From coal to cabernet: the wine seller using a flooded mine to cut heating bills

Most people keep their wine in a fridge or a cellar to maintain the right temperature.

However, a company in north-east England has found a more creative solution for wine storage.

Lanchester Wines has been using heat from a disused, flooded coalmine for the last eight winters.

This renewable energy source helps the company keep its warehouses at the ideal temperature for storing thousands of bottles.

The water inside the flooded mine near the company's warehouses in Gateshead stays at about 19 degrees Celsius all year round.

The system works by pumping some of this warm water out of the mine.

Then, a portion of the heat is extracted and boosted by a heat pump before it is distributed through pipes.

For wine, the target temperature is between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius, which prevents freezing or spoilage.

Veronica Cleary, a director at Lanchester Wines, explained the benefits of this approach.

"For wine, we like it to be 8 to 10 degrees," she says.

"For staff, obviously, a bit higher. We do still encourage them to wear fleeces."

The system has reduced the company's dependence on fossil fuels and has lowered its heating costs significantly.

There are approximately 23,000 flooded mines across the United Kingdom, which means there is huge potential for this kind of business innovation.

Only a handful of similar schemes exist in the UK and Europe, so the technology is still relatively rare.

However, Lanchester Wines hopes that its experience will make things easier for other companies and even homes that want to use this form of sustainability.

Because the warm water is available all year, mine water heating could become an important part of the UK's renewable energy future.