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ORIGINAL: gruqqt@gmail.com
Per 1/12/24 Mirror

"A long-delayed report on the Government's wine cellar shows the value of the collection has soared to £3.66 million. The figure is contained in a long-delayed stock-count published by the Foreign Office of bottles stored in the wine cellar at Lancaster House. The report revealed that in 2020 to 2021, at the height of the Covid crisis, £14,621 was splashed out on 516 bottles of red Bordeaux wines, costing around £28 each.

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ORIGINAL: DoubleD1969

quote:

ORIGINAL: gruqqt@gmail.com
Per 1/12/24 Mirror

"A long-delayed report on the Government's wine cellar shows the value of the collection has soared to £3.66 million. The figure is contained in a long-delayed stock-count published by the Foreign Office of bottles stored in the wine cellar at Lancaster House. The report revealed that in 2020 to 2021, at the height of the Covid crisis, £14,621 was splashed out on 516 bottles of red Bordeaux wines, costing around £28 each.

I hope the British subjects aren’t up in arms over 28 quid per bottle or 516 bottles or the total. There are more serious areas of concern in the Royal spending. Lol

But perhaps the outrage may be that it was on French wines.

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi

The outrage was over boozy parties during lockdown -“partygate”

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ORIGINAL: Echinosum

The cellar is for the purpose of state functions, especially entertainment of foreign delegations, etc. The idea is that they buy the wine young when it is cheaper, age it, and it costs less that way, at least for wine of quality. This would include banquets at Buckingham Palace, when those are official state events rather than the private events of the Royal Family. The King has his own cellar for the latter.

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ORIGINAL: Echinosum
I think there has been a conscious decision of the government to serve more English wine. I believe it does now routinely serve English sparkling wine rather than Champagne, and if you choose well it is quite good enough for that. In theory we should now be about warm enough to grow what they were growing in the Loire 40 or 50 years ago, though i confess I am yet to see anything like those wines from English vineyards.

But with summer temperatures in London being about 3.5C lower than Lyon or Bordeaux, it will take quite a bit more global warming before England can grow anything that could really adequately substitute for claret and Burgundy. But people have recently been looking at soil structures to try and find good terroir for the time that it is warm enough to grow red wine in England. Parts of south Essex, to the E of London and N of the Thames estuary, not currently much of a growing area, seems to look good for pinot noir. It is also a particularly mild area of the country, because of the influence of the estuary.

There is a particularly strong tradition of drinking claret in England, because Bordeaux used to be an English possession. It came in 1137 when Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine, who in her own right controlled much of SW France. Though by the end of the 100 years war, English possessions in France were reduced to Calais.

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Interestingly, the FT has a detailed article looking at the wines in the government cellar. Ignoring for a minute their odd bias against white wine and their (understandable but unfortunate) confusion of British wine and English and Welsh wine, the article in depth and quite interesting. They acknowledge help from CellarTracker in cataloguing the wines too.

One interesting point that most critics rarely notice is that the government wine cellar has apparently proven very good at picking wines that will increase in value, and they have also offset at least some of the cost of purchases by selling older wines that have increased in value -- at least, up until the pandemic. There is apparently the aim for the cellar to be self-financing, which would hopefully restrict the criticism somewhat.

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Interestingly, the FT has a detailed article looking at the wines in the government cellar. Ignoring for a minute their odd bias against white wine and their (understandable but unfortunate) confusion of British wine and English and Welsh wine, the article in depth and quite interesting. They acknowledge help from CellarTracker in cataloguing the wines too.

One interesting point that most critics rarely notice is that the government wine cellar has apparently proven very good at picking wines that will increase in value, and they have also offset at least some of the cost of purchases by selling older wines that have increased in value -- at least, up until the pandemic. There is apparently the aim for the cellar to be self-financing, which would hopefully restrict the criticism somewhat.

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ORIGINAL: Claymonster

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Interestingly, the FT has a detailed article looking at the wines in the government cellar. Ignoring for a minute their odd bias against white wine and their (understandable but unfortunate) confusion of British wine and English and Welsh wine, the article in depth and quite interesting. They acknowledge help from CellarTracker in cataloguing the wines too.

One interesting point that most critics rarely notice is that the government wine cellar has apparently proven very good at picking wines that will increase in value, and they have also offset at least some of the cost of purchases by selling older wines that have increased in value -- at least, up until the pandemic. There is apparently the aim for the cellar to be self-financing, which would hopefully restrict the criticism somewhat.

