Emirates' £100m investment in fine wine

In 2015, the airline purchased a record of over 13 million bottles of wine worth US$140 million (£98 million) – more than twice the value of wine purchases in the previous year. The wines are served to customers across all three cabins, however, many won't be uncorked for 7-10 years. The increasing investment is in response to the airline’s expanding network, Emirates said in a press release. In 2015, Emirates’ customers consumed 11.4 million bottles of wine across all classes, with 10 million single-serve bottles in Economy Class alone. This was a 27% increase from the year before when nine million bottles of wine were consumed across all classes.

“In every aspect of our business, our aim is to provide the best experience for our customers and we have curated a wine programme that is reflective of that promise. Over the years, we’ve built a wine programme that has garnered the interest of exclusive vineyards in the world, and we are proud of the fact that our wine lists are comparable to what you might find in a top restaurant in the best cities around the world,” said Sir Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline. He added: “Many of our customers have expressed their surprise and delight at the variety and quality of wines that Emirates offers on board, and they wonder how on earth we manage to procure such rare or exclusive vintages. The answer is long-term planning and investment.” Since 2006, Emirates has invested US$690 million on wines, some of which will only be ready for drinking in 2025. The Emirates wine cellar, the largest of any airline, currently stores 2.2 million bottles of vintage wines.

Of the 2015 wine purchases for First Class and Business Class, close to half – 1.8 million bottles – came from the Bordeaux region. Bordeaux wines have always been a mainstay of the Emirates wine offering with 60% of the red wine in First Class and Business Class coming from the region. Emirates now offers 70 different wines, champagnes and ports on an average day in all classes across its network of over 150 destinations. Sir Tim said: “Very few producers can meet the volumes that we need, at the quality that we want. So we made the decision early on that we would rather go for quality and buy in smaller parcels if we have to, and go direct to the vineyards and producers. It’s a massive logistics exercise to serve 70 different labels on any given day across a network our size, but it means our customers and frequent flyers, in particular, can always look forward to something new and exciting to sample.”

Emirates has also placed great emphasis on wines from Burgundy and purchases directly from exclusive Grand Cru vineyards such as Chevalier-Montrachet, Charmes-Chambertin and Échezeaux. The airline’s long-standing relationships with wine producers has meant access to some of the most rare and exclusive wines. From the Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru region alone, considered to be amongst the finest of Burgundy's white wines, Emirates purchased 2,000 cases in 2015 - equivalent to 10% of the total production in the region.

Other recent additions to the Emirates wine cellar include fine Italian wines such as Solaia and Ornellaia for First Class and the highly in-demand Super Tuscan wine Tignanello which will be added to the Business Class offering in the coming years. Emirates continues to purchase from the main wine producing regions of the world including Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa to feature in the regionally tailored wine lists.