Zorak

There are rosé champagnes/sparkling wines...

jdrtravel

I generally think of rosé as being in the category of white wine. I know it's not, but in terms of food pairing it's not so different from the dryer whites that have forward minerality.

Scott H

Well, talk about a topic that has gone way off course. In my favorite football team's forum the militant mods would have closed this and banned people for life already. lol

TheLifeOfA_NKCM

Well, what can we say... Best, mods on FT. Canarsie especially.

CHOPCHOP767

Many wines from Campagnia are bubbly to effervescent and some are rather enjoyable.

Now if DL could manage a pre-order of wines at booking, they'd get ALL of my bookings

Miesque

I actually have run into this salmon wine pairing problem in the air and it actually drives me nuts that they will serve salmon and have the red wine be Cabernet Sauvignon (or Merlot) and not a Pinot Noir which is fabulous with salmon, the prior two while great for steak or similar are way to tannic for salmon. As noted a rose Champagne also does well but I have unfortunately not been on a flight yet that served that.

Miesque

Since we are on the wine topic, I have to vent. I am amazed at how many of the flight attendants seem to think all we or they need to know is red or white. I hate American Chardonnay, the in fact the only Chardonnay grapes I enjoy are White Burgundies. However I do like other white wines. I have asked what the white wine is and given a vague "I don't know, I think its Pinot Grigio" to which I responded, I will take a glass if that is what you have, but if it is Chardonnay I don't want it" Guess what I was served? I ended up ordering a Bloody Mary.

Also, along the red wine venting front. Not only have I been on flights had poor red wine pairings for Salmon but also the red sauce pasta dishes.

ijgordon

Agreed. Salmon with Pinot Noir is a very Northwest US combination, and quite good. But I would never expect an airline to make a conscious decision about choosing which wines to load based on the meal choices. If it drives you nuts, perhaps you should go talk to someone.

This certainly drives me nuts. I'll never forget one Continental int'l J flight years ago where I thought the FA was going to bite off my head when I asked for more details about the wines they had beyond "red" or "white.". Then she came back and virtually slammed the two bottles of red on my tray table and ran off.


Back on topic - meal pre-ordering is great. I have no idea if by not pre-ordering you adversely impact your options. Frankly, I don't think it mathematically/statistically can, unless you somehow always go for the more popular choice on a particular flight.
And while it is certainly optional for those too self-important to click an extra screen (or have their assistants do it), so is seat selection, but I don't hear anyone complaining about that.

appleguru

Some of my favorite wines are sparkling reds!

The sparkling red Chandon is really good. Had a REALLY good sparkling red on a Delta one flight to somewhere recently (PVG maybe?). I believe it was listed as a dessert wine. SO GOOD

Stewardess was amazing and kept bringing me refills. A+!!

MSPeconomist

When you say stewardess, you've already had too many refills.

BenA

I agree on wanting more specifics. I'm no wine expert and I don't care if the wine is relatively cheap on the price spectrum - but it still should be possible to describe it in a few simple terms so I can decide if I'd like it. "A balanced medium-bodied red blend from Washington" or "An American-style chardonnay from California" is all I'm asking for here - it really could be printed on an index card and slipped in the beverage carts for the F/As to have on hand. This isn't rocket science; somehow they manage to do it for Delta One...

As for the standard American Chardonnay - I agree with you. I thought I hated Chardonnay for years, having only tried heavy California examples. Then, a kind New Zealander in the Marlborough wine region went on a rant and accused me of being a blind member of the "ABC club" (Anything But Chardonnay); he pointed out how unique California's style is and convinced me to give the local Chardonnay a chance. Sure enough, I just dislike heavily oaked Cali style chardonnays - turns out most world wines made from the grape are actually right up my alley. Unfortunately, most hospitality white wines are exactly what I dislike...

Anyway, the real shock here shouldn't be the pairing - it should be that Rene was voluntarily drinking the awful "Winemaker's Red" that Delta has been serving in F. I'd literally rather have the 1.5L plastic bottle Merlot they serve in international Y than the domestic F wine, and that is a very sad state of affairs.

MSPeconomist

So you will drink the French Chardonnays? Have you tried the unoaked ones from California?

Zorak

We're firmly in the throes of thread drift but I got a nice unoaked Chardonnay here once: http://dierbergvineyard.com/

Renes Points

I broke down and reached out to the Delta PR food person and was told no new updates but that she would reach out as soon as there is word. So, we wait.... :-(

dzflyer

Cmon Renes make it happen! Maybe to time to do the end around and go straight to Ed. Lol