Who can appreciate the good things in life and the taste of a good wine better than a Frenchman? And from all the Frenchmen, Mr Chirac proved to be a bon viveur having a huge appetite for the finer things of life. As the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby reports from Paris it seems that as mayor of Paris, Mr Chirac was a frequent host of lavish parties while his wife used to spend more than a couple of pounds per day on their personal food and drink alone.

Even now when Mr Chirac is no longer the mayer his taste for good wine brings a big benefit to the city hall. Bertrand Delanoe who is now the mayor of Paris discovered some bottles of wine being held in the city hall's cellar since Chirac's seat. It seem that the wine bottles had increased so much in value they were deemed too extravagant to be served by the Paris city hall. The Socialist mayer decided to organise an auction to sell the valuable bottles. The wine has attracted bidders from around the world.

The most appreciated wine were two bottles of Romanee Conti 1986. The plot called Roman?e-Conti situated in Burgundy has at first glance nothing extraordinary with its ground containing a very fine clay which does not exist in the neighbouring plots. But the natural draining is perfect. The plot Roman?e-Conti was traced during the XVth century, and maybe earliest in the XIIth century by the monks of Saint-Viviant. The result is a subtile equation between grape, soil, climate, orientation and watering. "We are the keeper of a certain philosophy of wine and, mainly, we are concern by the perfection in details" assures Aubert de Vilaine, one of the owners of the place with the Leroys. Usually a potential client must aqcuire the wines of the domains by boxes of twelve, which means one bottle of Roman?e-Conti among 11 bottles of other domains. A box of twelve bottles is worth about 3,000 Euros. But the two bottles of Romanee Conti 1986 have been sold for 5,000-euro each.

Other attractions of the auction have been the of Chateau Petrus Bordeaux priced at 1,200 euros each. P?trus is a wine of the Pomerol wine region in Bordeaux made almost entirely from the Merlot grape. The ch?teau belongs to the family of the Libourne wine merchant Moueix. Although the wines of Pomerol have never been classified, P?trus is now considered among the best of Bordeaux. Ch?teau P?trus produces approximately 3,000 cases of wine in an average year. Grapes are hand harvested and fermented in cement tanks, then aged for two years in new oak before bottling. Newly released bottles are typically offered for more than 400 euros as futures, with mature examples often fetching more than 800 euros.

The budget of the Paris city hall was raised by the auction and can be incresed as the French news website LCI says the bottles on sale amount to three-quarters of the city hall's collection.

Visit Vintage Roots at http://www.vintageroots.co.uk, for organic wines

About the Author

Who can appreciate the good things in life and the taste of a good wine better than a Frenchman? And from all the Frenchmen, Mr Chirac proved to be a bon viveur having a huge appetite for the finer things of life. As the BBC's Emma Jane Kirby reports from Paris it seems that as mayor of Paris, Mr Chirac was a frequent host of lavish parties while his wife used to spend more than a couple of pounds per day on their personal food and drink alone.

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