WORLD’S BEST DRINK MAGAZINE qantas inflight guide to w i n e First edition qantas First and business wines EDITOR’S LETTER Qantas and Gourmet Traveller WINE have worked together for nearly a decade to promote Australian wine, in the past partnering up for events such as our annual Winemaker of the Year awards and wine tastings held in Qantas lounges. So when Qantas took the initiative to pro- vide its customers with more information about the wines served in its First and Business cabins we were delighted to step onboard and lend a hand. In the following pages, we introduce you to the panel of JUDY SARRIS experts who have selected the fine Editor, Gourmet Australian wines you will enjoy Traveller WINE. during your Qantas flight, explain how and why the wines were chosen, and take you to the Australian vineyards and regions from where they came. Wine expert and member of the Gourmet Traveller WINE tasting panel Peter Bourne provides tasting notes for 145 of the magnificent wines that make up just part of the award-winning Qantas cellar. The selection is carefully tailored to enhance the menu served on each leg of your journey, and Qantas cabin crew will indicate which drops are available during your flight. If you are impressed by what you try, and I suspect you will be, I urge you to keep this guide for future refer- ence when enjoying the diverse and unique wines that Australia has to offer. THE Legacy OF LEN EVANS 6 TS THE HEIGHT OF taste 7 MEET THE PANEL 8 QUEST FOR THE BEST 10 EN RED, WHITE AND True Blue 12 T WINE News 14 N TASTING Notes 17 O WINE INDEX 48 C Contacts 50 Editorial Director Andy Harris Editor Judy Sarris Art Director Sabine Schmitz Deputy Editor/Copy Editor Emma Ventura Tasting Notes Peter Bourne Features Nick Ryan Subeditor Holly O’Neill Editorial Assistant Louise Butta Cover Photography Ben Dearnley Digital Production Specialist Sam Leong Advertising Production Renata Stankevicius Production Controller Hilary Johnson ACP MAGAZINES LTD Chief Executive Officer Ian Law Group Publisher Specialist Titles Phil Scott This Qantas Inflight Guide to Wine is complimentary to Qantas customers and was developed by Qantas Inflight Services. Published by Qantas Airways Ltd, ABN 16 009 661 901 and by ACP Magazines Ltd ABN 18 053 273 546. 54-58 Park St, Sydney, NSW 2000. ©2007 All rights reserved. Printed by Lilyfield Printing Pty Ltd, 47-53 Bellona Ave, Regents Park, NSW 2143, phone (02) 8718 8344, www.lilyfieldprinting.com.au. Articles express the opinions of authors and not necessarily those of Qantas or ACP Magazines Ltd. TO SUBSCRIBE TO GOURMET TRAVELLER WINE, GO TO WWW.MAGSHOP.COM.AU gourmet traveller wine 5 AUSTRALIAN ICON The Legacy of Len Evans Australian wine’s greatest champion helped shape the way Qantas serves wine. o individual did more to transform the Australian wine Nindustry from rustic pursuit to global powerhouse than the late Len Evans AO, OBE. Evans’ passion for wine was enormous, and he devoted himself to spreading the word with evangelical zeal. He wrote Australia’s first regular wine column in The Bulletin news magazine and, in 1965, became the founding director of the Australian Wine Bureau, established to promote the industry both at home and abroad. Evans set up The Rothbury Estate in the Hunter Valley in 1969 and was influential in the success of Brian Croser’s Petaluma win- ery. Well-known as a gourmand, Evans also established a Sydney restaurant, the legendary Bulletin Place, which saw the demise of more great bottles during the heady days of the 1970s and early ’80s than any other. As a strong advocate of the Australian wine show system, he was instrumental in securing for wine the same benefits that other fields get from agricultural shows. Evans worked tirelessly with Qantas for more than 40 years, strongly believing the national carrier should showcase the best Australian wines. As chairman of the wine selection panel, he tasted extensively, debated forcefully and cajoled successfully with his fel- low panel members to ensure that Qantas could confidently serve wines which were typically Australian and recognisably world class. Despite his passing last year, Evans’ influence is still felt at Qantas. He personally selected the current members of the Wine Panel (see page 8) to continue his work, and it’s fitting that in the year he died, Qantas was named as having the best First and Business wine lists at the prestigious Cellars in the Sky awards in London (page 11). It’s nice to think that somewhere, somehow, Len Evans is sitting back, with a full glass, saying, “I told you so”. v LEADING FROM ABOVE Evans believed the national carrier should serve the best wines. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANSON SMART. 