Flying colours
When Andy Sparrow and Peter Nixson walk into a wine tasting, heads turn. That's probably because they are British Airways' wine buyers, with a spending power of £37m. "The key difference between us and a supermarket is the free marketing," says Sparrow. "We give producers thousands of free tastings by passengers in the air."
British Airways has 11 wine lists in all. There are five different lists for the various Club World routes, four of them "reflecting the destinations" - South America, Australia, South Africa and the US - alongside the core European wines. The Club World list for passengers on routes to non-wine-producing countries, such as Japan, India and the Middle East, is packed with a more eclectic selection of wines.
Five different lists also apply for the same routes in First Class. And there's one for Concorde, which is due back in action this summer following its safety overhaul after last year's crash.
The lists aren't exactly huge by restaurant standards. First Class has around 10 bins, while Club World has a choice of five wines. And economy passengers - sorry, Euro and World Travellers - have seven wines per route to choose from, but no list as yet.
Nevertheless, at any one time, Sparrow and Nixson are playing with up to 120 wines. "And this changes all the time," says Sparrow. "About five wines drop off the list every month, which means we are constantly searching for new wines."
These new wines have to meet some pretty strict requirements. Not only must they be of a high quality, but they must also be available in the volumes needed. And the balance (acidity and tannin) of the wine has got to be right.
As far as volume is concerned, if a wine is being considered for Concorde, Sparrow and Nixson must be able to get their hands on at least 800 cases. That's not so easy with a top Bordeaux, so buying en primeur is a must. If a wine makes it on to a Club World wine list, 3,000 cases must be available, while in Traveller class, there must be 15,000 cases.
On the issue of balance, the rumours are true - your palate in the air is very different to your palate on the ground. "If there is any stalkiness, or unripe tannins, this will be accentuated in the air," explains Sparrow. "And if a wine is even a little bit on the acidic side, it will be exaggerated in the air. It's something that we've seen over the years. So the most important thing we look for when we are buying wine is balance."
Next on his check list is the strength of the wine. "The wine has got to have a bit of oomph because we don't taste as efficiently in the air," he says. "The wine has also got to be typical of its style."
Sparrow and Nixson attend about three major wine tastings in London a month, but they also travel a lot, as they would rather deal directly with the producer.
In many cases they even have a say in the final style of the wine. "I get such a buzz out of blending wine. You get such a sense of achievement," says Sparrow. "Wine-makers don't understand how much the wine changes in the air." At Loire producer Filliatreau, for example, Sparrow and Nixson choose their own vat.
Their globetrotting timetable looks daunting: France about five times a year, a week in Italy in the autumn; California once a year, two weeks in Australia, a week in South Africa, and two weeks in Argentina and Chile.
It's just as well Sparrow and Nixson love flying. They first met as cabin crew back in the late 1970s, when their interest in wine brought them together. They went on to form a small wine business, which they ran in their spare time alongside their day jobs. Then Nixson joined British Airways' wine department in 1989, and Sparrow followed four years later. "He's still my best mate," says Sparrow.
There are weekly wine tastings of up to 60 wines at a time held in their smart Heathrow-based offices. And they have some rather distinguished help. BA has a tasting panel that includes wine legends Jancis Robinson, Michael Broadbent, Hugh Johnson and Colin Anderson. The panel tastes through the wines that Sparrow and Nixson have already shortlisted, marking their preferences.
Aside from the impressive selection process, the storage area alone is enough to set the heart racing. "This is a product of my recent Chile trip," says Sparrow, pointing at the towering cases of Reserve Syrah from Tarapaca in the warehouse near BA's head office.
The warehouse is an Aladdin's cave for the wine enthusiast. There's Piper-Heidsieck's deluxe cuvée, Rare, alongside Pommery's Louise cuvée. Next shelf along, there's 1988 Lynch-Bages, 1988 Pichon-Longueville and 1995 Dufort-Vivens. Enviable quotas of 1995 Leonardo Brunello di Montalcino sit next to the Margaux second growth, with 1995 Batailley next to that. He's even got a few cases of coveted Canadian icewine - Henry of Pelham's delicious Vidal - plus dozens of other New World names, such as Sterling Vineyards' Cabernet (Napa), and Capell's Court Shiraz (South Africa).
"I've got lots of '95 and '96 Bordeaux," grins Sparrow. "I'm really pleased about that." He bought these wines en primeur, something he does frequently to secure stocks of sought-after wine.
He holds seven years' worth of stock for Concorde and First Class in the bonded warehouses. There are 65 of these worldwide - two in the UK. He gets two to three years' free storage with the producer, then the wines head for the bonded warehouses, where they will age for a few years more.
"I give my clarets five or six years' bottle age before we list them," says Sparrow. However, he has noticed that Bordeaux producers are making their wines to drink a little younger these days. "I've really noticed that tannin management is definitely working in our favour," he says.
So much for the wine quality, but what about the cabin crew? "What's the point in having a great wine list if the cabin crew are just going to say ‘Do you want red or white, sir?'" asks Sparrow.
Cue BA's wine-training programme, a scheme introduced by Sparrow three years ago. The chances are your next flight will have a BA sommelier on board (badge and all) - one of 1,000 cabin crew who can chat happily about any of the wines on the list.
Sparrow looks after the training side of things and he can now boast that, out of the total 15,000 cabin crew, 1,000 hold their Wine & Spirit Education Trust Certificate of Wine. BA works closely with the trust, which has developed distance learning courses with the airline. Many have gone on to do the higher certificate and a few have even sat their diploma.
Sparrow holds as many as seven wine-training sessions a week, each lasting one-and-a-half hours and focusing on four wines at a time. There are three types of courses, one for new entrants, one for Concorde cabin crew and one for First Class crew.
There's a wine-training video, too, made up of the leftovers from Jancis Robinson's BBC TV series, Wine Course. And everybody gets a copy of Sparrow's informative wine diary, written up after each buying trip.
Sparrow is even trying food and wine matching, with a suggested wine alongside a particular dish on the First Class menus, which he aims to roll out in Club World soon. "The take-up has been good," he reports.
Sparrow and Nixson have big plans, including longer wine lists on board, with more information about each wine, tasting sheets, and possibly wine flights. "We could even do an on-board video," enthuses Sparrow. "People get bored on a plane and we've got their attention. I think it would work."
