Food and Wine Pairing Workshop

[Tyler414]

I am scheduled to do the "food and wine pairing" next week on Beyond, if I remember I'll try to take pics and give my opinion.  The only reason I booked it, was because it was 45% off a while back and I'm no wine person, so should be a good experience for me.

Some folks in this thread are also talking about "world wine tour"  I'm not doing that tour, so no opinion on that one.

[drakes2]

On 2/17/2023 at 10:48 AM, jelayne said:

We found the World Wine Tour to be the best.  

I just booked it for an upcoming cruise as it is 29% off today. I said I wouldn't do again but its a TA with 8 sea days. Price was excellent IMO. 

[drakes2]

On 2/14/2023 at 7:17 PM, DaKahuna said:

You certainly get a lot of information and I was able to ask for a second tasting on the World Wine Tour.

I remember one cruise they ran out of an Argentina cab before we tried it so sommelier brought out a bottle from a restaurant and 4 us shared it after the tour ended.

 

 

[CNSfromHI]

My wife loves wine so we experienced this in autumn 2022 aboard the Silhouette. There's no reason to expect high-end wines here; just representative types.

 

But if you've never paired different types of wine with different types of food, I highly recommend this. Incredible how a bit of "something" can transform the taste of a wine you just sampled and didn't like into a totally different encounter -- and vice versa. Very enjoyable!

 

cjr

[drakes2]

36 minutes ago, CNSfromHI said:

My wife loves wine so we experienced this in autumn 2022 aboard the Silhouette. There's no reason to expect high-end wines here; just representative types.

 

But if you've never paired different types of wine with different types of food, I highly recommend this. Incredible how a bit of "something" can transform the taste of a wine you just sampled and didn't like into a totally different encounter -- and vice versa. Very enjoyable!

 

cjr

Do they just serve samples of food? How does this work? I may book it on my Ascent sailing 

[markeb]

3 hours ago, drakes2 said:

I remember one cruise they ran out of an Argentina cab before we tried it so sommelier brought out a bottle from a restaurant and 4 us shared it after the tour ended.

 

 

 

I would have hoped if they were doing one red and one white from Argentina the red would have been a Malbec. It's kind of the national wine of Argentina...

[drakes2]

12 minutes ago, markeb said:

 

I would have hoped if they were doing one red and one white from Argentina the red would have been a Malbec. It's kind of the national wine of Argentina...

No it definitely was a cab and a pretty good one although I also enjoy malbecs even carmenere.

[sofietucker]

9 hours ago, Andy_P said:

On the Ascent this month.

Thanks so much for this picture! In January I drank a bunch of this Grgrich Hills Opulence Chardonnay, but the last night, what he brought was Grgrich Hills Sauvignon Blanc... Thought I was losing my mind; he just shrugged. I guess I should've specified "Opulence."

[zitsky]

For me the Food and Wine pairing was one and done.  I enjoyed the crappy World Wine Tour more.  Especially considering the price of the F&W activity.  

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, drakes2 said:

Do they just serve samples of food? How does this work? I may book it on my Ascent sailing 

 

 Yes, if you look at the picture Andy_P posted, you'll see small bit size pieces of food.  They will tell you to sip the wine, now taste the food and then sip the wine again.  Depending on your taste buds, you'll notice the difference.  Different foods pair with different wines and it does make a difference.  Surprised me my first time.  

 

[Andy_P]

We bought this at "Black Friday" prices even though we had the Premium Drink Package.  We had fun, learned something, met some people and tried some wines available only by the bottle.  We could have lingered afterwards and slurped up wine served to empty tables, which I did for one wine I liked - without remorse.  We'd do it again.  We were offered a "Premium Wine Tasting" and a "Champagne Wine Tasting" at ridiculous prices and declined. 

Edited March 1 by Andy_P

[CNSfromHI]

On 2/29/2024 at 1:34 PM, drakes2 said:

Do they just serve samples of food? How does this work? I may book it on my Ascent sailing 

Sorry for the tardy reply, @drakes2!

 

Yes, just samples (see photo) for the various wines involved. But that's not a criticism; it only takes a bit of an olive, or chocolate, or cheese to totally change the way you perceive the taste of a particular style of wine. I found it very interesting how a morsel of something could transform a wine style I didn't care for into "Yes, please!" 😄

 

The entire event was led by a professional who guided each sip/taste. I took many notes and recommend this experience.

