27 March 2006

Wine whine

The Independent reveals the contents of the Foreign Secretary's wine cellar:
"Following a question tabled by the Tory frontbencher Theresa Villiers, right, Straw has admitted that the Government's hospitality wine cellar, run by the Foreign Office, currently owns more than half a million pounds-worth of booze.
In response to Villiers' query on the estimated value of government alcohol stocks, the Foreign Secretary's official response reads as follows: " The cellar contains a mixture of fine and beverage wines, spirits, liqueurs and beers. The cellar contains just under 35,000 bottles. The current estimated value is approximately £640,000." Not enough to buy you a peerage, you might say, but certainly a hefty sum which the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury feels could be better spent elsewhere."

I'm not convinced. 35,000 bottles with a total value of £640K equals less than £20 a bottle. Given that we are not talking Bute House (see here) and that the FCO has to entertain seriously important people like Condi (see here), this kind of wine cellar might seem rather cheapskate, even allowing for the fact that that there might be some very good stuff among the Liebfraumilch and Lambrusco...

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