{"id":977,"date":"2025-03-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curiousdrive.com\/?p=977"},"modified":"2025-03-19T21:44:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T21:44:36","slug":"i-didnt-think-we-were-cruising-types-until-we-tasted-the-wine-on-board-this-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/curiousdrive.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/i-didnt-think-we-were-cruising-types-until-we-tasted-the-wine-on-board-this-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"I didn\u2019t think we were cruising types, until we tasted the wine on board this ship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are some great choices at P&O Britannia’s Glasshouse restaurant (Picture: Rob Buckhaven\/Cuv\u00e9e Grace Nichols\/Anhydrous\/Torontel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our preconceptions of screaming kids and lobster-red boozers crammed into sun loungers put us off cruising<\/a>. But we couldn’t have been more wrong.<\/p>\n

I’ll be honest, my husband Tom and I are probably holiday snobs, and have these romantic notions of discovering wild beaches and the real, lesser-travelled nooks and crannies of a place. Rules, be gone, all we need is a dogeared Lonely Planet and a damp finger in the air.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s more my style anyway. If Tom had his way we\u2019d be working to a tightly-planned, laminated (preferably) itinerary with complete adherence to everything on it throughout the trip. But, marriage is a partnership. <\/p>\n

To put our usual holidays into perspective, before lockdown, we stumbled on a beach whilst travelling around Goa. It could only be accessed via a clapped out SUV that took us down a steep and treacherously rocky path – I\u2019m talking neck dislocation from being flung around as the car slowly descended the boulder-strewn track towards the shore.<\/p>\n

With only had a couple of tiny hotels, a deserted beach and a lagoon, it was so remote that even the beach dogs<\/a> had bailed to a resort-heavy strip some way away. We, on the other hand were so captivated by our discovery that our plans to visit the rest of Goa were instantly binned. This place felt like Alex Garland\u2019s book, \u2018The Beach\u2019, only less murdery.<\/p>\n

So, you\u2019ll understand how anxiety-inducing the idea of spending a week on a ship<\/a> bigger than your average London five-star hotel – shoulder to shoulder with three and a half thousand people – could be. <\/p>\n

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I had some preconceptions about cruise holidays (Picture: Rob Buckhaven)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a world where shore days are booked in advance, orderly queues are formed, eye contact and conversations with strangers happen in the lifts and timings are a thing if you don\u2019t want to be stranded in St Lucia (though I could think of worse things). <\/p>\n

In short, our comfort zone was last seen at Heathrow Airport and would take two working weeks to relocate.<\/p>\n

But for all our fretting, it has to be said, we acclimatised quickly once we\u2019d clocked that there wasn’t a single child on board the P&O Britannia, and got checked into our balconied cabin with sea view and complementary bottle of bubbly. Funny, that. It turns out that having a deluxe cabin in easy reach of restaurants, bars and the pool is actually pretty reassuring. Spoiler alert, we ended up having a fantastic week, but this isn\u2019t a cruise review.<\/p>\n

Once we\u2019d had a sharpener and explored the insanely large vessel on the first night, we got our bearings and headed down the ship to eat. And, here\u2019s where the magic happened…<\/p>\n

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The wine list changed our minds (Picture: Rob Buckhaven)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Glasshouse isn\u2019t just any tapas bar, it\u2019s helmed by Spanish celebrity cooking powerhouse, Jos\u00e9 Pizarro. This same restaurant can also be found on board P&O\u2019s other ships; Arvia, Azura, Iona and Ventura. The dishes are elevated-Spanish (if that\u2019s even a category) but luckily they weren\u2019t venturing into deconstructed haute cuisine. They still bore a strong likeness to their descriptions on the menu, thank goodness – we\u2019re talking fan favourites like pan con tomate, lamb chops with patatas bravas, king prawns a la plancha, Iberico ham and my favourite, squid croquetas filled with their own ink.<\/p>\n

Being handed the wine list<\/a> was like receiving the keys to Willy Wonka\u2019s boozy chocolate factory, thanks to TV\u2019s wine whisperer, Olly Smith. He\u2019s curated a fascinating list, full of classics, icons and lesser-known, discoverable treats. It\u2019s adorned with fine wines from Tignanello by Antinori at the market retail price of \u00a3225 a bottle to Pintia by legendary Spanish producer, Vega Sicilia is \u00a365 a bottle (its currently \u00a375 in Threshers). <\/p>\n

Without giving too much away, here were a few of Olly\u2019s wines that made waves with us during our cruise. And since there are so many superb contenders, it was tough<\/em> to only choose a selection.<\/p>\n

Sparkling<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Breaky Bottom, Cuv\u00e9e Grace Nichols<\/strong>, England<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A fresh take on English sparkling (Picture: Cuv\u00e9e Grace Nichols)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n