Alcohol Tastings on European Sailings

[KatieKepic]

Do the tasings onboard for European sailings use more European brands? I'm mostly interested in the wine and beer. We currently have both booked but are hoping they'll feature more local selections.

 

[Iceman13]

We were on a North Atlantic cruise last August and did a wine tasting. In our session, we had wines from a mix of countries, and not just local selections. I don't recall all of the specifics, but I know one was a US wine.

 

[lollidrop]

It mind depend on which tasting, but the one I did was not anything local.

 

[KatieKepic]

Thanks y'all! We got lucky on one out of Galveston and they had Messina Hof (a Texas winery) onboard and all the wines during that tasting were theirs. And then on our SWDAS sailing, they were all Skywalker Vineyards wines. I was hoping that on the European sailings, they would do local wines but it's looking like they don't.

 

[bigAWL]

Every wine tasting I've done on DCL (whether Caribbean, Alaska, or Europe) included wines from multiple regions, usually some combination of French, German, California, South Africa, Australia, and Chile, and had nothing to do with the sailing location. It was part of the seminar to discuss the differences between the regions and varietals.

Most beer tastings I've done did not include many interesting beers, except the one I did on the Dream in the Caribbean last month. We had:

• Red Stripe (Jamaica)
• IPA (US)
• Bourbon ale (US)
• Belgian style double (Canada)
• Belgian triple (Belgium)
• Baby Guinness (layered Kahlua and Baileys) "for dessert"

 

[KatieKepic]

Every wine tasting I've done on DCL (whether Caribbean, Alaska, or Europe) included wines from multiple regions, usually some combination of French, German, California, South Africa, Australia, and Chile, and had nothing to do with the sailing location. It was part of the seminar to discuss the differences between the regions and varietals.

Most beer tastings I've done did not include many interesting beers, except the one I did on the Dream in the Caribbean last month. We had:

• Red Stripe (Jamaica)
• IPA (US)
• Bourbon ale (US)
• Belgian style double (Canada)
• Belgian triple (Belgium)
• Baby Guinness (layered Kahlua and Baileys) "for dessert"

Thank you! We've never done a beer one as the reviews have pretty much said what you said and not many interesting choices. That baby guinness sounds good though With the wine selection being different for the wine packages on European sailings, I was hoping they would tailor the beverage tastings too. We'll probably cancel the beer and keep the wine.

 

[kiford]

I know that sometimes the wine tastings are referred to as Old World or New World if they're focused on Europe versus North America, South America, New Zealand and Australia. I would assume if it's not labelled, it could be a mix of whatever they have on board. I've generally found that they have a nice mix of wines from around the world.

They definitely do procure food and alcohol from Europe when they are based there for the season but I've found that it can be inconsistent. On one of our Med cruises, I found this amazing yoghurt in Cabanas that is only available in Europe, but they only had it for the first half of the cruise. One of the chefs told me that they have to procure through certain trusted pre-vetted vendors of which they have fewer in Europe so it's not like you just go shopping at every port to pick up a few things; sometimes they can only acquire items from specific ports. So it's not certain that they'll focus only on European wines but I would assume that they'll have possibly a better/wider selection than when they purchase from US vendors.

 

[tvguy]

Wow, I forget what we paid, but nowhere near $70. But full disclosure, I am old enough to have purchased a case of Dom Perignon for $32 a bottle.

 

[KatieKepic]

I know that sometimes the wine tastings are referred to as Old World or New World if they're focused on Europe versus North America, South America, New Zealand and Australia. I would assume if it's not labelled, it could be a mix of whatever they have on board. I've generally found that they have a nice mix of wines from around the world.

They definitely do procure food and alcohol from Europe when they are based there for the season but I've found that it can be inconsistent. On one of our Med cruises, I found this amazing yoghurt in Cabanas that is only available in Europe, but they only had it for the first half of the cruise. One of the chefs told me that they have to procure through certain trusted pre-vetted vendors of which they have fewer in Europe so it's not like you just go shopping at every port to pick up a few things; sometimes they can only acquire items from specific ports. So it's not certain that they'll focus only on European wines but I would assume that they'll have possibly a better/wider selection than when they purchase from US vendors.

That was my hope/thought as well. I didn't realize that the wine selections for the packages was different on European sailings until I read a thread on here. We did have a few different things in Cabanas on our Northern Europe cruise in 2019 so hopefully some new/different things on our upcoming one as well