On Explorer now - sommeliers pushing “featured” wines

[MarEll1]

First Regebt cruise - we are on day 4 and have dined at Prime 7, Chartreuse and Compass Rose. Very disappointed with the sommeliers is all 3, although Chartreuse was better once we explained what we wanted. There is a featured red and white each night and they really push them. We have sailed Celebrity in Retreat previously and are used to them inquiring what we like and what we’re ordering and then making recommendations specific to our meal. Have asked for that all 3 nights but other than some success in Chartreuse, we’re not really getting anywhere. Really surprised and disappointed. Amy suggestions from seasoned Regebt cruisers on how to remedy this for the duration of the cruise? We are not wine snobs by any means, but don’t want to be pushed into one red and one white choice each night. 

[GOARMY]

Well, look on the bright side.  You are on your fourth cruise day; have an opportunity to dine at Compass Rose and Sette Mari; and express your wishes to the sommeliers at those venues.  

 

Have been with Radisson/Regent for 20+ years.  Cannot recall a situation where the wine selection became such a concern that it negatively affected enjoying a cruise segment.  

 

As to "pushing" a featured red or white:  These are just that--featured.  There are so-many options.  Ask for a copy of the entire List.  You might find a selection you are familiar with; or a winery. 

 

My spouse has a more defined palate for wine than I.  On more than one occasion, she has sampled two, or three, usually reds, before finding the one that fit the bill for that particular evening.  And, this without defaulting to the specialty wine list.  More-often, she zeroed-in on a particular while or red which became her favorite at lunches and dinners. 

 

The Staff caught on real-quick.  A bottle of her favorite red or while seemed to follow us around throughout the cruise.  

 

Others with a greater interest in the wine aspect of cruising will, no doubt, offer additional comments to ease your angst.

 

Enjoy your cruise.  

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[jeb_bud]

In addition to GoArmy’s great advice, if the sommelier for your table doesn’t seem to have the expertise to work with you just ask to talk to the head sommelier. 
 

 

[MarEll1]

Thank you Go Army. It is certainly not ruining our cruise - just disappointing.

[JMARINER]

Just tell them what you want. Many times when the room is busy, many different wine servers will float the room and pour. Sometime they forget what you want. But this should happen often.But if you have to do it more than twice, speak to a head waiter or the restaurant manager.

 

J

 

[Nachosdelux]

Frankly if you are asking for pairing suggestions, I would ask to speak to the head sommelier.  If you know what you want, then any of the others would be fine.

[rcandkc]

I’m not really a wine drinker and don’t like most so I cut to the chase I ask for the wine I like. 

[labonnevie]

We always get the sommelier to send a list of the included wines to our cabin on day one. Then we know which wines we would like with our appetizer and mains when we go to dinner each night.
We politely decline the featured wines and ask for what we want. Works well at all dining venues. Enjoy your cruise. 

[migitana]

1 hour ago, labonnevie said:

We always get the sommelier to send a list of the included wines to our cabin on day one. Then we know which wines we would like with our appetizer and mains when we go to dinner each night.
We politely decline the featured wines and ask for what we want. Works well at all dining venues. Enjoy your cruise. 

Labonnivie, great advice as we will this fall be first time Regent cruisers.  I have put a note about this suggestion in my cruise file. Thank you! 

[Eno-Bob]

Great advice above – you should be able to ask for any of the house wines in any of the restaurants for any meal.  For the most part, there is one sommelier per restaurant, or, in the case of Compass Rose, there are usually three, left side, right side, and center.  Most of the drink “servers”, are more bar waiters, not sommeliers and they usually don’t know a lot about the entire wine list, they carry around that evenings featured wines.  The sommeliers will be in a red vest or red jacket and will have a silver tastevin around their neck.  The drink servers are in more of a brownish vest if memory serves.  The sommeliers must handle all the purchased wines for the restaurant, including opening and decanting those wines, so when the restaurant is full, they are usually running at full speed.  The head sommelier is usually in a white jacket with red lapels in the evenings and he or she makes the rounds of the restaurants each evening.  If any of the restaurant somms gets real busy the head somm will usually jump in and help out on the floor.  If one of the drink servers doesn’t understand what you would like with your meal, ask them to have the somm come to the table and explain to him/her what you would like, and they will take care of it. 

