Why is a wine flight called a flight? [reader mail]
Reader question: Why is a flight of wines called a “flight”?
It’s tempting to say that the other names really didn’t take off.
But, in reality, a flight is a grouping of similar objects, like a flight of stairs or a flight of geese. Thus the same term applies to cabernets, pinots, or other small pours of wine, grouped together.
Are you happy with the term?
On May 19th, 2011 at 12:45 pm ,Daniel wrote:
a grouping of similar objects, yes, but what about…
a murder of crows, a crash of rhinos, a gaggle of geese, a congregation of alligators, a mob of emus, an implausibility of gnus (!), a nuisance of cats, a gulp of swallows (that might work for wine),
quite a list I found online:
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/AnimalGroups.html
lots of good alternatives, but I think “flight” is used because it also implies travel; travel over time (vintage flights) or over space (varietal or vineyard/producer flights). Plus, it sounds dramatic and exciting. “let’s all take a flight!”
It’s harder to get people excited about going through ‘battery of wines’ or a ‘litter of reds’!
On May 19th, 2011 at 1:28 pm ,mitoubab wrote:
I really like the term because having a wine flight takes my palate on a journey.
Would be interesting to make a review of how a “wine flight” is translated in other languages. I’m French, and I’m racking my brain as I cannot find a satisfying French equivalent [yet]… How sad.
On May 19th, 2011 at 9:16 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Daniel – I like your style. Next time I go to a wine bar, I’m going to try to order a gaggle of wines. No–make that a murder!
Mitoubab – Yes, what do they call this in French?
On May 22nd, 2011 at 2:16 pm ,Ernie in Berkeley wrote:
Per the Oxford English Dictionary, the first such use of “flight” (in print) was relatively recent: a 1979 New York Times article by Frank Prial, available here (possibly behind the paywall):
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60B1FF83E5A12728DDDAC0994D0405B898BF1D3
I wrote to Prial and then to Eric Asimov via the Times website to get more details, but they didn’t respond.
On May 22nd, 2011 at 4:02 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Hi Ernie –
Thanks for digging that up. For those that cannot see it because of the paywall, Frank Prial is reporting from the Los Angeles County Fair, where he was working as a judge in a wine competition. He says that the groups of wines are called flights in wine judging. (Article dated 8/15/1979.)
So, in the quest for true etymology of the term, I guess we have to find out how groups of wines came to be called flights in wine competitions in the 1970s.
Anyone have an insight?
On October 20th, 2011 at 11:49 am ,Ciara and Katie Wine and Dine: One Duke Restaurant | Happening Hamilton wrote:
[…] lined our wines up in proper flight form from white to red, light to full-bodied. The reasoning behind this standard order is […]
On April 2nd, 2012 at 10:13 pm ,N Wheatley wrote:
Of course ‘flight of wines’ derived from wine judges who could not agree on which group of wines were worth more than $100 but they eventually agreed that the concept of such wine values was a flight of fancy so they jokingly referred to the wines as a ‘flight of fancy wines’ which for professional reasons was reduced to ‘flight of wines’.