FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - The BA F Wine Cellar
View Single Post
Old Sep 9, 2008 | 8:59 am
  #5  
volley
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Highlands of Scotland
Programs: Amex Plat, BA Blue (boo), HH Gold,
Posts: 227
Originally Posted by macabus
I haven't flown BA F since January, but I've seen reports that the wine offerings have improved lately.

I have read hourly updates on the Bollinger situation, but I'm more interested in the red wine selection onboard and in the CCR.

Are there any decent Bordeaux or Barolos? Or perhaps a seductive Rhone or hearty Shiraz?

"No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God."
Plato, (347 BC)
Hope this helps (courtesy of the ever helpful CIHY who got me this for my forthcoming flight to MRU in First.

LHR MRU

DINNER
Starters Liam Tomlin’s poached lobster tail and claw
with soy and mirin dressing
KWarm Shropshire Blue cheese and quince tart
served with creamed leeks
* Butternut squash and sweet potato soup
with shaved Parmesan cheese
Fresh salad leaves with your choice of ranch dressing
or herb vinaigrette
FOR A LIMITED PERIOD WE ALSO HAVE 'LIQUID GOLD'—OLIO EXTRA VERGINE
DI OLIVA FROM MONTE VIBIANO, A VERY SPECIAL OLIVE OIL FROM HAND-PICKED
OLIVES, PRESSED AT LOW TEMPERATURE AND BOTTLED WITHIN SIX HOURS.
Main Char-grilled steak with pont-neuf potatoes, parsley butter,
fresh garden peas, tomato and mushroom
Catch of the Day – Please ask your crew for details of
today’s fresh fish selection served with your choice of
creamy pesto or dill lemon butter, Anna potatoes,
broccoli florets and carrot bâtons
LOCH FYNE FISHERIES OFFERS A SELECTION OF WILD FISH FROM SUSTAINABLE
STOCKS. THEY SUPPLY US WITH THE FRESHEST PRIME FISH DAILY.
Free-range pork sausages with parsley mashed potato
and roast red onion jus
* KPoached Loch Fyne salmon salad
with grilled asparagus spears, plum tomatoes
and a tarragon and lemon dressing
Dessert Vineet Bhatia’s chocolate silk torte
Baked vanilla risotto with roast peach halves

Cheese Plate Coastal Cheddar – In addition to its sweet flavour,
the naturally occurring calcium crystals in this mature
Cheddar give the cheese a crunchy texture.
White Stilton with Cranberries – The integration of fruit
into this creamy white cheese gives it a unique flavour.
Somerset Rustic – This cheese is rich, smooth
and creamy with a distinctive taste and aroma
that is mild but pungent.
A basket of fresh fruit
Snacks Tuna and black olive melt
Penne pasta with your choice of puttanesca sauce
or creamy garlic and herb sauce served with
grated Parmesan cheese and garlic herb croûtons
A selection of biscuits
A selection of cheese and fruit
Beverages We offer you a selection of the following:
Twinings® Teas – Traditional English Breakfast,
Darjeeling, Earl Grey or Pure Green
Twinings® Fruit and Herb Infusions –
Pure Camomile, Pure Peppermint, Lemon and Ginger
or Blackcurrant, Ginseng and Vanilla
Coffee – Freshly roasted and ground, decaffeinated,
espresso or cappuccino

BREAKFAST
Starters Chilled fruit juice
* An energising fruit smoothie
A selection of yoghurts
A selection of cereals
* Fresh seasonal fruit plate
Bakery A wide selection of breakfast pastries and rolls
Main Scrambled eggs, grilled bacon, pork sausages,
sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomato and Irish potato farls
Tomato omelette with field mushrooms
and bubble and squeak
American-style waffles served with apricot purée,
maple syrup butter and roast pecans
Beverages We offer you a selection of the following:
Twinings® Teas – Traditional English Breakfast,
Darjeeling, Earl Grey or Pure Green
Twinings® Fruit and Herb Infusions –
Pure Camomile, Pure Peppermint, Lemon and Ginger
or Blackcurrant, Ginseng and Vanilla
Coffee – Freshly roasted and ground, decaffeinated,
espresso or cappuccino

Q2

No Bolly, but you have all of these.

