Finnair wins gold, silver and bronze at Cellars in the Sky 2014 Awards
(Warsaw 3.3.2015) Finnair collected three awards at the prestigious Cellars in the Sky airline wine awards hosted by Business Traveller magazine in February at the Hilton London Paddington hotel.
The long-haul wine selection was awarded the Gold medal in the Best Business Class Red category for the Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 2012, Marlborough, New Zealand; Silver for Best Business Class Red for Nicolas Perrin Crozes – Hermitage 2012, France; and also Bronze for Best-Presented Business Class Wine Menu.
Finnair’s oneworld alliance was also named the best airline alliance for wines, and oneworld members together all but swept the board in the airline categories, taking nine gold awards along with 17 silver and bronze commendations.
The annual awards, which have been running since 1985, recognise the best business and first class wines served by airlines worldwide. The wines are scored by a panel of five judges in a series of independent blind tastings.
The head judge was Charles Metcalfe, co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge, who was joined by Tim Atkin, Oz Clarke and Peter McCombie, co-chairmen of the International Wine Challenge, and panel chairman Richard Bampfield.
“It is an honour to receive these awards which reflect our continued commitment to offering the best wines paired with our signature menus to long haul customers”, said Anssi Partanen, Finnair's Corporate Marketing Manager.
Finnair’s wine selection has been designed to complement Signature Menus created in partnership with the leading Finnish restaurants Nokka, G.W. Sundmans, Savoy and Fishmarket. Their chefs, Matti Jämsén from G.W. Sundmans, Ari Ruoho from Nokka and Kari Aihinen from Savoy, have designed Signature Menus that will be available in Business class on long-haul flights from Helsinki until Spring 2016.
Business Traveller full list of winners: http://www.businesstraveller.com/cellars-2014
Further information:
Finnair Media Desk, +358 9 818 4020, comms(a)finnair.com
Finnair Gallery: http://gallery.finnair.com
Finnair on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Finnair
Finnair blogs: http://blogs.finnair.com
Finnair on Facebook: www.facebook.com/finnair
Finnair Group website: www.finnairgroup.com
Finnair flies between Asia, Europe and North America with an emphasis on fast connections via Helsinki, carrying more than nine million passengers annually and connecting 15 cities in Asia with more than 60 destinations in Europe. The airline, a pioneer in sustainable flying, will be the European launch customer of the next-generation, eco-smart Airbus A350 XWB aircraft and is the first airline listed in the Leadership Index of the worldwide Carbon Disclosure Project. The only Nordic carrier with a 4-star Skytrax ranking, Finnair has also won the World Airline Award for Best Airline Northern Europe for the past five years running. Finnair is a member of oneworld, the alliance of the world's leading airlines committed to providing the highest level of service and convenience to frequent international travellers.
