Celebrity sommelier revamps the Delta Airlines wine range

Delta Airlines has enlisted the services of Master Sommelier and TV host Andrea Robinson to overhaul its in-flight wine programme.

Robinson's first selection of wines will debut onboard the airline's Business Elite class this month with standard international and domestic first and standard classes following later in the year. The wines have been chosen to match a new five-course in-flight food service created by acclaimed Miami-based chef Michelle Bernstein.

Robinson sampled over 900 wines at Delta's Atlanta headquarters last year before making her final choice for the full 2008 programme, which runs to over 130,000 cases of wine and Champagne.

"Since wines can taste different in-flight, I've pain­stakingly chosen wines with enough flavour intensity to shine ? even at 30,000 feet," said Robinson.

Other duties for Robinson include "wine culture" seminars for the airline's flight attendants, and a regular series of 30-minute films on local foods and wines at some of Delta's top destinations.