I recently returned from the October 26th, 2014 sailing of Avalon Waterways' Burgundy & Provence Wine Appreciation Cruise. Here is my detailed review of the cruise, the itinerary, the cruise line and wines.
The Itinerary
Our trip began with two nights in Paris, followed by a train ride to Dijon on the high speed TGV train. We spent a few hours in Beaune, where we had the option of a Burgungy wine tasting or a tour of the famous Hôtel-Dieu before boarding the Avalon Scenery in Chalon-sur-Saône. Stops along the way included Tournus, Mâcon, France’s gastronomic capital of Lyon, as well as medieval Tournon, charming Viviers, Avignon, and Arles. The cruise ended in Arles and we were taken to Monte Carlo for one last night before boarding our flights home.
Hotels
The included hotel in Paris was the Pullman Montparnasse. It is a high quality, business hotel, and the service and rooms were comfortable and nice. There were many restaurants and bars near our hotel, although we had to take a taxi to go to other parts of the city. For our final night in Monte Carlo, we were booked into the Fairmont, which was convenient to the casino and which offered ocean views from the lobby bar and restaurants.
The Ship - Avalon Scenery
The Avalon Scenery holds just 138 passengers and as a result creates an intimate environment where it is easy to socialize with your fellow passengers. The staterooms were nicely appointed and included lots of built in storage to help maximize space. Stewards visited twice per day to clean, refresh towels, and deliver bottled water. Amenities included a flat-screen satellite TV (with free movies), radio, mini-bar, safe and hair dryers. Beds can be configured into two twins or one queen and come with high-quality pillows and duvets and Egyptian cotton linens. The beds were very comfortable and the staterooms were quiet.
The ship offered free wireless internet, although it was not 100% reliable it was sufficient to allow you to stay in touch with email and social media while away.
The ship's lounge and deck Areas were comfortable and attractive.
Excursions
On Avalon river cruises, excursions are optional and subject to an additional charge. However, they include a walking tour with a local guide in each city. The tours were usually about one to two hours and gave us a really good overview of each city. The guides were very good overall, most spoke very good English and kept the tours fun and interesting.
In addition to the included walking tours, there were numerous opportunities to sign up for excursions. Since this was a wine-themed cruise, all of the wine-related excursions were included in the price. These included three wine tasting excursions: a wine tasting in the Macon at Chateau de Chasselas, a wine tasting of Chateauneuf-du-Pape at Maison Bouachon, and a wine tasting in Beaune at Marche aux Vins. All of the venues visited were beautiful and scenic, and the wines were interesting and of good quality.
Service
Our staff was amazing. The servers and bartenders where knowledgeable, friendly and fun. Our ship captain and crew were very personable and everyone was extremely friendly and helpful. They were clearly focused on making sure all of us had a good time.
Dining
All meals had open seating, so we were free to mingle with other passengers. The food was excellent. The nightly menus had a good variety and included international cuisine in addition to local specialties. I loved the made-to-order omelettes every morning. Lunch was buffet style, and dinner was a four to five course sit down meal.
Wine was included with dinner, unlimited, and the house wines included a white, two reds and a rose. Although they weren't bad wines, I found them a bit boring after day two and decided to explore their reserve wine list. There were some great bottles on that list, and I sampled a few during my week on board. We also found that the best thing to do was to buy local wines on shore and bring them back to the ship for dinner. The corkage fee was reasonable, 9.50 Euro, and we found this was the best way to upgrade our wine selections at dinner without breaking the bank.
The Wines & Wine Tastings
The following wine tastings and tours were included in our cruise. Overall, the wine events were very good, and designed to appeal to wine lovers of basic to intermediate knowledge.
Beane Wine Tasting - Marche aux Vins
This was our first tasting, and included five wines from Burgundy. The Marche aux Vins was a lovely building with old atmospheric cellars and tasting rooms. It is housed in the former Cordeliers church. We tasted two white Burgundy wines and two reds, and all were quite good. We were even able to sample some back vintages of Chateau de Marsannay. The wines were lovely, and the tasting was well run.
We enjoyed visiting Beaune and would love to return with more time. It would make a great home base for a more extensive wine tour into Burgundy.
Macon Wine Tasting- Chateau de Chasselas
The next day, we made our way to the Macon by coach for a tasting of Chardonnay and Gamay at the Chateau de Chasselas winery. This winery was beatiful, we were hosted for this tasting in a castle. The wine maker and owner was charming and gave us a tour and lecture on the process of wine making from the vineyard to the cellar. The standout wine here was their Pouilly-Fuisse. It was not part of the included tasting, but we requested it at their shop and they were kind enough to let us taste it. We picked up a bottle to enjoy with our dinner back on the ship.
Master of Wine Hosted Tastings
Our cruise also included the services of a Rod Smith, Master of Wine. Rod hosted several events for us on board, including a wine and cheese tasting. Rod's presentation was excellent, and the wines and cheeses he selected for the pairing were thoughtful. I would expect nothing less from a Master of Wine, and I was impressed that Avalon secured the services of such a knowledgeable professional to run our tastings. My favorite thing we tried at that tasting was actually a cheese - Delice de Pommard, which is apparently quite rare and was a total treat!
Rod Smith also hosted a wine and chocolate tasting for us. He paired three different chocolates from Valrhona with a dry red wine, a red fortified wine, and a sweet white wine. This tasting was a lot of fun and we got to try some delicious chocolates and wines. And the final event hosted by our Master of Wine was a wine dinner. We had a special menu of local specialties and Rod paired each with local wines from the Rhone, Burgundy and Provence.
Chateauneuf du Pape - Tasting at Maison Bouachon
As we made our way down the Rhone River, we finally arrived at Avignon for a tour of the city and an afternoon of wine tasting in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The tasting was at Maison Bouachon and included several vintages of Chateaneuf-du-Pape Rouge. It was interesting to compare the effects of bottle age and vintage variation and our wine tasting was led by a very enthusiastic sommelier who explained everything and made it fun for our group.
Conclusions
This cruise was a wonderful experience, and I would definitely travel with Avalon again. As a sommelier, I found the wine tastings and events to be suitable for wine lovers with a basic to intermediate wine knowledge, but if you are an experience wine taster, this wine cruise will probably leave you wanting more winery visits and more opportunities to taste local wines. The cruise was a wonderful introduction to the towns of France along the Rhone and Soane, and I learned a lot about French culture and local foods on the trip.
We're headed back to Burgundy in 2018, this time on a river barge cruise.
If you think you might want to try out a wine river cruise, download our free guide.
Photo Credit: Lauren Leblanc
