The famed wine cellar of Monaco’s Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo turned 150 years old last year.
The wine cellar in the 208-room Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo — which opened in 1864 — is the world’s largest hotel wine cellar. It's estimated that its 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) of passages contains more than 350,000 bottles.
Located 10 meters (33 feet) below the hotel, the wine cellar specializes in five wine regions — Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence and Rhone Valley.
Approximately 50% of the wine in the cellar comes from Bordeaux appellation, according to Patrice Frank, master sommelier at the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer with overall charge of the wine cellar since 2000. The company is owned by Paris-based lifestyle firm LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which also owns global hotel firm Belmond.
Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer has a relationship with Bordeaux that dates back over 30 years, “giving us a great depth of vintages and stocks in this beautiful region,” Frank said.
“We have a lot of Bordeaux in stock because we age the wines for a perfect 20 or 30 years in our cellars. However, the situation is not set in stone. For the past six or seven years, we’ve been experiencing real pressure from the Burgundy market and growing demand from our customers,” he said.
The wine cellar was founded in 1874 by Marie Blanc, the wife and business partner of François Blanc, the man behind both the Monte-Carlo Casino and hospitality firm Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer. Marie Blanc conceived of and personally financed the cellar, modeling it on ones she had seen during her travels in the Bordeaux wine region. Its construction spanned more than 18 months and employed nearly 100 workers.
Princess Grace Kelly often received guests in the cellar and celebrated her 20th wedding anniversary of her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco there.
Perhaps its most infamous period was during World War II when hotel staff hid the cellar’s very valuable vintages behind rows and rows and rows of empty bottles, which stopped the German forces getting to the treasure beyond.
At the far end of the cellar is a further “wine cave,” Frank said, which hid the “expensive jewels of the patrons and the most precious bottles of wine from the occupying forces.”
“They hid the entrance to this part of the cellar with debris and empty and broken bottles, so the secret stash was never discovered,” he said, adding that episode is “probably the most extreme step the wine master took to keep the client’s belongings safe.”
Monte Carlo is the largest “quartier" or neighborhood of Monaco, an independent city-state in southeast France along the French Riviera on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world.
Working space
Tours of the wine cellars are not offered in most circumstances but are possible in association with the booking of private wine cellar dinners and events, which could include a tasting session with a sommelier.
But the wine cellar is not a museum. Rather, it is a working cellar that provides wine to the bars and restaurants of the hotels of the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer. And the cellar does not sell its wine directly to outside clients.
“A team of people are working there every day to provide our different properties — restaurants, bars, hotels, casinos. … We keep track of all the vintages of the estates we work with, which allows us to have perfect pricing conditions, and above all, at a time when the wine world is international, to have perfect control over the bottles of wine that arrive at our premises, all direct from the estates,” Frank said.
Another part of the wine cellar not open to guests is the Marie Blanc Museum, which contains some of the most exclusive vintage wines, cognacs and champagnes of the world, Frank said.
The oldest vintages in the cellar include cognac from the 18th century and “extra-rare wines such as a bottle of Château Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre 1850; Château Gruaud Larose 1865; Château Margaux 1945, or even the Château d’Yquem 1890,” Frank said.
“On the other hand, we're always on the lookout and curious to discover new estates and winemakers producing great quality wines and to showcase them in our restaurants. We can’t stand still. We have to move forward to stay competitive,” he said.
Changes in the wine world and the need to remain competitive have even seen wine from England making it into the cellar, something 20 or so years ago might have been unthinkable.
“We have some effervescent English wines in our cellars. Southern England is taking advantage of climate change and has been producing some very fine sparkling wines for a few years now,” he said.
The other three hotels of the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer are the 332-room Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort; 277-room Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, and the 40-room Monte-Carlo Beach Hotel. The company also owns the Casino de Monte-Carlo, which has two restaurants and three bars.
This year, the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer plans to open its fifth hotel — and its first outside of Monaco — the 78-room Hotel Le Palace des Neiges in the French ski resort Courchevel 1850. Acquired at the end of 2023, the hotel will be renamed the Monte-Carlo One-Courchevel and will be the first in a branded series of hotels and residences.
Frank will also source and work with the restaurants for the wine selections on offer at One Monte-Carlo Courchevel.