Originally Posted by
bgriff
Congrats on the upgrade and the great flight. FYI, the PDB bubbles are not the nice Champagne listed on the menu and served in the air; they have to pay taxes on what they serve before departure so they use cheap plonk for that round. So a) don't judge Lanson for what you experienced pre-departure, and b) if you want decent bubbles wait until after takeoff.
They may use taxes as an overt rationale, but it's more likely that it's simply the volume of people that request bubbles as a PDB (compared to in the air) that drives the cheapo decision.