Government blows tax-payer cash on finest champagne, vintage port - and £200 bottles of Bordeaux

When the supposedly dour Presbyterian Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, it was widely anticipated that Whitehall would be a more sober place, with the emphasis on relentless hard work.

But a secret list of the fine wines and liqueurs consumed at Government banquets and receptions shows it has been a vintage year for Labour Ministers, if not for taxpayers who had to pick up the bill.

Documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday show that as Mr Brown's ratings plunged, Ministers were drinking £200 bottles of Bordeaux, the finest champagne and port at £90 a bottle.

The documents reveal for the first time how Ministers are supplied with fine wines from the Government's 40,000-bottle cellar - and how tastings are organised to pick new vintages to keep the stock topped up.

The details - which include minutes of meetings of the Government Hospitality Advisory Committee since June, when Mr Brown became Prime Minister - show there has been no let-up in either the consumption or purchase of fine wines for functions at Downing Street, Chequers, the Foreign Office and elsewhere.

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In July, weeks after Tony Blair stepped down as Prime Minister, six bottles of Chateau Cheval Blanc 1988, worth about £200 a bottle, were polished off by Mr Brown or his Ministers and their guests.

They also got through four bottles of Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste 1989, valued at £150 each, a case of Puligny Montrachet Champ Canet 1999 and two cases of Chassagne Montrachet Les Chenevottes 2000.

A case of Pol Roger NV champagne, worth about £45 a bottle, lubricated another Ministerial summer party, and a bottle of vintage Dow's 1977 port, which costs £90, was also consumed in July.

As Mr Brown dithered over whether or not to call a snap Election in the autumn, the wine continued to flow in Whitehall. September's list shows 16 bottles of Chateau Giscours 1986, a red Bordeaux, were consumed at £65 a time, plus dozens of cheaper "reception wines".

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Nor were Ministers content with wine alone. They got through two bottles of gin and and nine bottles of whisky in one month.

The minutes of a meeting of the Hospitality Advisory Committee, which includes four Masters of Wine, reveals their fears that they are not able to get the best vintages because they are being snapped up by big wine dealers who buy "en primeur" - direct from the vineyard before the wine is bottled.

"Competition for stock is so keen that some wines are not reaching the usual retail market at what we might consider affordable rates," the committee's minutes say.

They also urge a switch to more wines from Australia and the Americas because too many French wines are gathering dust in the cellar.

Following a tasting at the committee's July meeting, members drew up a shopping list of wines, including the white Burgundies Puligny Montrachet Les Folatieres 2005 (about £50 a bottle) and Puligny Montrachet Les Champs Gain 2005 (£30), and the red Burgundies Morey St Denis Les Millandes 2005 (£45) and Pommard Les Petits Noizons 2005 (£25).

Government officials say many of the wines were bought years ago at a fraction of their value today. "We try very hard to get value for money," said one.

"Some of the vintages that are being drunk now were bought for just a few pounds ten or 15 years ago.

"Some of the wines are served to heads of state and the Queen; you couldn't serve up Blue Nun to them, could you?"