Iberia’s ‘Business Plus Class’ wine list won the US magazine, Global Traveler’s ‘Wines on the Wing’ award, in competition with samples entered by 27 other airlines from around the world. The Spanish company is the first airline in the history of the awards to have all five wines from its wine list among the Top-10 of each category.

The 2008 edition of ‘Wines on the Wing’ was the largest to date: with a jury of 36 renowned experts who rated 140 samples from 60 wine regions belonging to 12 different countries. Each airline had the chance to enter two whites, two reds and a sparkling wine, as well as their respective wine lists for the judges to grade. Of all the wines entered, those under DO Rías Baixas made from the Albariño variety, ‘Albariño Veigadares 2006’ and ‘Nora 2006’ took second and fifth place on the list of white wines, respectively. In reds, ‘Ramón Bilbao Edición Limitada Crianza 2005’ under QDO Rioja and ‘Casa de las Especias Crianza 2004’ under DO Yecla occupied third and fifth positions. And lastly, the Cava ‘Castillo de Perelada Brut Reserva’ was sixth on the sparkling wines list.

The ‘Wines on the Wing’ awards select the best wines served on Business Class in-flight menus by airlines from all around the world. The competition is organised on a yearly basis by Global Traveler, the monthly magazine which focuses on the luxury and business travel sector, and has a print run of 100,000 issues.

The aim of Iberia’s ‘Bodega Business Plus’, assessed by Spanish expert, TodoVino, is to heighten awareness towards Spanish wines on Business Class long-haul flights, and become a showcase for the best labels by drawing attention to their great worth as well as their geographic and varietal diversity.