Les Caves du Louvre in Paris was once a wine cellar supplying royalty.
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00:00Deep beneath the streets of Paris is a hidden world.
00:06These are Les Caves du Louvre, an underground network of cellars and tunnels that were built
00:10hundreds of years ago for King Louis XIV.
00:14Back in its heyday, the cellars were the home of one of the 21 wine suppliers to the king,
00:20and the subterranean passages were essential for discreetly keeping him supplied.
00:26These days, the wine cellars host wine tasting events and have an ample stock for sale.
00:33So the cellars that are below us currently, they were built by André Henault to store
00:41the wine for the king.
00:43It was built in the 18th century, and to help facilitate the delivery of the wine to the
00:48king, he built two tunnels.
00:50One of the tunnels was to transport wine from the Seine River, because at that time there
00:54was no trains or cars, the easiest way to transport wine was by boat, and then there
00:58was a second tunnel that was from here directly to the Louvre, where the king was living.
01:04France may have got rid of its monarchy, but it's kept its passion for wine.
01:08Last year, it produced an estimated 46 million hectolitres of the stuff, according to the
01:14French Ministry of Agriculture.
01:16Regions like Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne are renowned for their wine production, but
01:21the rest of the world has barely scratched the surface of what France has to offer.
01:27Most people don't know that we have over 850 grape varieties that are indigenous to us
01:31in France, and we have over 70,000 wineries.
01:35Each winemaker will have a different interpretation of the grape varieties and of their terroir,
01:40their region.
01:42Retail sales of wine in France top 4.6 billion euros a year, with the average person drinking
01:4847 litres of it, according to the data analysis firm Statista.
01:53These caves may no longer stock royal wine, but they're very much open for business, and
01:59have been transformed into a place where people can come and sample French wines and learn
02:04about their history.