British Airways launches new champagnes in First Class, ends Grand Siècle

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• SB says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:38

  Bit of a swing and miss here IMHO. Whether or not BA could have gone for Krug, Dom or Taitt CdC due to EK/SQ exclusivity I don’t know. But these BA replacements are not really exclusive enough for First (excepting the Pommery Louise). I would have liked to see Billecart-S, Piper Rare, or even Deutz BdB.

  The obvious answer choice should have been Sir Winston Churchill from Pol Roger or even a Pol vintage.

  I just hope they are hoovering up from all the en primeur releases a bountiful 2022 Burgundy vintage to put into cellar.

  This is worth a re-read on BA wines:
  https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/wine-in-the-air

  • Cicero says:

    3 Feb3 February 10:32

    BA used to serve the Comtes de Champagne in F. It was a nice way to travel.

    The replacements are all good wines, but they are also all cheaper than the LPGS, which makes the reason for the change pretty obvious.

• SharonC says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:43

  Another reason to not fly them then! The list is growing.
  LPGS is one of the few champers i can actually deal with due to digestive issues. The heavily chardonnay ones are just vile and give me vicious heartburn (I even skipped having champagne on a 13hr Eva Air flight because all they had was Duval-Leroy which is 100% chardonnay! 🤢)
  Oh well, no loss as I’m flying other airlines this year with better choices of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages

  • ABS says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:20

    Well you certainly won’t find LPSG on another airline in future.

  • Paul says:

    3 Feb3 February 11:42

    lol..

  • Bernard says:

    3 Feb3 February 15:39

    I’m not sure the bubbles alone will change my choice of airline.
    Price, seat and service quality, food and other beverages all count far more – as does ground experience.
    Frankly I’m not bothered by something I can have anything I want anyway.

    So in reality I suspect those who care most will be the Avios redeemers (rare) and those travelling on someone else’s $, who might be hard working but are probably not wealthy.

• Mikeact says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:50

  I’m not a Champagne connoisseur at all but I would like to give a big shout out for some of the top English producers, giving the French a run for their money…Nyetimber, Chapel Down and my local, Tinwood. My wife and I enjoy them all.

  • CJD says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:20

    None of which are champagne.

    • Mouse says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:29

      For all intents and purposes they are

    • Mikeact says:

      3 Feb3 February 10:01

      Of course, didn’t say they were…but a sincere comparison all the same.

  • SB says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:31

    Last time I looked BA were rotating English fizz in Club which included these

    • NorthernLass says:

      3 Feb3 February 10:03

      Yes, and the one I had was very good! I would happily choose a British product of equal quality, I think the problem will be that Champagne has an inescapable cachet which even being embraced by rappers since the 90s hasn’t managed to dent 🤣

  • RussellH says:

    3 Feb3 February 10:58

    Last year we visited the Camel Valley vineyard in north Cornwall.
    Their sparling wine tasted excellent, but how much of that was down to the beautiful location and drinking it at exactly the right temperature on a sunny terrace?

    • SB says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:26

      Likely not ‘terroir’ as most of their wines are made with grapes bought from all over the south of England….

  • lumma says:

    3 Feb3 February 11:06

    The problem with English sparkling wine is that the entry level stuff costs the same as your Moet and Bollinger. Some of it is great (I recommend Black Chalk from Hampshire) but there’s some swill that still costs £30+ at retail

    • NorthernLass says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:14

      True – it’s a shame the government won’t give a tax break to domestic producers as people looking at £30 bottles of fizz are likely to opt for a famous one over a local one.

      • JDB says:

        3 Feb3 February 12:30

        We aren’t allowed to give our domestic producers a tax advantage under the Trade & Co-Operation agreement. It is definitely a problem that English wines are so expensive.

        Some French champagne houses, eg Taittinger are buying English vineyards, partly because of limited capacity for growth in the Champagne region and a hedge against global warming.

        • Mikeact says:

          3 Feb3 February 17:02

          The Romans were pretty big wine growers down here. In fact, over at East Meon, Hants, you can still see the remains of one of their vineyards…what goes around, comes to mind.

  • Paul says:

    3 Feb3 February 11:43

    Agree. Let’s back our own producers! We make some great wines.

    • Paul says:

      3 Feb3 February 12:36

      But not champagne

• Omar says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:16

  Well I am sad to see it go as it is delicious, very easy to drink(usually with breakfast ; ) and as Rob said, you do end up buying it for home. Apart from the Bollinger, the new wines are not particularly well known ‘Marques’ of the Champagne houses and I think the Champagne served in a carriers First should reflect a degree of knowledge that you are being served the ‘Finer things’. I know we have all the prices and it does seem to be in line with LPGS and I sure they are all very pleasant.

