@SW17 says he is a
bit of an airline wine list nerd
and I’ve just found this from a 2018 BA Club Europe flight to Gran Canaria
In the T5 lounge before departure was
2009 Ch Cantemerle (Haut Medoc)
TWS stock the Champagne and it was tickety-boo on-board!
This is from the BOAC in - flight magazine “Welcome Aboard” from 1971. I’ve just sold it on eBay but yet to delete the photos…
I won’t post all mine, when I said I was a nerd about this, I meant it. That flight was probably not long after they switched from Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top (sometimes referred to as Monopoo by some BA frequent flyers) to Castelnau in Club Europe. It was definitely an improvement.
Cantemerle was more likely to be found in First onboard, but did occasionally appear in lounges, so you did well there. BA plumbed some real depths when it came to wine onboard during the pandemic (e.g. unspecified “Spanish red” in Club World), but it seems to be improving again now.
Unfortunately I threw away a lot of airline menus just before coming away. I’ll see if I have any left when I get back.
My blog shows I had Champagne Canard-Duchene ‘Cuvee Leonie’ Brut NV on BA in 2018 flying to Tampa, and this
and this
flying BA home from Cape Town in Feb 2018
I fly BA a fair bit and am due in one of their lounges on Saturday. I’ll report back!
Good, I look forward to reading your post.
But remember that different wines are served in different lounges, even in the same terminal. I think in Gatwick business you get self pour Champagne, in Heathrow T5 business you have to ask for a glass to be served you.
Oh my goodness that exchange rate!
I’ll be at Heathrow where as you say there are several lounges. I dare say I could visit them all if I really wanted to, but let’s see - don’t really fancy the entire afternoon in the airport!
I’m envious of some of the wines on offer here. I’ve flown club a few times with BA (courtesy of avios points, not work unfortunately) and have found that the onboard wine offer have been marginally better than Yellow Tail levels. Free champagne compensates a little though.
Wine is sometimes better in lounges beforehand, but even then it can be disappointing. I was lucky enough to fly from Heathrow T3 last year and have access to the amazing Cathay Pacific lounge. The wine list was several tiers below the quality of food, spirits and cocktails, unfortunately.
My tuppence worth:
Manchester airport Virgin business lounge is absolutely pants - truly awful. Best whisky being J.W. Black. Internet barely functions.
Heathrow air France business lounge, surprisingly not very good. But better than Manchester. ‘Village’ level wines with some prem cru.
Singapore Changi business lounge is fantastic - ultra modern, great fresh cooked dishes & juices - superb collection of wines & spirits - and all gratis.
Rock bottom is Kings Cross 1st class business lounge. No wine. Only biscuits & coffee.
If you’re in T5, the food and wine provision is largely the same in all 3 Galleries Club lounges (T5A North and South, and T5B). It’s a bit better in Galleries First, and if you have Concorde Room access, it’s not worth going anywhere else (wine-wise).
If in T3, agree with post above from @UisceBeatha that it’s better to ignore BA lounges and go to whichever Cathay Pacific lounge you can access.
Love the Cathay Pacific lounge…
Quantas First Class in Sydney is my top spot. Had a lovely Arts Series there a few years back.
When I was regularly flying to Chile, Air France gave free champagne in economy on their long haul flights. It was not wise to make as much use of that as I did on a Paris-Santiago (which was something silly like 18 hours) flight, the first time I went.
Yes it’s T5, going to Lisbon. I’m rarely disappointed to discover I’m going from T3 though, the Cathay lounge is very good and I like the views too. I’ll look in on Galleries as i go through, but I’m fortunate to have CCR access so i expect that’s where I’ll end up. I like the champagne there.
Yes, the Qantas international F lounge in SYD is one of my all time favourites too. The modern reality is that the ME carriers and a few Asian carriers are now the leaders in wine offerings, they simply invest a lot more money in it (especially Emirates).
Respect, I’d want a medal and sedative-level quantities of champagne to fly regularly to Chile in economy (especially if working at the other end).
It’s hard to pass on a glass of LPGS, though I do resist for breakfast-time flights.
I was on an academic travel stipend so it had to be economy. I’ve done a fair number of almost as revolting economy flights (Hawaii and Taipei both spring to mind. Taipei was nothing like as bad as it was a Cathay Pacific to HK and then Dragon Air to Taipei. Hawaii was United until the Hawaiian Air portion, so less said the better). Paris - Santiago did used to be the longest flight in the world until these direct London to Perth things started.
Almost as bad I would imagine as Azal Airlines which I’ve had the misfortune of travelling with a few times .
Dragonair (latterly known as Cathay Dragon) was ok, it was a regional subsidiary of Cathay Pacific from 2006 to its closure in 2020, and Cathay was a shareholder since 1990.
Talking of Taiwan, I once took a flight in or out of there on a Hello Kitty branded aircraft. Literally everything, including the crew and food, was Hello Kitty branded, a somewhat surreal experience. I don’t recall having wine on the flight, but I doubt it would have escaped the pink and white feline treatment.
I’ve never had the pleasure of Azal.
I did Cathay Dragon from HK to Vietnam and it was perfectly fine. In fact it was better than fine as I used BA Avios for the whole family and it cost something like £40 for five of us!
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