6 FOOD & WINE SERVICE The Height of Taste Chef Neil Perry offers Qantas customers food and wine matches made in the heavens. irline food has undergone something of a revolution in recent Ayears, keeping pace with increasingly sophisticated consumer palates and expectations. Qantas has been at the forefront of this change, working closely with Australian chef and restaurateur Neil Perry to deliver a restaurant-style experience in the air. Rockpool, Perry’s iconic Sydney restaurant and a significant site in the development of contemporary Australian cuisine, has long been a favourite with Australian winemakers, some even bottling wines exclusively for the restaurant. Perry is pleased with the new flexibility in the airline’s Wine Program: “One of the great things about being able to buy smaller parcels of wine now is the chance it gives us to showcase the huge regional diversity of Australian wine,” he says. “We’re flying food that reflects the multicultural nature of Aus- tralian cuisine. We’ve got dishes with Indian flavours, or Thai or Moroccan. And now we’ve got a wide range of wines to work with them. Really aromatic whites work well with a lot of these dishes, as do some of the really fruit-driven pinot noir wines.” Perry’s favourite food and wine match succeeds on several levels: “I love the tokays and muscats we serve with cheese. Not only do they work as a great food and wine match but we’re exposing Qantas customers to a fantastic and totally unique Australian wine style.” The quality of the menus and wine lists is reflected by revamped glassware and new Marc Newson-designed crockery and cutlery in Business and First. Food and wine this good deserves nothing less. v choosing the right stuff Think of the ideal place to enjoy an exceptional wine, and a pressurised aircraft cabin may not be your first . choice. The Qantas Wine Panel (see page 8) must Y NLE consider the unique nature of drinking in the air. AR Altitude and low humidity tend to accentuate tannins and alcohol, making usually outstanding wines appear unbalanced inflight. If a wine is too young it can seem hard, so semi-mature wines are sought. Aromatics seem more pronounced in the air, so varieties such as pinot noir and riesling work well, as do lighter styles like rosé. WINE PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN DE gourmet traveller wine 7 WINE SELECTION Meet the Panel If you enjoy the wines that Qantas serves inflight, you can thank three Australians and their highly experienced palates. he dedication to excellence that drives the Qantas Wine Program Tis best illustrated by the calibre of people that sit on its Wine Panel. Vanya Cullen, Steve Pannell and Tom Carson are three of Australia’s most widely acclaimed winemakers as well as being highly respected wine show judges. Meeting four times a year, the Wine Panel rigorously assesses thousands of wines under strict wine show conditions to finally select the outstanding examples that make up the core of the Qantas Wine Program (the selection of wines served onboard). VANYA CULLEN Vanya Cullen’s rise to prominence as a winemaker runs parallel with that of the West Australian region that she calls home. The daughter of Margaret River pio- neers Kevin and Diana Cullen, she and her siblings were often called into service during the establishment of the family’s Wilyabrup vineyard in the early 1970s. Having finally taken over winemaking duties from her trailblazing mother, Vanya has continued to build Cullen into one of the great names in Australian wine. She is responsible for what is arguably Australia’s best cabernet merlot, a sublime chardonnay, and a semillon sauvignon blanc that introduces some barrel-ferment complexity to the distinctive regional style. Cullen is also one of Australia’s top wine show judges and a leading expert on biodynamic viticulture, and was the 2000 Qantas/ Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the Year. She brings great skill to the Qantas Wine Panel and has a clear idea of its purpose: 8 gourmet traveller wine “We need to be looking for wines that are drinking well now and will show well on the plane as well as being bench- mark examples of their style.” STEPHEN PANNELL Like Vanya Cullen, Stephen Pannell’s parents were instru- mental in the establishment of the Margaret River region, establishing the legendary Moss Wood vineyard in 1969. The family is still involved in the industry, with Pannell’s father and brother producing great wines under the Picardy label in Pember- ton, Western Australia, but Steve himself ventured further afield to make his winemaking mark. After gaining an oenology degree from the University of Adelaide, Pannell worked vintages across the world before becom- ing group red winemaker for the large BRL Hardy group. These days, he’s focused on producing richly generous McLaren Vale reds under his eponymous label, judging extensively and working with the Qantas Wine Panel.