Government spent £70K on wine last year

The UK government splashed out over £70,000 on replenishing its wine cellar last year, with spending up 15% on 2013.

As reported by the Huffington Post, foreign dignitaries, ambassadors and government officials slurped their way through 5,516 bottles of wine worth £69,433 in 2014.

In an official statement released yesterday by the Foreign Office, the government pinned the increased consumption on “a busy year of international conferences and meetings” such as the NATO summit.

To keep the wine flowing, £70,432 was spent on stocking up the cellar, located underneath Lancaster House, last year.

Burgundy was the most regularly poured wine at government events last year at 67 bottles, while English and Welsh wines accounted for 44% of those served in an encouraging sign that PMs are keen to be seen drinking locally made drops.

In an apparent snub, only three bottles of Australian wine were drunk from the cellar last year. On the spirits front, the most English of spirits, gin, was a hit last year, with 52 bottles enjoyed.

The government cellar currently boasts just over 34,000 bottles of wine worth £818,977.

To fund it, each year a number of prized bottles are sold off – last year £71,050 worth of wine, including a bottle of Château Latour 1961, was sold to private buyers.