Wine wastage in the J lounge

[simongr]

Just recalled a moment of outrage in the J lounge last night. I was on the last flight out of SYD and just after the tannoy telling us to nick off to the flight I was walking past the bar only to see the barman pouring away all of the undrunk wine.
I am not talking about the dregs of a bottle but at least three pretty full bottles.
I know that wine is best drunk fresh but I am sure we could survive with wine sealed in screw top bottles overnight?
Any thoughts?

 

[markis10]

Does not happen in DRW, at 12 the bottles left over from the red eye are back on the selfserve bar.

 

[awilcockson]

I was offered (and accepted) a third glass of the vintage Tattinger on my A380 F flight, as "otherwise we have to tip it down the sink"

 

[tehuringa]

Sparge it with argon and pop the top back on and it would be fine...there are products such as Wine Saver that prevent such wastage

 

[fly by wire]

If they didn't, I'm 100% certain there would be people on here complaining they didn't get a fresh bottle when the bar opened the next day.

 

[Saji]

Simongr..you just like me.

The issue is when we start noticing wines being poured down the drain in a lounge and ponder over that..thats when we need to start thinking about alocoholics anonnymous!!!!!

 

[fbrimfield]

If they didn't, I'm 100% certain there would be people on here complaining they didn't get a fresh bottle when the bar opened the next day.

this.


and maybe they were a few days old, besides it's rarely the policy in restaurants/bars to let staff take home old wine, so I can't imagine why it should be any different at a lounge.

 

[TonyHancock]

I was offered (and accepted) a third glass of the vintage Tattinger on my A380 F flight, as "otherwise we have to tip it down the sink"

Offering good wine to me is relatively similar to tipping it down the sink! I'll accept and gulp it down but I have the sophistication of Julia Gillard.

 

[Jkyn]

Just off the MEL CBR flight in row 4 offered very large glass of left over red from j. A challenge even for me on such a short flight but far better than tipping down the drain. I think???...... saves me opening the bottle when I get home!!!!!


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[simongr]

If they didn't, I'm 100% certain there would be people on here complaining they didn't get a fresh bottle when the bar opened the next day.

this.


and maybe they were a few days old, besides it's rarely the policy in restaurants/bars to let staff take home old wine, so I can't imagine why it should be any different at a lounge.

I dont agree - given the turnover in the lounge I suspect most bottles last hours rather than days.

@fbrimfield - given your expertise as a sommelier how badly affected would a $15 - $25 bottle of wine be affected by just putting the cap on overnight? This is a genuine question as my palate isn't that refined and I regularly have wine from the prior day.

 

[fbrimfield]

I dont agree - given the turnover in the lounge I suspect most bottles last hours rather than days.

@fbrimfield - given your expertise as a sommelier how badly affected would a $15 - $25 bottle of wine be affected by just putting the cap on overnight? This is a genuine question as my palate isn't that refined and I regularly have wine from the prior day.

Overnight is fine, even after 2-3 days only the pickiest of wine drinkers would be able to taste any kind of oxidation.

I agree with you that most bottles would be turned over in a matter of hours, but depending on how many wine choices they offer in the lounge, some may not get drunk all that much, or maybe one bottle was opened, and then put back in the fridge and not used for a couple days (cause no one saw it, etc), there are just a bunch of reasons why they might be tipping it out.

They might even have a policy to get rid of all opened bottles after 2 days, it's certainly not uncommon for bars to do that. Most bars/restaurants will write the date on the bottle so they know when its been opened. At the end of the day they're not amazing or rare bottles, I agree that it seems wasteful, but once you work in hospitality for long enough you realise that waste is fairly endemic in the industry.

 

[medhead]

I had a brief stint working the bar and I was total they were legally required to tip out left over wine and fortifieds


Sent from the Throne

 

[Fantic125]

waste is such a scourge in our society, but the difficulty is reigning it in.

I'm happy to accept donations.. :shock:
:shock:

 

[whatmeworry]

They potentially could put all that wasted wine to good use. You could either distill the alcohol for use in spirits or even use the ethanol for use in bio-fuels.

Airlines are currently testing bio-fuels, so instead of wasting a resource like old wine they could put it to a good use.

 

[AdMEL]

Overnight is fine, even after 2-3 days only the pickiest of wine drinkers would be able to taste any kind of oxidation.

I agree with you that most bottles would be turned over in a matter of hours, but depending on how many wine choices they offer in the lounge, some may not get drunk all that much, or maybe one bottle was opened, and then put back in the fridge and not used for a couple days (cause no one saw it, etc), there are just a bunch of reasons why they might be tipping it out.

They might even have a policy to get rid of all opened bottles after 2 days, it's certainly not uncommon for bars to do that. Most bars/restaurants will write the date on the bottle so they know when its been opened. At the end of the day they're not amazing or rare bottles, I agree that it seems wasteful, but once you work in hospitality for long enough you realise that waste is fairly endemic in the industry.

Your comments back up my understanding (as a wine drinker only!).

The flip side of this is the number of times I've ordered a glass of wine and it's been off! Very annoying! Not that hard to write the date opened on the bottle!

I had a brief stint working the bar and I was total they were legally required to tip out left over wine and fortifieds


Sent from the Throne

I've never heard of, or observed, such a thing - see above! Out of interest, where and when?

Having said that, I was at a wine tasting put on by Vintage Cellars a week ago, and when it finished, one distributor tipped almost whole bottle into the spit bucket. Such a waste. The flip side is being given open bottles of wine at no cost at a winery recently! They weren't at their best though, but drinkable.

waste is such a scourge in our society, but the difficulty is reigning it in.

I'm happy to accept donations.. :shock:
:shock:

Agreed!

 

[medhead]

I've never heard of, or observed, such a thing - see above! Out of interest, where and when?

Having said that, I was at a wine tasting put on by Vintage Cellars a week ago, and when it finished, one distributor tipped almost whole bottle into the spit bucket. Such a waste. The flip side is being given open bottles of wine at no cost at a winery recently! They weren't at their best though, but drinkable.

It was in Qld in the early 1990s. I should have added that that was after functions, but functions were the only only real time that we opened wine.

I once had an FA in J do serious arm twisting to have another glass of wine, just as we were starting to descend. He cracked a new bottle for that one glass, poured it, and then gave me the bottle saying he would only have to pour it out so I should take it with me. I was very thankful, but couldn't help wondering why he pushed me to have that last glass that I initially declined. :?:

 

[Shelf]

They potentially could put all that wasted wine to good use. You could either distill the alcohol for use in spirits

I'm not sure the ATO would take a positive view of this action!

 

[greenfish]

I once had an FA in J do serious arm twisting to have another glass of wine, just as we were starting to descend. He cracked a new bottle for that one glass, poured it, and then gave me the bottle saying he would only have to pour it out so I should take it with me. I was very thankful, but couldn't help wondering why he pushed me to have that last glass that I initially declined. :?:

My first ever J flight on QF (only about a year ago) - a free upgrade too - the FA gave me the balance of the bottle that he'd only opened for me. It certainly made me feel pretty good about QF...

 

[whatmeworry]

Lol. My line of thinking was more that a distiller could use it for industrial purposes... Although I am sure there are people happily making some home made grappa out of leftover wine.

 

[fbrimfield]

Certainly not surprised that they throw out opened bottles after flights, i'm sure changes in pressure in the cabin air would only hasten the flattening of the wine, though i'm not certain exactly what effect it would have.