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It seems as though Delta Air Lines’ pour decision to serve canned wine has been reversed.
An Eye of the Flyer reader was on a Delta mainline flight this past weekend. They learned from a flight attendant that Delta discontinued serving (awful) canned wine. (The reader also heard that about half of the customers who ordered the canned wine sent it back after taking a sip.)
Then yesterday, Delta announced a major refresh of its onboard wine offerings — adding “over 17 new wines and an exciting, diverse seasonal menu that highlights both big-name brands and little-known gems of the wine world.”
“The wine service—available in all Main Cabin and higher fare classes—offers a robust and diverse selection of flavors, allowing customers to select the perfect pairing to turn their inflight meal into a fine-dining experience,” Delta said.
In a graphic, Delta said 1,300 reps submitted products to the new wine program. The first round was pared down to 500 by “Delta teams” and Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson.
200 wines survived the cut. Only 32 of those moved on to the final round.
And 17 wines were the sole survivors.
Delta’s criteria for selecting its ultimate 17 wines were:
- Availability
- Style
- Growing region
- Wineries
- Balance of varietals
It’s also worth noting that the wines will be served on a rotational basis. For example, the delicious Jordan Cabernet will be available only in Delta One and from September through November 2023. After that, the Delta One cabins will serve the Luca “G-Lot” Pinot Noir from Argentina.
“Delta’s new wine offerings are marginally better,” our reader said, “as instead of serving quality wines, they have put a greater emphasis on a public figure’s licensed wine, like the Intercept, or woke wines. Notably, this still isn’t as good as what United is serving in Polaris.”
I’m flying Main Cabin and First Class in the coming weeks and look forward to giving them a try!
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I liked the *idea* of DL offering Une Femme for social benefit purposes, but the product was a horrid disappointment. I never tried the stuff pictured here, and it sounds like that’s a good thing. Glad to hear this experiment is ending.
I flew ATL-LAX last week and was served wine out of a bottle. However, on the return flight, we were back to cans. Looking forward to the return of bottled wine!
There are actually some decent canned wines but Delta decided to opt for not decent. We will see. They have never had good wine what makes us think they will now? Andrea has been a partner for YEARS.
Just flew Air France – now that was good wine.
My big disappointment is that when it was clear to all the “bean counters” at Delta made a bad decision going for the cheapo canned wine, they took so long to reverse the decision. Not a sign of a company that will do well in the future.
We’re also waiting for them to make some other changes, too.
Canned wines were awful!
The funny thing is the winery that made the canned wine, Imagery, is a legitimate winery. I don’t know if their canned wine was an inferior product from their bottled wine.
But Imagery is not a bottom of the barrel winery. Barefoot is far worse. The white wine that Delta is replacing Imagery with in domestic first-class — Pebble Lane chardonnay — is a faux brand.
It’s really not available anywhere. It’s like one of those catering brands that you only ever see at event venues, etc. From what I can tell, Pebble Lane was made exclusively for Morton’s by Scheid Vineyards. That relationship must have ended and Delta bought whatever was left of the supply.
Imagery was a great wine when they were a smaller independent winery. After being acquired by Gallo that all changed and the can wine came about. Gallo likely made a good deal with Delta to get mass marketing. Unfortunately they put out an inferior product to do so, and I expect the result is the opposite of what they planned. Tito’s did this with United years ago, but they had a great product to offer and are now a major national brand.