Historic Wine Cellars

Britain’s famous universities have long held prized wines, estimated at millions of pounds in their venerable cellars

- Carol Wright

Colleges have nurtured prized wines in their cellars for centuries; buying and guarding them for future generations according to the size and wealth of the college. Oxford’s 45 colleges, all with their own wine cellar, held wine wealth under those dreaming spires estimated at millions of pounds. Wadham College was said to have had some of the priciest wines especially claret and port from the 60s and 70s, including 30 bottles of 1990 Cos d’Estournel Claret that has appreciated by over 400%. Christ Church College is noted for exceptional wines in its 15,000-bottle cellar. Occasionally some wine revenue is realised. In 2022, Kings College, Cambridge sold 44 lots through Christies raising £1 million. A dozen bottles of 1999 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Echezeaux Grand Cru drew a bid of £100,000, with bidders certain about the genuine provenance of the bottles. 

Wine buys are a little more prosaic today. Sherry, although still favoured, has slipped from dominance among the dons, and the buying of classic French wines has gone from Classified Growths to Bourgeois, although there is still a general bias towards French wines, port and sherry. Stocks are sourced from some 50 wine merchants.