United Airlines Raises The Wine Standard: $60 Bottles In Business Class Leave American, Delta Behind Starting Next Month – View from the Wing

United Airlines Raises The Wine Standard: $60 Bottles In Business Class Leave American, Delta Behind Starting Next Month

by Gary Leff on December 23, 2024

United Airlines has the clear mantle as America’s flag carrier, with a sprawling route network. They offer a consistent, though hardly leading, business class seat. And they’re broadly working to upgrade their premium experiences. At Delta Investor Day, that competitors President said they have too far to go to ever catch up.

Early on in Scott Kirby’s tenure at the airline they were pushing savings in their wine program, having gone 300% over budget with wine when their Polaris-branded business class soft product launch.

Now United is returning to a real investment in this part of the product, with better business class wine than I’ve ever seen United serve, as first reported by Live and Let’s Fly.

Starting January 1, 2025, United will introduce Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée champagne in Polaris business class along with 3 additional new wines:

• Freemark Abbey cabernet
• E. Guigal Chateauneuf-du-Pape
• Luca ‘G Lot’ chardonnay

United used to offer flights of wine for tastings in Polaris

The champagne is a legit $55 bottle at retail.

Luca G Lot is a lovely chardonnay from Mendoza, a legitimate $30+ retail bottle that receives critical acclaim. Freemark Abbey is a $60 retail cab that I’ve genuinely enjoyed in the past. Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape is itself a $50 bottle, though I haven’t tried it myself.

From an internal airline memo:

Beginning January 1, our Polaris customers will have the chance to enjoy Laurent-Perrier’s La Cuvée Champagne. This fresh and elegant blend of 55% chardonnay, 35% pinot noir and 10% Meunier is aged to perfection for four years in the Laurent-Perrier house cellars. La Cuvée pairs wonderfully with our diverse menus or as a standalone toast to the friendly skies! Highly rated by James Suckling with 93 points and by Wine Spectator with 91 points, we are proud to be the only airline in North America serving Laurent-Perrier’s La Cuvée. Stay tuned for some exciting Laurent-Perrier activations on board soon.

While JetBlue has been known in the past for $100 wines in business class, the investment in wine and choices of bottles is really remarkable at United, and puts them way ahead of Delta and of course American, and ahead of British Airways and Lufthansa, too.

And that’s even as Delta ups its own investment. Though not yet formally announced, Delta will be partnering with Taittinger.

Both Taittinger and Laurent-Perrier are better than what American Airlines was serving in first class earlier this year and of course American dropped proper champagne altogether in favor of Italian sparkling in business class last year.

My experience flying American first class to and from Sydney last year highlighted some truly appalling wines. They didn’t even have an Australian bottle on board either flight and their Chardonnay retailed for $8.

In general my favorite wine programs are Singapore’s (very thoughtful and route-specific selections), Emirates (luxury investment), and Qantas (for a good Shiraz). A lot of airlines serve prestige champagnes in particular, but I’ve never seen anyone but Emirates serve Chateau d’Yquem.

Even though most people don’t know very much about wine they think of it as a luxury good. Delta years ago made a point of avoiding bottles that are priced too inexpensively at retail (lest people think they’re low quality, regardless of taste) and that had too unsophisticated a label.

Back when Ken Chase was selecting wines for American his approach was to select ‘fruit bombs’ – very fruit forward wines that will maintain their character in the air. Many subtle wines, great wines, simply don’t taste special in the air and aren’t worth the cost.

Singapore has a unique approach. They have a pressurized tasting room. Normally taste tests of wine and picking what people like doesn’t help, since it doesn’t match how those wines will taste in the air. Singapore has designed the conditions on the ground to be able to taste things closer to actual flight conditions. Dry cabin air, pressurized to 6,000 or 8,000 feet, you’re going to feel parched.

I’m often served red wines too cold, which mitigates their fruit and highlights their acidity. If you are served red cold (a little chill is usually fine and even desirable) wait to drink it or cup the glass in your hands to warm. Fruit forward Pinots work well. I find that champagne in the air comes closest to offering the same experience as on the ground.

I look forward to seeing how United’s Freemark Abbey cab holds up at altitude.

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