WORLD’S BEST DRINK MAGAZINE qantas inflight guide to wine 5th Edition Yours to keep with our compliments. qantas First & business wines EDITOR’S LETTER Inspiration can stem from innumerable and varied sources. It might be a smell, a colour or a sound that triggers an idea, or perhaps a person, a place or a thing that strikes a chord. The inspiration for the Qantas Inflight Guide To Wine grew from the airline’s enthusiasm to support and promote Australian wine and its producers. Over the years, Qantas has built up one of this country’s most enviable cellars enabling it to choose from an array of premium wines when picking drops to match chef Neil Perry’s menus on both JUDY SARRIS Editor, domestic and international flights. Gourmet Traveller WINE. It was a natural progression to then create the Qantas Inflight Guide To Wine to showcase many of the fine wines the airline has sourced from producers throughout Australia. It’s also an opportunity to introduce the people who create the menus and select the wines for your trip and to speak to some of the winemaking families whose delicious drops feature within these pages. We must stress that the Qantas Inflight Guide To Wine is not your inflight wine list, more a useful overview of a collection of some of Australia’s top wines. We hope, after perusing the following pages, you’ll take this guide with you and be inspired to drink more Aussie drops. TASTING PANEL 6 CENTRE OF Service EXCELLENCE 8 TS WINE service 9 food WITH NEIL PERRY 10 Qantas 187ML program 11 EN award WINNERS 12 T label talK 14 WHY WE taste WINE 15 N MEET THE prodUCERS 17 tasting notes 22 O WINE INDEX 48 C Contacts 50 Editor Judy Sarris Creative Director Sabine Schmitz Deputy Editor/Copy Editor Connell Nisbet Tasting Notes Peter Bourne, Bob Campbell MW Features Nick Ryan Designer Bernhard Schmitz Editorial Assistant Louise Butta Cover Photography Ben Dearnley Production Controller Fiona Olsson Digital Pre-press Specialist John Ruperto Associate Publisher Homes & Food Group Neale Whitaker Publishing Director Men’s, Specialist & Custom Titles Phil Scott PBL Media Chief Executive Officer Ian Law Qantas Airways Ltd Qantas Inflight Services, 203 Coward Street, Mascot, NSW 2020 Qantas Wine and Beverage Manager Claudia Lill (02) 9691 1569 Advertising Enquiries Bernard Mills (02) 9691 1694 Qantas Club and Frequent Flyer Service Centre 13 11 31 Qantas Reservations 13 13 13 This Qantas Inflight Guide to Wine is complimentary to Qantas passengers 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. ©2009 All rights reserved. Printed by Quality Print Group Pty Ltd, 45 Huntingwood Drive, Huntingwood NSW 2148. Articles express the opinions of authors and not necessarily those of Qantas or ACP Magazines Ltd. VISIT GOURMET TRAVELLER WINE* AT WWW.GOURMETTRAVELLERWINE.COM.AU *Voted best drink magazine at the World Food Media Awards gourmet traveller wine 5 QANTAS WINE PANEL Shining Lights The Qantas Wine Panel discuss the wines, winemakers and wine regions that most inspire them. ine delivers inspiration in many different places and many Wdifferent forms. It can come walking between the rows of a special vineyard or among the resting barrels tucked deep in a crypt-like cellar. It can come from the countless characters that this business brings your way or, perhaps most importantly of all, at the bottom of a truly great bottle. The inspirational nature of wine is something with which the Qantas Wine Panel is well acquainted. Tom Carson is group winemaker for Yabby Lake Vineyard in the Mornington Peninsula, Stephen Pannell runs SC Pannell in McLaren Vale and Vanya Cullen is the bio-dynamic winemaker at Margaret River’s Cullen Wines. They have all worked with some of the greats over the years and have been inspired by so many. “For me, it’s James Halliday,” says Carson. “His passion, generosity and tireless commitment to the Australian wine industry has always been an inspiration for me.” For Pannell and Cullen, inspiration can be found on the slope of Burgundy’s famed Côte d’Or in France. “The late Gérard Potel from Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Volnay was always an inspiration for me,” says Pannell. “His experience and foresight were amazing and he had an uncanny ability to make great wine in difficult vintages.” Cullen nominates a women who shares her heartfelt commit- ment to bio-dynamics as an ongoing inspiration. “Anne-Claude Leflaive’s quest to find natural remedies indigenous to each vineyard is really admirable,” she says. Their list of inspiring wines makes enticing reading too. “I remember tasting a 1978 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape,” Tom Carson (above) and Vanya Cullen (right) bring many years of experience to the Qantas Wine Panel. 