For visiting heads of state, it must be one of those nagging questions – just how important are they to their British hosts?

The answer, it seems, may well lie not in the size of the honour guard, nor the depth of pile on the red carpet, but in the wine list.

An unusual insight into how the British government entertains its high-end guests has been revealed by the release of the tasting notes for the £3.2m official wine cellar used to lubricate the wheels of international diplomacy at state banquets and Whitehall receptions.

Reported by the Independent. You can read the full story here. 

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.