Qantas Head Office

We Went Behind the Scenes at Qantas' 10th Annual Wine Week

"At Qantas’ Sydney headquarters on a beautiful August day I could barely make it outside because the corridors smelled faintly of a winery: the 10th annual Wine Week had transformed HQ into a tasting hub where sommeliers were working through 1,400 wines. In a tasting room lined with opened bottles, glassware on metal tables and tasting placemats, the team conducts anonymous, bracketed tastings (for example Clare Valley Rieslings by vintage), uses Halliday Wine Companion’s 100-point scoring system, and debates whether a wine is a true, classic example of a region. Neil Perry, Qantas creative director of Food & Beverage, calls the airline “the shopfront of the Australian wine industry,” and Sebastian Crowther, who chairs the Qantas Wine Selection, explained the logistics: an ever-growing producer database, emailed sample requests, and organization by variety, region and vintage. I noticed the sommeliers work to benchmark regional styles—Clare Valley Riesling as unwooded, fresh and high-acid; Chardonnay from Margaret River, Shiraz from Barossa, Pinot from Tasmania—and that the decade-long process has revealed a shift toward fresher, purer, food-friendly wines." - Ashley Day