Our friends know us as winers, as opposed to whiners, so we were just the people Celebrity was looking for when we went cruising on the Millennium. Starting November 1, by the way, Millennium and every Celebrity ship but the Expedition (it kind of lives in its own world going back and forth to the Galapagos) will be focusing on wine.
A few days ago, Celebrity unveiled its annual Wine Harvest Celebration. More about that later.
Our Celebrity wine experience takes precedence. As usual, we signed up for one of Celebrity’s wine events — if it wasn’t the first sea day, it was the second which means we were a little slow — and that was our introduction to the Millennium’s gifted cellar master, Saravan Krishnan (right).
He’s just a little (?) younger than us, as you can see, but his knowledge of the fluid of the grape makes us neophytes. In the wine events that followed, the number of which we probably shouldn’t reveal, Saravan taught us matching wines and foods, which glasses went with which wines, and when is the best time and place to consume port — we didn’t think there was one. He even convinced us there is a wine that goes with salad.
As you may have gathered, it was such a delightful experience that it comes as no surprise that Celebrity, the cruise line with the most sommeliers, would feature all things wine for five weeks starting in November. All the details are here.
Jacques Van Staden, Celebrity’s Vice President of Culinary Operations, explains the reasoning this way: “A high percentage of our guests are wine enthusiasts, which is why year-round, we offer up to 480 wines per sailing and a number of wine-focused Celebrity Life activities.”
It’s so much nicer to be called a “wine enthusiast” than a “winer.”
As for Saravan, we recommended him to old friends who were going on his new ship. Now it’s Infinity passengers who are in for a real wine treat.