Champagne Taittinger Prélude Grands Crus
This latest deluxe cuvée from the house of
Taittinger comes solely from their finest grands
crus vineyards. It is a blend of fifty per cent
Chardonnay from Côte de Blancs, south of
Epernay, and fifty per cent Pinot Noir from
the Montage de Reims. Its aroma is fresh and
subtle; the initial mineral notes develop into
green floral scents with a hint of elderflower.
The flavour is intense citrus fruits, full-bodied
and with a long, mellow finish.
White Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Cortons 2006,
Roux Père et Fils
Saint-Aubin is a little known viticultural gem
hidden away in the folds of the hills between
the more famous Meursault and Puligny-
Montrachet. The Roux family has been making
wine here for over a hundred years. This wine
has a delicate floral fragrance of acacia and wild
honey. The flavour is deep, rich and full-bodied
with ripe tropical and citrus fruits overlaying
creamy, well-integrated oak.
Couhins La Gravette Blanc 2006,
Pessac-Léognan
White Bordeaux, when made by a good
château in a good vintage, is one of the most
underrated styles of wine in the world. This is
a blend of mostly Sauvignon Blanc with some
Sémillon, fermented and aged in oak barrels
for roundness and texture. It has a very
expressive nose marrying exotic flowers with
fresh citrus fruits. On the palate it is round
and long with crisp acidity—simply gorgeous!
Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc 2007,
Western Cape
Mulderbosch is widely accepted as being one
of the best white wine producers in the country,
and Mike Dobrovic, one of the most talented
winemakers in South Africa. The emphasis has
always been, and will always remain, on quality
at the expense of quantity. This wine has clear,
lively green apple hues and a tropical nose
packed with guava, green fig and gooseberry
—yet still maintaining a complex character of
nettle and freshly cut grass. The mouth-filling
ripe fruit is supported by crisp acidity.

Red Château Talbot 1996,
Grand Cru Classé, Saint-Julien
Saint-Julien is the smallest of the four main
communes of the Médoc region of Bordeaux.
The essence of a wine from this area is its
balance and finesse—this one is mediumbodied,
full of rich, ripe blackcurrant fruit,
elegant, harmonious and very long. 1996
was a lovely vintage now just entering its
plateau of maturity. Talbot is such a consistent
performer and shows all the silky texture
and suppleness one has come to expect
from the great Saint-Julien Château.
Montes Alpha Syrah 2006,
Apalta Vineyards, Colchagua Valley
Aurelio Montes is widely regarded as one of
Chile’s finest winemakers. Ten years ago his
insight took him to the unknown Apalta
Valley—now this is the best region in Chile
for full-bodied red wines. For this wine he has
blended a tiny percentage of Viognier in with
the Syrah and this gives a great aroma with
fresh, floral notes alongside the generous
plummy fruit. It is full-bodied on the palate
with soft and mature tannins.
Plaisir de Merle Merlot 2005, Paarl
This rare gem of an estate, established
in 1693 by Charles Marais, a French
Huguenot, sits on the foothills of the
Simonsberg Mountain between Paarl
and Franschhoek. It is breathtakingly
beautiful, and the wines are pretty good
too. After a simple fermentation in stainless
steel vats, this Merlot was aged in French oak
barrels between eleven and sixteen months.
It is medium-bodied with a soft and elegant
palate, laced with ripe fruit and spicy vanilla.

Dessert Opitz Goldackerl Trockenbeerenauslese
2002, Neusiedlersee Österreich
The Neusiedlersee is an extraordinary
geographic feature of eastern Austria—
an inland sea that measures twenty-four
kilometres long, three kilometres wide
and a mere two metres deep—that gives
simply the perfect climate for the growth
of botrytis cinerea, the “noble rot” that is
the hallmark of every truly great sweet wine.
From his winery in Illmitz, on the edge
of the lake, winemaker Willi Opitz has
produced this superb example.
Warre’s 1988 Colheita Port
Complex, sweet, nutty flavours offer
an admirable after-dinner glass.
volley is offline