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Qantas Business Class - Ground & Air
Sydney, Antique aircraft, Bangkok
Tasted October 3, 2023 - October 6, 2023 by graemeg with 29 views
Flight 1 - Qantas Business Lounge Sydney International (6 notes)
3-Oct-23 7.30am breakfast at the increasingly busy Business Lounge at Sydney International. Still, it’s an airport – normal drinking rules don’t apply. And it’s after 9am by the time I start on the wines. Defendably parochial all-Australian wines (champagne excepted) both in the lounges and on the planes. Must be about the only thing they haven’t outsourced overseas. One fizz, rosé (avoided), two whites, three reds are on offer in a self-serve operation. No dessert or fortifieds that I can see. No detailed wine list in Business on the planes either – you pick from what’s on the trolley. Lucky dip surprise!
White - Sparkling
N.V. Seppelt Great Entertainer
{11%} Gentle detergent aromas. Citrus tang. Mostly coarse bubbles; no traditional method here I’ll wager. Vague chardonnay flavours, citrus. Little yeast evident. Light weight, medium acid, shortish finish. Seppelt chasing the prosecco market with this maybe? (Qantas Business Lounge Sydney International)
White
2022 Lambrook Wines Pinot Gris Stellar
{screwcap, 12%} Soft apricot and pear. Low acid palate, light-bodied, dry but with a gris-furry texture and a hint of sugar I suspect. Short finish. Not exciting, even by the standards of the grape. (Qantas Business Lounge Sydney International)
White
2022 Wolf Blass Chardonnay Private Release
{screwcap, 13%} Plenty of spicy oak, butter, figs. Crowd-pleasing style. A bit greasy and simple on the palate, with little acidity; its medium weight is enlivened with malo characters, soft oak and coconut. Finishes too short to be satisfying. (Qantas Business Lounge Sydney International)
Red
2021 Levantine Hill Estate Pinot Noir The Coldstream Guard
{screwcap, 12.5%} Strawberry jam. Little oak evident. On the palate a bit more fruit in the form of mulberry. Everything has a slightly acetic hint, as though the pH is very high somehow, or a bit of volatility getting out of control. Soft structure, light weight, low powdery tannins. Is there a little sugar left here? Not sure. Finish is short/medium at best. (Qantas Business Lounge Sydney International)
Red
2022 Grant Burge Shiraz Benchmark
{screwcap, 14%} Lots of highly extracted but still dilute fruit. White pepper, US oak. Smells cheap, like cask wine. Spiced palate, almost like mulled wine. No structure that I can find; little tannin, powdered acid. Medium weight somehow, but not with pleasant flavours, and the finish is quite short too. A low benchmark, then. (Qantas Business Lounge Sydney International)
Red
2022 Lambrook Wines Cabernet Sauvignon
{screwcap, 14%} Quite varietal nose, with currants and blackberry. Palate was a little softer given the nose. There’s a distinct sweetness here almost to the point of being off-dry. Initial burst of easy black fruit, with faint low chalky tannins, but the sweetness trumps the low acidity, giving it a light/medium feel only and a short/medium finish. Hard to drink more than a glass.
Flight 2 - QF23 SYD > BKK (6 notes)
On an Alan Joyce Special - a 30-year old A330 that should be in a museum somewhere. Nine hours in the air after departing 45 minutes late.
White - Sparkling
N.V. Jacquart Champagne Brut Mosaïque
Mainstream champers, with some autolysis character; brioche, yeast. More melon/citrus flavours on the palate; dry, crunchy, fresh texture. Small/medium, delicate bubbles. Just lacks a bit of complexity on the finish but is otherwise OK. Also served on returning QF24 three days later and quite consistent. (QF23 SYD > BKK Business Class)
White
2022 Mesh Riesling
{screwcap, 12.5%} Fairly closed. Intense but narrow aromas of lime, slate, mineral, and even a bit of smoke (or perhaps just redeuction). On the palate some lime, citrus, talc, tending toward grapefruit. Dry but not grating. Medium weight, medium acid. Projects a sort of austere power rather than any charm at this age. Medium length finish. Maybe not a great choice on board a plane. (QF23 SYD > BKK Business Class)
White
2021 The Lane Vineyard Chardonnay
{screwcap} Lots of nuts. Oak! Butter and vanilla slice too, but a tiny spine of minerality emerges too. Plenty of flavour on the palate, with lots of winemaking going on too. Rich medium weight wine, plenty of malo characters and ripe semi-tropical fruit without being over-oaked. Non-cellaring style with a medium length finish. (QF23 SYD > BKK Business Class)
Red
2021 De Bortoli Pinot Noir The Estate Vineyard Dixons Creek
{screwcap, 12.5%} Pointed yet developing cherry and pastrami nose. Spicy, light/medium weight palate, with cherry fruit, a little oak, and a dusty sort of palate without being very tannic. Sits of the tip on f the tongue a bit and finishes short/medium length. Sound but uninteresting pinot. (QF23 SYD > BKK Business Class)
Red
2021 Chapel Hill Shiraz Vinedresser
{screwcap} Blueberries, chocolate, liquorice. Plummy richness. It’s fruit, not oak on the nose, but some oak does emerge on the medium-weight palate to meet plenty of sweet blackberry flavours. But the tannins are low impact, finely gritty ones, and there’s not a lot of acidity. The short/medium length finish seems mostly carried by alcoholic warmth. These are $25 reds, so I guess you can’t expect too much. (QF23 SYD > BKK Business Class)
White - Sweet/Dessert
2017 De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Sémillon
{375ml, screwcap} Vanilla bean with botrytis/apricot aromas. Lavishly syrupy palate, medium-sweet, with medium acidity and medium/full weight. Apricot and caramel flavours. Right in the slot for the label. These days a drink-now style, but rich and reliable and with a decently long finish. Yum. (QF23 SYD > BKK Business Class)
Flight 3 - Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International (7 notes)
6-Oct-23 Turns out there are a choice of three lounges for Qantas in Bangkok: Mirage, Cathay, or Emirates. Chose the last, of course. Way nicer – if smaller – than the Qantas Sydney lounge. Better range of wine too.
