Virgin Australia Finally Refreshes Its Lounge Wines

Virgin Australia Lounges are a great place to hang out before your flight. They’re bright, inviting spaces where you can relax, get some work done or get a bite to eat.

You can also grab a cider, beer or wine while you while away your time in the airport.

For oenophiles like myself, there’s just one problem. Many of the wines Virgin Australia has been serving in its lounges over the past few years taste pretty bad, and the selection rarely rotates.

Virgin Australia’s lounge wines aren’t competitive

Of course, wine appreciation is subjective and for a long time, I thought it might have just been me. But I recently asked some friends and colleagues, and they all agreed that the wine in the Virgin Australia Lounges was sub-par. A lot of AFF members have commented about this on our forum, as well.

On one hand, I should probably thank Virgin Australia for helping me reduce my wine consumption when I’m travelling! It was so bad that I stopped drinking it. But serving poor quality wines does seem a bit cheap when Qantas offers much better options in its Qantas Club and domestic Business Lounges – not to mention spirits, which Virgin doesn’t even stock.

For example, these are the wines Qantas was serving this week at the Qantas Club in Canberra:

Qantas also serves a few even better wines in its domestic Business Lounges. Those lounges are accessible to Qantas Platinum and Platinum One frequent flyers, as well as customers flying Business Class. Virgin Australia does not have an equivalent premium lounge.

For what it’s worth, my criticism doesn’t extend to the wines Virgin Australia serves on board its flights in Business Class. I usually enjoy the options on the Virgin Australia Business Class wine list! I’m just talking about the airline’s domestic airport lounges here.

There are exceptions, and occasionally I’ve found a wine in a Virgin Australia Lounge that I liked. But every time I see Hardys The Riddle Shiraz on the counter – which has been a Virgin lounge mainstay for years – I’m reminded of the taste of bitter lolly water.

For what it’s worth, Hardys The Riddle Shiraz retails for around $8 per bottle. It’s rated 2.9 out of 5 on Vivino (that’s quite low, for those unfamiliar with Vivino ratings) and Qantas serves miniature bottles of the same wine in Economy Class. (Perhaps it tastes better at altitude?)

Virgin Australia is adding some new lounge wines this week

For Virgin Australia frequent flyers who enjoy a glass of wine, there’s potentially now some good news on this front.

A couple of weeks ago, Australian Frequent Flyer reached out to Virgin Australia to ask if they had any plans to improve the wine selection in its lounges. To the airline’s credit, they responded that they will start to introduce a range of new wines in its lounges from this week.

“Starting from this week, we will see a range of new wines in the Virgin Australia Lounges. The new selection includes Tatachilla House Sparkling, Grant Burge Classic Collection Shiraz, Tatachilla White Admiral Sauvignon Blanc, Tatchilla House Chardonnay and Hardy’s Riddle Cabernet Merlot,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson told us.

“We constantly refresh and change our lounge menu and drink offerings to ensure our guests have an exciting and enjoyable experience in our lounges.”

Are the new wines better than the ones they’re replacing?

So, are these wines a significant step up? Well, not necessarily.

The new wines are the same brands and retail at similar price points to the wines they’re replacing. The Vivino scores are similar too, although all outrank Hardys The Riddle Shiraz!

For what it’s worth, the Tatachilla White Admiral Sauvignon Blanc has the highest regular retail price at around $16 per bottle. This might not be a bad option for white wine drinkers.

Either way, a bit more variety is welcome!

What’s stopping Virgin from offering even better wine in its lounges?

With Velocity making status harder and more expensive to earn from next year, it would be great to see Virgin returning the favour to its loyal frequent flyers by serving more premium wines (and perhaps even spirits) in its airport lounges. That’s probably wishful thinking on my part.

I’m just speculating here, but I suspect there are two main factors preventing Virgin Australia from investing in significantly better wines for its lounges.

Firstly, the airline’s private equity owner Bain Capital has consistently demonstrated a desire to keep costs under control. Paying for more expensive wines, even in exchange for greater customer satisfaction, probably isn’t much of a consideration.

Secondly, keen observers might notice that all of the wines in Virgin’s lounges are brands owned by Accolade Wines. I suspect Virgin probably has a long-term contract with Accolade Wines for the exclusive supply of wine, in exchange for very good prices. Not that Virgin really needs to negotiate too hard for “mates rates”, since one of the largest shareholders in Accolade Wines now happens to be – you guessed it – Bain Capital.

That’s not to say that Accolade Wines’ brands don’t make good wine. They certainly do – but I would refer you back to the first point. 😉

Join the discussion on AFF

What do you think of the Virgin Australia Lounge wines? Have you tried anything from the new menu? Share your thoughts on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum…

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.