Wine river cruises-France?

[SWF66]

Looking at the different wine river cruises in France...wanted to get opinions from others who have been a wine focused cruise. I'm looked at Viking, Uniworld & possibly Ama...but it's more expensive.. We have been on a Viking river cruise a few years ago, so I am familiar with that cruise line. We are interested in how wine focused each line is, and how much you enjoyed the food and excursions. We were not impressed with Viking food fyi.

[pontac]

There are some special wine focus cruises. See Ama Waterways for example.

If you are in the USA (It helps if you have where you are in your profile) the American Wine Society have an annual wine focused cruise. Look at their website for details.

[HappyTvlr]

I did the Ultimate France with Uniworld last year and found it to be amazing.  I have never been on Viking, but continue to select Uniworld because of the inclusions with regard to both wine and excursions.  The Bordeaux leg of the trip was certainly the highlight for wine.  Uniworld always features a daily red and white from the region that they select to go with the food.  You can also have previous days selections.  The excursions were often wine focused and exceptional.  We paid for two "masterpiece" selections.  We regretted the choice only because we are just learning about French wine and the cost was not worth it to us.  The included wines onboard and on the included excursions were a great more than good enough.  A highlight on the Bordeaux trip was on days we cruised in the afternoon the staff would bring up bottles of wine for us to serve ourselves to save trips back and forth to the bar.  This is only possible because wines are included for all guests.  The "Paris" leg of the trip was fantastic, but more for the excursions and history.  Wine was carefully selected as always, but not a feature.  The last leg, Burgundy and Provence, returned us to excursions featuring wine.  We wished for more time/exposure to Burgundy, but was excellent.  I am currently booked on the Milan to Venice trip in August, and look forward to their Italian wines.

[knoxclone]

AMA does specific wine oriented cruises, and they do have a specific focus and food and wine and tout their affiliation with la Chaine Des Rotisseurs, and invitation only food society. Depending on itinerary and available promotions, AMA can be very competitive pricewise with both Viking and Uniworld.  I have sailed all three and while food is subjective, I really enjoyed AMA culinary offerings. 

[JordanF]

• Second-hand info here.  My dad took the Viking cruise in Bordeaux and was not all that impressed.  He is a bit of a wine snob, and was disappointed that they did not get to go vineyards he considered the top places to go. 

[JMMKUK]

We did Scenic Diamond - 11 night Beautiful Bordeaux cruise. We were often moored alongside the other ships and felt pleased we were with Scenic rather than the others. It was very expensive though.

[Mrs Miggins]

Just back from Scenic Beautiful Bordeaux  Our second time on this particular cruise.  Lovely wine visits plus other great included options including Remy Martin.  A great mix of passengers, lovely crew.  Two special evening events,  a concert at beautifulChateau D'Agassac and the splendid Bassins des Lumieres in the WW2 Submarine Base.

[terry&mike]

We also did the Beautiful Bordeaux itinerary with Scenic and loved it! 

[pontac]

On 7/25/2024 at 9:37 PM, JMMKUK said:

We did Scenic Diamond - 11 night Beautiful Bordeaux cruise. We were often moored alongside the other ships and felt pleased we were with Scenic rather than the others. It was very expensive though.

 

So did we, and it was expensive but it was dead cheap* when we booked it. Problem was the trip was scheduled for 2020 and Covid prevented that. So we rebooked for 2021 and had to pay the full 2021 price (minus what we'd already paid) and didn't go because Covid was still about, so rebooked it for 2022 and had to pay the difference for the 2022 price.

 

You don't say why you were pleased. We were pretty disappointed after reading all the rave things about Scenic on this board, but having taken a second Scenic trip to Douro last month found the experience on that ship quite different.

 

However, though the Scenic cruise visited the world's greatest fine wine region, it wasn't a 'wine' cruise as such - and there were cruisers that complained there was too much emphasis on wine!

