The costs of the government’s wine stocks have been the subject of cross-party criticism The government has ruled out shutting down its wine cellar to cut costs.
The cellar – containing about £2m worth of wine and spirits – is the most “cost effective” way to supply wine for state banquets and other events, it says.
But the purchase of wines will become “self-financing” – paid for by selling off some of the most expensive bottles.
The cost has been criticised by MPs from different parties – since the general election about £45,000 has been spent on new wine.
The future of the wine cellar, which is run by the Foreign Office, has been under review for almost 11 months, to ensure it was “appropriate to the contemporary environment” – by providing value for money.
“If we sold the cellar, we’d have to go out there and buy wine and ultimately that would be much much more costly”
Henry Bellingham Foreign Office minister
The review concluded that keeping the wine cellar was the cheapest way to supply wine for hospitality events, but that “substantial reform” was needed.
Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “Don’t forget this is a resource that’s used by government for government hospitality, for business hospitality, for visiting heads of state.
“If we sold the cellar, we’d have to go out there and buy wine and ultimately that would be much, much more costly.
“We are going to be selling some of the fine valuable wines, we’re going to be getting about £50,000 in a year and the purchase of wine is going to be completely self-financing.”
The government also says there will be an annual statement on the use of the wine cellar – including what has been bought, what has been drunk and its value for money.
The Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine was abolished last year – one of 192 quangos to be axed by the government. But its members have agreed to provide “expertise… on an ad hoc basis”, the government says.
Labour’s Tom Watson has previously complained that his attempts to find out what vintages were held had been blocked on commercial grounds by the “arcane organisation” which ran it.
But through a series of parliamentary questions and Freedom of Information requests, he established that the cellar featured high-profile wines from the likes of Chateau Latour, Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Mouton Rothschild.
In opposition Lib Dem MP Don Foster suggested the previous government was “living way beyond their means” after it was revealed the cellar contained 39,500 bottles of wine, spirits and liqueurs worth around £792,000.
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