# Care of Fine Wines at sea.



## Dartskipper

A question for the stewards who took care of serving fine wines and vintage port at sea.

How did you prevent (if possible) the sediment that these wines produce from getting stirred up before serving? Did you have to do the trick of pouring it through a coffee filter paper? How did you serve it at table?

On shore, the deck doesn't move and the wine cellar is perfectly stationary, so there isn't a problem. At sea, things are rather different.

I have been curious about this since I was involved in the Wine Trade some years ago.

Thank you,

Cheers (!)

Roy.


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## BobClay

I do know what he sediment. I just don't know what the element. [=P]


(Sorry, couldn't resist it.)


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## Dartskipper

Thanks Bob,

Typical Sparks! 

Good answer, but not necessarily the right one. (Jester)

I'll open another Chateau bottled vino collapso while I wait ! (Pint)


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## tsell

I don't know about wine, Bob, but if the tradition, still to this day, of the Norwegian makers of Linje (Line) Aquavit is anything to go by a nice little cruise could improve a fine wine by sending it to Australia and back, twice crossing the line.
Introduced to it by a Danish shipmate, it's a great drop and a favourite which got me into serious trouble in Marseilles! They tried to tell me I was thrown into jail by the Gendarmes, but I never believed them, because if I had been, I would have remembered it!! (==D)
Stein...?

Taff


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## Keltic Star

Normal practice is to decant it as best as one can under the cir***stances. At wholesale duty free prices losing a drop or two in the process isn't going to break the bank.


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## Keltic Star

tsell said:


> I don't know about wine, Bob, but if the tradition, still to this day, of the Norwegian makers of Linje (Line) Aquavit is anything to go by a nice little cruise could improve a fine wine by sending it to Australia and back, twice crossing the line.
> Introduced to it by a Danish shipmate, it's a great drop and a favourite which got me into serious trouble in Marseilles! They tried to tell me I was thrown into jail by the Gendarmes, but I never believed them, because if I had been, I would have remembered it!! (==D)
> Stein...?
> 
> Taff


 Linje (Line) Aquavit ... and what a fine drop of plonk that is but if I recall, one cannot consume it before 3 pm in Norway.

Stein...?


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## AlbieR

You could always ask Lord John Prescott, give him a chance to talk about something he has knowledge of, not that he would give you a straight answer!(Jester)(Jester)


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## tiachapman

no problem with the gear the engine room storkeeper used to make down belowin a 40 gallon drum


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## Frank P

tsell said:


> I don't know about wine, Bob, but if the tradition, still to this day, of the Norwegian makers of Linje (Line) Aquavit is anything to go by a nice little cruise could improve a fine wine by sending it to Australia and back, twice crossing the line.
> Introduced to it by a Danish shipmate, it's a great drop and a favourite which got me into serious trouble in Marseilles! They tried to tell me I was thrown into jail by the Gendarmes, but I never believed them, because if I had been, I would have remembered it!! (==D)
> Stein...?
> 
> Taff


On the Estrella we used to take very large wooden barrels (60-70 gallons) of Aquavit from Norway to South America an back to Norway...The barrels were stored in the strong room down in the hatch..............(Pint)

Just to add. We also took barrels of Aquavit onboard the Royal Viking Star....


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## Clifford Cocker

One of the Bank Line Ships I served on as Chief Engineer
the captain and me would buy some local wines for our consumption, we only made two mistakes. One was in Malta where we bought some local white wine (excuse the spelling) Lachrymal Christie, It brought tears to our eyes!! The other was some Romanian Red during the time of Cercesku sic. it was disgusting, even when we put it in the bar for free nobody would drink more than one glass.
I was also given as a presento a bottle of Japanese Whiskey (Black Nikka) for taking 50 tonnes of MDO in Yokohama, that also ended up in the bar for free but lasted a long time as well!!


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## trotterdotpom

Christ's tears ... it was supposed to make you cry.

