What to do with the complimentary Oceania bottle of wine?

[jonthomas]

15 hours ago, RD64 said:

Leave a bottle of wine? Who does that? Obviously not it European background.

 

We do not drink wine...

[Jancruz]

On 2/1/2023 at 12:12 AM, hawkesbaynz said:

Can you not take it to dinner, and not pay the corkage? Is it really that bad?
 

I think we took the last one home and gave it to our neighbour who will drink anything. 

you dont have to pay corkage on Oceania wine

Jancruz1

[PirateShark]

We'll get our first free bottle this year.  Is it truly `undrinkable ` like corked/flawed or just not to your taste?  

[DrHemlock]

1 hour ago, PirateShark said:

Is it truly `undrinkable ` like corked/flawed or just not to your taste?  

It is not corked (or never has been in our experience).  Flawed is an individual judgment as to what constitutes a flaw.  

It is obviously not hand-crafted in small batches from south-facing slopes in Napa Valley or Bordeaux.  For some, that's a flaw.  

It's a drinkable low-mid-range wine -- probably a blend -- that might retail at Total Wine for around 10-12 bucks.  It's free (or, more properly, included) so we drink it -- and have never suffered for it.  

However, if your level of wine knowledge and palate sophistication are closer to, say, CC poster pinotlover than to ours, then YMMV and only you can be the judge.

Edited February 6, 2023 by DrHemlock

[DrHemlock]

P.S. to PirateShark:  If the Willamette in your signature is the one in Oregon, then you may very well be disappointed by Cyclo.  We've enjoyed the products from your neck of the woods; they are levels above the Oceania freebie.

Edited February 6, 2023 by DrHemlock

[PirateShark]

11 minutes ago, DrHemlock said:

It is not corked (or never has been in our experience).  Flawed is an individual judgment as to what constitutes a flaw.  

It is obviously not hand-crafted in small batches from south-facing slopes in Napa Valley or Bordeaux.  For some, that's a flaw.  

It's a drinkable low-mid-range wine -- probably a blend -- that might retail at Total Wine for around 10-12 bucks.  It's free (or, more properly, included) so we drink it -- and have never suffered for it.  

However, if your level of wine knowledge and palate sophistication are closer to, say, CC poster pinotlover than to ours, then YMMV and only you can be the judge.

I grew up in the industry but my palate isn't precious 😉 (although my current cellar may say otherwise).  We are perfectly happy with an everyday drinker so we will definitely give it a go for a in room tipple.   Thank you very much for your perspective.

[PirateShark]

10 minutes ago, DrHemlock said:

P.S. to PirateShark:  If the Willamette in your signature is the one in Oregon, then you may very well be disappointed by Cyclo.  We've enjoyed the products from your neck of the woods; they are levels above the Oceania freebie.

We are indeed in the heart of the beautiful Willamette AVA and are spoiled and blessed in equal measure.

[jonthomas]

We do not drink ANY wine. So it could be the best, we would not know it. I do enjoy sweet  liquors and so it is not because of the alcohol content...just dont like the taste of wine..to me they are all vinegar like. 

[ORV]

3 hours ago, DrHemlock said:

It is not corked (or never has been in our experience).  Flawed is an individual judgment as to what constitutes a flaw.  

It is obviously not hand-crafted in small batches from south-facing slopes in Napa Valley or Bordeaux.  For some, that's a flaw.  

It's a drinkable low-mid-range wine -- probably a blend -- that might retail at Total Wine for around 10-12 bucks.  It's free (or, more properly, included) so we drink it -- and have never suffered for it.  

However, if your level of wine knowledge and palate sophistication are closer to, say, CC poster pinotlover than to ours, then YMMV and only you can be the judge.

I'm no wine expert, but, it's pretty bad in my opinion. I don't know where you're at, but in my area it would be a 6 or 8 dollar bottle. To put it in perspective, my usual wines that I drink would be a red blend, a pinot or Zinfandel in the 10 -20 a bottle retail range. I'm completely happy with Conundrum, or something similar. If I'm being extravagant I'll go for something like Cain. To a wine expert I'm sure my tastes would be laughable. 

[PirateShark]

Absolutely nothing wrong with drinking what you enjoy.  I've been known to change my sommelier nephews mind occasionally with a decidedly bargain bottle.  Price does not equal quality or value.

[pinotlover]

It’s the definition of plonk. It’s neither corked nor undrinkable, it’s just a very poor quality of wine. 
 

Ours was a non descriptive white blend. If memory serves me it was a Sav Blanc, Chardonnay blend of non malolactic fruit, so mostly just flavors of grapefruit and citrus. Probably for the best, since malolactic would have killed the acidity, and the acidity was the only thing saving it. I think we took it to lunch in the Terrace on a sea day. Had some cheese, charcuterie, and apples. Boring wine which we drank what we wanted and left the rest.

