Flying High
A Glamorous Menu
One thing I distinctly remember from childhood was having a very glamorous perception of air travel.
It’s not that I hadn’t travelled much either, the combination of my father’s job and my parents’ determination to keep us—me and my siblings—connected to our Ghanaian roots ensuring that we were often air bound.
No, this idea of glamour came from elsewhere, a leveraged portrayal of travel in the media, appealing to the aspirational idea of luxury and to those with an entrepreneurial spirit. Travel was a more niche experience back then, and as such the expectations were heightened, travellers eagerly cataloguing each in-flight experience and reporting back forensically to their peers on return.
Even eating on a plane was more akin to a full restaurant experience, decadent yet wholesome, with smiling liveried Flight Attendants busy about their work, gliding around couch-like leather airline seats with such vacuous leg room that modern Business Class customers would be jealous. Flying was pure theatre.
Nowadays—for the most part at least—the destination is often the only incentive to travel, with profit margins and efficiency eroding away at the whimsical and enjoyable experience of flying.
The good news is that some airliners are realising that humorous tweets and self-deprecation for substandard service will only take you so far, and started to bring the glamour back to the experience of travel.
In these airliners, their goal is not only to get you “there”, but to have you leave in a better mood than when you stepped on. With astute levels of service, the onboard experience is treated much as you would expect from a high-end restaurant, menus regularly changed and curated by some of the world’s top chefs.
Airliners such as Cathay Pacific take this expertise one step further, tasking Master of Wine Debra Meiburg and celebrated wine Writer Roy Moorfield to expertly curate the wine lists for their passengers. These award-winning selection of wines are paired to match inflight cuisine and are sourced from lauded viticultural regions around the world, predominantly France, Italy, Austria, South Africa, Australia, the United States and New Zealand. The wines are changed in accordance with seasonality and menu, ensuring variety while maintaining the interest of their regularly frequenting clientele.
THE WINES THEY CHOSE:
FIRST CLASS
Krug Vintage, Champagne, France, 2004
Nicknamed “Luminous Freshness” by the House, Krug 2004 reveals the vibrant story of a fresh year. Ginger and candied citrus greet you on the nose while a balanced palate delivers flavours of brioche, honey and citrus.
Pierre Janny Puligny-Montrachet “Miroy”, Burgundy, France, 2021
Gifted with a lingering finish, an elegant symphony of zesty lemon, mint and hints of almond are present, both on the nose and the palate, accented with a floral aroma.
Domaine de Long Dai, Qiu Shan Valley, Shandong Province, China, 2020
Made with 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Cabernet Franc and 20% Marselan, Long Dai is a medium to full bodied wine with a lively balance and freshness, conveyed by precise aromas of fine spices, fresh plums, minerals, hints of graphite and freshly picked flowers.
BUSINESS CLASS
Drappier Carte d’Or Brut, Champagne, France, NV
A vinous Champagne with aromas of golden stone fruit, honeycomb, pastry and white flowers, supported with kirsch, biscuits and nutty flavours on the palate, enveloped by fine bubbles and a wonderful acidity.
Albert Bichot Chablis, Burgundy, France, 2022
Fresh, elegant aromas of lemon, white flowers and flint opens up to a palate of vivacious citrus and almond.
Silver Heights Jiayuan Marselan, Ningxia, China, 2021
A fully biodynamic vineyard Silver Heights Vineyard was founded by Emma Gao in 2007. Embracing natural techniques in farming while following the ancient Chinese principles of Jieqi, wild yeast fermentation, no filtration and minimal sulfur, this full bodied red wine made from 100% Marselan reveals rich, flavourful aromas of crushed violets, blueberries, vanilla and graphite, with a paradoxically fresh palate of fine grained tannins.
True to the airline’s heritage, select wines from the Ningxia region are kept in rotation for Business Class travellers. Located in the heavily irrigated valley between the Yellow River and the base of Helan Mountain, Ningxia is seen as one of China’s most promising wine producing regions.
The wine list a relatively minor detail to some, but an embellishment that—delivered right—helps add a much welcome touch of glamour to the experience of air travel.
Looking to the future, I can already imagine commercial space travel companies rehashing the aviation advertising of yesteryear, albeit it tech-rich and smoking-free, using old-hat semiotics to market to the hyper-wealthy and hyper-brave. But if they want to make their customers really happy, they’d better include an interstellar quality wine list too.