  Winston Churchill, Pol Roger’s prestige cuvee, would have seemed to be obvious replacement although it is probably not produced in large enough quantities. It is bloody fantastic though!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    4 Feb4 February 01:48

    Honestly I’d rather it was bloody good champagne the name is irrelevant. Personally I’d rather learn / find out about great champagnes from less famous houses on a flight in first like I do at a great bar

    It invokes memories rather than just being the same top end stuff everyone else services like Krug (not that it’s bad or anything)

• daveinitalia says:

  3 Feb3 February 11:08

  “luckily (for BA) it is not self-pour in the Concorde Room”

  Apart from the fact that self pour is available on the terrace during the afternoon tea offerings this is giving the impression that the table service is in some way restricting consumption of alcohol. This is not the case and my glass is constantly being topped up.

  I happened to be in the lounge yesterday when the new champagne was launched in the CCR and their Master of Wine, Tim Jackson, was going around collecting feedback. As I mostly travel short haul I’m not the typical CCR customer (I only have one F trip this year) so I’m more concerned about the wines in Club Europe which I think have dropped in quality recently. He’s interested in feedback so if you don’t see him in the lounges pass on your feedback by the usual customer relations channels

  • BOSSMANTRAVELS says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:47

    Couldn’t agree more around the service of constantly topping up. Can’t fault it

• SG says:

  3 Feb3 February 11:24

  ‘Champagnes from around the globe’. Seriously? Even for BA’s low PR standards, that is embarrassing. How can someone writing a piece about champagne not know that the definition of champagne is that the wine comes from the Champagne region!

  • JDB says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:40

    I think that is rather unfair as a great many people, particularly in other parts of the world, when talking about the drink refer to it as champagne even if it doesn’t come from the Champagne region. Although the usage is incorrect, the word champagne is so systemically misused like hoover and sellotape to the point where it is virtually acceptable.

    • Alex Sm says:

      3 Feb3 February 22:55

      And vice versa! So many times I used a more neutral “sparkling wine” just in case and people got offended: “We serve champagne!”. Oh please…

• SG says:

  3 Feb3 February 11:30

  It’s a real shame that BA are basically obligated to serve champagne (a French product) because that’s what customers think is premium. In fact, English sparkling wine (which is what BA should be serving as the UK flag carrier) is now highly prized/celebrated and is of at least equal quality to champagne (and probably better). I wrote to BA multiple times over the years encouraging them to serve English sparkling in premium cabins and was pleased when they eventually did.

  • daveinitalia says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:21

    In the Concorde Room self service area on the terrace I didn’t see anyone drink the English sparkling wine that was on offer when I was there for a few hours yesterday. So it does seem that the passengers want champagne

    • JDB says:

      3 Feb3 February 12:55

      @daveinitalia – I think it is perhaps more because there is an obsession about champagne heightened by very powerful marketing. A lot of people seem rather scared to say the emperor is wearing no clothes, but those that aren’t also are not feeling the need to be drinking the stuff that they have been told is luxury or ‘posh’ and are more likely to follow their own tastes.

      I am amazed that some commentators say you must drink x in the CCR because it’s the most expensive (usually the LPGS) when in fact there are other wines available which are marginally less expensive, but much rarer (eg some of their Puligny or Chassagne Montrachet, Meursault or Condrieu where you actually get what you pay for rather than paying for all the marketing attached to champagnes. BA does also serve some exceptional clarets and quite rare small production wines from around the world. Champagne is the price it is because of the cost of keeping the plates spinning, i.e. maintaining the image.

      LVMH hedges its bets with the Chandon brand produced, inter alia, in Argentina and China – these are very good quality and value products which sell for under £10/bottle. I would take either any day over very ordinary mass market Moët Chandon or Veuve Clicquot which sell for silly prices relative to their quality.

  • Hak says:

    3 Feb3 February 21:26

    Ba do serve English sparkling wine in the lounge and on the plane. So if you want it, you can have it.

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  3 Feb3 February 11:41

  An £8 bottle of Cava – tend to avoid the £6 ones – leaves me lots of spare cash for long-haul premium class flights!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    4 Feb4 February 02:02

    With you here don’t mind a decent Cava and usually save a boat load of £££

    Prosecco just ends up in an Aperol Spritz

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