 

cjr

[drakes2]

1 minute ago, CNSfromHI said:

Sorry for the tardy reply, @drakes2!

 

Yes, just samples (see photo) for the various wines involved. But that's not a criticism; it only takes a bit of an olive, or chocolate, or cheese to totally change the way you perceive the taste of a particular style of wine. I found it very interesting how a morsel of something could transform a wine style I didn't care for into "Yes, please!" 😄

 

The entire event was led by a professional who guided each sip/taste. I took many notes and recommend this experience.

 

cjr

Glad your experience was better than the one I recently had on Princess. It was a cheap champagne (prosecco)  and three wines with a few bites for $35 plus gratuities. Very small pours and the sommelier kept rambling on;  one wine was Caymus and I would have liked a bit more but they didn't offer it at the end as we were leaving I asked and he said you could have requested another pour. Why don't they just tell you that?

[Tyler414]

Currently on Beyond.  Did the wine pairing.  Very interesting and informative. I am not remotely a wine connoisseur…

[soccermommy]

We did the World Wine event on the Summit last year, and it was a lot of fun. I found my walking was a little unsteady towards the end…the pours were good and it’s a lot of wine if you try everything. But we did learn a bit about wine regions and their respective wines.
 We did the food and wine pairing on the last sea day of our Japan Millenium cruise. For some reason, there were a lot of cancellations and the five of us remaining had the choice of canceling or doing the tasting. We all agreed to stay and it was conducted by the Food and Beverage Manager, whose name I unfortunately don’t remember. It was so informative, and he also gave us a lot of information on how (and sometimes if) they get wines onboard. 
I don’t expect to get this kind of opportunity again, but we are thinking of doing this on the Eclipse ( next week!)

 

 

 

 

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, soccermommy said:

We did the World Wine event on the Summit last year, and it was a lot of fun. I found my walking was a little unsteady towards the end…the pours were good and it’s a lot of wine if you try everything. But we did learn a bit about wine regions and their respective wines.
 We did the food and wine pairing on the last sea day of our Japan Millenium cruise. For some reason, there were a lot of cancellations and the five of us remaining had the choice of canceling or doing the tasting. We all agreed to stay and it was conducted by the Food and Beverage Manager, whose name I unfortunately don’t remember. It was so informative, and he also gave us a lot of information on how (and sometimes if) they get wines onboard. 
I don’t expect to get this kind of opportunity again, but we are thinking of doing this on the Eclipse ( next week!)

 

You know, purely for safety reasons, Celebrity should not host that wine tour event in a part of the ship with uneven flooring.  You think they would know better.  🥸

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

2 hours ago, soccermommy said:

We did the World Wine event on the Summit last year, and it was a lot of fun. I found my walking was a little unsteady towards the end…the pours were good and it’s a lot of wine if you try everything.

I had signed up for it on the Summit last summer but I guess not enough of us had and it got changed to the Food and Wine pairing which I didn't really want, so I was able to cancel it.

[heatherwillis]

That's awesome that you snagged a deal on the food and wine pairing experience. Trying new things at a discounted price is always a win. Even if you're not a wine connoisseur, it's a chance to broaden your palate and maybe discover something you enjoy. As for the "world wine tour," it's cool that others are discussing it, but it's not for everyone. And if you are in need of new recepies to cook with that wine you could try one recipe at a time with CooksCrafter.

Edited May 2 by heatherwillis

[dazey]

We sign up for the wine tasting and paring offered to Elite.  The pairing we found to be informative.  They always seem to have so many more setups than people show up for. I did the Wine Tour once(paid for) but because it had so many choices and not a lot of information I would not do it again.

 

A lot depends on the sommelier - some better than others.  The best one(Michael) we heard was promoted and we knew why. Fun to do especially if not paying. 

 

We considered doing a whiskey tasting class this year but expensive and CC comments did not make it sound like it was something we would want/need to do.

[drakes2]

14 hours ago, dazey said:

I did the Wine Tour once(paid for) but because it had so many choices and not a lot of information I would not do it again.

I would not do the wine tour again but for different reasons. It was offered on my very recent Ascent cruise in Eden right out in the open with others not on the tour sitting at the bar. Appeared to be a couple hundred in attendance. Very poor quality wines I tried 5 out of the 12 they had. I spent the hour eating some snacks and chatting with another couple. Most people cleared out within 40 minutes. Another money grab for Celebrity.