ANA Now Serving Up Top Sake on Long-Haul Flights
The airline tested and tasted more than 300 sake brews to come up with the best choices.
How do you like your sake? All Nippon Airways (ANA) has partnered with renowned sake sommelier Yasuyuki Kitahara to update its list of in-flight sake options and offer tastings and pourings to passengers.
Kitahara, manager of the Conrad Tokyo’s Cerise and Collage restaurants, won the prestigious World Kikisake-shi (Japanese sake sommelier) competition in 2014. With his input, ANA has worked to reimagine its sake menu, selecting 36 new Japanese sakes (19 for in-flight and 17 for ANA lounges) and now offers a total of 44 Japanese sakes to its passengers.
The selections will be served to Business Class passengers flying from the U.S. and Canada (except Honolulu), Mexico, Europe, Oceania and selected routes in Asia (Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and India) to Japan.
The menu has been carefully curated to appeal to avid sake lovers as well as those who may be trying sake for the first time. Highly-rated sake such as Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute, Jigon, Nabeshima and Denshu enrich the selection.
The selection and curation process began with approximately 300 varieties of sake, many of which are well known across Japan. After the first paper screening, these were narrowed down to 90, followed by a rigorous screening process involving tastings and consultations with ANA service staff followed. A final tasting was held to pair up with in-flight cuisine and 36 sakes were selected in the end.
More information: All Nippon Airways
