ST AUSTELL Fine and vintage wines found in a disused store room at a brewery are expected to fetch thousands of pounds at auction. The 370 bottles, some 130 years old, were unearthed in an unlocked cellar at the St Austell Brewery in Cornwall.

The rarest is a Sauternes, produced in the middle of the First World War. There is also a 1916 Château Rieussec, few of which ever left France, a 1950 Mouton Rothschild and a 1961 RauzanSégla, which is widely regarded as one of the best wines of the 20th century. The oldest bottle is an 1875 cognac, thought to be from the personal collection of Walter Hicks, who founded the brewery in 1851.

The wines were found in an anteroom by Xenia Irwin, 40, a wine merchant and master of wine. She said: “I could never have dreamt of making such an exceptional discovery. Their historical value is inestimable.

“The door was very stiff but unlocked so anyone could have gone in there, but it clearly hadn’t been entered in decades.”

Experts from Sotheby’s are now valuing the wine, which is expected to be auctioned later this month.

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