Emirates ups the ante with rare Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2009 in First Class
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Emirates has introduced the celebrated Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2009 champagne for its First Class passengers on all flights departing Dubai. The move comes through a direct partnership with Moët Hennessy and offers a rare tasting opportunity of this particular vintage. The offering is for a limited time and reflects the airline’s ongoing investment in fine wines and high-end beverages.
Luxury as competitive tool in air travel
The inclusion of Rosé 2009 strengthens Emirates’ position in the premium travel segment. Airlines have long sought ways to differentiate their First and Business Class offerings through service, design and food. Beverage programmes are now central to that strategy. By securing exclusive rights to rare champagnes and vintages, Emirates signals that in-flight prestige is not just about comfort of seat but about taste and rarity of what passengers sip. This helps build loyalty among affluent travellers and those for whom culinary excellence is part of the travel decision.
Effect on food pairing and inflight dining culture
Emirates has already been pushing paired dishes with exclusive champagnes for its Business Class service. A menu of 18 dishes has been designed in collaboration with Moët & Chandon and Emirates’ own culinary design team. These pairings include starters and mains that work best with specific champagnes. Such development requires chefs to rethink recipes to adapt to high altitude cooking constraints while preserving flavour complexity. Food becomes more than fuel in the air now it is part of a sensory narrative tied to beverage quality.
Supply chain, maturation and wine programme scale
Emirates has built a wine programme that is unusually large for an airline. It has invested over US$1 billion into procuring wines and champagnes with long maturation schedules. The carrier maintains cellars in France holding millions of bottles maturing for years before being served onboard. This scale gives the airline better negotiating power with producers and allows it to schedule offerings of rare vintages like Rosé 2009.
Challenges for broader industry adoption
Not every airline can replicate this model. The cost of acquiring rare vintages, maturing them, ensuring quality during long haul flights and pairing them appropriately with food is high. Operational constraints such as storage, sourcing, cabin service and regulatory considerations make such luxury offerings viable mostly for carriers with strong premium passenger volumes and cash flow. There is also the risk that expectations may rise faster than service or menu improvements can keep up.
Impact on food landscape outside aviation
What happens in the sky often filters down to high end restaurants, private members’ clubs and luxury hotels. When an airline like Emirates raises the bar for champagne and food pairing, it accelerates trends in luxury hospitality. Chefs and sommeliers elsewhere may feel pressure to match the creativity and technical precision seen in these inflight programmes. Suppliers of rare wines and champagnes benefit from higher demand. Wine competitions, reviews and publications may shift more attention to vintage rosés and aged champagnes.
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