Wine list (Star Pride)

We cruised last November on the Star Pride and I took some pictures of the wine lists as I hadn't seen much on this board regarding them. Here are the pics - first from the Star Bar.

And from the main dining room . . . .

Thank you for the effort; the photographs, however, are illegible.

We talked to the wine steward on the Pride in April. He agreed that the wines are fine but a bit generic. He explained that given the amount they go through small producers just don't work. The other issue is assuring supply at all the far flung ports they go to. They need suppliers who can get wine to the ship in many places, not all of which are easy.

I've found the list to be OK if not deep and with fair pricing.

BTW. It never occurred to us but makes sense that the ships have actual wine cellars with controlled climate. A down side to keeping fine wine on board is they don't like movement, hard to do on a ship!!

A few years ago we felt the list was very skewed to new world producers and over priced. Of late there has been much more variety especially Italian and French and with fair pricing.

Interesting that he would say that, as there are a number of small producers in the list. Lail and Blackbird are far from mass produced.

I couldn't read the entire list but could make out about 75% of the wines. They are priced at or near release price, so a fair mark up. My only complaint is that most of them really need 2-10 years in the bottle or they just aren't going to be that good.

By the way, as far as ships movement, it's not a big deal with young wines that will be consumed within a few years at most. Movement becomes a problem with older red wines as the tannins begin to fall out and become sediment. When this happens, if the wine is disturbed the sediment cause a cloudiness in the wine. That's why it is typically advised to stand an older bottle upright for a day or two before opening and then using a decanter and leaving the last inch of wine remaining in the bottle as that is where the sediment will rest (typically 20+ years although in a few cases as low as 10 or more than 30+). For a very old bottle (30+ years typically) you would gently slide the wine from it's location into a wine cradle, gently remove the cork and capsule while the wine is on it's side at an angle, and them use the candle method to decant the wine, stopping as soon as sediment begins to appear in the bottle. The only cruise ship at sea that I am aware of with a bottle old enough to warrant that type of care is the Cheval Blanc on Disney. They have an on board CMS sommelier who is trained in the proper handling of this wine should anyone ever decide to spend the $30K or whatever they are asking for it. I assure you that it won't be me. ;)