Are Grgich Hills wines gone?

[steve3008]

I was excited to get the premium beverage ugd last week. Looking at the current and upcoming Millennium sailings I don’t see Grgich Hills anymore. I realize wines by the glass do change regularly. Still very disappointed. 

[bikerunner]

17 minutes ago, steve3008 said:

I was excited to get the premium beverage ugd last week. Looking at the current and upcoming Millennium sailings I don’t see Grgich Hills anymore. I realize wines by the glass do change regularly. Still very disappointed. 

the supply chain is so screwed on these types of things.  Also it has been such  a bad season in growing and fermenting that who knows what will be available at times.  The listed is just a guide at this point.   

 

[neverlaysup]

1 hour ago, steve3008 said:

I was excited to get the premium beverage ugd last week. Looking at the current and upcoming Millennium sailings I don’t see Grgich Hills anymore. I realize wines by the glass do change regularly. Still very disappointed. 

I was on the Millie TransPac and the had the Chardonnay and the Cabernet when we were on board. Those wines are custom branded for Celebrity but there may be issues keeping the stock full while the ship is in Asia. Did you look at all the menus.....I would suggest you look at Luminae's menu as that is where we normally see it. There may have also been a Fume Blanc.

Edited October 29, 2023 by neverlaysup

[mahasamatman]

14 hours ago, bikerunner said:

the supply chain is so screwed on these types of things.

 

That lame excuse is getting really old. The only supply chain issue is that Celebrity will not supply enough dollars to buy the wine.

[MattnTricia]

I have to agree on supply chain not being a valid excuse for supply or variety on cruise lines at this point. There is an abundance of California wines available and many grapes will be left unharvested this year due to low demand. 

 

This article sums this point up pretty well. https://www.meiningers-international.com/wine/insights-wine/us-demand-drops-california-worries-about-excess-grapes#:~:text=California's wine producers are sitting,Jeff Siegel reports.&text=An excess of grapes is nothing new for California producers and growers.

 

[lovecruzin]

15 hours ago, bikerunner said:

the supply chain is so screwed on these types of things.  Also it has been such  a bad season in growing and fermenting that who knows what will be available at times.  The listed is just a guide at this point.   

 

California wines are plentiful and available, 2020 is the only recent year where harvesting and bottling were a challenge.

2023 harvest was in many places later, but this season wouldn’t affect what is currently on ships.

[81Zoomie]

15 hours ago, steve3008 said:

I was excited to get the premium beverage ugd last week. Looking at the current and upcoming Millennium sailings I don’t see Grgich Hills anymore. I realize wines by the glass do change regularly. Still very disappointed. 

We are happy to pay the up charge to drink the Opulence Cab.  Sailed Celebrity 4 times last year and they were out of a lot of wines including Decoy cab and treated Opulence like it was a precious commodity.  We frequently heard “this is the last bottle”.  There were very few premium reds by the glass and the wine stewards usually tried to substitute something from the Classic package.

 

We sailed HAL twice this year and they had everything on the wine menu in stock.  We will be sailing the Reflection and Summit in the next few months and would love to hear what the wine selection is currently like.  We live in Florida and there are no empty shelves in the liquor stores and we have had no issues getting wine shipments from California 🌴🍷😀🍷.

[bikerunner]

1 hour ago, mahasamatman said:

 

That lame excuse is getting really old. The only supply chain issue is that Celebrity will not supply enough dollars to buy the wine.

Okiedokie everything is back to normal.  

[paulh84]

2 hours ago, MattnTricia said:

I have to agree on supply chain not being a valid excuse for supply or variety on cruise lines at this point. There is an abundance of California wines available and many grapes will be left unharvested this year due to low demand. 

 

This article sums this point up pretty well.

Google a different article. That’s not at all what that piece demonstrates. The article would support a lack of wine available to distributors and retailers. 

[markeb]

I see them by the bottle in Murano for Equinox. The Chardonnay is available, also by the bottle, in Luminae but the cab isn’t listed. Were they offered by the glass before? I just don’t remember. My memory is that the chard was in the premium package and the cab was an up charge. 

[steve3008]

2 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

That lame excuse is getting really old. The only supply chain issue is that Celebrity will not supply enough dollars to buy the wine.

Completely agree. These are the wines listed in Blu on Millennium today. They still have Grgrich in Luminae. I was looking forward to trying some new wines. Hopefully  there is something in there worth drinking. Wine doesn’t have to be expensive to be good but imho none of these are memorable. 

[NMTraveller]

Are there other places on the ship that have a good Cab and you can just carry it in?

[steve3008]

9 minutes ago, markeb said:

I see them by the bottle in Murano for Equinox. The Chardonnay is available, also by the bottle, in Luminae but the cab isn’t listed. Were they offered by the glass before? I just don’t remember. My memory is that the chard was in the premium package and the cab was an up charge. 

In April on Infinity they had two Grgich Chardonnays and one Cab by the glass in Blu. I think one was 15$ the other two  were 20$. Fingers crossed they get something comparable to replace it with. 

