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 On one of my recent trips to Zurich to visit the Grand Resort of Bad Ragaz- a super luxury spa resort, for a couple of days, I travelled Swiss International Airlines Business Class. With my insatiable curiosity I asked the air-hostess for the wine list as I sipped Duval Leroy Brut champagne. I also asked her who the sommelier or the wine specialist was on board in the business class. She told me with a twinkle in her eyes that every hostess on board was trained to serve wine serving sommelier. Slightly surprised but happy to see an Indian hostess as a sommelier, I told her I wanted to taste all the wines served in the business class and pair with the food on the excellent Menu. I specifically requested tasting portions as I didn’t want to drink more than a couple of glasses in total.
On the Menu, besides the champagne grapes blended Duval Leroy Brut were 5 other fine wines-totalling six:
Duval Leroy Brut(Champagne)
Cuvee d’Or Blanche 2014 Siebe Dupf Kellerei (Liestal, BL Switzerland )
Melacce 2014 Castello Colle Masari (Montecucco) Vermentino
Klushof Schalberger Pinot Noir (Aesch BL Switzerland)
Il Blu 2009 Brancaia Tuscany Sangiovese, Cabernet, Merlot
Chateau des Trois Manoirs 2011 Cru Bourgeois
 I did my own food and wine matching- most wines went well with food but not all. But I was the only one in the cabin who tasted all the wines. That stewardess /sommelier went by a few times – a little bewildered. But when I asked her to remove the glasses all of which still had plenty of wine left- she had not really ceded to my request for tasting size wines, she said, ‘sir, I must say you can tuck in a lot of alcohol!’
She had no idea of my motto ‘Drink Wine. Drink in Moderation’!
Transfer to Qantas
If I were to fly Qantas, I could now enjoy a quasi- structured wine tasting even in economy class during its long-haul flights. Australian airline Qantas is taking the traditional wine tasting experience to the next level aboard its long-haul flights with the continued evolution of its Sommelier in the Sky program.
 ‘Sommelier in the Sky’ program of Qantas initiated recently for long haul flights, the trained sommeliers will gladly take the passengers away from their seat and give them a private wine tasting in the galley, featuring wines being served on board that day. Earlier reserved for the Business Class and First Class only, even Economy Class passengers can ask for this ‘off the menu’ service, according to a report
He will take you through a series of wines in a blind tasting. Besides, giving a break from the cooped up feeling in the aircraft for 14 hours, this would be quite an education for the wine- centric or potential wine lovers. Possibly, if the sommelier enjoys the interaction, he or she may even slip in a couple of wines from the higher classes into the mix to see if you can taste the difference.
To qualify as a Sommelier in the Sky, there is 3 days of intensive training for the Qantas flight attendants, followed by an all-day exam which includes a blind tasting, and an 80 question exam followed by a practical skills test.
 Qantas is recruiting 55 new sommeliers from their London based crew to further boost its ranks. There are approximately 200 cabin crew currently trained as on-board sommeliers. Over 2000 cabin crew have also completed an introductory, intermediate or advanced level of wine training.
One more benefit of the programme is that there will be a wider choice of wines available-even non-Australian wines and wider range of varietals will become available on board. Currently Qantas serves only Australian wines-besides champagne.
Interestingly both Swiss and Qantas serve the same champagne- Duval-Leroy from a small champagne producer. But they did have a variety of wines, besides the champ- from Italy and France.
Is Air India listening?! There is a great opportunity to have a service differentiator for the airline and the possibility of weaning away a few hard liquor drinkers to a lifestyle, healthy product besides making the journey to Europe and the USA less exhausting.
And for the stewardess/sommelier at Swiss, a 3-day course with the Qantas crew would have been some help!
Subhash Arora |