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First Class Travel / American Airlines / Wines / Ken Chase / → All Tags

What Baggage Fees? First Class Folk on American To Sip Better Wines

While airlines are posting record losses nearing $5 billion and silly additional fees are sparking the ire of all passengers, American Airlines has picked this time to focus on their in-flight wines by hiring wine expert Ken Chase. Hey, if you are going to wash down that Xanax with some alcohol it might as well be with the good stuff, right? Oh but we don't mean "you" sitting there back in 34D.

Previously, Chase was the in-flight wine expert for Delta Airlines. He has studied wine production in Bordeaux, France, as well as in Italy and Germany. And he's trilingual, speaking French, German and English. (What, no Italiano?)

His goal as wine expert? To improve wine service on American flights. How does he plan to do this? Serve first-class passengers wine in bigger glasses so they can "more easily swirl the wine and enjoy its aromas.”

Meanwhile, you there back in coach will just have to chase down those extra baggage fees with the $7 mini-bottles of some vague California chardonnay. Happy flying!

Related Stories:
· American Airlines hires wine expert [DBJ]
· American Airlines Wine Selection [AA.com]

[Photo: Bobeirasa]

Wine-Tasting Travel / Wines / Napa Valley Travel / Vocab Lessons / → All Tags

Biodynamics: A Vocab Lesson On The Latest Trend In Wines

Whether you’re a wine buff or an amateur, chances are you’ve been hearing a new wine term being thrown around lately: biodynamics. Some claim it’s viticultural voodoo, while others swear by it. Here’s exactly what it means.

Biodynamics is a rigorous form of organic agriculture that envisions a vineyard as a single organism—soil, plants, livestock, insects, everything combines to produce a healthy, self-sustaining environment without the use of artificial chemicals.

So the next time you head out to Napa Valley for some wine-tasting fun, here's what you should know about biodynamic wines. That is, if you actually care about wine-tasting rather than getting wasted while a hired limo takes you from winery to winery.

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