WOR D S B E C K Y A MB UR Y
bottles served on board business and first class last year. Tucked away in a room along a warren of corridors in London’s Grosvenor hotel, the intoxicating (quite literally) fragrance of wine heavy in the air, our judges – Sarah Abbott, Sam Caporn, Peter McCombie and head judge Charles Metcalfe – gradually sorted out the best from the rest. For something that brings as much pleasure as wine,
T
the judging process is a surprisingly serious business. I watch as the judges survey the line of bottles, the identity of each hidden by a black bag, and known only by a letter and two numbers (for example, FC1-2 means first class, flight one, airline two). Tey silently fill their glasses, sniff the contents with
vigour, take a decent sip and swish it around in their mouths, before depositing it into a spittoon. Tere is a lot of wine to get through and to swallow would be madness. Clipboards in hand, they jot down a few notes, sometimes returning to the same wine to reassess, focused and intent. A plate of water biscuits provides a bland counterpoint to the complex, oſten lingering, flavours of the wine.
MAKING THE GRADE Business Traveller’s Cellars in the Sky awards have been running since 1985. Tis year, 33 airlines entered, with judges sampling about 240 bottles to find the winners. Te competition is open to any carrier that serves
wine in business or first class on mid- or long-haul, with each carrier able to enter two reds, two whites, a sparkling and a fortified or dessert wine from both cabins. Although they can compete in as many categories as they like, to be eligible for the overall award of Best Cellar they had to enter at least one red, white and sparkling wine. Te tasting and assessment process is democratic.
Te judges blind-taste all of the wines independently of each other, each focused on getting through the flight thoroughly and efficiently. Once they have made their own assessment for each bottle, they form pairs and run through the wines, giving each a mark out of 100, to allow a more nuanced number that will enable easier compromise if required. Tat score decided, the group convenes to reach a consensus on a final mark. While there is the odd difference of opinion, it’s
rarely to the extent that one party thinks something rotten and the other exquisite. Nevertheless, it’s a case of
bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om MAR CH 20 19
majority rules. Where consensus cannot be found, the scores are totted up and the average taken. “To be a good judge,” McCombie says, “you
have to have a healthy enough ego to believe in yourself for the tasting to succeed, but also be able to accept the opinions of others.” Abbott agrees: “It’s the wisdom of crowds. It’s
tempting to keep going back to try the wines again, but the best method is just to concentrate and taste through. Your palate can become fatigued. So save tasting again for those wines that provoke discussion.”
WHAT WORKS BEST IN THE AIR? Each year we ask the judges what is the best wine to drink in the air and each year we are invariably told that whites tend to be a better bet than reds. Tat advice seems to be doubly
THE JUD GE S
Pictured from left: Charles Metcalfe, head judge and co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge; Peter McCombie, master of wine; Sam Caporn,
master of wine;
and Sarah Abbott, master of wine
he bottles have been uncorked, the contents swirled and sampled, the scores counted, and it’s now time to reveal the winners of our annual Cellars in the Sky airline wine awards. Over two heady days in December, a crack
team of some of the finest palates known to the wine world convened to find the finest
COMPE TING AIR L INE S
Aegean, Aer Lingus, Aeroflot, Aircalin,
Air Canada, Air France, Air Italy, Air New
Zealand, Air Tahiti Nui, American Airlines,
ANA, British Airways, Brussels Airlines,
Cathay Dragon, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, EVA Air, Finnair,
Garuda Indonesia, Iberia, Icelandair,
Japan Airlines, Jetblue, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air,
Qantas, Qatar Airways, South African Airways, Singapore Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Virgin Atlantic.
Our sincere thanks to all participants.
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RICHARD GRAY, RUGFOOT PHOTOGRAPHY
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