Edge 7/17 Review - Tons of Spoiled Wine

[Fouremco]

49 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

OP, I was literally just typing that I hoped you took pics to show Celebrity customer service, so I’m glad to see you did. That’s not ok to serve expired drinks! 

Read the cartons. Those are best-before dates, clearly indicated in the pics, not expiry dates. Far too many people confuse the two and throw away perfectly good, safe consumables.

[canderson]

@jlowe420

We're there any particular wines that seemed more problematic than others?  'Corked is one rhing... "vinegar" is a whole different kettle of fish.

[davekathy]

41 minutes ago, jlowe420 said:

Also here's a bit more detail:  I was only drinking Cabernets.  These were the Celebrity one and Decoy.  In total I would guess about 7 glasses of bad wine.  I had tipped one of the servers in the casino after complaining to dig me up a bottle of Decoy and he did, and it was bad.  I left the table went up to the retreat, got a fresh glass and came back down and had them smell them.  They admitted it smelled bad.   

What I assume happened is that they turned the AC off in portion of the ship.  Maybe not in dry storage but maybe where wine for the casino bar was stored or something like that.  My best guess is that the wine was just stored above temp for too long.  It doesn't make sense that the bottles would be open too long - in a cruise setting i cannot image a bottle of cabernet making it more than a day at any bar.

 

The juices just show they were using up stock they had...  I don't love it, but I understand being cost conscious after all the missed revenue.  If the ship made the determination that it wasn't expired, but rather just not in the "best before" then I would hope they would put into a different container so that the guests didnt see. 

Afterall these juices were on the bar, on the side you sit on, at the retreat.  This is the bar that I would hope would have the best of everything on board.

 

I am not a wine snob, I drink Trader Joes most of the time. 

Much better detail in this post compared to your first post and the misleading title to the thread. 

 

Far from a wine snob myself. I've drank some "Two Buck Chuck" wines purchased from Trader Joes I liked. I just returned from the liquor store where I purchased a case of 1.5 liter bottles of Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc I like. 🍷

[George C]

We were on 7/3 edge sailing had lots of wine in Luminae and other restaurants and bars , normally ordered decoy Cabernet everything was great. Did notice on a few bars in open air area having red wine just sitting there , that could make wine bad pretty quickly.

[ScubesDad]

29 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Much better detail in this post compared to your first post and the misleading title to the thread. 

 

Far from a wine snob myself. I've drank some "Two Buck Chuck" wines purchased from Trader Joes I liked. I just returned from the liquor store where I purchased a case of 1.5 liter bottles of Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc I like. 🍷

 

Wine does not have to be expensive to be good.  Also, one individual may love a specific wine and someone may not, it all depends on your palate.

 

If we host a family dinner there will be 2 or 3 bottles of very good wine on the table, but once their taste buds have been numbed we switch out the very good to good, or maybe a good everyday table wine. (don't tell them)

Edited August 4, 2021 by ScubesDad
spelling

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, ScubesDad said:

 

Wine does not have to be expensive to be good.  Also, one individual may love a specific wine and someone may not, it all depends on your palate.

 

If we host a family dinner their will be 2 or 3 bottles of very good wine on the table, but once their taste buds have been numbed we switch out the very good to good, or maybe a good everyday table wine. (don't tell them)

Agree. According to some I don't have taste buds. 😁 We always tell whoever is keeping our wine glasses full what wine (white or red) we want to drink that evening not what would be their recommendation. 🍷

[ScubesDad]

4 hours ago, jlowe420 said:

The ship had so much spoiled wine it was quite a disappointment.  They also pretended like you are drunk or dont know what vinegar tastes like when you complain.  I had to on one occasion go up to the retreat to get a fresh glass of wine and bring it down to the casino and ask the bartender to smell both of them side by side.  I would have expected higher quality - never once have I had a bad bottle of wine on NCL, but I get it... they are trying to use up the stock they sat on for a year.

They also had expired "past the best by date" juices and cocktail mixes out on the retreat bar right in plain view of the guests.  They really need to put those into other containers so it's not as obvious they are using up old stuff.

 

I am not shocked that your received a bad glass of wine, it happens periodically for a number of reasons.

 

I am shocked that once you indicated the wine was bad, that it wasn't immediately replaced and you received disbelief and attitude instead. 

[ScubesDad]

3 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Agree. According to some I don't have taste buds. 😁 We always tell whoever is keeping our wine glasses full what wine (white or red) we want to drink that evening not what would be their recommendation. 🍷

 

If i figure out that the sommelier is more sommelier than wine waiter I will tell them my preferences for wine types (red) and let them surprise me...I have discovered some great wines that I would not normally consider.  As far a whites I am not a fan and stick close to a pinot grigio.

 

It is a good thing we are all different or it would be a very boring world.

[neverlaysup]

1 hour ago, canderson said:

I guess you wouldn't appreciate my '94 Auslese.  Still have a few precious bottles of that in my cellar.  Have a number of other whites I won't be drinking for another 5-7 years.  "White wines don't age" has always been an innaccurate generalization that fits only certain white wines.

