Delta is overhauling its Delta One wine list starting October 1, 2026, including Taittinger on domestic flights. The press release, though, is a whole other story.
Should have included… ‘a nice Chianti’
I wonder when the alcohol obsession will go away, in particular with airport and airplane alcohol.
I fly on a plane to go somewhere, not drink fermented grapes. If I wanted to do that I'd go on a wine tour.
Gen Z and younger generations are increasingly drink less as well, so this will all eventually become background noise.
When the cost of living has doubled to tripled in a few years, people have less disposable income to care about drinking an expensive bottle of fruit juice.
Umm, you buried the lede… “When the cost of living has doubled to tripled in a few years, people have less disposable income to care about…” travel, in-general, and business class, specifically, forget alcohol.
In my experience people give up alcohol last when they’re in a cost of living crisis.
@UncleRonnie: True, but mostly will stick to a Crap Deluxe a Petit Budget, mis en bouteille au Chateau Migraine. Not the fancy stuff.
@Tee Jay: depends on where in the world you are I guess. Most young people here stick to addictive energy drinks and snus (nicotine pouches), not weed.
@Tee Jay "We believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them WEED the way" - Crack-addled philosopher from the 1980s
Reading DL's press releases causes the same effect as drinking.
Interesting - Silver Oak is not inexpensive and not usually that much is produced, although it’s probably their Alexander Valley rather than the Napa Valley, although sure they’re from the same region.
Still, 12 new wines - wonder what the spread of how they will cater them will be.
Probably 1 bottle of each for 42 business class passengers, then load up on cheaper stuff, so that: 1) they can say they offer it, and 2) so that they don't have to spend too much money on actually providing it to everyone... *insert corporate double-speak* "...while supplies last."
We this now on flights. The incoming flight is double catered because Delta doesn't have a contract at many of its out stations. So, the passengers on the return flight don't have any wine to drink.
This sounds like a good improvement, and bringing Taittinger to domestic Delta One is very welcome. I also smiled at Delta explaining that wines can taste very different at altitude while conducting the SkyMiles member tasting on the ground, though. I also agree about giving American some credit for the “here are some new wines” approach. Sometimes wine can just be wine.
After evaluating 1,600 wines, surely there must’ve been room in the budget for a tasting flight, no?
"After evaluating 1,600 wines....
....we found just 42 that were prepared to offer us the insanely big discount we demand, then we whittled that down in an afternoon of tasting on Zoom. Job done"
Napa valley is probably the most underwhelming and overpriced wine region in the world. Mostly hype and marketing BS.
I stopped reading at "PetitE Chablis". Come on...
I wonder to what extent all of these press releases are just written by AI these days. Might as well since they have so little substance and grounding in reality.
Great headline! Here I was thinking it was "Delta One Business Class Gets New Wine Program, And [These Wines Are So Good That] I Need A Drink…" Instead it's "Delta One Business Class Gets New Wine Program, And [I'm So Over This Crap That] I Need A Drink… Haha!
As we have seen before, there is a huge difference between what Delta advertises and what Delta caters. Especially in out-stations.
After all, the current domestic chardonnay is the "free" chardonnay served in Sku Club lounges.
Let's wait to see if the champagne actually makes it on each and every domestic Delta One flight.
With that said, I think the addition of sancerre (sauvignon blanc from Sancerre in France) is good. The petit chablis is marginal. They could have done chablis but didn't want to pay for it. Both are obviously 100% chardonnay from Chablis but petit chablis is, generally, a cheaper version as it's produced, generally, from inferior vineyards.
" But let’s be honest, when it comes to flying business class, most of us are just looking to have a few glasses of whatever is most drinkable so we can knock ourselves out and get a few hours of sleep on an overnight flight."
Preach!
But great news for delta updating their wines
I understand that Delta wants to do an overhaul of its wine program every now and then, and I understand that they want to focus on American wines as they're from the USA. But, honestly, my experience with American wines is that most are as subtle as a Lada with a leaking exhaust, yet priced as if it's a brand new Ferrari.
What actually would be a huge improvement is if they can teach their staff about wine pairings. You know, to give some educated recommendations of which wine goes best with what food. Usually the menu is very limited to two or three starters and mains and so is the wine list, so that shouldn't be too much of a puzzle.
Man, all this emphasis, and SWISS still comes out on top with their Swiss reds and Zurich-produced G&T.
"Petite Chablis".
All you need to know....
I really hate that they're calling the Cabernet Sauvignons just Cabernet. That sounds like something an American that doesn't know anything about wine would order at Capital Grill. I think I would be more OK if they called it Cab Sauv.
UNITED leading the way and nice to see the others follow
other airlines scrambling to catch up with UA is about the only time "trickle down" actually does benefit the little guy
Lufthansa has test dining rooms on the ground that are pressurized the same as an airline cabin at cruising altitude. Maybe Delta has the same? Delta wants to be premium but is getting crushed by United. When Southwest announces their first class cabin in December, Delta will be third.
And yet what LH and LX serve is one of the most mediocre collection of wines.
miss him
Oh, he's around - just not recently on here. You might also find him wandering your local airport check-in babbling about "premium restraining orders".
Good to see, buried in the press release, that their named "Master Sommelier" still has a job after that canned wine debacle in 2022-2023. She's been oddly quiet the last few years. Other than that, looks like they rounded-up some VIP DL-360s and did a focus group. Marketing uses AI to blast this to a novella length press release, and we all feel more "premium" having read it and dig into our pockets deeper for the experience.