Wine
From the old to the new Richard Williams finds Bart Dufour, head sommelier, Crystal Cruises, in his cellar on board Crystal Serenity
OBH: Where and how did you do your training? BD: My family are in the restaurant business in Belgium, and I went to hotel
school from the ages of 14 to 18. They had a special beverage programme, so every day I spent an extra hour after school learning about everything from milk to wine. Then I worked as maitre d’hotel in a one star Michelin restaurant. When I decided to travel I joined Crystal.
How do you source your wines? Once a year I have meetings with the vp of hotel operations. We go to Napa and try the wines and decide what will go into the programme. On a personal level, I also travel in Europe to source wines, for example to France, to Portugal. Now that we are all inclusive we are sourcing extra wines to supplement those in the Connoisseur list.
What are the latest wine trends? There are some very good wines coming out of Portugal now. We have a Quinta da Rivolta made from the Touriga Nacional grape, which is very popular. We try to find out what is new and interesting and then bring it to our guests. We are all certified sommeliers and our challenge is to get our passengers to try something different.
Do you favour new world or old world wines?
Training in Belgium, most of my early experience was French wines, but now I prefer the new world wines. With their fruit, you can drink them straightaway, or you can age them. They are also a bit bigger, you know? Of course it depends on what you are eating with them....
Screwtop or cork?
Well, I prefer screwtop, because then you are 99.9% sure that the wine will be correct.
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Personally, given the choice, I would select a screwtop wine over a cork wine because when you get home you can be sure you will have some wine to drink with dinner! Penfolds did some research on this with their 1975 Grange. They bottled one in screwtop and corked the other. When they opened them about 20 years later, the screwtop one was better preserved and still had ageing potential. The problem is getting the customer to accept a screwtop on premium wines.
Where do you source wines? We source them locally and ship them onboard at every embarkation port. This requires a lot of forward planning, as I try to ship Spanish wines when we are in Barcelona, and Napa wines when we are in California. I am always working three to four months ahead. I am fortunate to have an onboard cellar of 30,000 bottles.
What is your favourite wine onboard? I have two, both Californian, both Cabernet Sauvignon. The first is Bond St Eden, and the second is Harlan Estate, which has more of an old world style.
Why no British beer onboard? We have Guinness! We also have Samuel Adams, a Boston beer that is like an English ale, and Fin du Monde, a Canadian artisanal triple beer that is like a Belgian beer. Being Belgian I would like to get some Belgian beer onboard. But it’s good to try some different beers while you are on holiday.
Now that Crystal Cruises has gone all inclusive, have you noticed an increase in consumption?
Yes, there has been an increase, but not a lot. Typically, where people used to have two glasses at dinner, they now have three. But our passengers have a certain class, and are not here for a party. They know how to enjoy themselves, and it’s not a problem.
“Now that we are all- inclusive we are sourcing extra wines to supplement the Connoisseur list. I am always working three
to four months ahead and have an onboard cellar of 30,0000 bottles.”
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