Good wine?

[FancyPants21]

I realise that what constitutes "good" wine to one person can be "bad" wine to another. It is highly subjective. But I suppose I am just after your opinions.

 

What is the best wine under $40 per glass that you have had on board? Or any wine sold by the glass for that matter! Of course, I realise that better wines will be available by the bottle but my DW does not drink wine so I'd be on my own with it so prefer to stick to wine by the glass. 

 

I am on Sky in 2 weeks with a Premier package and I'd like to try out one or two that I wouldn't necessarily buy at the full price but I might try with the $20 contribution from the package.

 

Any advice appreciated.

[NavyVeteran]

11 minutes ago, FancyPants21 said:

I realise that what constitutes "good" wine to one person can be "bad" wine to another. It is highly subjective. But I suppose I am just after your opinions.

 

What is the best wine under $40 per glass that you have had on board? Or any wine sold by the glass for that matter! Of course, I realise that better wines will be available by the bottle but my DW does not drink wine so I'd be on my own with it so prefer to stick to wine by the glass. 

 

I am on Sky in 2 weeks with a Premier package and I'd like to try out one or two that I wouldn't necessarily buy at the full price but I might try with the $20 contribution from the package.

 

Any advice appreciated.

I don't have any specific wines to recommend. I generally just go with the most expensive one under $15 or under $20 depending on which package I have on that cruise.

If you find a wine you really like available only by the bottle (with the 25% off), you can have them keep it for you in the dining room to drink at your next meal (even if it's at a different dining room). So I don't think it would be a problem for one person to finish a bottle in a few meals.

[LACruiser88]

We are currently on the Majestic Princess heading to New Zealand from Sydney.  We have been drinking the Silverado Cab, $18 per glass, and the Caymus Cab, $28 per glass.  🍷   For this voyage, we feel they are the best red wines available by the glass.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

We are currently on the Majestic Princess heading to New Zealand from Sydney.  We have been drinking the Silverado Cab, $18 per glass, and the Caymus Cab, $28 per glass.  🍷   For this voyage, we feel they are the best red wines available by the glass.

I was going to say the same thing. It is difficult to zero in on any particular wine since inventory is inconsistent. But I would look for these two wines for Cabernet based wines, Belle Glos for Pinot Noir, Whispering Angel for Rose, Vueve Clicquot for Champagne, Cloudy Bay for Sauvignon Blanc, and unfortunately, I don’t have a solid recommendation for Chardonnay since Rombauer has been hard to find. But if that is available, it will be your best option. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

Wine is in the taste buds of the drinker.  Have had blind tastings with $5 wine and $30 a glass wine and a carefully chosen $5 wine often won.  On board the issues are where are you cruising as wines vary.

You certainly are safe with midrange California varietals.  Generally available.  Sauvignon Blancs are more hit and miss.  I'm a zinfandel lover.  Never had much luck.  Good news is to try some covered with your package and if not to your taste. .   pour it out.

[JimmyVWine]

3 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

I'm a zinfandel lover.  Never had much luck

Lately, Seghesio has been available by the glass and that is very reliable. 
 

And there are no $5 glasses on board. The generic varietals poured under the “Plus” program have uniformly ranged from barely drinkable to undrinkable.

Edited April 13 by JimmyVWine

[LACruiser88]

2 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Cloudy Bay for Sauvignon Blanc

We will be visiting Cloudy Bay winery tomorrow while in Picton!

[suzyed]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

I was going to say the same thing. It is difficult to zero in on any particular wine since inventory is inconsistent. But I would look for these two wines for Cabernet based wines, Belle Glos for Pinot Noir, Whispering Angel for Rose, Vueve Clicquot for Champagne, Cloudy Bay for Sauvignon Blanc, and unfortunately, I don’t have a solid recommendation for Chardonnay since Rombauer has been hard to find. But if that is available, it will be your best option. 

Belle Glos (especially Clarke and Telephone if they have it), Whispering Angel and Clicquot are my go to wines.

[Cruise Raider]

The best red wine that is sold by the glass is Caymus and I believe it’s about $10 over the premier package limit.  I could be a bit off on that estimate.  The Seghesio Zinfandel, Grgich Hills Merlot and Silverado Cab are the best reads falling within the  premier package.  
The Rombauer Chardonnay is no longer sold be the glass but believe you may be able to find it by the bottle for about $75 with a 25% discount if you have a package.  
Better reds are definitely easier to find than good whites, IMO, but I am a fan of a good Chardonnay, which is rather hard to find by the glass onboard.  
 

[FancyPants21]

Thanks for all your comments/recommendations. All duly noted 🙂

 

I am a big fan of Merlot and Malbec but a good Cab is also appreciated. I have never tried Caymus so that is on the cards if I can find it. Shiraz (Syrah) is a fav too but that can be quite hit and miss IME

 

As for whites... to drink on its own I like a good Riesling (dry not sweet) or a good Chardonnay (ideally oaked, Chablis excepted) but with food Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio are often good.

 

Unusually (in my experience), I am not a big fan of French red wines generally although there have been exceptions... perhaps I could use the Premier package to good effect by sampling more French and old-world wine when it is available. I generally prefer new-world wines from USA, Aus and South America.

 

Wine, like coffee, is so subjective... getting recommendations from someone else is often difficult unless you know they have similar tastes to you but I really appreciate your comments. Whatever I have I am sure I will enjoy the wine and the experience 🙂 

 

2 weeks to go!

