Business Traveller has unveiled its annual Cellars in the Sky wine awards, celebrating the best wines served on
long-haul flights in business and first class. The awards were presented by well-known TV wine presenter and wine critic Charles Metcalfe at the Business Travel Show.

This year Lufthansa was the big winner, walking away with four awards for Best First Class White Wine, Best First Class Sparkling Wine, Best First Class Wine Cellar and an overall award for the Consistency of Wines across Business and First Class.

Qatar Airways won awards in both business class (Best White Wine), and first class (Best Red Wine), while Cathay Pacific bagged the award for Best Business Class Red Wine, Qantas’ entry was judged Best First Class Fortified or Sweet Wine, and KLM and Singapore Airlines shared the award for Best Business Class Sparkling Wine.

Air New Zealand won Best Business Class Fortified or Sweet Wine, and for the second year in a row was also the winner in the Most Informative Wine List category. Finally Star Alliance walked away with the Best Airline Alliance award.

Entries from 29 airlines were tasted by experienced wine judges including Charles Metcalfe over a two-day period in November 2008, at Park Plaza County Hall in London, and commenting on this year’s awards Metcalfe said:

“There are some wonderful wines among this year’s winners. Some carriers really succeed in finding fine wines that suit the conditions of air travel. It’s not enough just going for a famous name. Not all wines that taste great on the ground will work in the air. It’s not easy to find wines that satisfy the expectations of a business or first-class traveller and taste good on board.

“It was very rewarding spending two days tasting all the wines that had been entered. We have tried to select the wines we thought would really please business and first-class flyers. Congratulations to the winners for their hard work choosing them. These winning wines will really contribute to a positive in-flight experience.”

For more information and a full list of winning wines and placed airlines in each category, click here. To view images from this year’s awards, click here.