Thanks for this! Since the FT used CT for the analysis, I figured they would've created an account to log the wines and sure enough I was able to find it. Here's a snapshot of the UK Gov's cellar: https://www.cellartracker.com/user.asp?iUserOverride=959584

I have no wines in common with them.

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi
But the fuss was not about the purchases/ holding of wine, it was about it being used at goverment parties during covid, when gatherings for ordinary people were strictly prohibited and punishable by fines. Boris, the PM at the time, was notorious for holding large parties, sorry meetings, where the booze flowed freely without penalty- hence partygate

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ORIGINAL: Claymonster

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Interestingly, the FT has a detailed article looking at the wines in the government cellar. Ignoring for a minute their odd bias against white wine and their (understandable but unfortunate) confusion of British wine and English and Welsh wine, the article in depth and quite interesting. They acknowledge help from CellarTracker in cataloguing the wines too.

One interesting point that most critics rarely notice is that the government wine cellar has apparently proven very good at picking wines that will increase in value, and they have also offset at least some of the cost of purchases by selling older wines that have increased in value -- at least, up until the pandemic. There is apparently the aim for the cellar to be self-financing, which would hopefully restrict the criticism somewhat.

Thanks for this! Since the FT used CT for the analysis, I figured they would've created an account to log the wines and sure enough I was able to find it. Here's a snapshot of the UK Gov's cellar: https://www.cellartracker.com/user.asp?iUserOverride=959584

I have no wines in common with them.

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Thanks, well spotted! I likewise have no wines in common with them. Sadly -- I'd like to be able to say I had a few bottles of the 1931 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage Port on hand

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ORIGINAL: Ralphs Bar

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

Thanks, well spotted! I likewise have no wines in common with them. Sadly -- I'd like to be able to say I had a few bottles of the 1931 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage Port on hand

Have you considered entering into a 700 year military treaty with Portugal? Maybe they kick some in.

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi
But the fuss was not about the purchases/ holding of wine, it was about it being used at goverment parties during covid, when gatherings for ordinary people were strictly prohibited and punishable by fines. Boris, the PM at the time, was notorious for holding large parties, sorry meetings, where the booze flowed freely without penalty- hence partygate

Those were two separate political controversies.

The existence of the government wine cellar causes (mild) controversy every now and then, normally when a politician or commentator notices that the government is spending money on wine and decides to make a big deal out of it. It can look a bit out of touch, especially in difficult economic times -- e.g., during COVID.

The government wine cellars are for state dinners and government events where foreign dignitaries are entertained, and aren't used for private government events. The partygate parties were, I think, BYO booze events -- I don't remember reading that the government wine cellar was involved.

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi

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ORIGINAL: penguinoid

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ORIGINAL: jmcmchi
But the fuss was not about the purchases/ holding of wine, it was about it being used at goverment parties during covid, when gatherings for ordinary people were strictly prohibited and punishable by fines. Boris, the PM at the time, was notorious for holding large parties, sorry meetings, where the booze flowed freely without penalty- hence partygate

Those were two separate political controversies.

The existence of the government wine cellar causes (mild) controversy every now and then, normally when a politician or commentator notices that the government is spending money on wine and decides to make a big deal out of it. It can look a bit out of touch, especially in difficult economic times -- e.g., during COVID.

The government wine cellars are for state dinners and government events where foreign dignitaries are entertained, and aren't used for private government events. The partygate parties were, I think, BYO booze events -- I don't remember reading that the government wine cellar was involved.

I’m not as up on UK news as I thought….my bad

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ORIGINAL: xyc
Few might believe it today but Manhattan banks headquarters in the 80s had private lunchrooms and wine cellars. Maybe they still do.

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ORIGINAL: Echinosum

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ORIGINAL: xyc
Few might believe it today but Manhattan banks headquarters in the 80s had private lunchrooms and wine cellars. Maybe they still do.

A small consulting company I worked for in London the 80s and into the 90s had a private lunch room and a cellar. I bought the wine for the cellar. It was perfectly common and normal to entertain clients and potential clients to lunch in those days.

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ORIGINAL: Paul852

For me it is interesting that over half the wines in that list are, according to the collective wisdom of CT, past the end of their drinking window.

I'm not sure if that says more about CT drinking windows or the House of Commons stoick management.

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ORIGINAL: Tpety

Each bottle is listed as a single bottle. Wouldn't state dinners require at least a case of each? Serving everyone a different wine seems challenging.