The French Prime Minister Is Selling 1,400 Bottles Of Wine Because... Austerity

REUTERS/Sergei KarpukhinGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and French President Francois Hollande attend a meeting with G20 leaders and G20 business leaders in St.Petersburg September 6, 2013.

Matignon, the "official residence" of French Prime Minister Francois Hollande, will sell 1,400 bottles of wine to cut costs, Bloomberg's Vidya Root reports.

The wine, headed to auction on December 6, ranges from your standard 15-euro "I'm just going to stay in and watch Netflix" bottle to the 5,500 ($7,460) Romanee Conti 2004.

Hollande has requested ministers "to reduce their operational expenses by 7 percent this year and by 4 percent next year, as part of efforts to cut total spending by about 12 billion euros a year over his five-year term," according to the report. From Bloomberg:

Hollande's own residence, the Elysee Palace, sold off a 10th of its wine cellar in May for 178,800 euros. Paris City Hall raised 961,000 euros, 75 percent more than the catalog estimates, in 2006 as it auctioned off 5,000 bottles that had been accumulated when Chirac was mayor from 1977 to 1995. Dijon, the capital of the Burgundy region, raised 152,000 euros in January as it sold half its wine cellar.

The good news, for France at least, is that foreign buyers are willing to pay a ton for French wine.

Read the full report at Bloomberg »