Qantas has named a Boeing 737 aircraft McLaren Vale after South Australia's famed wine region TOAST: Corinne Sutton from Qantas Cabin Crew with some of the Rosemount Estate wines and the newly named McLaren Vale aircraft. THE McLaren Vale wine region is flying high after Qantas officially unveiled its namesake - a Boeing 737 aircraft christened McLaren Vale. Executive manager, Qantas domestic sales and marketing, Stephen Limbrick, said naming the aircraft McLaren Vale was a "natural fit" and celebrates the airline's long history of supporting wineries from the area. "Qantas is a huge supporter of the Australian wine industry so when the opportunity came up to name an aircraft after the wine region we leapt at it," he said. Serving Australian wine on our flights is very important to us, it's also an important part of promoting the Australian wine industry to the world. The announcement came ahead of the airline's sponsorship of the McLaren Vale Winemakers Bushing Lunch, on Friday. The famous McLaren Vale wine growing region to the south of Adelaide. The lunch celebrates the naming of the Bushing King, who becomes the wine region's ambassador for the year. Mr Limbrick said Qantas serves Kangarilla Road, Maxwell Wines, Chapel Hill, Wirra Wirra and other local drops on their planes. "We are delighted to be able to give visitors from Asia, Europe, the Americas and everywhere else Qantas flies a taste of the wonderful produce coming out of the region," he said. South Australian Tourism Minister Leon Bignell said this was another win for SA, after it was announced Adelaide secured ninth place on Lonely Planet's 2014 Top 10 Cities of the world. "Now what we need to do is make sure all South Australians become ambassadors and we've got the hook to throw out there, it's not just us saying it but Lonely Planet has put us in the Top 10," he said. "I'm one of those people who flies a lot and every time you walk on to a plane you see the name of the plane, so it just puts it out there a little bit," he said of Qantas' McLaren Vale aircraft. Rosemount Estate's head winemaker Matt Koch said Qantas' initiative is fantastic news for the region. "It will give us a great presence domestically and internationally ... we can only hope for increased visitation, increased McLaren Vale brand awareness and we're over the moon," he said. I think it is a great achievement for McLaren Vale to be recognised by Qantas and it is great for Qantas to fly McLaren Vale's flag because we're pretty proud of the region; we've got a lot on offer. The McLaren Vale aircraft is already in operation and will mainly operate on east-west services.