On just about any given day, at any given altitude on an Emirates flight, you can order a glass of Dom Pérignon. If you're flying first class, you might find a Premier Grand Cru Classé from Château Figeac, a highly rated red in the Saint-Émilion region of Bordeaux. And if you're really lucky, you might be able to order a 2005 Sauterne from Château d'Yquem, the superior first-growth winery that was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson and is now owned by LVMH.
Since the Dubai-based airline began its wine program 12 years ago, it has spent more than $500 million to develop the best wine list in the sky. Joost Heymeijer, a senior vice president who runs the inflight catering service at Emirates, says at any point the airline is flying about 70 different types of wine across its network. The list is fluid, based on the flight path and what vintage is drinking best at that particular time. Over a 12-month period, more than 300 vintages will be served, and it's this breadth that Mark Oldman, author of How to Drink Wine Like a Billionaire, finds most impressive. "To rotate the wines out like that is the most labor-intensive part of it," said Oldman.
The company's secret weapon, though, is a nondescript group of warehouses that Emirates owns in Burgundy, France. Many of the wines served on an Emirates flight were bought years ago, and they are stored until they're ready to serve.
"If you have a vision of limestone cellars with cobwebs, I'm sorry to disappoint you," says Heymeijer. "Ours is more of a Fort Knox-style facility."
It's a modern, temperature-controlled, light-deprived location that stores 3.75 million bottles of wine in their original packaging, in boxes and on palettes. The company chose Burgundy for the simple reason that ports are a few hours south with temperature-controlled containers where bottles can be shipped to the preferred destination. "It's not very sexy," he says. "But it is highly effective."
"Just because you’ve got the money doesn’t mean you can buy."
It would be easy to chalk it up as just another advantage that the airline gets from its government subsidies. After all, it allowed its parent company, the Investment Corporation of Dubai, to assume its fuel hedging contracts, and the lobbying group Partnership for Open & Fair Skies has said Emirates received $7.6 billion to construct the Emirates terminal at the Dubai International Airport, giving it a competitive advantage over the Deltas and Lufthansas of the world. (Emirates disputes these figures.) But when it comes to wine, the airline has bought smartly over the years, buying heavily in good vintage years and finding jewels among lesser ones that it believes can age into respectability.
"It’s an investment," said Heymeijer. "We look at it like a commodity."
What Money Can’t Get
Most airlines employ a wine consultant who will use a number calculated by the finance team to put together a list of 20 wines that are available both in the market and in the volume required. Tim Clark, the president of Emirates, wanted its wine list to be a differentiator. So the airline made the decision to partner with MMI and buy as directly as possible from merchants and vineyards and in smaller quantities, if necessary—10,000-bottle parcels instead of the typical 24,000 or 48,000.
The toughest challenge for Emirates, at the beginning, was getting credibility in these wine-producing regions. Even though the airline considered its first class the right audience, it still had to show that it would treat the wine in a way that old-school French vintners would appreciate: Pour it at the right temperature and test how altitude and cabin pressure have an influence on what you smell, taste, and eat.