simons1

So how much did the wine in the kegs cost then?

UKtravelbear

UP thread someone stated $12 per litre

frandrake

Not sure, but by looking at their website (https://www.sestrasystems.com/how-it-works/) I bet much less than 10 quids per 75cl.

icegirl

Contrary to belief I am not a snob.

UKtravelbear

yet you keep criticising a wine that you have not yet tasted.

Dambus

NickB

I think we need a bit of a reality check, here. This is wine produced by a coop whose flagship products are marketed as a Pays d'Oc IGP. IGP is just one step above from basic generic plonk. The Pays d'Oc is the area where, historically, masses of cheap wine was produced in France. They have in the last 40 years or so upped the profile of the wines. The IGP is a reflection of that. Nonetheless, it still remains relatively basic mass-produced wine (The Pays d'Oc IGP represents on its own over half of the total IGP production in France in volume terms) and the better wines within the broad Pays d'Oc area will mostly have their own specific AOC (Minervois, Corbières, etc...).

Now, it may well be that, within its class, the wine discussed here is an outperformer. There are some pretty decent IGP wines around even for a huge IGP like Pays d'Oc. But even if it were an out-performer, the odds of it being an exceptional wine are, I would suggest, close to zero.

Saying "you have not tasted it therefore you cannot say whether it is suitable for a first class lounge is a bit like saying "well, you have not been to "Best Chicken and Kebab" in Tottenham's High Road therefore you cannot say whether the food in there is of a comparable calibre to that in Le Gavroche or Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester.

I do not think that the coop would seek to argue that they are producing a wine which is comparable to a Bordeaux premier cru or even a deuxieme or troisieme cru. They may say that they produced a very decent Pays d'oc IGP but a Pays d'Oc IGP it primarily remains.

It seems to me reasonable to argue that, as an observational point, that wines at a higher point on the quality scale do not, as a matter of fact, market themselves in that format. It is not that this format could not possibly be used to market better quality wines. It is that, observationally, this simply does not happen. Making that observation does not mean that one is a wine snob. I can happily drink wine that my local wine co-op will pump into my cubitainer but I also know that the wine that they will pump that way will be at the more basic end of their production and that they will sell their more upmarket stuff in bottles. It does not mean that the basic stuff is "bad". It does mean, however, that this is a product that does not pretend to be anything other than basic everyday drinking wine rather than something to be placed on an equal footing with more upmarket wines.

simons1

I don't think anyone is arguing that this is exceptional. It is after all an airport lounge, and we all know the general context of BA's catering.

However when people come on here and describe it as a "cheap and nasty wine" based on seeing a photo of how it is dispensed I find that a rather silly and shallow judgement.

UKtravelbear

NickB

You may want to re-read your post #88, in which you slam icegirl for daring to suggest, without having tasted it, that the wine in question is positioned at the Gallo/Barefoot end of the market and not be therefore what you expect in a "premium class airline lounge".

I do not think that one always needs to taste a wine to determine where it positions itself in the market, in the same way that one does not need to have visited Best Chicken and Kebab in Tottenham to determine that it does not position itself in the market at the same place at Le Gavroche, in the same way as one does not need to have driven a Ferrari to determine that it does not position itself at the same place in the market as a Skoda Fabia, in the same way as one does not need to have slept at the Georges V in Paris to determine that it does not position itself in the same place in the market as the Ibis Budget Issy-les-Moulineaux.

NickB

One can pick up a couple of words like "cheap and nasty" and run away with them to slate the poster but it seems to me that the thrust of icegirl's series of posts is that this is a wine that positions itself towards the bottom end of the market and that one would expect somewhat better in a "premium airline lounge". That seems to me an eminently reasonable comment to make that does not deserve the shower of negative comments that the poster has received from a few posters.

simons1

Best you read post 47 again then. The meaning was completely clear.

Even the comments about champagne were inaccurate as another poster highlighted.

As for the shower of negative comments, well when making such judgements then the poster can usually expect to be challenged.

Dave Noble

Post 47
"Sorry but this will definitely be cheap and nasty wine. As no respectable fine wine producer would dare risk their reputation on supplying wines their wine in large magnums or kegs. 1st the step back with champagne in First and now this."

Later on
I suspect the quality will be along the lines a Gallo or Barefoot at best, fine for a girls tipple before a night out but certainly not something you want serving in a premium class airline lounge.

There doesn't seem to actually have been evidence to state that the wine is poor or that it is worse that what the lounge had before installing the item - also asserting that any wine suppliesd in magnums must also be bad - that assertion does seem to be able to be proved to be flawed

Dambus

NickB

As described in my post, you just jump of those couple of words in one post and run away with them.

So, are you suggesting that the poster is wrong and has no basis for suggesting that the wine in question is positioned in the same market segment as Gallo/Barefoot and that this market segment is not what one would expect from a "premium airline lounge"?

That is a non-sequitur. The question is not what was there before and whether the replacement is worse. Rather it is whether a wine that is placed towards the bottom end of the market (which it seems to me reasonably clear this wine does) is a suitable wine for the lounge. Opinions will vary on that but it seems to me that the suggestion that one might expect wines which are somewhat more upmarket in a premium lounge does not seem to me unreasonable and not a reason for the pack to assemble and ritually stone the poster in question.