Chardonnay at 30,000 feet

We had several excellent wines while visiting family in Portland, Oregon. Our return to Baltimore was during the afternoon and evening. This was an opportunity to taste the wines offered on the Delta flights. Our first leg was from Portland to Minneapolis. This was an afternoon flight leaving PDX at 1:00 pm. The first wine was a 2012 California Chardonnay from Esala. The light yellow wine had an aroma of pear. Although the aroma lacked in intensity, the taste was more noticeable. The taste was smooth with a kick of acidity on the finish. There were a couple of fruits noticed including pear and apple. The buttery finish had a hint of caramel. I paired the wine with pretzels and a salad.

My lunch was a salad with blue cheese, potato salad and roast beef. I also had a bit of Kathy’s gourmet pizza with feta cheese, dried tomatoes and olives. For this course I chose the red wine offering, a 2012 Merlot by Bel Arbor Vineyards. The wine was a ruby translucent color with a light ruby rim. Cherries were predominant on the aroma and taste. Also on the taste there was a hint of leather and mild tannins. The wine had a crisp finish. The potato salad had fresh dill that was rather over powering. The wine’s crispness was able to tame this and was well matched. The Merlot was light bodied and and a good selection for lunch. It went well with the pizza and played nicely with the dill on the potato salad.

Dinner was delayed because our flight to Baltimore was delayed. There was a little weather, the snow kind, in Minneapolis. This caused our flight to be delayed by two hours. Then when the plane arrived, it was broken. So we waited a couple more hours for another plane that could fly us to BWI. Since we were several hours delayed, I was actually hungry. Once on the plane,

I went for an Irish Cream prior to takeoff, delicious. The plane was ready to go, but the co-pilot didn’t show up, so we sat and waited for another co-pilot to show up. By now it was tomorrow EST. The passengers took the delays in stride. No one complained out loud; however, there were a few groans every time an announcement of a further delay was made.

For dinner I had a turkey sandwich and butternut squash soup. This Delta flight had the same wines as our Portland to Minneapolis flight. I went with the Chardonnay since it would pair better with the food. It would be interesting if Delta would serve different wines on flights that had lunches and dinners. Passengers that end up on both those flights could try four different wines. After dinner I had another Irish Cream. Time for sleeping.