June 2017: SQ Business Class

Some short notes on the current lot of wines served on board Singapore Airlines Business Class. The non-stop service on the brand-new Airbus A350 between Singapore and San Francisco is fabulous and the latest Business Class seats offer acres of space with luxury and comfort to match. The only downside is the quality of wines where I have noticed that, in recent years, its Old World reds are no longer quite as attractive. As usual, do avoid ordering beef on board: it simply cannot be done right.

Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve NV. Yeasty tones with a powerful earthy pungency, bursting with brilliant yellow citrus and lime, displaying excellent dry intensity with emerging floral tones and tropical fruits, finishing with stern ferrous minerals.

2016 Mud House Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough. Green tones and morning dew dominate on the nose with delicate white citrus, very good in concentration, very clean and slightly crisp, gentle on the palate as it wound towards a tight finish.

2014 Wild Horse Winery & Vineyards Chardonnay. From Central Coast, USA. Exotic Asian spices and white pepper dominate with cool mint, displaying some lovely crème and subdued chalkiness.

2012 Ch Peyrabon. This Haut-Medoc has an attractive bouquet of dark fruits and wild berries, dry and earthy with woody dusty tannins that detract from the fruit even though its acidity is quite seamless, a tad stern at the finish. It drank fairly well on my away trip but on the return flight, the dusty character weighed in too heavily.

2013 Robert Oatley Shiraz. From McLaren Vale, South Australia. An abundance of warm ripe wild berries, briar, sweet blackberries and dark currants cover the nose and palate, fleshy with excellent concentration of licorice with a mild herbal tone, rounded and well integrated though its finish is short.