It looks like they’ve already run out of some of the top bottles of the Vintage Collection (...or have run out of money). Lists are being amended on a number of routes, for example the Cheval Blanc has now been pulled from the UK/EI routes (which were showing it up until a few days ago).

Other downgrades are also evident. For example, on SA routes the Hartenberg Gravel Hill shiraz has now been swapped with The Stork, which in my view is a lesser wine. Also, the phenomenal Chateau d’Yquem has been pulled from the Asian routes that used to feature it.

Still an excellent wine selection overall, but some of these gems will be missed and it’s a little disappointing to see these last second downgrades (which happened in my case as late as 48 hours before he flight). Well, I guess this “disappointment” is what happens when you spoil your passengers and then pull the goodies!

Not my point. It had never happened to me to see wines downgraded just 3 or 4 days prior to departure (ie: better wines published online and then downgraded just before departure). And on several flights. I guess I might be one of the few noticing, but wine is my passion so I keep an eye.

And this is not just limited to what they called the “vintage collection”. I flagged the Hartenberg ones, but also the Chateau d’Yquem and have just had the Vega Sicilia disappear on the SA runs (no notice, it showed online but not featured in the onboard wine list and not loaded).

Hopefully just a coincidence, but the online wine lists used to be consistent at T-7 and this no longer seems to be the case.

By “no notice” I meant that - as an example - while the Yquem and Hartenberg were downgraded or swapped 2 or 3 or 4 days in advance and the change showed online (thus providing some form of notice prior to boarding), the Vega Sicilia was still showing on the wine list available on line and the change was only evident upon boarding (thus no prior notice). Clearer?

As stated in my prior post the wine selection is still phenomenal overall. But as this thread is about wine on EK, I thought it was worth pointing out that there is a recent unusual series of last minute changes, which in my experience hadn’t happened before. Online lists have always been extremely accurate in my experience at the T-14 and T-7 mark. As a datapoint, I may have had one odd change from that point in time on probably a couple of sectors in 2 years. Whereas in the last 8 sectors over about 3 weeks I counted several changes. It makes it a little pointless to publish very specific wine lists for each flight, but as said it might be an odd occurrence and perhaps they are just going through a series of short term changes.

They produce one list a month - that’s it. Some wine may not be available onboard if it runs out which IME happened once with penfolds grange. They do however love running out of Dom Pérignon.

I don’t mean to disagree for the sake of it, but I saw the lists published online changing more frequently that once a month (which I kind of like, it keeps me interested and as a past-time I like to log onto the website and check). But maybe I have been checking in between months. In any case, I love the fact that the airline is publishing the wine lists, even with the swaps!

I have to say that in all my recent sectors I’ve been able to enjoy a free-flow amount of Dom P2 (bar the flights where it was not featured from the onset) which is simply a phenomenal drop for an airline to serve. So, kudos to EK for featuring it on their selection (on a surprisingly large amount of routes) AND for loading multiple bottles per flight.

online might change but the only print the wine lists for each month

few years back - one of the only times I recall it being on the list but n/a