Wines from one of the world's most famous cellars, belonging to La Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris, are to go under the hammer.

A total of 18,000 bottles - including wine from Cognac, Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux - will be auctioned.

The sale is intended to raise 1m euros (£0.9m) to renew the cellar's contents and ensure the restaurant keeps its multiple Michelin stars.

Its wine list is 400 pages long, with no fewer than 15,000 tipples.

Andre Terrail, who runs the restaurant - the third generation of his family to do so - said he hoped to add new wines from different parts of France, including the Loire Valley, to the cellar.

"It is a heritage my father contributed to and which I must pass on," Mr Terrail told Agence France Presse.

"We must keep it alive and build on it," he said of the 450,000-bottle cellar.

The sale has wine fans licking their lips in anticipation - as all bottles were bought directly from the winemakers and have been kept in the cellar's careful controlled conditions, making them a low-risk investment.

According to the auctioneers, some bottles are expected to reach 5,000 euros (£4,500), though others will be more accessible at 10 euros a bottle.

Profits from the sale of one of the dustiest bottles to go under the hammer - a 1788 cognac expected to fetch 2,500 euros (£2,259) - will be given to charity.