You gotta love cruise ship sail aways.
It’s the joyous interlude when a cruise ship leaves a port and passengers are encouraged to hoist a glass to say bon voyage.
My wife, Kerry, and my first sail away party is private and exclusive — just the two of us on the balcony of our stateroom, No. 5070, on the Viking Jupiter.
Since we are just starting the cruise and leaving Athens’ port of Piraeus, we’ve come armed and ready with a bottle of Greek sparkling wine — 2022 Mila Riza Azzarda Blanc de Noir Brut.
It’s a premium bubbly, made in the Champagne method of second fermentation in the bottle, and it’s the perfect sparkler for us to cheer the upcoming seven-day Mediterranean cruise, bid farewell to Athens and look forward to the next port stop — Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics.
(More on the wine we drank in Olympia in a bit).
But first, the Azzarda sparkling is celebratory with a raspberry-brioche-and-white flower profile framed by long-lasting fine bubbles.
Gazing over the balcony railing we sip as we watch Piraeus fade into the background and the blue of the Saronic Gulf and the Aegean Sea open up before us.
You won’t be able to find the Azzarda sparkling at liquor stores in BC.
So the moral of this story is to encourage you to travel and cruise, do your own self-styled sail away and seek out the wines of the country you’re in.
If travel isn’t in your near future, head to the liquor store and pick out a wine from a country you yearn to visit.
It’s all about exploration, discovery and fun new wines.
Now back to Olympia.
After tromping through the 400 acre site where ruins are being unearthed dating back to the first Olympics held in the year 800 B.C., we take a load off at Oeikon restaurant on the main street of the town of Olympia.
A round of Moschofilero white wine is ordered.
We savour its aromas and flavours of fuzzy peach, bright lemon and white flowers.
By the time we glide into the Greek island of Corfu, we’re in the Ionian Sea.
It’s the ideal sunny day to pop off the boat and onto the seaside patio of En plo restaurant for Aopoae Oinoe Nothpi sparkling wine with a view.
Next stop, Kotor, Montenegro up a long inlet of the Adriatic Sea for a speedboat excursion that takes us to luxury waterfront resort Porto Montenegro for glasses of local Plantaze Crnogorski Chardonnay.
Truth be told, the wine wasn’t all that good, but the palm tree view was.
Our next port is in the country next door — Croatia — for a stroll in Old Town Dubrovnik and a lunch stop at Rudjer restaurant where the house white wine is Kuce Zlatarica/Vrgorac Malvasija.
Think of bright lemon and Mediterranean herbs in a glass.
On a sea day, Viking Jupiter wine steward Eka Suyasa from Indonesia leads 60 cruisers through a tasting of lesser-known wines on the boat’s menus.
(Viking includes red and white wines of the day at every lunch and dinner and there’s also an array of wines that can be ordered off the menu).
The lesser-known picks we tasted included Castello Banfi La Pettegola Vermentino from Italy, Broadbent Vinho Verde from Portugal, Francis Ford Coppola Zinfandel from California, Domaine de Pennautier Syrah from France and De Saint-Gall Le Sélection Champagne from France.
Final stop is Venice for Do Eat Better’s Bacaro Food Tour of off-the-beaten-track old taverns for traditional cicchetti (like tapas, but Italian) and drinks.
Thus, deep-fried mozzarella sandwiches with a bellini, risotto with white wine from Lugana, octopus with Select Spritz and cod with Giusti Asolo Prosecco.
Viking Jupiter
By cruise ship is the ideal way to see the Mediterranean.
You’ve probably all heard touted the concept of unpacking in your comfy cabin once and then letting the floating resort glide you from one gorgeous port to another while you sleep, drink and dine, frolic in the pool, relax and soak in the passing scenery.
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Kerry and I deliberately chose the luxurious Viking Jupiter for myriad reasons.
First, it’s small by cruise ship standards, carrying a maximum of 930 passengers.
Yet, it’s big enough to have all the amenities from infinity pool and sports deck to a selection of restaurants and bars, spa and entertainment without ever feeling overwhelming or crowded.
Second, sailing in late-season October meant the weather is still warm, but the crushing crowds of high-season summer in the Med has eased.
(Viking also cruises the Mediterranean all winter long.)
It made for a Eurotastic itinerary of embarking in Athens (after an Acropolis fix) and then sailing to Olympia (the birthplace of the Olympics), Corfu (Greek island eats, drinks and swim), Montenegro, Dubrovnik (the Croatian eye candy that stood in for King’s Landing in ‘Game of Thrones’), Split (more Croatian charm) and disembarking in Venice after a gondola ride, Prosecco and gelato.
Check out Viking.com.
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at smacnaull@nowmediagroup.ca. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.
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