 

* Scenic cruises are often heavily discounted; we were alerted via full page adverts from ROL (Readers Offers Online) in the Daily Telegraph, but found we could get the same price booking direct by phone with Scenic.)

[pontac]

On 7/25/2024 at 9:25 PM, JordanF said:

He is a bit of a wine snob, and was disappointed that they did not get to go vineyards he considered the top places to go. 

 

Disappointment is understandable, but the schedule is pretty clear about which vineyards  are visited. The top classified growths are not open to casual visitors. They have no wine to sell, as all is sold before it's bottled to a middleman.

 

An exception is the Margaux 3rd growth Ch Kirwan where Viking have a dinner paired with Kirwan's wine and you can buy bottles there.

[austinetc]

We did the Rhone and Bordeaux cruises with Viking in 2022. The Rhone River was great fun and some of the excursions were memorable. (But our best wine adventure was on a Viator add-on.) Unfortunately, in 2022 there was a COVID induced shortage of tour guides (we were told), so the groups were large. In one small town Groups A, B, C,& D with 40+ people each were constantly stopping at the same places at the same time. Chaos. Hopefully it's been resolved.

 

The Bordeaux cruise was a little disappointing, but not due to Viking. The cruise is nearly entirely wine-centric. The ship doesn't go anywhere you couldn't bicycle to from the city. If we were to do it again, we'd get an Airbnb and do it ourselves. I highly recommend it a tour of the largest sand dune in Europe. Unexpected.

 

A key pet peeve of ours was that on both cruises, every winery we visited began with a tutorial on how to taste (not drink) wine. W have visited no fewer than 200 wineries in the USA, so the briefings became tedious and time wasteful. It would have been nice to have more options for experienced wine fans. We did have lots of fun at some stores (I shipped three cases of wine home), but they were outside the scope of a Viking excursion. 

[JordanF]

On 7/27/2024 at 7:21 AM, pontac said:

Disappointment is understandable, but the schedule is pretty clear about which vineyards  are visited.

Of course, you are 100% correct.  Some people really dig into the details (like many here on CC), some people at least study the cruise web site, and some people just go.  My dad just went.  So yes, it's on him, but nonetheless, since someone was asking about wine cruises, I added my second-hand comment.

[pontac]

@austinetc and @JordanF it's a sad fact that many people on the Bordeaux cruises -not just Viking - have little knowledge of wine. Some people on my 2022 cruise there said there was too much focus on wine, and complained there were too many winery visits. Looking around the restaurant it was noticeable  how many were drinking coke not wine.

 

With the withdrawal of  Russia and Ukraine  cruising there are fewer itineraries in Europe and  I believe many people are looking in brochures or website for places they've not been and booking Bordeaux without knowing its place in wine fame.

 

My first Viking Bordeaux cruise, in 2015, was focused on wine, with an on-board sommelier and different wines each night from the appellation we were in. Viking have since found out that most people are not interested and have toned down the emphasis on wine.

 

It would be good if they designated a few cruises per year as dedicated to wine, but I guess while they fill their boats with the current itinerary they don’t.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

One of the benefits of Scenic is the mix of passengers - so we had about a third from the Uk, a third from Australia, and the final passengers being mainly US and Canada with a sprinkling of others ie 2 from New Zealand - 

I think that possibly translated into a larger percentage of passengers having an appreciation of European wine.  Each night we had local wines served with dinner.  

[pontac]

47 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

One of the benefits of Scenic is the mix of passengers - so we had about a third from the Uk, a third from Australia, and the final passengers being mainly US and Canada with a sprinkling of others ie 2 from New Zealand

 

Each cruise has a different mix; on our Scenic Bordeaux cruise over 50% were from UK. The split mentioned above means that two-thirds of those guests were from New World wine countries. There is also a mix on Viking, again, different proportions each cruise.

