the Sky’

Air NZ’s the ‘Cellar in the Sky’

A FOUR-YEAR program to create a world class wine cellar has paid dividends for Air New Zealand, with its win in the prestigious “Cellar in the Sky” international wine competition. Run by the New York-based Business Traveller Inter national magazine, the competition placed Air New Zealand the “clear winner” ahead of other interna tional contenders including Ameri can Airlines, British Airways and

Singapore Airlines.

Air New Zealand managing di rector Jim McCrea says the airline has undertaken extensive work with noted New Zealand wine consult ants John Comerford and John Buck. “Our program has involved tasting hundreds of wines to select the best New Zealand has to offer,” he says. “We’re delighted with the win, and see it as a major accolade for New Zealand wines.”

Airline wine consultant and chairman of the Wine Institute of New Zealand, John Buck, says the win is “quite staggering”. “The odds were definitely stacked against us as we choose to put forward only New Zealand wines,” he says.

“When you consider the American and French airlines have a huge domestic base to select from while others, such as the Asian carriers, take their pick from the best wines available internationally, the win is wonderful for New Zealand and its national airline.”

Mr Buck says the first association many overseas passengers have with New Zealand wine is when they are on board an Air New Zealand flight, “We try to provide wine that is identifiably New Zealand with a good representation of the various regions and winemakers,” he says. Mr Buck says selection of wine for use by the airline involves four wine tastings per year, with blind tasting of up to 120 wines each time.

“As well as working very closely with catering to match wine to the menus developed for specific routes, one must be very careful to choose wine that performs well at altitude,” he says. ‘We see some interesting palate responses in the air. We look for more intensely flavoured wines with softer finishes, rather than the more delicate styles.”

X2P 10 cellars 1. Air New Zealand; 2. American Airlines; 3.

British Airways; 4. Singapore Airlines; 5. Delta Airlines; 6. Northwest Con tinental; 7. US Air; 8. Finnair; 9. Aer Lingus; 10. Canadian Airlines Inter national United. □