 

Chill it down to 55 degrees F, and I’ll give it a 79-80. As it warms it degrades to a 75 quickly. Plonk.

[PirateShark]

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

It’s the definition of plonk. It’s neither corked nor undrinkable, it’s just a very poor quality of wine. 
 

Ours was a non descriptive white blend. If memory serves me it was a Sav Blanc, Chardonnay blend of non malolactic fruit, so mostly just flavors of grapefruit and citrus. Probably for the best, since malolactic would have killed the acidity, and the acidity was the only thing saving it. I think we took it to lunch in the Terrace on a sea day. Had some cheese, charcuterie, and apples. Boring wine which we drank what we wanted and left the rest.

 

Chill it down to 55 degrees F, and I’ll give it a 79-80. As it warms it degrades to a 75 quickly. Plonk.

Thankfully I'm not that much of a white wine drinker!  Although the red could be the equivalent of "experiments in winemaking" from the sounds of it.  I grew up with homemade wine so if I can live through that, I can live through this 😂

[Redtravel]

You can take the complimentary bottle to dinner. No corkage charge. However, if you don’t finish the bottle, don’t let the crew store it for you. Take it back to your cabin.  On Marina in December, we took our bottle to Toscana. We let them store it.  We had more than half bottle left.  We watched then write our cabin number on the bottle. Went to Polo where we asked for our bottle. After a long time, the waiter returned empty handed. He then asked what did the bottle look like.  He quickly returned with a bottle that looked like ours.  Looked strange that there was far less than we had left. when we drank it, it tasted awful.  No way that it was our bottle.  After that we took any bottle back to the cabin. We also noticed lots of people doing the same thing.  

[ORV]

We asked if we could trade it for a sparkling wine, and they did. I guess we won the lottery on that one as we got a bottle of Heidseick Piper(spelling?) that seemed pretty good. We only wanted something to make Mimosas with. 

[DrHemlock]

22 hours ago, ORV said:

To a wine expert I'm sure my tastes would be laughable. 

I'm with you, ORV, but your comment about price propelled me to further investigation of Cyclo red.  (We haven't been offered the white as pinotlover has.)

I found this: https://www.vivino.com/US/en/cyclo-reserva-cabernet-sauvignon/w/6282083.  That's clearly the bottle from O; it's right on the label.  Mind you, I know nothing about Vivino -- whether they're reputable, knowledgeable or neither -- but hey, they're on the internet so they must be experts, right?

I confess to having a laugh while reading pinotlover's comment above.  Not in a snarky way, but because his/her knowledge and descriptive ability are way above mine.  The word "malolactic" has never passed my lips, and probably never will.....though I've always enjoyed a nice mouthfeel. 😎

[vaitape]

Oh my goodness sake...just drink it and be glad O gave you something for "free".

If you don't want to try it, give it to your neighbor in the cabin next to you.

[janecambridge]

Our 2 complimentary wines were not needed by us so we gave them to the two guys in artists loft. 
The 2 complimentary bottles of champagne,  we gave to our friends who are on the ship from December to  April! 

[pinotlover]

6 hours ago, janecambridge said:

Our 2 complimentary wines were not needed by us so we gave them to the two guys in artists loft. 
The 2 complimentary bottles of champagne,  we gave to our friends who are on the ship from December to  April! 

I agree with this.  There is a huge market for inexpensive wine regardless of the quality of that wine. That’s why it’s produced in the millions of cases. If you don’t like it, yet see someone enjoying theirs, just nicely ask them if they’d like more. You’ll probably make a friend.

[LHT28]

Why do people feel they need to drink it  or get rid of it  just leave in the cabin  when you leave

Do you also strip the cabin of  other things??

[janecambridge]

7 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Why do people feel they need to drink it  or get rid of it  just leave in the cabin  when you leave

Do you also strip the cabin of  other things??

Nope. We didn’t feel the need to get rid of it. I had a conversation with the artists and offered it. Felt good not to leave it to Oceania who had let us down on the Amazon trip. 
We left hefty tips and I gave out Christmas gifts. The six bottles of liquor we left in the suite. Only 3 opened. 

[DrHemlock]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Do you also strip the cabin of  other things??

Bulgari toiletries, Oceania pens and notepads?  Yes, absolutely!  😎

[shepherd really]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Why do people feel they need to drink it  or get rid of it  just leave in the cabin  when you leave

Or since we paid for it (because nothing is free), we can do whatever we want with it without asking anyone for permission or approval.  

[jonthomas]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Why do people feel they need to drink it  or get rid of it  just leave in the cabin  when you leave

Do you also strip the cabin of  other things??

 

strange comment...other things are not there for us to take.....the wine is!