 

Tastevin

[Gilly]

As with anything else on a Regent ship, if it's not to your liking, then request your preference.  A smile and subsequent appreciation works amazingly well.

[MarEll1]

2 hours ago, Gilly said:

As with anything else on a Regent ship, if it's not to your liking, then request your preference.  A smile and subsequent appreciation works amazingly well.

Understood and I have no issue asking for a specific wine if I know what I want - but our issue is we’d like them to recommend pairings, maybe to try something we haven’t tried before. And in all 3 restaurants we did speak to a sommelier - they were wearing the necklace thing (tastevin?? I think). And in all 3 they referred us to the featured wines even after we requested a pairing. Not what we’re used to and surprising to us both. And while certainly it’s not ruining our cruise, we do look forward to a nice dinner and wine each evening and this cruise has been frustrating so far in that regard.

[jeb_bud]

20 hours ago, labonnevie said:

We always get the sommelier to send a list of the included wines to our cabin on day one. Then we know which wines we would like with our appetizer and mains when we go to dinner each night.
We politely decline the featured wines and ask for what we want. Works well at all dining venues. Enjoy your cruise. 

How do you get in touch with the sommelier on day one?  I tried in May but couldn’t find anyone in the restaurant. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by jeb_bud
Fixed a typo

[Eno-Bob]

We have always found that there are a couple of the sommeliers working in La Veranda during lunch on the day you board.  Again, look for the red vest and tastevin.  You can request the list of included wines and, if your interested, this is the perfect time to tell the somm if your interested in the wine lunch.  The lunch has limited seating so if you want to reserve a seat you need to do it early.  When we sailed in April the lunch was $169 pp.  There is also a tasting of some of the included wines in the atrium early in the cruise.  If there’s a sea day within the first couple of days, it will be at 10:30 AM.  However, if there are ports every day, they may set it up with at an earlier time before the tours leave – we’ve seen it as early as 9:00 AM.  A great way to start the day!

[papaflamingo]

13 hours ago, MarEll1 said:

Understood and I have no issue asking for a specific wine if I know what I want - but our issue is we’d like them to recommend pairings, maybe to try something we haven’t tried before. And in all 3 restaurants we did speak to a sommelier - they were wearing the necklace thing (tastevin?? I think). And in all 3 they referred us to the featured wines even after we requested a pairing. Not what we’re used to and surprising to us both. And while certainly it’s not ruining our cruise, we do look forward to a nice dinner and wine each evening and this cruise has been frustrating so far in that regard.

Not meant in a snarky way at all, but you say you want them to recommend a wine, they recommend the daily wine and you don't want that.  Do you try it at least?  Isn't recommending the daily selection actually "recommending" a wine?  Just curious, because it sounds like you have decided the daily selection is substandard at least for your selected meal before actually trying it.  

Again, I apologize if this comes across in any way as snarky.  It's just that my understanding is that, in Compass Rose at least, the daily wine is selected based on the daily special prepared by the chef.  If so, then it would be a natural recommendation. 

[mj_holiday]

I found that on usually day 2 they have a wine tasting of included wines available on all ships. So someone serving wine should have that list and then the list of included wines for that cruise. If the person pouring does not have a list, ask them to send over the head sommelier, or ask the person seating you for the head sommelier. 
 

[RetiredandTravel]

I don't remember interacting with the sommelier much except when I was ordering a wine off the connoisseur list.  I did enjoy the "necklace thing" comment thank you for that, I can never remember its name.  IMO Labonnevie & Eno-Bob have the best suggestion ask for a copy of the "included" list and then just ask for the specific wine you'd like.  They will bring whatever wine you ask for.  I sort of doubt you will get enough of the sommelier's time on the included list so just google the wine that's best with the food.  This way you also know the types of wine you like.  Menus are posted on the TV every day.  I'm also not trying to be snarky but it may be the best way to get the right wine and not get aggravated.  Hope you are enjoying yourself.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by RetiredandTravel

[cwn]

Our experience is that Regent’s featured wine is picked to pair well the special of the day. If it is not to your taste you can tell the wine server a kind that is more to your liking and if there is a type on the free list they get for you to try.

