Department calls time on wine stock and nets €11k

The Department of Foreign Affairs sold off more than €11,000 worth of its wine stock last year, but its cellars still boasted a far from teetotal total of €61,000 worth of fine vintage.

A stock take of the department’s wines in December revealed that it still had 1,825 bottles with a total value of €60,869.69. That is an average value of just over €33 per bottle.

The list of wines still retained by the department show that, in spite of its role in leading international relations, there is a definite penchant for old rather than new world when it comes to its cellar — more than 1,300 of the bottles are French.

As to the wines which were sold off, getting rid of 185 bottles bolstered the department’s coffers by €11,160. They included 31 bottles of Château Lynch Bages Grand Cru Classé 1998 each with a pricetag of €68, and 120 bottles of Château Lynch Bages Grand Cru Classé 2006, a snip at €60 per bottle.

The department said it maintains a stock of wine “for use in relation to state and official hospitality”.

It also said that, following a review of its wine stock last year, it had begun a consultation process with wine merchants regarding its market value.

“Those discussions are ongoing and are being conducted in a confidential manner so as to maximise the return to the exchequer,” it said. “In December 2013, some of the wine stock held by the department was sold to a single wine merchant, based in Ireland, following expressions of interest received during that process.”

It said it would not release the name of the merchant “for reasons of confidentiality and commercial sensitivity”.