OREANDA-NEWS. May 15, 2012. Cathay Pacific Airways announced the latest enhancement to its award-winning inflight cellar – the introduction of six fine Bordeaux Grands Crus Classes wines in First Class, reported the press-centre of Cathay Pacific.  

Passengers in the First Class cabin can now savour six carefully chosen “Classified Growths” from the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 in addition to the regular First Class wine selection. The 1855 classification was created to present the most famous Bordeaux wines at the Paris Universal exhibition.

From the 61 crus classes – “great growths” – that feature on the Medoc list, Cathay Pacific will offer the following six fine wines:

Chateau Lagrange 2006
Chateau Cantenac Brown 2005
Chateau Giscours 2008
Chateau Pontet-Canet 2007
Chateau Branaire-Ducru 2004
Chateau Lynch Bages 2004

Cathay Pacific Manager Catering Services Charles Grossrieder said: “At Cathay Pacific we are committed to offering the best possible selection of food and beverage as part of the inflight experience. Over the years the Cathay Pacific Catering team has worked closely with the airline’s wine consultants to provide new and exciting additions to our inflight cellar, and we are sure our First Class passengers will relish this selection of Bordeaux Grands Crus Classes wines.”

Cathay Pacific currently carries around 70 different wines to go with its wide variety of inflight cuisine and suit the differing tastes of passengers from around the world. The current selection includes wines from France, Italy, South Africa, Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Argentina.

The airline’s wine selections are made in Hong Kong by a wine-tasting panel that includes expert wine consultants. Tasting is an extremely important of the selection process because wines taste different in the air than they do on the ground due to the drier cabin environment and the effects of air-conditioning.

In 2011, the airline served around 1.6 million bottles of wine and champagne on its flights.