Military Officer - April 2006 - (Page 60)

T R AV E L I N S T Y L E compared fashionable white Spanish Albariño with a French pinot gris. Some people studiously took notes and bantered about such terms as “body, intensity, and ‘mouth feel.’ ” Others (including me) sat back and enjoyed while waiters hovered, reﬁlling our glasses and passing around plates piled with cheese, grapes, crackers, dried fruit, and nuts. The French Riviera resort town of Nice boasts open-air restaurants. Cin cin means cheers Our ﬁrst port of call was bustling, noisy, cosmopolitan Naples, where I lost myself amid seemingly random, ridiculously narrow, chaotic streets and alleys. The city’s fashionable clothing boutiques, fruit stands, espresso cafes, gelaterias (ice cream parlors), and pizzerias delighted me. It was here that I fell in love with limoncello, a citrus liqueur in beautifully shaped bottles. On a tiny side The cruise featured wine tastings, wine-paired dinners, and traditional Mediterranean feasts. The ship’s dining room offered a 25,000-bottle wine list representing every grapegrowing region in the world. And that was just onboard. Onshore in Italy, Spain, and the south of France, I had the opportunity to put my newfound education into practice. duced in Avellino, a province near Naples; a pleasant Greco di Tufo; and a classic Chianti. Later, Harden presented us with a selection of French and Spanish wines. We learned that the Basque area is becoming trendy, “the Napa Valley of Spain,” Harden said. We Wine times at sea “Wine can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be,” announced wine expert Hoke Harden, a member of the Society of Wine Educators. Harden, who led seminars in the ship’s elegant dining room, was affable, down-toearth, and, thankfully, lacked any trace of wine-snob silliness. “Wine can be enjoyed with no vast knowledge learned beforehand,” he said. “But as with most things of value, when one learns more, one can appreciate more. When you taste a wine, you experience the place [where] it was made and its culture.” And so, in our efforts to expand our appreciation of wine and of Mediterranean wine country, we swirled, sipped, and sniffed under Harden’s guidance. He explained that Americans identify wines by the grape from which they are made, but Italians name wine by where it was produced. We sampled Fiano d’Avellino, a clean, dry white pro60 MILITARY OFFICER APRIL 2006 If the point of cruising is to see the world, learn about other cultures, and meet like-minded people, you can’t do better than a wine-and-food-themed cruise. Here are some of the best: ■ American West Steamboat Co. offers wine-and-food-themed cruises aboard an authentic sternwheeler that travels along the Columbia, Snake, and Willamette rivers from Portland, Ore., following the trail of Lewis and Clark. (800) 434-1232; www.america nweststeamboat.com. ■ Celebrity Cruises and Bon Appetit magazine offer “Savor the Caribbean” sailings with cooking classes by the islands’ best chefs, rum tastings, and a keepsake recipe book. (888) 305-9153; www .celebrity.com/bonappetit. ■ CruiseWest offers four- and five-day “Vintner’s Choice” and “Culture of the Vine” cruises through Napa and Sonoma wine country in California. (888) 8518133; www.cruisewest.com. ■ Crystal Cruises offers 12 Wine & Food Festival sailings yearly. Itineraries include Australia/Africa, Baltic Sea/Russia, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, New England/Canada, the Panama Canal, South America, and Western Europe. (888) 7994625; www.crystalcruises.com. ■ Fine Wine Travel organizes luxury cruises geared to sophisticated wine enthusiasts with private wine tastings, cocktail parties, winemaker dinners, seminars, and winery visits. (888) 208-8338; www .finewinetravel.com. ■ Radisson Seven Seas’ sailings include Le Cordon Bleu Workshops and chocolate cruises. (Yes, really.) Itineraries include Dover, London, or Venice to Monte Carlo and Singapore/Sydney. (877) 505-5370; www.rssc.com. SET SAIL PHOTO: WALTER RAWLINGS/GETTY IMAGES http://www.crystalcruises.com http://www.americanweststeamboat.com http://www.americanweststeamboat.com http://www.finewinetravel.com http://www.finewinetravel.com http://www.celebrity.com/bonappetit http://www.celebrity.com/bonappetit http://www.cruisewest.com http://www.rssc.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - April 2006

Military Officer - April 2006 Contents From the Editor President’s Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Lap of Luxury Magic Carpet of the Rails Blue Ridge Wonderland Salud, Santé, Cin Cin! Cover Story: Wounded Warriors On Duty MOAA Scholarship Donors MOAA Member Services Pages of History Information Exchange Member Books MOAA Calendar Advertising Index Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - April 2006

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