Originally Posted by
gilpin
The current system really isn't that confusing if you know very much about wine. Just look at the printed offerings and identify the 2 cheapest whites and 2 cheapest reds, and you'll have the answer before the FA says a word.
For people who do wonder and ask the FA, I'm amazed that 100% of the time they feign ignorance as to which wines are actually on board. That seems to be done to give the impression they are pouring a random selection of the printed choices, when in fact they have probably been serving the same 4 types every flight for weeks or months. Sometimes they only have the cheapest 1 red though, so I suppose they want to check that first.
The reasons that FAs sometimes are unsure are:
i) not all FAs work international all the time and so don't necessarily know the current set of wines being offered.
ii) catering may sometimes stock surprises; even though there are the standard two reds and two whites for a few months, not every single flight has the same ones. For example, the current standard selection of Reds in BE are the French Syrah and the Argentinean Cabernet. However, on my JFK-CDG last Saturday, the latter wasn't available and the Argentinean Malbec made a surprise appearance (even though it was the standard featured selection a few months ago). And no, this is not an isolated occurence - it actually happens quite often.
And no, it's not just the cheapest ones from the printed list that are served all the time. ALL of the wines featured in the menu are served at one point or another before they move on to another new set of eight. For example from the current cycle of Reds, as mentioned the French Syrah and Argent. Cabernet have been featured in June and July; prior to that the Calif. Zinfandel and a Merlot were the standard ones for a few months; prior to that were the Chilean Carmenere and the Argentinean Malbec that started this cycle. If you don't travel BE that often, you will miss out on some of them simply because they have already been featured.