[NMTraveller]

I am looking at the menus for the bars for my next cruise.  The only bar that I see that has good wines on the menu is Cellar Masters.  Am I missing something?

 

I do see Grglch Hills on the menu for Tuscan.

Edited October 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[steve3008]

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Are there other places on the ship that have a good Cab and you can just carry it in?

Lol That’s how I started down this rabbit hole. I remembered last time you could not get premium wines at all the bars.  was looking to see which bars other than cellar masters had some of the “better” wines when I realized the changes. 

[paulh84]

3 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I am looking at the menus for the bars for my next cruise.  The only bar that I see that has good wines on the menu is Cellar Masters.  Am I missing something?

 

I do see Grglch Hills on the menu for Tuscan.

What do you consider to be a “good” wine? 

[NMTraveller]

5 minutes ago, steve3008 said:

Lol That’s how I started down this rabbit hole. I remembered last time you could not get premium wines at all the bars.  was looking to see which bars other than cellar masters had some of the “better” wines when I realized the changes. 

I am seeing the same.  I suppose that I will be going to Cellar Masters then going else where on the ship.  For the MDR I see classic level wines,  but for specialty I see some good wines on the list.

[NMTraveller]

10 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

What do you consider to be a “good” wine? 

Well you pretty much can exclude any wine on the classic package.  I probably could drink Zonin but would rather have a champagne.  A Cab at Costco that sells for around $20 a bottle I would consider good.

Edited October 29, 2023 by NMTraveller

[steve3008]

8 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

What do you consider to be a “good” wine? 

Most of what I prefer are Sonoma or Napa Chardonnays. Flora springs, stags leap, Wente, grgrich, Ferrari-carano. The Costco Sonoma is not bad.  Cabs  i like are Hall, Duckhorn, Robert Mondavi, flora springs.  Some are more consistent than others. Price isn’t an indicator of quality that’s subjective. If a wine is outstanding though would you sell it for 5$ or 50$? Granted Some of its marketing. 

[DaKahuna]

 I always challenge the sommelier to find the wine to go with my meal.  I once did a B2B where the sommelier only repeated a wine twice and that was at my request. 
 

[drakes2]

25 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 I always challenge the sommelier to find the wine to go with my meal.  I once did a B2B where the sommelier only repeated a wine twice and that was at my request. 
 

I requested an Italian wine to go with a veal dish I ordered and was told he couldn't since he didn't Ike Italian wines but I don't think he was a sommelier. 😆 

[Georgia_Peaches]

We had Conundrum red blend when we were on Equinox back in July and it was a rather good substitute for a cab.  But I do tend to gravitate toward the Wagner family wines.

[markeb]

1 hour ago, DaKahuna said:

 I always challenge the sommelier to find the wine to go with my meal.  I once did a B2B where the sommelier only repeated a wine twice and that was at my request. 
 

I do that on land all the time with great success. I haven’t found it to be a great strategy on the ship. 
 

Night one for my Equinox cruise in Luminae has one beef dish listed. The red wines by the glass are two California cabs, a Primitivo, a California Zin, a Merlot, a “California” Pinot Noir, a Chianti (Classico, not Reserva), etc. The entire red selection appears to revolve around the one red meat dish! Hard to get a Somm to pair something if those are your choices…

 

I typically don’t do cabs onboard and go for alternate reds. Don’t care for most of the cabs they offer and would rather do a Bordeaux or Super Tuscan. But that’s looking more difficult for the cruise in 2 weeks!

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, markeb said:

I do that on land all the time with great success. I haven’t found it to be a great strategy on the ship. 
 

Night one for my Equinox cruise in Luminae has one beef dish listed. The red wines by the glass are two California cabs, a Primitivo, a California Zin, a Merlot, a “California” Pinot Noir, a Chianti (Classico, not Reserva), etc. The entire red selection appears to revolve around the one red meat dish! Hard to get a Somm to pair something if those are your choices…

 

I typically don’t do cabs onboard and go for alternate reds. Don’t care for most of the cabs they offer and would rather do a Bordeaux or Super Tuscan. But that’s looking more difficult for the cruise in 2 weeks!

I like the Primivito or Merlot.  I should go through all the photo’s from my cruises and create a separate collection of wines. 
 

I do know from lots of experience that my palate is not very refined and I seldom taste all the flavors or smell the fragrances that I hear about or see in the tasting notes.  Mostly it’s just how well it sits on my plate or what after taste I get from it.  
 

There are wines I like, and there are those I do not like. If I order a glass and do not like it, I do not hesitate to ask for something else instead.  

Edited October 30, 2023 by DaKahuna

[steve3008]

On 10/28/2023 at 9:38 PM, steve3008 said:

I was excited to get the premium beverage ugd last week. Looking at the current and upcoming Millennium sailings I don’t see Grgich Hills anymore. I realize wines by the glass do change regularly. Still very disappointed. 

I stand corrected. While Opulence chard and cab are not on the bar menu on the current sailing they do show available in blu. 20/25$.  in blu  It’s on the dinner tab and not the wine tab in the app. My apologies.