' Loses $1.6 Million Worth Of Wine

Wine worth more than $1.6 million has vanished from one of the world's most famous restaurants, Paris' legendary Tour d'Argent. The restaurant inspired the animated film Ratatouille. According to the BBC, it reported 83 bottles of rare wine missing on Friday. Romanee Conti, one of the most expensive wines in the world, is among the bottles taken from the 442-year-old restaurant. The wine could have gone missing any time since January 2020, the outlet reported. 

The rooftop restaurant in Paris reopened in October after a complete, 18-month-long renovation, and the loss of wine bottles was discovered during a routine inventory of the 300,000 bottles at the "largest cellar in Paris". A complaint was filed to French police last week. However, no evidence of a robbery has been found, the BBC reported.

An estimated 83 bottles are believed to be missing, according to the last inventory, which was taken in 2020. But as the bottles are numbered, it would be difficult for a thief to sell them discreetly, a sommelier told local outlet, Le Parisien.

According to the BBC, individual bottles can sell for five-figure sums. Among the missing bottles are wines from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti a Burgundy estate famed for producing expensive vintages.

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The People reported that the restaurant has hosted thousands of celebrities including Queen Elizabeth and Sir Paul McCartney. Its famous customers also include Charlie Chaplin, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Salvador Dali, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It is frequently cited as having served as inspiration for Gusteau's restaurant in Disney Pixar's Ratatouille. A small illustration of the eponymous rat hangs in the restaurant, signed by director Brad Bird, who spent days sketching the dining room, capturing the lamps and cheese trolley. 

The restaurant is 400 years old and is equally well known for its spectacular views overlooking Notre Dame and its two-course serving of pressed duck. After renovation, the restaurant now includes a ground-floor bar, luxury hotel suite, rooftop terrace and an open kitchen in the dining room. To celebrate its reopening, a list cataloguing the contents of its cellars was compiled. The wine list weighs around 8kg and has to be wheeled out to diners on a trolley.