TRAVEL GEAR
Among the passengers are a handful of oh-soserious wine connoisseurs while the majority, like me, simply enjoy the stuff and are intrigued by its creation.
For those seeking more practical knowledge about their favorite libation, April Reddout, S.S. Legacy’s extraordinary guest wine host who also serves as wine program director at the prestigious Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser, Washington, regularly dispenses the industry’s “dirty little secrets.” For example, that “reserve” designation that typically adds about ten bucks to a bottle in your local wine shop? It’s close to meaningless, indicating only that the wine is a favorite of the particular winery’s winemaker and not a declaration of superior taste or quality.
And don’t bet the farm that the alcohol percentage on your wine’s label is accurate. With higher taxes for wines with an alcohol content in excess of 15 percent, many wineries skirt the ceiling with a fudged claim of 14.8 percent alcohol. But April shows us a cool trick that can determine whether a wine’s alcohol content is particularly high: Hold your glass of wine up to your eye — if your eye stings a bit, there’s an excellent chance you’ll be getting very tipsy, very soon.
Among the 70 passengers sailing on this journey are a handful of oh-so-serious wine connoisseurs while the majority, like me, simply enjoy the stuff and are intrigued by its creation. Perhaps most of us can’t honestly detect notes of ammonia, wet rocks, leather, and, yes, cat urine in the varietal in our tasting glass (nor would we want to) but the oh-so-serious will discuss their presence at length. It’s at a blind rosé tasting one evening on board that we casual wine aficionados get our revenge: The most vociferous of the connoisseur contingent ranks the third hidden bottle as his favorite: a $4.99 bottle of Sutter Home white zinfandel, which to me tastes like a cloyingly sweet watermelon-flavored Jolly Rancher candy.
Vineyards and Vistas
Just like the wines themselves, the wineries we visit during the week are glorious and varied: from the century-old Mt. Hood’s Springhouse Cellar where we enjoy our tasting al fresco in its rustic courtyard; to the sprawling Maryhill Winery complete with a concert venue and world- class museum with its own Rodin gallery; to my personal favorite, the vast and luxurious Terra Blanca Winery & Estate Vineyard where a J.T. Grey cabernet sauvignon so captivates me that I purchase a few high-priced bottles to have shipped home.
But even before visiting the tasting room, we’re dazzled by each winery’s opulent landscape framing those endless, precisely rowed vineyards. We’re drawn to the vines to pluck a grape and taste what, in time, will end up in our glass.
Between tastings and tours of cavernous facilities where stacked barrels, fermentation vats, and gleaming crushing and destemming machinery tower above us, S.S. Legacy introduces us to some of the other wonders and delights of this beautiful region with visits to the majestic Multnomah and Palouse Falls; an afternoon in Walla Walla, Washington, and The Dalles, Oregon; and a visit to the Maryhill Stonehenge, a replica memorial of the famous Wiltshire, England, site built as a tribute to the World War I soldiers of Klickitat County, Washington. And on one 100-degree afternoon, our ship anchors in the Snake River so we can swim in its chilly waters, the bravest among us diving in from the ship’s second deck.
But it’s the wine that makes the Rivers of Wine cruise such an intoxicating experience. It’s the magic of appreciating how a simple grape can be transformed into something that tells a story. Or, as Saj Jivanjee, owner of Oregon’s Archer Vineyard, so beautifully put it during our tasting, “When you drink wine, you’re drinking the whole history of the year — a time capsule of the climate, the rain, and the winds — and it will never be repeated.”
And I, of course, will drink to that. S.S. Legacy is scheduled to sail about a dozen Rivers of Wine cruises throughout 2018 and 2019.
S.S. Legacy passing through a lock, Multnomah Falls, poached prawn and corn salad