 

The best thing to do is to go to the wine tasting offered early on. They will work with you to find several available wines to your liking based on foods you enjoy. If you want wine picked out for you that a paired exactly to the dish, you probably need to do one of the wine pairing meals.

 

Most staff serving wine are just servers learning about wine and don’t always know that mush about what goes with what. You need to help them a bit at least as to what you like. 
 

Like others have told you we don’t mean to be snarky but you are expecting too much service from the free wine service. It was never meant to be an individual wine pairing for each course every night. There are one to maybe three actual sommeliers in the dinning rooms. They are handling the for a cost wines and also helping serve. There isn’t enough time for them to go table by table to pair a wine with each course every passenger picks every night. The servers expect some help as to what you like…..white, red, sweet, dry, type a grape etc. if the selected wine for the evening is not to your liking.

[RELS]

1 hour ago, mj_holiday said:

I found that on usually day 2 they have a wine tasting of included wines available on all ships.

 

In my experience, those wines are the Compass Rose wines. If you want the full list including the wines for the specialty restaurants, you'll have to ask.

 

Also, and important :-), that early cruise wine tasting is not listed in the daily schedule. It's announced in one of the "ads" in the Passages the night before.

[cwn]

14 minutes ago, RELS said:

 

In my experience, those wines are the Compass Rose wines. If you want the full list including the wines for the specialty restaurants, you'll have to ask.…..

That is my biggest complaint about all the speciality restaurants on the new ships. One of our favorite wines is now only offered in Chartreuse…..fine when we are eating there. When we had asked for :it earlier in CR were told it was unavailable,  but when we discovered that it was served Chartreuse we asked  for some to be brought to CR for us. They did but….

Edited August 20, 2023 by cwn

[labonnevie]

3 hours ago, jeb_bud said:

How do you get in touch with the sommelier on day one?  I tried in May but couldn’t find anyone in the restaurant. 

When we have lunch after boarding, usually on the veranda, I ask a wine server to send the sommelier over. There always seems to be one available. 

[labonnevie]

I don’t want to say that we never try the featured wines of the day, we often do. However, we also often decide they are not to our liking or will not pair as well with our meals as other wines on the included list. And sometimes we discover something new that we do like!

[seasickphil]

3 hours ago, cwn said:

That is my biggest complaint about all the speciality restaurants on the new ships. One of our favorite wines is now only offered in Chartreuse…..fine when we are eating there. When we had asked for :it earlier in CR were told it was unavailable,  but when we discovered that it was served Chartreuse we asked  for some to be brought to CR for us. They did but….

Interesting, we got off Splendor just 2 weeks ago and when dining in Chartreuse we enjoyed a nice Sancerre, a couple of nights later in Compass Rose i asked the sommelier for this wine, he told me that it was not in Compass Rose but would get a bottle sent down from Chartreuse, two minutes later we were enjoying a glass and eventually the whole bottle was polished off. 

[MarEll1]

My last comment on this topic - never had an issue on Celebrity with any of the sommeliers in Luminae (the restaurant for suites) or the specialty restaurants recommending specific wines that would go with our meals. So I expected the same service on Regent - clearly my mistake. Lesson learned.

[cwn]

2 hours ago, seasickphil said:

Interesting, we got off Splendor just 2 weeks ago and when dining in Chartreuse we enjoyed a nice Sancerre, a couple of nights later in Compass Rose i asked the sommelier for this wine, he told me that it was not in Compass Rose but would get a bottle sent down from Chartreuse, two minutes later we were enjoying a glass and eventually the whole bottle was polished off. 

Once we knew the wine we liked was in Chartreuse we asked that it be served to us in CR. We got it promptly also and had no problem the rest of the cruise. Just took us going to Charreuse on the Splendor, but the next week on the Navigator no problem in CR from the get go..