Dépêches

Skyscanner: Which Airline Offers the Best Inflight Wine? That’s “Easy”…

Dépèche transmise le 11 août 2011 par Business Wire

EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A panel of international travellers and wine experts has declared easyJet’s wine the winner in a recent tasting of airline wines, conducted by flight comparison site Skyscanner.

“Before the tasting, I had high expectations of airlines such as Emirates as I know they invest heavily in their on board food and drink – but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the budget airlines fared.”

The panel of ten judges, lead by wine expert Tom Cannavan, were asked to blind taste 12 red and 12 white wines served on board the major carriers, and score each a mark out of 10.

Flying the flag for budget carriers, easyJet’s Louis Mondeville C ô tes de Gasgogne (France) took first place in the white wine category, although rival no frills airline Ryanair was not far behind with its offering, Garganega Trebbiano Villa Cardini (Italy), in 5^th place.

The winning reds showed a greater preference towards national carriers with British Airways’ Argento Malbec coming out top, followed by Emirates Weighbridge Shiraz by Peter Lehmann. In joint third place were Air France’s Coulers Du Sud Syrah Pays D’oc and KLM’s Terra Andina Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot.

KLM and Virgin were the only airlines to have their wines appear in the top 5 in both red and white categories.

The highest scoring wines were as follows:

White wine				Red wine
Airline		Details		Airline		Details
1. easyJet		Louis Mondeville Côtes de Gasgogne (France)		1. British Airways		Argento Malbec (Argentina)
2. SAS		Crusan Colombard Sauvignon Côtes de Gasgogne (France)		2. Emirates		Weighbridge Shiraz by Peter Lehmann (Australia)
3. Virgin Atlantic		Paul Sapin, Florinda Airen Sauvingnon Blanc (Spain)		3. Air France		Coulers du Sud Syrah Pays D’oc (France)
4. KLM		Terra Andina Sauvignon Blanc – Chardonnay (Chile)		3. KLM		Terra Andina Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot (Chile)
5. Ryanair		Garganega Trebbiano Villa Cardini (Italy)		5. Virgin		Paul Sapin, Florinda Airen Cabernet Sauvingnon (Spain)

James Cave, Skyscanner’s wine expert and editor of the wine blog regularwino.com, commented:

“Before the tasting, I had high expectations of airlines such as Emirates as I know they invest heavily in their on board food and drink – but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the budget airlines fared.”

“While these results certain indicate which appear to be the majorities’ preferred wines, it is worth noting that the drinking conditions are different at 30,000 feet - your taste buds are dulled, the wine may not be room temperature and the reduced amount of fresh oxygen in the pressurised cabin means your wine won’t breathe in quite the same way as it would on the ground. Airlines have to take all of this into account when deciding which wines to offer customers on board.”

The tasting panel was made up of 10 judges across seven nationalities and included wine experts Juel Mahonney of Wine Women & Song and Peter Adshead, Sommelier at the five-star Rocco Forte Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh.

Watch a video of the wine tasting and the results here.

Ends

About Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a travel search site providing online comparisons on flight prices for millions of flights on over 600 airlines, as well car hire, hotels and deals.

Follow Skyscanner on Twitter and Facebook