Wine cruises drawing connoisseurs to sea

For wine lovers, there’s nothing like discovering new tastes of the grape. For cruise lovers, there’s nothing like touring some of the most beautiful regions of the world. Combine the two and you have a wine cruise, a happy blend that is attracting more and more travelers.

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Silversea Cruises

Wine cruise activities can include private tastings, which could offer a chance to try good wines held back from regular sale.

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Silversea Cruises

The Silver Whisper plays host to wine cruises for Silversea Cruises, which has scheduled 11 such voyages this year. Wine cruises ‘are now a recognized travel niche,’ says Larry Martin, president of Food and Wine Trails, which arranges trips for other lines.

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Silversea Cruises

Passengers enjoy a tasting event during a Silversea Wine Series cruise. Other activities can include visits to wineries.

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“We love wine and we love Europe,” said Joan Carter of Destin, Fla., explaining why she and her husband, Stephen, chose a wine cruise last year as their very first sea voyage.

“We had a wine event almost every day, and a wine dinner with pairings,” Joan said of their seven-night Windstar cruise in the Mediterranean. Their itinerary took them to ports in Spain, France and Italy, where they visited several wine areas, including the Super-Tuscan wine region of Bolgheri. There, they lunched at and toured the Ornellaia Winery, one of the few in the world to receive a perfect 100 score from Wine Spectator.

Their host vintner was Kosta Browne, a small California winery whose pinot noir was ranked in the Wine Spectator’s top 10 wines of 2006. On board was the firm’s marketing director, Dan Kosta, who arranged the Ornellaia visit.

That’s a perk that comes from having a winemaker on board, said Larry Martin, president of Food and Wine Trails, which put together the Carters’ wine cruise.

Through the winemaker’s contacts, group members can get access to wineries not usually visited, and to wines not usually served. Wineries who host wine cruises may be big operators such as Robert Mondavi and Beringer, Martin said, but many more are less known but respected boutique vintners, such as Paul Hobbs in California and Paumanok and Wolffer Estate, upcoming wineries on Long Island.

Like the Carters’ trip, most wine cruises are actually regular sailings with a wine affinity group aboard that has paid extra for special grape-oriented events. These may include private tastings, educational talks, parties, winemaker lunches or dinners, and excursions to wineries and vineyards ashore. Such groups may get to taste the host winemaker’s “library selections,” especially good wines held back from regular sale.

“Wine cruises give passengers more bang for their buck … all the bells and whistles that come with being aboard a cruise ship, plus the wine,” Martin said.

It’s a growing trend. “They [wine cruises] are now a recognized travel niche,” Martin said. His company not only organizes wine cruises but also runs about 300 wine-themed shore excursions annually.

Typically, a wine group’s price will include private onboard wine events, with wine-related excursions ashore at an optional extra cost. A wine cruise may feature one or more winemakers, who bring their own wines aboard for tastings and other wine-group gatherings.

Who sails on wine cruises? “Our clients are generally a little younger than the other passengers, 45 to 55 years old,” said Jim Bisciglia, president of Specialty Wine Cruises, another wine-cruise packager. And they’re not necessarily veteran cruisers, he said. “Probably 50 percent of them have never cruised before.”

Because those who have a passion for wine tend to be more affluent, most wine cruises take place aboard upscale vessels. The Mediterranean is the most popular region for wine cruises. But smaller river boats offer wine cruises on European waterways such as the Danube and the canals of France, or on such American rivers as the Columbia and the Napa.

One tall-masted sailing ship in Maine, the Stephen Taber, offers wine sailings. And a full program of wine events may be offered on cruises that never get near wine-producing regions, such as those in the Caribbean.

Though wine travel has traditionally been expensive, Martin said, wine cruises need not be priced out of reach, particularly when the economic downturn has prompted cruise lines and packagers to make attractive offers.

“We’ve lowered prices by $1,000 a person for new bookings on five departures, if booked by March 31,” he said.

A few cruise lines conduct their own wine cruises. Silversea, for instance, has scheduled 11 Wine Series voyages this year that include special tastings, events and lectures conducted by wine professionals.

But just as wine has become a normal part of many American meals, so have wine activities such as tastings and vineyard visits become routine on many cruise ships. Many now also have wine bars, and the new Celebrity Solstice has taken the trend one step further with an elegant wine tasting room.

But beware, some cruise line’s wine cruises are mere adjuncts to epicurean themes or perhaps simply offer a shore excursion to a vineyard.

“Some lines just put one wine expert on board and call it a wine cruise,” Martin cautions.