Britain’s government sells French wine to pay its drinks bill

Britain’s government is selling vintage French wine at around 5,000 pounds a bottle (HK$58,158) in a bid to make its wine cellar self-funding as part of a national austerity drive and clamp-down on extravagant expenditure.

The government wine cellar, located in the basement of Lancaster House near Buckingham Palace, is used to provide wine for foreign VIP guests ranging from royalty to heads of state and prime ministers at 200 or more events a year.

The cellar contains 38,090 bottles of wine and spirits with an estimated market value of 2.95 million pounds, according to an annual report on the cellar released last month.

But figures show that a government review from 2010 recommending the cellar become self-funding rather than a drain on taxpayers had not worked out with sales of 44,000 pounds last year but purchases of about 49,000 pounds.

Auction house Christie’s said the government was selling six lots of wine, a total of 54 bottles, on March 21 with the sale expected to raise up to 65,000 pounds.

A spokeswoman said this was “the first time that wine from the Government Hospitality Cellar has gone to auction” with previous sales conducted privately.

“This is part of the process for making the cellar self-funding for the lifetime of the current parliament,” said a statement from Mark Simmonds, a junior minister in Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.