Korean Air Unveils 50 New In-Flight Wines

Mark Almert, sommelier, explaining the newly selected in-flight wines of Korean Air. Photo by Korean Air

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Korean Air has unveiled its newly selected in-flight service wines. Along with this, the airline also announced a comprehensive plan to revamp the currently served in-flight wines.

On the morning of the 13th, Korean Air held a new in-flight wine presentation at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, announcing 50 newly selected in-flight wines: 19 for First Class, 21 for Prestige Class, and 10 for Economy Class.

About 100 people attended the event, including company executives such as Jang Seong-hyun, Vice President of Marketing and IT at Korean Air, and representatives from wine-related media. Attendees had the opportunity to taste three types of wines selected from the 50 wines: one champagne, one red wine, and one white wine.

Vice President Jang Seong-hyun said, “Wine service is an important service that determines the airline’s first impression and serves as a measure of service quality. Because we understand the significance of in-flight wine, we put care and deep consideration into every step of the selection process for the newly served wines.”

To select the new in-flight wines, Korean Air collaborated with Mark Albrecht, the 2019 ‘World Best Sommelier’ champion of the International Sommelier Association, and began collecting data at the end of 2021. Starting from lists of wines served by the world’s top airlines, they selected diverse wine lists from unique fields.

The total number of wines selected reached about 900. Korean Air and Mark Albrecht considered wine-producing regions, grape varieties, and vintages from around the world, including France, Spain, the United States, and Australia, to narrow down to 150 candidate wines. Then, on the 11th and 12th, two wine experts, Mark Albrecht and Lee Sang-jun, compared and scored the taste and aroma of all candidate wines at a test site set up at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Incheon. Through this process, they finalized and presented 50 wines chosen for in-flight service.

Mark Albrecht, responsible for wine selection, is a young sommelier from Cologne, Germany. At the age of 27 in 2019, he became the youngest champion in the World Best Sommelier competition organized by the International Sommelier Association.

He currently serves as the head sommelier at the five-star Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. Lee Sang-jun, who also participated in the wine selection, is currently in charge of operations at the KAL Hotel Network. He also served as the wine manager for the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

Mark Albrecht explained that during the new in-flight service wine selection process, special consideration was given to the unique environment inside the aircraft and the pairing with in-flight meals. He said, “Compared to the ground, the lower pressure and dry environment inside the aircraft dull the sense of smell and make it easier to become intoxicated with small amounts of wine. We selected wines that are rich in fruit aroma and flavor yet smooth, so that passengers can fully enjoy the wine’s taste even in-flight.”

Korean Air plans to complete necessary follow-up procedures such as supply contracts with local wineries and begin sequentially serving the new wines on international flights from March next year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.