LATAM Airlines : to serve award-winning Latin American sparkling wine in Premium Business

· AZUR from Chile and Cave Geisse Brut from Brazil were selected by Master Sommelier Héctor Vergara from over 40 premium sparkling wines from the region to be served on international flights as part of new wine list

· During May, Premium Business passengers will also have the opportunity to taste the best red wine in Chile according to the Descorchados 2017 wine guide

Santiago, Chile, 4 May 2017 - LATAM Airlines is to serve award-winning sparkling wine from Latin America in its Premium Business cabin on international routes from today.

Over the next six months, Azur from Chile and Cave Geisse Brut from Brazil will form part of an exclusively Latin American wine list, which will rotate each month and showcase wines from Chile, Argentina and Brasil - ranging from classic and award-winning blends to the latest trends and varietals unique to the region.

'In recent years, South America has gained a reputation for producing some of the world's leading wines and we've created a new offering that will give our passengers the opportunity to taste some of the most celebrated and emblematic examples on offer,' said Eduardo Costa, Senior Director of Customer Experience, LATAM Airlines Group. 'As Latin America's leading airline, our mission is to celebrate the best of the region onboard - whether it's food and wine, inflight entertainment or our renowned hospitality.'

AZUR, named best sparkling wine 2016 by the Club de Amantes del Vino in Chile (CAV; the Wine Lovers' Club), is a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sparkling blend that is made using the traditional champagne winemaking method and is matured for 36 months. The grapes are grown in Limarí Valley - approximately 400km north of the Chilean capital Santiago and 30km from Pacific Ocean - where they benefit from clay soils and the cooling influence of the Humboldt Current.

Cave Geisse Brut, gold-medal winner in the 2014 and 2016 Vinalies® Internationales wine competition and recipient of 95 points in Decanter magazine, is also a Chardonnay-Pinot Noir sparkling blend made using the traditional method that is matured for 24 months. The grapes are grown at an altitude of 800m in Pinto Bandeira, part of the Vinhos de Montanha (Wine Mountains) region in the southern Brazilian state of Río Grande do Sul.

'We were tasked with finding the best premium sparkling wines in Latin America to welcome passengers onboard and to toast the start of their journey. We were not only looking for wines that tasted great on the ground but also at over 30,000 feet where sensory perceptions are dampened - so a dry taste as well as notable aromas were important. After an extensive selection process involving over 40 top wines from across the continent, we chose these fine examples from Chile and Brazil, which have enjoyed deserved international recognition,' said Héctor Vergara, Latin America's only Master Sommelier in Latin America and a consultant to LATAM Airlines for 19 years.

The best wines of the Southern Cone

The sparkling wines form part of LATAM's new Premium Business wine offering that will showcase 34 original and internationally recognized wines from Chile, Argentina and Brazil over the next year.

During May, Premium Business passengers will also be served Las 3 Marias, a Cabernet Sauvignon produced in Maipo Valley by Gandolini, which was named as the best red wine in Chile in the Descorchados 2017 wine guide.

Each wine on LATAM's monthly lists has been carefully selected from over 500 renowned and award-winning wines to pair with its inflight meals as well as for their characteristics at altitude.

The new wine list is available in the Premium Business cabin of LATAM's international flights on Boeing 787, 767, 777 and Airbus A350 aircraft. Part of the wine list is also available in Premium Economy on Airbus A320 family aircraft (A319, A320 and A321) on international flights.

LATAM´s Premium Business wine list, May 2017