Government wine consumption up 20% in 2012

By Erin Smith, Richard Siddle

Published: 12 July, 2013

The amount of wine consumed at government functions was up 20% last year due to events like the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.

Official figures released by the BBC show that in all 5,547 bottles, worth £45,000, were drunk in 2011-2012 out of a cellar that includes some 39,000 bottles of wine and 500 bottles of spirits and liqueurs that was valued at just under £800,000 in 2009.

Some of the outlay was offset by the £63,000 that was raised by auctioning off 54 of the most expensive bottles in the cellar.

Six bottles of Château Latour 1961 and a case of Château Lafite Rothschild 1988 were among some of the wines auctioned off.

For the first time English wines were the most poured wines from the government cellar, accounting for 49% of the wine consumed last year.

The cellar, which lies beneath the grand London mansion, The Lancaster Estate, owned by the Queen, was under criticism prior to becoming a self-funded enterprise, but it was also found to be the cheapest way to supply hospitality for Royal functions.

Printer friendly version