xPositor

Cars are a good comparison to use, because someone further up this thread talked about "better quality wine". What is the definition of quality? The dictionary says "the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind". So obviously a Ferrari is a better quality car than a Skoda... Well, it typically doesn't work out that way. When you take in to account all of the different points of measurement, quality actually ends up as a measure against expectation. For the vast majority of people, a Ferrari would actually be an inferior car - both in terms of suitability and in terms of reliability. Even pre-VAG ownership, when surveying owners, Skoda's quality ranking came out higher than the likes of Ferrari, because they consistently met or exceeded expectation. I work in the software industry, and our definition of quality is based upon an acceptable level of defects within a software release, and where we draw that line has a huge impact on how our clients rank our quality.

The same can be said for wine. Actually, the same could be said for a fried chicken shop on Tottenham High Road versus a Michelin starred restaurant. If you crave a piece of greasy fried chicken, where is likely to do it better? And I've seen many "known" restaurants with lower food hygiene scores than your high street takeaways.

The question for BA in its lounge then becomes, is it "good enough". Their measure may be based upon the net score of the wine (i.e. the number of complaints versus the number of compliments (because some may compliment BA because they now no longer have to chase down a fresh bottle, for example)). Stay above a determined score and they're doing OK.

Remember, the measure of quality for most, when having a class of wine, is does it taste nice. So until you've tasted it...

Prospero

I’m in the IAD lounge at the moment. The wine dispensers are present and for the purists, there are also bottles of Nexo Rioja and Pinot Grigio

T8191

It would be nice if Prospero did a quick taste of the 'draught' wine and reported back!

Prospero

While I did feel there was an obligation to try a glass, I really wasn't in much of a mood for wine when I was in. Sorry about that. I was in a mood for a Bloody Mary but sadly none of the essential ingredients were available, but that's a gripe for another day.

I am also thinking perhaps the "draught" wines might be in place for the Priority Pass crowd who use this lounge up to 2pm each day. If so, perhaps the bottled stuff is brought out when BA takes over.

T8191

What? No “Mr & Mrs T” tomato juice mixer? I’m appalled!!

WickedStepMother

amt

Globaliser

I haven't checked the make of the machine, but the domestic SLOW lounge at JNB has a machine like this. (I haven't checked whether these are in the other SLOW lounges, either, for that matter - this may have been an addition when the JNB lounge was refurbished recently.) I didn't try it, but there appeared to be a card in the requisite slot with plenty of credit on it.