"Black Nikka" ... I had tons of that courtesy of Japanese salarymen who had it behind the bar with their name squiggled on it, tasted OK to me. Always wished they'd drank Suntory gin though .. much more civilised.

John T


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## Erimus

Interesting topic....it was the Chief Steward on a Clan Line vessel who first told me about coffee filter papers nearly 60 years ago...as I am opening a bottle of 1963 Vintage Port this weekend think I will use similar method...should be about right for drinking now...

geoff


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## BobClay

It was normal in CP Ships for the sparky to run the bar. More often than not when joining the first handover I got was the barbooks and cashbox !!! 
I do remember one time as we plodded across the Pacific we ran out of Scotch (nothing to do me with me .. the Old Man ordered the bond) but we had any number of bottles of Japanese Suntory Whisky. So I just poured the Suntory into the scotch bottles and put them back on the optics.
Not one Scot noticed !! (and we had a few down in the pit.) When we got re-stored with the genuine product and I told them what I'd done to get us through those dark days on the Pacific, I became Edward 1st to those of the northern persuasion (he was a nice English King who wasn't overly fond of the Scots, or the Welsh, or in all fairness anybody else who opposed him.) (Pint)


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## Farmer John

If your bottle of red has come from the fridge (as seems common these days), make sure to remove the cork, put your thumb over the bottle and give it a good sound shaking. This has the same effect as leaving it to breath for an hour or so, and will improve some of these glacial bottles of moderate slosh you get charged £20.00 for.


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## tsell

Erimus said:


> Interesting topic....it was the Chief Steward on a Clan Line vessel who first told me about coffee filter papers nearly 60 years ago...as I am opening a bottle of 1963 Vintage Port this weekend think I will use similar method...should be about right for drinking now...
> 
> geoff


NO!!!! Just decant it Geoff!!

Taff


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## Keltic Star

tsell said:


> NO!!!! Just decant it Geoff!!
> 
> Taff


Having owned a bar in Portugal during another life, I fully agree. Coffee filters will affect the taste and it's just not done.(MAD) 

Please treat vintage port with the respect it deserves. It is best served with a good English Stilton.


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## tiachapman

didnt someone once turn water into wine?


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## tsell

I've turned quite a bit of wine into water over the years!

Taff


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## BobClay

tsell said:


> I've turned quite a bit of wine into water over the years!
> 
> Taff


I can do that ... mind you, for some of the plonks I've drank over the years I think someone had already done it before me. (MAD)


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## Dickyboy

Each bottle of fine wine was stored in the Head Wine waiters pantry in a gimbal similar to the early one depicted here. The bottles were placed vertically in the centre of the devices.
Several dozen would be in the pantry and under very strict security. Only the Head Wine Waiter was allowed the key, and no one else ever got a look inside the pantry. That's why very few people ever saw the contraptions.


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## stehogg

I remember loading red wine in La Pallice on a Blue funnel cargo ship ,pumped straight into a stainless steel deep tank down aft,discharged in Hong Kong and as far as I know there was never any complaints as to its quality!!(Pint)


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## Dartskipper

Dickyboy said:


> Each bottle of fine wine was stored in the Head Wine waiters pantry in a gimbal similar to the early one depicted here. The bottles were placed vertically in the centre of the devices.
> Several dozen would be in the pantry and under very strict security. Only the Head Wine Waiter was allowed the key, and no one else ever got a look inside the pantry. That's why very few people ever saw the contraptions.


Thanks Dickyboy. I might be able to read the instructions if they weren't backwards. (Jester)

In vino veritas, as somebody once said.

Roy.


