Pours for Thought: Curating the wine cellars in our skies
Kelly Stevenson, Director at JetVine, specialises in supporting wine producers and airlines to offer the world’s best wines, and looks how to make choices…
I have studied at length the science behind our tastebuds’ performance at 38,000ft and a great deal has been written about altitude’s impact on taste. However, that isn’t the only factor to consider in selecting wines for airlines.
The wine must taste great. It doesn’t matter if you’re flying on a private jet, a commercial airline or by charter carrier, the choice on any flying wine list is limited. Unlike a restaurant with a vast menu, you can only stock a small ‘cellar’ in the sky.
Airline wine selectors make choices that result in bottles being loaded into narrow trollies, for storage in small aircraft galleys. The space limitations offer the opportunity to judiciously edit choices to offer only the best-scoring wines in each category.
Wine secrets
Let me let you into a secret: the art of curating a winning wine list is as much about logistics as taste.
The length of time a wine stays on the menu varies from airline to airline. When I chose the wines for British Airways, in my role as Global Wine and Beverage Manager, the minimum sourcing period was one month, but often the optimum listing time was longer than that.
The volume available is a huge factor in the selection and impacts decisions as to which routes the wine flies on. Wine menus might differ according to the destination or one wine might fly an entire route network. It depends on whether the winery has enough to support an airline’s operational requirements. Airline catering operations are complex and wines are finite, some rarer than others.
Sometimes a wine is so desired that an airline will fly it continuously. The number
of bottles needed to commit is huge and the objective is to ensure no customer ever goes thirsty and that their choice is available. You don’t fly a menu unless you can guarantee the wine can be loaded.
Loading choices
It’s important to have a clear plan. Consider where the wine will be poured, the volume required over a set period of time and sub-classifications of desired wine styles – sparkling, red, white and so on.
The aim is to create a service standard for each cabin because First class and Economy passengers will have differing expectations of the wine inflight.
Profiling means applying best-fit styles, to ultimately offer a choice that appeals to a wide audience, from sipping wines to versatile ‘food pairers’.
Business class wine
Take Business class as an example. If one of the reds is a full-bodied Shiraz or tanninheavy Tempranillo, the other, when only two can be loaded, maybe a lighter Pinot Noir or a delicate Grenache Noir.
The Champagne will almost certainly be non-vintage due to the volume of bottles needed compared to First class, where the expectation is a vintage or prestige cuvee. Another prominent consideration for any wine selector is the price point. Airlines need to buy a lot of wine and everything comes at a price. The trick is to make the wine list interesting and varied, covering the classics, trends and core favourites.
Try and offer something for everyone. Feature several different wine-producing countries and regions, and a mix of grape varieties so that, even though an extensive list is not possible, no one is disappointed during their flight. •
Let me let you into a secret: the art of curating a winning wine list is as much about logistics as taste.