Cheers: Government spends £73,000 on English wines in a year
The Government topped up its English wine cellar at a cost of more than £73,000 in a year, an official report showed today.
Purchases in the last financial year saw an extra £26,185 splashed out on English wines – both sparkling and still, according to a document laid in Parliament earlier today.
The cellar last year contained 32,921 bottles of wine and spirits, while 3,336 bottles were polished off. Whites were drunk at more than double the rate of reds.
The average cost of a bottle drunk was £14.60, up 32p on the year before, and total expenditure reached £73,091.
‘Self-funding’
Ministers say the wine cellar is “self-funding” due to the sale of “some high-value stock” at auction and by payments from Government departments for events.
However, no sales were made in 2019/20, which the Government blamed on the coronavirus pandemic, but £50,000 worth of stock had been identified for market. It said funds recovered from departments added £23,220 to the overall receipts.
Consumption by volume dropped by 17.5 per cent during that period, during which the purchase of English and Welsh wines accounted for 73 per cent of the total.
“Purchases amounted to £73,091, due to major purchases of English still and sparkling wines,” the statement from Foreign Office minister Nigel Adams said.
Some £44,200 was raised in 2018/19 through sales of top-notch bottles of Chateau Margaux 1988, Le Pin 1986, Chateau Haut Brion 1989 and six magnums of Krug 1982.
The cellar was established more than 110 years ago and is located in the basement of Lancaster House in Whitehall.
Presenting the biannual report to the Commons, Adams wrote: “The wine cellar has been self-funding since 2011/12, through the sale of some high-value stock and payments made by other Government departments for events organised by Government Hospitality.”