4,000 wine bottles go to Sea

Food & Wine Trails has planned 14 different wine cruises in 2010 to the Mediterranean and Australia and New Zealand. The cruises are on three of the highest rated cruise lines of the world, with each sponsored by a winery or a group of wineries that brings 300 to 400 bottles of wine for their guests to enjoy.

Wineries host these cruises to educate and build relationships, so an incredible selection is brought to wow the group says Food & Wine Trials President, Larry Martin. All 2010 Food & Wine Trails cruises are on Celebrity, Regent and Oceania Cruises, which are premium or deluxe, adult-oriented cruise lines. Guests are highly discerning when it comes to onboard service and food quality, and these cruise lines receive top awards in these areas.

Food & Wine Trails cruises begin at $1,649 per person double occupancy and all except one include free round-trip airfare, the ship and port fees, and prepaid gratuities as an early booking incentive. Martin stresses that this offers tremendous value to the consumer, as his programs include all that wine, many private events, all meals, deluxe accommodations, taxes and round trip air transportation.

The 2010 Food & Wine Trails wine-cruise collection includes a few past sponsors, such as the Russian River Valley Winegrowers, the Zinfandel producers of ZAP, and Matanzas Creek and Arrowood wineries, but also many new sponsors as well. New sponsors include Wines from Spain and Andr Lurton, Bordeauxs largest owner of wine-chateaus. These two organizations are cruising on Food & Wine magazines May 19th European wine cruise.

Firestone, Sebastiani, Three Rivers and Lincourt Winery are teaming up, on a May 24th cruise that will begin in Marseille and end in Rome.

Robert Mondavi, Franciscan and Mt. Veeder are three top Cabernet-Sauvignon producers, and are hosting a Napa Valley focused Cabernet cruise from the Greek Islands to Barcelona on June 30th.

Flowers Winery has won many awards and was one of the first wineries to develop a direct-to-consumer program. They are hosting their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Mediterranean cruise on July 24th.

Food and wine cruises that are still in the works include November 2010 cruises to New Zealand and Australia hosted by Pat Kuleto of Kuleto Wines and Pat Kuleto Restaurants who will travel with San Francisco restaurateur and James Beard award-nominee Nancy Oakes of Boulevard Restaurant, and a South American cruise hosted by world famous vintner Paul Hobbs. Paul will most likely host a pre-cruise visit to his hot new winery in Mendoza Vinas Copos, which received Wine Spectators highest rating ever given for a South American wine.

Also planned for January 2011 is another Sydney to New Zealand cruise hosted by cult Pinot Noir producer Halleck Vineyard. Halleck will be accompanied by nationally known wine-writer Dan Berger.

August 7th, 2009 by Beverage Blogger | Posted in News & Events | (0)