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.

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 Cotes 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 5th 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.

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.

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