[PacnGoNow]

Great recommendations here.  I have to say Silverado and Caymus were my two favorites Cabs also.  
We like to go to Vines and try suggested wines and sometimes find a new fave.  
Loved Belle Glos Pinot and Seghesio Zin too.  
Enjoy your wine cruise on Sky! 🍷

[tulok]

If you have not tried Whispering Angel Rose, it is a great summer, light, crisp lunchtime or light dinner wine. And I am more a Nicolas Feuillatte champagne fan than Vueve, but I have only seen that by the bottle on the menus. 

Please report back which ones you tried and what you thought.

[JimmyVWine]

9 hours ago, FancyPants21 said:

Shiraz (Syrah) is a fav too but that can be quite hit and miss IME

Again, with the reality being that inventories change, there was a time when Vines had Shiraz from Two Hands (the actual bottlings varied) and d’Arenberg “Dead Arm”. If you see either, they will be very reliable. 

[XBGuy]

A fun thing that may or may not work out for anybody, is to walk around Vines seating area and check the bottles that they have on display on the shelves.  For the most part, these bottles are the same that appear on their printed list.  However, I have occasionally found older bottles that have fallen off the list.  One one cruise I found a Chappellet Merlot with a few years on it.  I asked the server about it, and it turned out he was happy to open it up for me.  Now, of course ordering a bottle of wine that has been standing on a shelf for, possibly, years, has some risk.  However, I was more than pleased with that Merlot.  Subsequently, on that cruise I found a single bottle of Seghesio Dry Creek Valley "Old Vines" Zinfandel.  It was equally good.

 

Like I say, it may or may not work out for anybody, but you can look for free.

[Host CJSKIDS]

17 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

We are currently on the Majestic Princess heading to New Zealand from Sydney.  We have been drinking the Silverado Cab, $18 per glass, and the Caymus Cab, $28 per glass.  🍷   For this voyage, we feel they are the best red wines available by the glass.

 

Those are the 2 I usually drink and had on the Sky.  I'm hoping they have them on The Enchanted. 

[suzyed]

8 hours ago, tulok said:

If you have not tried Whispering Angel Rose, it is a great summer, light, crisp lunchtime or light dinner wine. And I am more a Nicolas Feuillatte champagne fan than Vueve, but I have only seen that by the bottle on the menus. 

Please report back which ones you tried and what you thought.

Whispering Angel was what I drank the most on our last cruise.  DH did the Silverado most evenings with dinner and our visits to Vines.

 

Edited April 13 by suzyed

[suzyed]

1 hour ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

 

Those are the 2 I usually drink and had on the Sky.  I'm hoping they have them on The Enchanted. 

I remember a while back when Caymus was only available by the bottle.  

 

[lhsail]

In my opinion they have several good reds, most of which have been mentioned above. However, I really struggle with the whites, especially Chardonnay. I like an oaky Chardonnay and they simply don’t seem to have one. 

[Korimako]

On a cruise sailing from the UK, will it still mostly be US wines? Or will they have Australian and New Zealand wines also? No idea about US wines and would rather not use up my allowance trying to find one I like! 

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 hours ago, Korimako said:

On a cruise sailing from the UK, will it still mostly be US wines? Or will they have Australian and New Zealand wines also? No idea about US wines and would rather not use up my allowance trying to find one I like! 

It will probably be the standard US wine list - US, European, a few AUS/NZ wine and other regions. Furthermore if you have the Plus package they just list the wine type, ie chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon, with no other details. After trying three on Diamond last November - the pinot noir, pinot grigio and chardonnay - we switched to buying decent wines by the bottle with the 25% discount. 

Edited April 14 by OzKiwiJJ

[leck57]

7 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It will probably be the standard US wine list - US, European, a few AUS/NZ wine and other regions. Furthermore if you have the Plus package they just list the wine type, ie chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon, with no other details. After trying three on Diamond last November - the pinot noir, pinot grigio and chardonnay - we switched to buying decent wines by the bottle with the 25% discount. 

 

I had plenty of Henshke Henry's Seven Shiraz Grenache on my recent Coral cruise. I thought it was excellent and it was $2 per glass higher than the Plus per glass cost limit (included in Premier). I just paid the extra however many times the staff didn't bother to charge it.

[suzyed]

12 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It will probably be the standard US wine list - US, European, a few AUS/NZ wine and other regions. Furthermore if you have the Plus package they just list the wine type, ie chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon, with no other details. After trying three on Diamond last November - the pinot noir, pinot grigio and chardonnay - we switched to buying decent wines by the bottle with the 25% discount. 

Or you could just order from the regular wine list and just pay the difference between those wine and the allowed $15.   BTW, the "red blend" on the Plus list was not bad.

 

[Lady Arwen]

20 hours ago, suzyed said:

Whispering Angel was what I drank the most on our last cruise.  DH did the Silverado most evenings with dinner and our visits to Vines.

 

Whispering Angel is the only wine I drink along with Prosecco.

[XBGuy]

53 minutes ago, suzyed said:

Or you could just order from the regular wine list and just pay the difference between those wine and the allowed $15.   BTW, the "red blend" on the Plus list was not bad.

 

 

Are all wines on the various Princess lists are available by the glass? 

[Steelers36]

10 minutes ago, XBGuy said:

 

Are all wines on the various Princess lists are available by the glass? 

They have not been historically, so it seems doubtful now.