Wines On The Wing 2019

GT presents the winners of the 16th annual Wines on the Wing airline wine competition.

- Eunice Fried

THE CONCEPT OF A WORKING WINERY in the middle of Manhattan became a reality when Michael Dorf rented a building on Varick Street and opened City Winery in 2008. By adding to the winery a restaurant; concert hall; and spaces for receptions, parties and meetings, he created a winning combination. So much so that in the ensuing years, he opened locations in five other cities: Chicago; Nashville; Atlanta; Boston; and Washington, D.C.

Now a major change is coming to the original City Winery. Because the Varick Street building sold and is about to be demolished, City Winery closed July 31 and plans to reopen in a new, larger location at the Hudson River Park on Pier 57 early in 2020. Until then, it will continue its services at Manhattan’s Pier 26.

Before City Winery locked its Varick Street doors for the final time, Global Traveler held its 2019 Wines on the Wing international airline wine competition there with 23 wine professionals judging wines currently being served in first class and business class on international flights throughout the world. And in a smaller category, they also judged wines served on first- and business-class flights beginning and ending in North America.

As in all our professional wine competitions, the wines were served “blind” — that is, poured into numbered glasses — and judges were told only the general category of the wines they were tasting (for example, Chablis or Zinfandel). They never saw a wine bottle. They tested and tasted and pondered each wine, and then they wrote their opinions.

When the judges’ ratings were later evaluated, the airline whose wines added up to the highest score among first-class international service was American Airlines.