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## Dartskipper

stehogg said:


> I remember loading red wine in La Pallice on a Blue funnel cargo ship ,pumped straight into a stainless steel deep tank down aft,discharged in Hong Kong and as far as I know there was never any complaints as to its quality!!(Pint)


Teltscher Bros. Ltd. imported Yugoslavian wines in bulk containers and bottled them at their premises on the Isle of Dogs in London. They were the folks who sold gallons of Lutomer Laski Riesling in the 1950's and 60's. I don't suppose Chateau Isle of Dogs had much appeal, although Teltscher sold French wines too. Cheap Spanish vino was also imported in bulk and bottled in the UK to be sold as Spanish Sauternes, Spanish Burgundy etc. (All before the days of the EEC, of course!) Then there was Emva Cream Cyprus Sherry, which upset the Spanish Sherry producers, despite the Spanish upsetting the French.


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## Dartskipper

tsell said:


> I've turned quite a bit of wine into water over the years!
> 
> Taff


Lager looks exactly the same whether it's going down the hatch or being discharged. (LOL)


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## Dickyboy

There you go Roy. That does make it much clearer dunnit?


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## BobClay

Lo! some we loved,the loveliest and the best
That Time and Fate of all their Vintage prest,
Have drunk their Cup a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to Rest.

Omar Khayyam


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## Dartskipper

I expect it will make sense once I've polished off this case of Rioja....


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## tom roberts

Having supped or more likely guzzled wines of distinction from DrPenfolds,screech,jugs of joy.and good old Ausie white in the Yates wine lodges of Liverpool etc little did I know that this rag ****d a.b.would end up managing a five star hotels wine cellar and sampling the finest wines of the world I won't comment on how some of our brethren prepare their wine prior to imbibing if I did they would be bored to death suffive to say enjoy the nectar of the wine gods,there are many famous vintners but to me one stands out you may never have heard of him or even that his country produce wine he is Gaston Hocha of Lebanon he stood between the warring factions in that region and protected his vineyard a brave man indeed.How did a ragarsed a.b. Ever get to such a wonderfull job you may ask but that's another story,so here's to you,skal,iechid da,a votresante,Lachlan,prosit,nazdarovic,salute salude,and most of all down the hatch p.s.the hotel was in Chester and remember there are no bad wines some are better than others and if not put it on your chips.


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## tsell

Heard in a 'Gentleman's Club'...

"Here's to you and here's to me,
the best of friends we'll always be
but, if we should ever disagree...
flick you and here's to me!" (Pint)

Taff


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## tsell

Roy, I see from an earlier post you were in the wine trade. I was also in the wine trade for a while.
In the early fifties, I found that it was amazing what a young sailor could trade a fine bottle of wine for - in the right circles - in some ports...!

Taff


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## Farmer John

tsell said:


> Roy, I see from an earlier post you were in the wine trade. I was also in the wine trade for a while.
> In the early fifties, I found that it was amazing what a young sailor could trade a fine bottle of wine for - in the right circles - in some ports...!
> 
> Taff


Bar of soap was the going rate for barter, as I remember, or a pack of cards.


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## Dartskipper

tsell said:


> Roy, I see from an earlier post you were in the wine trade. I was also in the wine trade for a while.
> In the early fifties, I found that it was amazing what a young sailor could trade a fine bottle of wine for - in the right circles - in some ports...!
> 
> Taff


Taff,

As long as you got a fair trade with whoever was plying their trade, and you maybe both shared the contents of the bottle afterwards, that is what they call these days a "Win, win" situation. (Gleam)

Roy.


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## Keltic Star

Farmer John said:


> Bar of soap was the going rate for barter, as I remember, or a pack of cards.


One got a better exchange rate on a bar of officers Lux toilet soap than a bar of crews Lifebuoy carbolic. (Hippy)


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## Samsette

Keltic Star said:


> One got a better exchange rate on a bar of officers Lux toilet soap than a bar of crews Lifebuoy carbolic. (Hippy)


 The upper deck always took good care of their complexions.


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## sailingday

A true story on the Empress of France in the fifties, a tourist waiter up the wall
was asked for a bottle of Lea and Perrins, just one minute sir I'll get the wine
waiter.


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