I like FOI. I like wine. Here’s an FOI disclosure about wine.
In the early days of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) there were frequent attempts to get the government to disclose detailed information about its wine cellar (see for instance this seemingly interminable request). Eventually, the Information Commissioner got fed up with the lack of FOI hospitality from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), who seem to be responsible for this sort of thing, and started issuing decision notices requiring disclosure.
I’m pleased to see that disclosure is now, if not a matter of routine, not resisted by FCO (except for some intriguing little redactions – one wonder if they hide things like “this is the Minister for X’s favourite”). So, we now know that the government has reserves of, for instance, 139 bottles of Latour 1961, with a market value of £321,000. This is the highest value wine, but we (sorry, they) also hold 110 bottles of Chateau Margaux 1983 (market value £15k – not the best vintage, after all). And their Pétrus is only the 1978, but even so, the estimated market value of £250 seems very low.
It’s a shame the dataset isn’t in resuable format, but, we’re all in it together, so I’d invite others to search out some other interesting cellar items. Those Krug ’82 magnums look a steal at £125 a pop…
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