Same here, have quite a few Sauternes that are from the 90"s as well as some large format Chardonnays from 2000/2001. There is nothing better than an aged vintage Champagne. To each their own in regards to wine and aging! 

 

[canderson]

34 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

Same here, have quite a few Sauternes that are from the 90"s as well as some large format Chardonnays from 2000/2001. There is nothing better than an aged vintage Champagne. To each their own in regards to wine and aging!

It's been a few years since I sailed on X, but they did used to have a few great (but overpriced, even for a top $ wine) vintages of Chateau d Yquem available for those with an expensive sweet tooth!  Now, if they'd just had a supply of Papillon Roquefort to with it ... maybe! 

[TrulyBlonde]

Signs of bad wine

Use your senses to determine if a wine has aged too long and spoiled. Upon opening, inspect the cork for dryness and check for a musty odor that indicates the wine has turned. Pour the wine and look at the color: dullness, particularly a brown or yellow tint at the rim, is one ominous sign. Expired wine may also have an odor akin to mildew or vinegar, and it will taste exceptionally acidic. However, provided the wine doesn’t contain any cork or sediment and isn’t too far gone, you may be able to use the expired bottle in cooking.

[lovecruzin]

It wouldn't surprise me to find corked wine on a ship where the temp and storage could have been inconsistent over the past year +.  I’m not an expert by any means but I do know if wine is stored improperly, it will affect the cork and wine will spoil.

I hope all the older wine has been consumed by the time we board Millennium in 3 weeks! 😂 

[jlowe420]

45 minutes ago, lovecruzin said:

It wouldn't surprise me to find corked wine on a ship where the temp and storage could have been inconsistent over the past year +.  I’m not an expert by any means but I do know if wine is stored improperly, it will affect the cork and wine will spoil.

I hope all the older wine has been consumed by the time we board Millennium in 3 weeks! 😂 

 

haha!  I wonder how many cruises of wine they have on board.  I would think they have to be close to using it up - but no telling if they had like local stock in Ft. Lauderdale.  Maybe there is a warehouse with thousands of bad bottles of wine.

 

 

 

70% of you folks hate on me for complaining, but I only want to share my honest feedback so that Celebrity can read from it and learn.   I know they read these forums and it wouldn't surprise me if they cared more about posts here than they do in their surveys.

 

 

[canderson]

1 hour ago, lovecruzin said:

It wouldn't surprise me to find corked wine on a ship where the temp and storage could have been inconsistent over the past year +.  I’m not an expert by any means but I do know if wine is stored improperly, it will affect the cork and wine will spoil.

I hope all the older wine has been consumed by the time we board Millennium in 3 weeks! 😂 

"Corked" wine isn't a function of storage temperature.  That wet-cardboard odor is the result of a particular contamination of the cork.  The resulting 'stuff' is "TCA", and can form for a couple of different reasons.

 

Heat is a separate problem for storage, and can cause a couple of other problems that can impact the taste as well.  I suspect if there's a lot of this happening, that it's the heat that's done the damage.  Heaven knows how/where this wine has been stored for the last 16 months.  I don't know how often X turns over its shore-side inventory, but it's been a zero rate for that long ... somewhere.  In and out of hot storage isn't good, either, but long term hot storage (and 16 months definitely qualifies as LONG!), especially DRY hot storage, is a very bad thing if it's been happening.

 

FWIW - the damage isn't always obvious, but things like 'pushed' corks and the like can be a clue even before the capsule is peeled.

 

[NMTraveller]

7 hours ago, jlowe420 said:

Also here's a bit more detail:  I was only drinking Cabernets.  These were the Celebrity one and Decoy.  In total I would guess about 7 glasses of bad wine.  I had tipped one of the servers in the casino after complaining to dig me up a bottle of Decoy and he did, and it was bad.  I left the table went up to the retreat, got a fresh glass and came back down and had them smell them.  They admitted it smelled bad.   

What I assume happened is that they turned the AC off in portion of the ship.  Maybe not in dry storage but maybe where wine for the casino bar was stored or something like that.  My best guess is that the wine was just stored above temp for too long.  It doesn't make sense that the bottles would be open too long - in a cruise setting i cannot image a bottle of cabernet making it more than a day at any bar.

 

Celebrity could have given me their red wines for climate controlled storage.  Of course I would have to sample every once in a while to make sure that they are still OK. 🙂

 

Whites.  Not a fan.  

Edited August 5, 2021 by NMTraveller

[miched]

I don’t see a issue that can’t be easily solved.  Drink bourbon 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[mtnesterz]

17 hours ago, lovecruzin said:

It wouldn't surprise me to find corked wine on a ship where the temp and storage could have been inconsistent over the past year +... if wine is stored improperly, it will affect the cork and wine will spoil.

My suspicion is the wine was stored in boxes and cases cork side up. If the cork becomes dry, over a year, air gets in, it's a recipe for spoilage.