6 gourmet traveller wine recalls Carson, “and being completely speechless with its greatness and the fact that it was 100 per cent grenache.” Pannell rates the 1999 Artadi Viña El Pisón Rioja from Spain. “It completely changed my expectations of how great tempranillo could be.” While Cullen opts for the 2005 Domaine Leflaive Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles, hailing it as “a premier cru that delivers a grand cru experience”. Not surprisingly, Cullen says Burgundy is the region that continues to inspire her, while Pannell recalls a vintage in Barolo, Italy, spent drinking great nebbiolo and indulging in the white truffles which make that part of Piedmont very inspiring. But Carson takes a broader view and puts the challenge out to our own industry. “All of Australia’s wine regions need to continually inspire wine lovers around the world with their vision, diversity and, above all, the individuality of each and every wine produced in that region.” v McLaren Vale’s Stephen Pannell (right) completes the team. gourmet traveller wine 7 QUALITY SERVICE Elevating Excellence Qantas’ recently opened Centre of Service Excellence is a world-class training facility exemplifying the airline’s ongoing commitment to customer service. njoying a glass of stellar wine is the final stage of a long, Equality-controlled process, from vineyard cultivation through to winemaking and presentation. The same can be said for the quality of service customers receive on Qantas flights. The high standard of customer service delivered by Qantas cabin crew is the end result of a well-honed training program which has set the benchmark for customer service the world over. The Qantas Centre of Service Excellence is an inspirational, 5000-square metre facility in the heart of Sydney and will provide the stage for service excellence training and development for years to come. Once the home of Engineering apprentice training, the Centre has a rich history of learning. Exposed beams and concrete floors retain its heritage, whist innovative design provides a contemporary setting for forward-thinking and learning. Within the Centre, dedicated customer experience zones have been created to simulate the varying stages of interaction between staff and customers, from the award-winning Qantas First Lounge with signature Marc Newson furniture; the International Business zone featuring a fully flat A380 Skybed seat to the QantasLink and Domestic zone. Most importantly, for wine-lovers at least, is the Epicurean wing. The wing includes a dedicated wine room that is the hub of the Sommelier in the Sky wine training program. Qantas’ ongoing commitment to excellence in training is an inspiration to all the staff who take part. This inspiration fuels the enthusiasm and professionalism of check-in staff, ground crew and flight attendants. The attention to detail they experience at the Centre of Service Excellence is consistent throughout the program and is reflected in the service customers receive on board. At the end of the day, the real beneficiary of all this training will always be the customer. So sit back, peruse the wine list and avail yourself of the most highly trained flight attendants in the sky. v 8 gourmet traveller wine WINE SERVICE Bubbling with Pride Settle in for some of the finest Champagne in the world, as the Qantas Wine Program has gone the extra mile to ensure your inflight experience is second to none. ince the earliest days of air travel one Sdrink has been an integral part of the whole flying experience – Champagne. It’s with great pride that Qantas serves the legendary Taittinger Comtes de Champagne in Qantas First. A pinnacle of the blanc de blanc style made entirely from chardonnay, Comtes de Cham- pagne is produced in only the best vintages, using fruit sourced from grand cru vineyards of the Côte des Blancs. Only the first pressing of this prized fruit is destined for Comtes de Champagne, helping to shape a style that is renowned for its purity and elegance. The wine then rests for almost a decade in the cellars of the 13th-century abbey of St Nicaise in Reims. The result is an extraordinary wine, one of the few prestige cuvees produced by a house still in family hands, and the ideal accompaniment to a journey in Qantas First. Customers in Business also enjoy a unique Champagne experi- ence with the exceptional Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve, considered by many to be among the best non-vintage Champagnes. It’s a consistent expression of the house style defined by the late Daniel Thibault, one of the greatest chef du caves of his generation. Fine floral top notes are anchored by rich aromas of brioche and spice and lead to a palate notable for its complex core and energetic freshness.