Singapore Airlines is having another reshuffle of its Champagne offering in the Business Class cabin, swapping out Charles Heidsieck on 60% of its flights to a less well-rated alternative from another producer in the same region – the Henriot house of Reims.
This comes only seven months after the airline reintroduced Charles Heidsieck in the Business Class cabin on most flights in June 2022, after switching away from the label in 2019.
Though it’s getting rarer on the network, vintage Piper-Heidsieck is still making an appearance on some longer flights too, instead of Charles Heidsieck, with these two highly-rated drops now the preserve of the carrier’s longest routes.
Henriot is the latest fizz
Singapore Airlines is now pouring non-vintage Henriot Souverain Brut Champagne on all of its regional flights, including those to and from South Korea and Japan, plus some longer services too including those to and from South Africa, Dubai and Los Angeles via Tokyo.
This one brings home a very reasonable 4.0 out of 5 stars on Vivino, though that certainly doesn’t match up to the superb 4.2 out of 5 for the Charles Heidsieck it is largely replacing on these flights, nor the vintage Piper-Heidsieck which also gets 4.2 out of 5.
Nonetheless, a 4 star rating is still above-par for Business Class on many airlines.
Qantas, for example, is serving Duval-Leroy Réserve Brut (3.8 stars) or Jaquart Brut Mosaique (3.9 stars) in Business Class, so Singapore Airlines is still pipping some of the competition here.
Swiss and Lufthansa also serve Duval-Leroy Réserve on flights from Singapore.
Here’s what SIA has to say about its new Henriot Champagne.
Singapore Airlines
Henriot is a small highly regarded House founded in 1808 by Apolline Henriot – the first cuvee made was Brut Souverain.
It is a multi-cru, multi-vintage blend made predominantly from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir with a small percentage of Pinot Meunier in some years. The vineyards are now farmed organically. The wines are made by Chef de Cave Alice Tétienne and are complex, refined and long ageing.
This Champagne is straw in colour with excellent brioche-like aromatics, the palate is complex and long with excellent acidity and a dry finish. In all a delicious and sophisticated Champagne.
This Champagne retails in Singapore from around S$75, which isn’t actually too dissimilar to Charles Heidsieck, despite the lower overall rating.
Retail prices do not translate directly to contract purchase rates of course, with airlines like SIA enjoying large discounts for the quantities they order, so we can’t say for sure that the new Champagne is saving the airline any money.
That said, Singapore Airlines gets through over 350,000 bottles of Champagne per year on its flights, around 1,000 per day, so even a small cost differential has a big impact on the bottom line.
“The Champagne bill for Business Class alone is close to $10 million Singapore dollars annually”, Hermann Freidanck, Manager Food & Beverage at Singapore Airlines, told Forbes in 2017.
Which flights?
If you’re travelling on Singapore Airlines in Business Class, you will probably now find that Henriot Brut Souverain is being poured instead of Charles Heidsieck or Piper-Heidsieck.
This currently applies for SIA flights operating to and from:
- Australia / NZ (Cairns and Darwin only)
- Middle East
- North America (Los Angeles SQ11/12 only)
- North Asia
- South Africa
- South Asia
- South East Asia
This list represents 68% of SIA flights operating each day, meaning only 32% of services will still benefit from the superior Charles Heidsieck or vintage Piper-Heidsieck options.
Those routes retaining these better Champagnes are:
- Australia / NZ (except Cairns and Darwin)
- Europe
- North America (except Los Angeles SQ11/12)
- Turkey
Many of our readers will be relieved to see that Aussie routes keep the Charles Heidsieck or Piper-Heidsieck Champagnes, though do note that shorter flights to and from Cairns and Darwin on the Boeing 737-8 MAX are now getting the Henriot.
Inflight menu
You can see which Champagne to expect on your next Singapore Airlines flight by viewing the menu for your flight online up to eight days before departure via the airline’s Digital Menu System.
This allows you to see what’s on the menu with plenty of notice, including the all-important Champagne selection, so keep an eye out since this new Henriot Champagne could make its way to other flights and routes in the weeks ahead.
What about First Class?
Singapore Airlines recently removed vintage Dom Pérignon Champagne from its First Class and Suites cabins, so all flights with these cabin classes now have the option of two Champagnes on board:
Even Jakarta services, which used to only offer one Champagne in First Class pre-COVID, now offer both of these options, in common with all other routes featuring a First Class cabin.
Summary
Singapore Airlines is mixing up its Champagne offering again this year, with a very decent but arguably poorer-rated Henriot Brut now plying all regional flights, plus a number of longer sectors too.
The longest route with Henriot Champagne is Singapore to or from Los Angeles via Tokyo (SQ11/12), but some other notable services with this poorer-rated fizz on board in Business Class include Dubai, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Overall around 63% of services are now offering this Champagne in the Business Class cabin, according to the carrier’s inflight menu portal.
Meanwhile those flying to or from Europe, most North American cities and most Australian destinations will still be getting Charles Heidsieck or vintage Piper-Heidsieck, making these highly-rated drops the preserve of the carrier’s longest routes.
(Cover Photo: SAS Champagne Henriot)
Actually Vivino is a good place to store info on wine that I had tasted, maybe not so much for grading the quality of wine. I would use it as a guide, whether vintage or not, even champagne will benefit from decanting. The problem is that in the air, no one will have the time to decant. But I’ll have to admit the catering out of Sydney was way better than Changi.
Really? But the meal selection out of Singapore is huge compared to Sydney isn’t it?
We did BTC and out of Changi the only good thing was the satay. The beef cheek was salty but my wife had the salmon which was ok but this cannot be compared to what came out of Sydney, perfectly medium rare scotch fillet.
Actually Henriot is not bad but I will miss CH on the regional routes it is a great champagne.
Singapore Airlines business is the world’s best premium economy
SIA better be careful. A lot of the competition has caught up to them in terms of business and first experience.
I understand these changes to keep costs under control but I don’t understand how they can do it whilst trying to charge double what other airlines charge. Every business route I look at the prices for qantas, Qatar, Thai, Etihad etc are all half the price of SQ.
I think SQ have a good product but are very low value compared to other airlines and cut backs like this will only make that worse.
Where do you find the flights for half the price?
Amusing article. I appreciate the info but not the unnecessary dramatization. A hue and cry made for a 0.2 star difference in Vivino ratings and with that came the usage of comparatives like superior/superb.
0.2 out of 5 is huge. On a 100 point scale, it is 4 points.
Imagine a wine scored…100 vs 96… 99 vs 95.. or 93 vs 89. The difference in scoring is obvious.
I couldn’t care less about the the change to the champagne. But, SQ J class has fallen a long, long way. I just did SYD ZRH with my wife and kids (yesterday) and was very underwhelmed. Food very ordinary and even bad. And silly false economies like no hot towels… A350 my favorite aircraft but the hard product on SQ is cramped and uninspired. The old school seat on the noisy 777 (to ZRH) is still much better.
As to the customer support, call centre experience (should you ever need it), it is shockingly bad.
Sigh. 10 years ago they were a market leader.
Agree JD. I fly regularly out of Perth. We only get the 787 so a little more cramped than even the a350.
The midnight horror flight is a real horror with those seats. Very cramped. While true that previously we never had a lie flat or 1 2 1 config out of Perth the old seats seemed far more comfortable.
Many customers gave bad comments, bad ratings. But don’t know why they still fly the same airlines everytime they go on a trip. Once I got a bad experience, the most I will give them one moe chance. No improvement, I will never return again.
Probably because some of us use our rewards. And despite my criticisms of SIA the other airlines i can choose arent any better.