12 best in-flight wines that will elevate your sipping experience

Hooray! British Airways has introduced award-winning English sparkling wine in its Club World cabin for the first time. The British flag carrier now offers this splendid fizz made in the traditional method, from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes grown on the chalklands of the North Downs of Kent.

Bright, fruit-orchard flavours of pear and citrus mingle with toasty notes of pastry and caramel to create a tongue-tingling delight. But make your airline booking now, as, introduced in October, it alternates with other English sparkling wines and will only be available for three months.

Alsace wine producer Julien Schaal is the man behind this moreish, very drinkable sauvignon blanc from the Côtes de Gascogne wine region in south-west France.

You could say it’s very peachy, with stone fruit flavours backed up by relatively soft mineral notes and a flower-garden aroma. At less than a tenner, it’s great value, too, if you don’t happen to be flying with BA.

We don’t know whether Phil Collins was thinking of champagne when he wrote “I can feel it coming in the air tonight”, but this is a bottle that not only deserves a fanfare but a full orchestral accompaniment.

Quite simply, it’s one of the best champagnes money can buy, from one of the legendary champagne houses. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific prides itself on serving only the finest wines, so sipping this tipple while the world whizzes by beneath your feet must count as one of life’s ultimate pleasures. Top marks.

One of Italy’s more distinctive wines gets the Virgin seal of approval, and so it should. It’s an extremely attractive white, and the bold, aromatic crispness and freshness should only be enhanced by consumption at altitude.

This example from the Abruzzo wine region alongside the Adriatic in central Italy can serve as a welcome aperitif or as a splendid accompaniment to the cheese of the same name.

Available in-flight with Air France from November 2023, this is a chardonnay from Languedoc-based winemaker supreme Gérard Bertrand. A former member of the French rugby team, he took over the family vineyards with the aim of finding the best terroirs of his region, and promoting them worldwide. 

This intensely aromatic chardonnay has full-on flavours of peach and stone fruits with hints of pastry and almond icing. A wine to savour while you enjoy a view of the Alps, perhaps.

An elegant and refreshing rosé from the Côtes du Rhône, this vino is something of a rarity, as rosé production only accounts for 0.2 per cent of Rhone wines. That being said, this lightly tinted rosé with its peach and slightly citrus flavours should make an ideal in-flight companion.

Enjoy it along with salted almonds or as an aperitif before your meal, whether flying with Virgin Atlantic or at home in your slippers.

As you’d expect from the German flag-carrier, Lufthansa offers an exceptional riesling that has everything you’d want from this famous wine – a delicate and satisfying fruitiness backed by a welcome and precise minerality and a wonderfully expressive aroma.

Like most rieslings, it’s light-ish on alcohol, too, so you’re not in danger of overdoing the hospitality while at 35,000ft.

Don Maximiano Errázuriz Valdivieso planted the first French grape varieties in Chile’s Aconcagua Valley in 1870, so it’s fair to say they’ve had some practice in producing great wine.

This cabernet sauvignon, named after the Don, is bursting full of bright fruit flavours with cherry, blackberry and raspberry to the fore, and velvet-like tannins. Smooth and comforting, it should bring a smile to anyone venturing to the southern hemisphere... or the local supermarket

The Burge family has been making wine in South Australia’s Barossa Valley ever since they moved from Wiltshire in the 19th century. Their benchmark series, which honours the family’s forebears, includes this vibrant and fruity chardonnay, with its inimitable melon and peach favours backed up by complex notes of smooth caramel and spice.

A Chilean classic, this vino is made from grapes from the country’s Casablanca Valley, where Pacific breezes envelop the vines in a morning mist, and the cooler coastal conditions bring a subtle freshness to the orchard flavours of the chardonnay, with hints of apple and citrus.

Enjoy a glass while travelling with LATAM Airlines on your next South American adventure.

You could say this Argentinian malbec already has altitude experience, since it’s picked from grapes grown at 1,100m at Luján de Cuyo in the Mendoza wine region of Argentina. Aged in French oak after vinification, it has oodles of black fruit and plums, with added notes of spice and pepper.

Translated into an airline setting, it would be the perfect accompaniment for a meaty in-flight meal or a simple snack of mature cheese and biscuits.

From a vineyard located in a prime position near the Gironde, between the terroirs of Margaux and Saint-Julien, here’s a classic bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon (55 per cent) and merlot (45 per cent). It’s a heritage wine with complex and layered flavours of black fruit and blackcurrant with notes of chocolate and spice. As a showcase for French winemaking, it couldn’t be bettered.