Cathay Pacific’s Latest Business Class Add-on: Premium Chinese Wines
Cathay Pacific has always enjoyed a great reputation for its food and beverage offerings, especially in the premium cabins. Today, their selection includes a few surprises from elsewhere…
Top shelf Chinese wines
Cathay Pacific flights for its premium cabin passengers begin with the mandatory pre-departure drink, which, depending on the time of day and how much champagne you consumed in the lounge before boarding, might be just what you need.
Once in the air, Cathay Pacific is better known for its above-average premium spirits than its wine: think Absolut vodka, Bombay gin, Campari, Johnny Walker Gold Reserve and Hine Rare VSOP cognac.
The wines are a classic mix of mid-range, new- and old-world business class wines: two whites and two reds, plus Champagne and a dessert wine on longer flights, and one red and one white, plus Champagne and a dessert wine on shorter flights. Business class sparkling wines on Cathay flights this year include Alaya Brut Majeur and Billecart-Salmon Brut.
For the past few months, Cathay has been serving its first and business class passengers wine from Chinese vineyards. The move is aimed in part at showing how much the Chinese wine industry has improved in recent years, with companies such as LVMH Group and DBR Lafite setting up operations in the country.
Recently, Cathay Pacific served three wines from Ningxia-based Grace Vineyards, Silver Heights and Xige Estate in business class, and the 2020 vintage of DBR Lafite-backed Domaine de Long Dai flowed into first class. Ronald Khoo, Cathay Pacific’s director of wine, spirits and beverage, described Domaine de Long Dai’s precise approach to winemaking as “very impressive.”
As you might expect, the first-class drinks menu is superior to that of business class. The airline currently serves a Krug 2004 in first-class cabins, along with crowd-pleasing wines such as a French Burgundy, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, an Italian Sangiovese and a Portuguese Tawny Port. Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Glenmorangie Signet Single Malt Scotch Whisky are also commonly found in first-class galleys.
Cathay Pacific’s long-haul business class typically offers a choice of two starters, five main courses, a cheese board and four desserts, while, like the wine list on short-haul flights, short-haul flights typically offer two starters, three main courses, a cheese board and two desserts. Things are a little more elaborate in first class, where you can eat whatever you want with fine Western and Chinese dishes. There’s of course caviar with blinis, chives, crème fraîche and chopped eggs to get the festivities started.
Cathay’s business class menus usually refer to the destination. On flights to India, Charminar paneer may be served, while a flight to Hong Kong might include fish balls and cuttlefish balls with flat rice noodle soup. Flights to or from Western cities include a Western main course. Beef short rib stewed with thyme jus is one example that currently appears on many Cathay flights.
One of the best perks of flying business or first class with Cathay Pacific is the ability to choose your meal in advance, from ten days to 24 hours before departure. On select long-haul routes, including flights to London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney and Melbourne, passengers have access to what the airline calls its “Cathay Signatures,” which it bills as a “curated menu of our most iconic flavors.”
It’s a bit like Singapore Airlines’ Book the Cook offering, which gives premium cabin passengers a restaurant-quality meal… as long as you book the order 24 hours before departure. Cathay’s Signature choices vary and depend on the route, but business class examples include wok-fried chicken with black beans and Hong Kong-style shrimp curry.
The airline has also been busy promoting Cathay Signatures on social media in recent weeks, with numerous pornographic photos of blurry food suggesting that a range of new meal offerings will be available soon.
Breakfast is not relegated to the background
The end of a long flight often includes breakfast, which can be hit or miss on other airlines: stale pastries, rock-hard butter, and reheated eggs cooked four lifetimes ago. But the business class breakfast menu on Cathay’s long-haul flights is pretty decent.
It includes a “wellness” choice (think berries, shredded coconut and flaxseed), chicken and oat congee, a Western-style breakfast (say, bacon and onion soufflé with sausages and potato cake), a continental breakfast (pastries and cold cuts) and an express breakfast, consisting of a pastry and coffee. Things are a little fancier in first class: your yogurt comes with pomegranate molasses, the omelette is “open-faced” and the sampan congee comes with a selection of dim sum.
Cathay Pacific has its fans and its detractors, but we simply can’t deny that the in-flight experience is improving month by month. The enviable food and beverage offering, solid choice of flights to and from Australia, exceptional lounges in Hong Kong and good connections to the rest of the world keep Cathay right up there with the best airlines in the skies.
