Qantas knows good wine and that’s no secret. The airline took home 13 medals at this year’s global Cellar in the Sky Awards, including the airline with the best overall cellar. And Qantas customers love what the airline is pouring. Almost 30 million glasses of Australian wine are consumed on-board annually. So how does the airline get it so right? 

Cue: Qantas Wine Week. 

Once a year a team of 10 sommeliers, including some of Qantas’ Sommeliers in the Sky, take part in a blind tasting session held over five days. During those five days the team sip and swirl through 1,500 bottles of Aussie wine to separate the good from the great. 

“This process is consistent with how wine shows around Australia are done,” says Qantas Master Sommelier  Sebastian Crowther. “If you ever go into a wine shop and see a gold medal on the label, that’s been won at a wine show. We conduct Qantas Wine Week like a wine show.” 

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Wineries from across the country submit their best bottles to go in the running to be selected for the prestigious wine menu that includes some 200 wines that are served across the Qantas Domestic, International and Lounge network and on board planes. 

Each wine submitted is blind tasted by sommeliers. 

“All sommeliers know about the wine they are tasting is what region it comes from, what vintage it is and what variety it is,” says Sebastian. “We don’t know the specifics of the producer, and that’s the essence of what Qantas Wine Week is about. It means it’s an even playing field, so all the wineries have an equal opportunity – from the big wine makers to the smaller ones.” 

Once tasted, the sommeliers give the wine a rating. If it is scored between 85-89 it is a bronze medal. Silver medal wines are scored between 90-94. And the best of the best are categorised as gold medal wines and are scored from 95 to 100. The wines that receive gold medals as part of Qantas Wine Week are the wines deemed worthy to fly. 

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So what makes a good wine great? Drinkability. Sebastian says that wines that present good and sharp winemaking are ultimately the ones that make the cut. 

Qantas Creative Director of Food, Beverage and Service Neil Perry believes that the program ensures the best wine is selected for customers, but is also a great opportunity for Aussie winemakers. 

“To be flying in First and Business and being on ground it’s a really great opportunity for customers to be trying your product,” says Neil. “We have lots of experience of customers contacting cellar doors asking to order a wine they’ve tried at the lounge or in the air, that’s what makes me most proud of this program. In terms of volume of wine we’re third behind Coles and Woolworths, but essentially they are putting bottles on a shelf and we’re putting it in a glass in front of customers with a label in front of them and that is very powerful.”

When it comes to the most popular wines enjoyed in-lounge Champagne, chardonnay and pinot noir reign supreme. Once customers are cruising at 30,000ft shiraz and chardonnay are the most ordered wines.

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