• About me
  • Books
  • Contact

Wine Views

~ An industry perspective from inside

Wine Views

Monthly Archives: April 2012

Flight of the Concorde

29 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by deborahgraywine in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

It is exactly 20 years ago this week that I flew British Airways Concorde back and forth from JFK toLondon. I don’t know what made me think of the anniversary. It’s not as if I was marking time to commemorate the event and waited patiently for the right moment. It just occurred to me today, of all days, and from there I went to check the dates on my certificate. My outbound flight was April 24, 1992 and I returned April 30, 1992.

I kept a file of memorabilia, with menus, wine lists, boarding passes, stationary, luggage tag and a grey leather man’s wallet, embossed with the Concorde logo. Flight attendants handed a gift pack on every flight. I gave one wallet to my husband and the other I kept unused and in pristine condition. Gifts also included Belgian chocolates and grey leather portfolios. Grey leather was the signature of Concorde interiors.

I took a couple of other ‘souvenirs,’ a tiny Wedgewood salt cellar, and the silver plated knife, fork and spoon from my dinner service. No plastic utensils back then. I still have everything. The Concorde is gone now and these are part of my treasured memories.

Menu and wine list

I was traveling alone, having saved up frequent flier miles for this trip, one of my early bucket list items. Somehow, I expected to recognize several of my fellow passengers from the pages of magazines or movies, surreptitiously glancing around in the private lounge before takeoff to catch a glimpse of a familiar face. But it was not to be. I’ve seen more celebrities on the streets of Manhattan. They all seemed to be businessmen, blasé regulars who buried themselves in newspapers as soon as they’d settled in, holding their glass up in a languid hand for refills.

The flights themselves were less than memorable for comfort, with cabin space sacrificed to supersonic flight, but it didn’t matter, at least not to me. It was still a heady experience, soaring into the air at a steep climb and eventually reaching Mach 2 – twice the speed of sound – noted in a lighted display on the bulkhead. Space was more than compensated for with immaculate service from flight attendants, superb food that included caviar tartlets, crawfish, Alaskan crab, excellent cheeses and an exclusively French wine selection. The consultants for the wine selections at that time were Michael Broadbent, MW and Hugh Johnson. Here is a sampling from the 17 wines on the list:

Champagne Pommery Cuvée Special, Louise Pommery 1981

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, La Grande Dame, 1985

Taittinger, Comtes de Champagne, 1982 Blanc de Blancs

Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru, 1986 Labouré-Roi

Domaine de Chevalier 1983, Grand Cru Classé Graves, Léognan

Château La Lagune, 1982, Grand Cru Classé, Haut-Médoc

Château Lynch-Bages 1982, Grand Cru Classé, Pauillac

And Pommard Cuvee Billardet, 1985, Hospices de Beaune, with this description:

British Airways bought this top-of-the-line Pommard at the annual auction of the wine of the Great Medieval Charity Hospital of Beaune in 1985. The warm vintage weather had produced rare intensity of colour, richness of aroma and potency of flavour. Great red burgundy such as this can achieve an almost alarming headiness with such a smooth glide down the gullet that the locals call it “velvet trousers.”

1992 was the start of my wine importing career and in retrospect I wish I’d had more exposure to vintage champagnes and fine Burgundies and Bordeaux before a trip like this, to truly appreciate them, but there is no doubt I appreciated the opportunity to samples wines of this range and caliber. There are those who will say that a plane going Mach 2 at 30,000 feet may not be the ideal environment for the palate, but I could think of no better ambiance for this experience!

Archives

  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • April 2018
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • April 2015
  • August 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011

Recent Posts

  • Client FAQs – Third in a Series
  • Wine Business in the Time of Coronavirus
  • Relationships in the wine industry – and about coming full circle
  • Client FAQs – Second in a Series
  • Client FAQs – First in a Series

Legal notice

The material on this blog was created by Deborah M. Gray. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Deborah M. Gray and Deborahgraywine.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Blogroll

  • Awaiting Table
  • Bigger Than Your Head
  • Graeme Lofts –
  • Makers Table
  • New York Cork Report
  • PALATE PRESS
  • Sediment Blog
  • Sophie Masson
  • Steve Heimoff
  • Terroirist: A Daily Wine Blog
  • Wine Blog

Pages

  • About me
  • Books
  • Contact

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Wine Views
    • Join 43 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Wine Views
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...