Bad news about wine on planes
Who doesn’t enjoy a glass of wine to help you get thought a long-haul flight? Or bought a couple of bottles duty-free to take home?
Well, we have bad news for you. Wine doesn’t travel well. In fact, flying may be wine’s worst enemy.
Wine expert Roy Moorfield told news.com.au there were two things about flying that worked against wine, whether it’s your in-flight glass of vino or the souvenir bottle you brought home in your suitcase.
The vibrations of the plane, and the pressurised cabin, can both seriously alter the flavour, says Mr Moorfield, an international wine consultant with Cathay Pacific, who develops wines to serve mid-flight.
Mr Moorfield said when he started working with Cathay Pacific as its Australian wine consultant, he realised there was no point trying wines before flying them as they tasted so different once they’d been in the air.
“When we started out, we used to do a pre-tasting of wine in Australia and we’d cut the samples down from about 600 to 200 and fly them to Hong Kong and taste them up there,” he told news.com.au.
“What we discovered was the wines we thought were the most suitable in Australia turned out to be among the least suitable when we tried them again in Hong Kong. And we thought, what’s going on here?
“We realised the cabin atmosphere is about 40 per cent more dry in a good airline — it can be much more dry in other airlines — and we realised that affects the way you taste.
“It dries out the follicles in your nose, that goes to your olfactory gland, and that’s where you get the sense of smell — and what you smell affects what you taste.
“Your nose isn’t as good as it could be, it’s not smelling as well as it could be, and that affects the wine. It dulls it somewhat.”
As well as the cabin condition, Mr Moorfield noted the micro-vibrations of the aircraft could upset the careful balance of acidity, tannins and fruit in wine, thus changing its flavour.
“You don’t feel the vibrations in your seats because your seats are made to be comfortable, but when the planes vibrate they shake up the wine,” he said.
“And the wine has flavour molecules, and those flavour molecules are either very tight, and withstand it, or it pulls them apart slightly, and the wine becomes quite dull.
“So you have the effect of the fruits being reduced, and that exposes the acidity and the tannin. So we have to find wines that have a better balance and can fly with those nice tight flavour molecules.
“We fly them and then taste them, and if they’d gotten through those rigours we can select them to fly.”
So what can you do? Firstly, some varieties of wine travel better than others.
“Pinot noir is very difficult, it’s very difficult to find one that flies well because it’s very fragile. We do find ones that work but we really have to hunt for them,” he said.
“Shiraz works very consistently because it’s got a lot of flavour and the tannins are slightly softer.
“The new modern style of cabernet sauvignon they’re making in Europe, which is more like the Australian version, has softer tannins and quite success too. Merlot is quite successful.
“Sauvignon blanc works, and chardonnay is probably the most consistently performing white. Rose works very well as well.”
And what about those souvenir bottles of wine you’ve bought duty-free? Unfortunately, if you pop the cork immediately post-holiday it’s unlikely to taste like it did when you sampled it.
However, Mr Moorfield said the wine could recover, so as soon as you get home, should put it aside and let it settle for about six months before opening it.