White - Sparkling
N.V. Drappier Champagne Carte d'Or Brut
{cork, 12%} Grapefruit aromas; not a lot of yeast. Maybe apple too. Quite pointed, almost sour, on the palate. Perhaps reflecting the high pinot component of 80%? There’s apple on the palate too. Still remains light/medium-bodied, with medium-sized, quite aggressive bubbles. Sits a bit on the front palate, and finishes short/medium in length. Perhaps a bit workmanlike, but OK. (Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International)
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White - Sparkling
N.V. Moët & Chandon Champagne Brut Impérial
{cork, 12%} Goodness. A prosaic choice for a business lounge. Light, grassy nose, with more earthy flavours on the palate. Thick yellow fruit – squash, paw-paw – but always mild and low-key. Quite coarse texture, with large, aggressive bubbles, and mostly present on the front-palate. This must see the absolute legal minimum time on lees I reckon. If it was your first ever Champagne you’d wonder what the fuss was about. (Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International)
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White
2016 Château Villa Bel-Air Blanc
{cork, 12%} SB & Sem 65/35. First bottle two-thirds full and distinctly oxidized. Luckily a second was opened before I left the lounge. Still fairly broad and earthy, with yellow fruit, rockmelon. Feels like it’s had a bit of skin contact too, but the low acidity robs it of freshness a bit and contributes to the quite short finish. Overall a bit disappointing. (Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International)
White
2020 Chartron et Trébuchet Bourgogne Blanc
{cork, 12.5%} Soft and buttery nose. Yellow melons, heaps of butter with subtle oak reinforcement. Some smooth malo character. Not sweet, at least. Medium weight, with medium acidity. A bit anonymous, and with a short finish, but otherwise quite serviceable. (Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International)
Red
2019 Bodega Catena Zapata Malbec Catena High Mountain Vines
{screwcap, 12%} Raw and vibrant. Rustic and semi-sweet nose of ribena-cordial, but little oak. The palate is inkily alcoholic with blackberry fruit – milder than the nose threatened. Almost no detectable tannin and the acidity is quite low too. It’s medium weight, very much on the front-palate and finishes short/medium in length. A hearty style of wine for vigorous quaffing. (Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International)
Red
2018 Michel Lynch
{cork, 12%} Very Bordeaux, albeit in a modest way. Some anonymous black fruit, subtle oak. A gentle dustiness too. Low-key palate with low/medium dusty tannins. Quite sour and drying palate with generic black fruits. Finish dies away rather too quickly. Soundly-made but a bit dull. (Emirates Business Lounge Bangkok International)
Red - Fortified
N.V. Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Fine Ruby
Spirity brandy and cherries with no oak influence. Medium weight, off-dry, with more black fruit than red on the palate. Medium length finish carried by alcohol and the little bit of sweetness. Meh.
Flight 4 - QF24 BKK > SYD (4 notes)
Another A330, possibly made this century. Overnight to Sydney. One hour late departing.
White
2023 Stella Bella Sauvignon Blanc
{screwcap, 12.8%} Proper gooseberry and asparagus. Bit of a throwback to Marlborough before it went all tropical. Bright palate, not too pungent, with gentle acidity and much less intensity of fruit flavour than the nose promised, and with a bit more grassiness as opposed to the green fruits. Light weight, medium acid, medium length dry finish. (QF24 BKK > SYD Business Class)
White
2022 Flametree Chardonnay
{screwcap} Taut, nutty sort of nose, quite restrained. Equally tart palate, offering just enough grapefruit flavours to avoid total austerity. Minimal malo, little oak evident, light/medium weight, soft acidity. An early-drinking style I think, without being too extreme. (QF24 BKK > SYD Business Class)
Red
2022 Lambrook Wines Pinot Noir Adelaide Hills
{screwcap} Lightweight modest pinot with spiced cherry, low chalky tannins, little oak, medium acidity. Shortish finish. Not much concentration or interest but not otherwise offensive! (QF24 BKK > SYD Business Class)
Red
2020 Ferngrove Shiraz Dragon
{screwcap} Inky-smelling blackberry with spice. Hint of sweetness on palate, still blackberry with a lick of liquorice richness. Mild sort of structure, with subtle oak, medium acid, low dusty tannins, good mid-palate presence and a medium length finish. Should have drunk this all flight instead of leaving it til last. (QF24 BKK > SYD Business Class)