Business Class airline travel and Champagne go hand in hand. The moment you settle into your seat and a glass of pre-departure Champagne is served, the journey truly begins. While most airlines serve the more familiar marques, Scandinavian Airlines is taking the road less travelled by introducing “Special Club” Champagne.
BusinessClass.com reached out to Johan Gillström – responsible for Wine and Spirits on SAS flights – for an exclusive chat about the initiative. He said “Just before the pandemic we embarked on a journey to introduce high quality Champagne from “grower producers” in SAS Business. Our philosophy was that we wanted to surprise our passengers and offer more variety to frequent travellers”
The Champagne region of France is renowned for producing many of the finest sparkling wines in the world - headlined by well-known brands including Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Nicolas Feuillatte and Laurent Perrier. More than 300 million bottles of Champagne are sold every year, with most of the 19,000 growers selling their grapes to the big producers. Even so, there are still around 5,000 growers that produce Champagne from their own vines. These smaller vineries are mostly overlooked by airlines – until now.
Small is Exclusive
While the big brands blend grapes from different plots and growers with the ultimate goal of producing Champagne with a consistent house style, ”grower wines” are known to reflect the characteristics of each plot and vintage. The smallest produce just a few thousand bottles per year. In contrast, Moët & Chandon sells around 30 million bottles per year, Veuve Clicquot 18 million and Nicolas Feuillatte 10 million.
Johan Gillström: ”We wanted to serve Champagne from small producers with their own unique styles. This is however easier said than done for an airline as we need to source large volumes. We would need to take almost the complete volume of a smaller grower each year, making it practically impossible to source Champagne from a single “grower producer.”
As Manager Supply Chain and Product Development at SAS, Gillström put his expertise in logistics to good use and came up with a solution. Rather than trying to buy from a single grower, SAS decided to rotate limited supplies of “grower wines” from multiple small producers with a more readily available Champagne from a larger producer. Small batches of unique Champagnes will be served for 2-3 months twice a year - while stocks last. Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve will act as the future backbone of the airline´s Champagne offering during the rest of the year.
The SAS Champagne Concept Launched
The original plan was for SAS to launch the new Champagne concept in May 2020, a process that was postponed due to the pandemic. As the world opens up again, the airline decided to pick up where it left off. Since March 1st, passengers flying in SAS Business have been served Joseph-Loriot Pagel Special Club 2012 and Roland Champion Special Club 2012.
“When we set out to identify suitable “grower producers”, our attention was quickly drawn to Special Club Champagne since it has a relative high recognition in Scandinavia and the quality is outstanding,” says Gillström.
What is Special Club Champagne?
In a competitive landscape dominated by big brands with million-dollar marketing budgets, small independent producers have historically flown under the radar. In an effort to change this, Special Club was founded in 1971 by twelve of the oldest family-run Champagne producers under the name Club Trésors de Champagne - French for “Treasure Club”. Entry requirements for the Special Club are high, resulting in members coming and going every year. In 2021 the club included just 29 out of the 5,000 growers that produce Champagne from their own vines.
There are several requirements to be classified as Special Club Champagne. The cuvée must be produced by a winemaker who grows and tends to their own grapes on their own land, and the Champagne must also be bottled and aged at the winemaker's estate. It is required that the Champagne represents the premier cuvée of the producer.
There is no guarantee for Special Club Champagne to be produced every year. Each February, all members of the club gather to taste each other’s still wines from the previous year. They then vote on whether the quality is good enough to declare a vintage year, a vote which must be unanimous.
The selection process for Special Club classification begins only if a vintage year has been declared and involves wine professionals and oenophiles. The Club employs its own oenologist to preside over blind tastings that happen in two stages. The first tasting is made of still wines before they are bottled and undergo a secondary fermentation. A second tasting is made after three years of bottle aging, and again the tasting panel must be unanimous for a Champagne to pass. Only after this second tasting is the Champagne bottled in the characteristic green Special Club bottle.
While Special Club Champagnes are produced by individual grower producers, they are all bottled in the same distinct bottle and wear an embossed badge of honour on the collar. The labels clearly identify the producer, but all follow the same design - making all Special Club Champagne appear as part of the same group.
Two Distinctly Different Champagnes
For the launch of the new SAS Champagne programme, the airline selected Joseph-Loriot Pagel Special Club 2012 and Roland Champion Special Club 2012.
Unusually, Joseph-Loriot Pagel Special Club 2012 is made entirely from Pinot Meunier grapes. When such a Champagne is produced - it signals a very high quality of grape and reflects the freedom of grower producers to be creative in winemaking. It is much more common to find Champagnes processed exclusively from Chardonnay or Pinot Noir grapes. The Joseph-Loriot Pagel Special Club 2012 offers good maturity while displaying freshness and minerality. The fruit shows through on the palate and offers an almost sweet tropical touch, yet the acidity is prominent. Just 3,600 bottles were produced in 2012.
Roland Champion Special Club 2012 is a Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs - it is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. It displays a good maturity with touches of yeast and brioche combined with the classic Blanc de Blancs tones of green apples and grapefruit. The feel is medium bodied with refreshing acidity. It could easily be stored for another 10 years, but drinks very well now. 4,800 bottles were produced in 2012.
SAS expects the first batch of 2,000 bottles to last 6-8 weeks, after which the concept will be evaluated.
“The Onboard Product team are very enthusiastic about this and hope the initiative will be appreciated by our customers. We have lots of ideas that we can't wait to share, but first we have to see how our customers respond,” says Gustaf Öholm Head of Onboard Product and Services.
The SAS Champagne initiative is a welcome and innovative addition to its Business Class offering. Twinned with the airline’s use of Orrefors Champagne glassware, it is hoped that the “Special Club” will be a permanent fixture for the airline.
Read the BusinessClass.com Review of SAS Business Class
Read our guide to Five Of The Best Champagnes Served In Business Class
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