HIGH-QUALITY WINES, including a “silky” 1961 Chateau Margaux and a 1975 Chateau Palmer that “is excellent with some austerity”, are to be auctioned off by the British government to raise cash for fresh stocks.
Since 2007, £400,000 has been spent on stocking the Government Wine Cellar, which is kept deep under Lancaster House near Buckingham Palace, but ministers now want to raise £50,000, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.
Stocks are drawn from the 60 square foot cellar, which stores nearly 40,000 bottles of wines, champagnes, ports, brandies and sherry, for State business, but access is limited only to ministers and top civil servants.
Saying that he had “seriously considered abolishing the cellar”, Foreign Office minister, Mr Henry Bellingham said the self-financing rule will save the British taxpayer nearly £500,000 over the life’ of the parliament.
“The cellar has been part of Government functions for nearly a century and through these reforms it will provide value for money, accountability and will continue to offer hospitality to important guests from around the world,” he went on.
Information about some of the vintages held under Lancaster House have emerged following a tenacious campaign by Labour MP, Mr Tom Watson, who may have sampled some of them during his time in office under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
A bottle of Chateau Latour 1955, which is now believed to be worth about £1,000 at auction, had a note pasted to it, saying: “Drink on v. special occasions. Spectacular: no need now to hasten rundown of tiny stock. The essence of wonderful claret. Fresh and lovely.”
Meanwhile, the note-maker was equally enthusiastic about a Chateau Palmer 1975, describing it “as a really old-fashioned style claret, rich and excellent with some austerity”, along with a 1961 Chateau Margaux 1961, once applauded by Margaret Thatcher as “silky”.
However, the majority of the stock is relatively modest, since the total stock is worth less than £2 million, though some of it has historical value – including a crate of Chateau Pape Clement sent by Jacques Chirac to Tony Blair to mark his 50th birthday as the two rowed over the Iraq war.
Each bottle in the cellar, which is now more closely guarded since a bottle disappeared during renovation works in recent years, is graded as A1, A, B, or C.
The oldest stock is not wine, however, but brandy – an 1878 vintage “when Disraeli was PM”, said Mr Bellingham.