this week

In wine today
The sky could be the limit for ‘wine on the wing’

Airline wine has gone beyond a ghastly refreshment (one to steady the nerves perhaps), to a very tasty tipple indeed. Travellers have become more wine knowledgeable and feel that the wine which an airline serves forms part of its image.

For that reason airline companies are giving increasingly more importance to the wines they serve in-flight. Some even provide wine education as part of the cabin staff training.
When making catering arrangements, few carriers have also come to realise that wines taste somehow different in the pressurised cabin than they do on the ground.

As a matter of fact, people don’t seem to be able to recognise the soft-fruity flavours such as hints of banana and peach in white wine during flight.

And, while the riper berry fruit flavours seem to survive pretty well in the sky, the less ripe tannins in red wine taste more harsh. Simply put, the wine has to taste ripe and rounded on the runway for it to taste well at 10,000 meters.

However, it’s not the wine that gets affected by the altitude; the drinker’s perception of taste changes in the air. Cabin conditions simply play tricks with one’s palate.

Does Malta’s national airline’s wine list pass the altitude test with flying colours? Righteously so, Air Malta gives tourists making their way to the archipelago the opportunity to taste miles ahead some of the fine vinous produce made at their holiday destination. The short wine list, which is too often out of print, should perhaps include a couple of true Maltese wines that are somewhat better suited to hindering in-flight conditions.

As for reds, you wouldn’t go for a Cabernet Sauvignon but rather for a lighter, more refreshing and aromatic wine, something softer. As the only low-tannin Malta grown red to date, the Medina Vineyards blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carrignan could therefore perhaps fit the void of a high fidelity alternative.

And how about the white half of the Medina Vineyards pair of wines? This buttery and crisp marriage of Chardonnay and Ghirgentina too seems as fabulous a choice in the glass as the sight of its fruit on the approach, ripening in pocket-sized vineyards around Malta’s old capital – if you have a window seat, that is!