 

And it seems that the same cruise with the same line differs.  Every night on our 2022 Scenic Bordeaux cruise the waiters were pouring wines from the Languedoc. Depends what the definition of local is - they were French - but they weren't from Bordeaux. Just as well we could find Bordeaux wines on the wine list.

 

On our night in L'Amour there was only one Bordeaux wine, and that was a cheap brand. These were the wines. Spot the mistake.

[JMMKUK]

On our cruise less that 1/3 were from the UK. Less than that from the US & lots of Australians. They were buying cases & having them shipped home.

There was one night in Bordeaux we were all on the open deck, drinking & listening to live music. The people on the Viking boat next to us were looking thirsty & enjoying our entertainment.

I can't ride a bike but there were some cycling tours.

 

@Pontac we booked a deal via ROL. Would book direct with Scenic in future though.

[JordanF]

3 hours ago, pontac said:

Spot the mistake.

I found two:

1. "Decline"

2. The entire description of the white wine!  What a word salad of meaningless BS. 🙂 

[pontac]

23 minutes ago, JordanF said:

found two:

1. "Decline"

 

I missed that. There's also a capital 'T' on typical although it's the second word in the sentence 

23 minutes ago, JordanF said:

2. The entire description of the white wine!  What a word salad of meaningless BS

 

They are trying to make the diners think they're very lucky with this 'special' wine although it's a bog standard cheapo.

 

However there's a much much bigger mistake  there........

 

Edited July 30 by pontac

[notamermaid]

"awakens simple emotions"? What does that mean? People think "yeaahh, it's alright this wine"? Apart from the fact that I would not touch a Rothschild (allow me to indulge that I do not want to feed the marketing and other beasts) I am wondering why they put all the potential allergen "contamination" in capitals?

 

notamermaid

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Our friends onboard were disappointed with the Rose offering. The Hotel Director went shopping for some cases of the Provençal Rose they preferred. Excellent service. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

"awakens simple emotions"? What does that mean? People think "yeaahh, it's alright this wine"? Apart from the fact that I would not touch a Rothschild (allow me to indulge that I do not want to feed the marketing and other beasts) I am wondering why they put all the potential allergen "contamination" in capitals?

 

notamermaid

So I take it you wouldn't be tempted by this ad I just got from a local wine store...  😉

[swixpat]

I would say that Ventoux is in the Rhone valley rather than Bordeaux. The listed grapes are very typical for Rhone wines

[Canal archive]

Jazz - a mere snip - or was it a ‘tempter price?

[counsdr]

On 7/23/2024 at 9:27 AM, SWF66 said:

Looking at the different wine river cruises in France...wanted to get opinions from others who have been a wine focused cruise. I'm looked at Viking, Uniworld & possibly Ama...but it's more expensive.. We have been on a Viking river cruise a few years ago, so I am familiar with that cruise line. We are interested in how wine focused each line is, and how much you enjoyed the food and excursions. We were not impressed with Viking food fyi.

We are doing the new Avalon Bonjour Bordeaux River Cruise in 2025. Almost every day is a wine tasting!

[pontac]

10 hours ago, swixpat said:

would say that Ventoux is in the Rhone valley rather than Bordeaux. The listed grapes are very typical for Rhone wines

 

That's the big one.

 

On this cruise we're in Bordeaux, centre of the worlds finest wines and home to more than 7,000 Chateaux (wineries making wines from their own vineyards) and this list of 'finest wines of the region made by  the best wineries' has just one Bordeaux wine on it. The red, billed as a Bordeaux wine is made by the Rhone's respected Perrin and is from Ventoux, a not particularly prestigious appellation. Retail cost, about €6 incl 20% VAT

 

You are correct that the listed grapes are typical for the Rhone and not found in Bordeaux.

 

The white is a brand, made by Domaine Barons de Rothschild, which is owned by the same company that owns the well-famed and very expensive 1st Growth Chateaux Lafite Rothschild. Not made at or by Chateaux Lafite Rothschild and costing about €12.50 incl 20% VAT in France.