Bottle Service

Passing through Monte Carlo’s Casino Square is an out of body experience. It is also dangerous: Visitors must first evade a conveyor belt of exotic muscle cars with tropical shades so brilliant their names could double as island vacation cocktails. Then they must resist the sounds from the south end, where every international fashion house worth its salt calls out from Avenue des Beaux-Arts like a siren culling forth stray vessels at sea. And indeed, one is lost if they have not yet managed to secure a coveted reservation inside the sexy Le Bar Américain’s jazz club, on Amazónico’s just-opened rainforest rooftop, or at the infamous casino for which the area is titled. The most precious cargo in the plaza, however, is not found within it but underneath.

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Nearly 40 feet below the earth, the cellars of Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo span almost 5,000 square feet and hold 350,000 bottles with approximately 6,000 different labels. It’s literally the largest hotel cellar in the world, but, says Patrice Frank, its physical size is not the only thing that makes it noteworthy. “It is an absolutely unique concentrate and a wine heritage whose rarity makes it famous in the four corners of the planet,” says the wine cellar master who treats the space as both a place of storage and as a pseudo museum.

Constructed in 1874, the project was the dream of Marie Blanc, the wife of François Blanc, who developed the Casino de Monte-Carlo and its neighboring properties nine years earlier. Dismayed by its initial, ill-conceived storage set up, Marie hired 100 skilled Italian stone cutters, laborers, bricklayers, and carpenters to build a new cellar in the style of Bordeaux’s legendary winemakers steps away from her personal gardens. Carved into the escarpment’s rock, Les Caves, as they’re called formally, took 17 months to complete and are divided into several cellars with centuries-old vaults that to this day precisely control noise, smell, and temperature. All of which make for the perfect conditions for wine storage. “Our oldest bottle is a Château Bel Air Marquis d’Aligre sur Margaux from 1835,” says Frank, also noting vintages from 1809 and 1811 as well as a range of cognacs from Sazerac de Forge. “As soon as there is a great vintage, as was the case in 1982, we put a bottle of all the first grands crus classés in this museum.”

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At 150 years old, Les Caves becomes more and more impressive each day. To mark the occasion, it is getting a mini facelift—its entrance, reception, and tasting room are being redesigned by Paris agency Moinard Bétaille. It’s also hosting a series of commemorative dinners with legacy winemakers from around the world. Of course, there’s no shortage of serving options, but this year a highly crafted XO quality Champagne cognac created by the cellars will also be available—but only for those who have the honor of drinking on-site.