NCL expands the palate of its Winemaker cruises

Norwegian Cruise Line’s Meet the Winemaker collection is not only for wine lovers. This yr, the model is including Johnnie Walker Scotch to the combo.

The cruise line will host 9 sailings in 2023 that includes famend cooks, winemakers and a spirits grasp blender providing friends an inside take a look at their craft by means of seminars, tastings and interactive demonstrations.

As a part of this system, the cruise line will host its first Johnnie Walker cruise on Sept. 17 aboard the Norwegian Prima crusing by means of Northern Europe. Emma Walker, the primary feminine Johnnie Walker grasp blender within the model’s historical past, will headline the crusing. She leads the model’s specialist staff primarily based in Menstrie, Scotland, and has spent greater than a decade perfecting whisky manufacturing, maturation and mixing and exploring the science to develop new flavors. 

Walker will share with friends the historical past of the model and samples from a variety of whiskies.

The collection may even embrace a July 9 crusing on the Norwegian Encore to Alaska with Ashley Breneman, an govt chef at Licensed Angus Beef. Breneman has appeared on the Fox present “Grasp Chef” and on Meals Community’s “Cutthroat Kitchen” and “Chopped Grill Masters Napa.” She’s going to be part of returning winemaker Antonio Hidalgo of family-owned Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana on the crusing.

Fourth-generation winemaker Miguel Torres, of the Miguel Torres Chile household, may even be featured within the collection, with an April 9 crusing within the Japanese Caribbean on the Encore deliberate. He’s credited with pioneering planting cabernet sauvignon grapes in Spain, and his vineyard has a presence in additional than 100 nations.

Different hosts of the Winemakers collection embrace:

• Movie star chef and TV character Aaron Sanchez crusing on the Norwegian Bliss to the Mexican Riviera on April 2.

• Salvatore Ferragamo of Tuscany’s Il Borro property on the Bliss crusing to Alaska on April 22.

• Winemaker Diane Flamand internet hosting a Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite wine dinner on the June 10 crusing of the Bliss.

• Michael Mondavi of the Michael Mondavi Household Property on the Norwegian Escape crusing to Bermuda on Oct. 22.

• Gerard Bertrand, chosen grasp winemaker of 2003 by the European commerce publication The Wine Enterprise crusing on the Norwegian Pleasure within the Western Caribbean on Oct. 28.

• Randy Ullom from the Kendall-Jackson wine household crusing the Escape in Bermuda on Oct. 29.