Government drinks 5,500 bottles of wine and spirits in two years
The value of the Government’s wine cellar has reached almost £4 million, while consumption has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The Government consumed more than 5,500 bottles of wine and spirits in the last two years, new figures have shown.
A biennial report on the Government’s wine cellar, published on Thursday, showed the Government consumed 2,813 bottles in 2022/23 and another 2,713 in 2023/24.
But the figures are still well down on pre-pandemic levels, when consumption ran at well over 3,000 bottles a year.
Around two-thirds of the wine drunk over the past two years was British, with the most popular proving to be Sussex-based Ridgeview Wine Estate’s Cavendish red.
Costing £36 per bottle, the Government consumed 306 bottles in 2022/23 and another 66 in 2023/24.
Only four bottles of champagne from the Government’s collection were used in 2022/23, rising to 18 the following year.
The report shows the Government also consumed three bottles of 1931 Quinta do Noval port in 2023/24, one of the older drinks in its collection and one that the previous report on the wine cellar said should be drunk “on very special occasions only”.
The collection is meant to “provide guests of the Government, from home and overseas, with wines of appropriate quality at reasonable cost”.
Founded in 1922 and located in the basement of Lancaster House in Westminster, the wine cellar includes an 1878 cognac and 1964 Krug champagne in its collection.
It is managed by the Government Wine Committee, which is chaired by a retired senior diplomat and consists of four qualified masters of wine.
The committee advises on both the buying and selling of wine, with the collection intended to be “self-financing”.
Thursday’s report shows the Government spent £47,327 buying new wine in 2022/23 and £49,862 in 2023/24.
Purchases over the past two years include 1,920 bottles of English sparkling wine and 888 bottles of white Burgundy.
The Government also bought 69 bottles of gin as replacements for the 69 that had been drunk over the same period.
At the end of March 2024, there were 31,090 bottles of wine and spirits in the Government’s collection, valued at £3.8 million
Despite a slight fall in value from the year before, when the cellar was estimated to be worth £3.9 million, this is still higher than in previous years.
In 2021/22, the collection was thought to be worth £3.66 million.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office, which is responsible for the wine cellar, said: “The wine from the cellar, which has existed under successive governments, is used for the sole purpose of supporting hospitality at government hosted events and international summits attended by world and business leaders.
“The wine cellar generates its own revenue to ensure the operation is as self-financing as possible.”
