(BBCNews) - French wines have proved to be most popular for purchases from the UK government's cellars over the past year, a foreign office minister says. Mark Simmonds told MPs in a written ministerial statement that English wines were the second most popular. Sales of stock totalled £44,000, according to the first annual statement on use of the wine cellar. The government's wine cellar escaped the austerity axe in 2011, with a pledge to become "self-financing".