Celebrity 2023 Wine Price List (Bottle Only)

[Lanie102]

Hi All! With the reduction of nicer wines (dare I say finer) within the premium package being reduced, I was curious to see a bottle price list. I know it will be just a sliver of all that is offered, considering there are bottles well over $50k on some ships. If you have any photos, please share!

[buchsco]

Following

[markeb]

Best list is in the app. What are you looking for?

[jelayne]

The wine lists for the various Restaurants, dining rooms and bars is in the app.  I’m not aware of a single wine list.

[CruiseRQA]

Keep in mind, just because it's on some list doesn't mean they will have it. 

[Jim_Iain]

Here's a wine list from Edge -   about 2 weeks ago.   Please note this is an Australia / New Zealand Cruise and prices include the 20% Gratuity due to law that require full price instead of price and then hit you with a 20% Tip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by Jim_Iain

[MandL]

My goodness!  Thank you for posting this.  Some of these bottle prices are outrageous for Cali wines.  Born and raised in wine country. The mark up is unreal for some of these table wines.  Might be okay if you have an Elite +, Pinnacle discount, OBC, to apply.  But then again, Celebrity holds us all hostage by not offering anything decent by the glass.

 

Just reread your disclaimer on the pricing.  Gotta love Australia for their laws!  Wish the U.S. had the same.  So maybe the pricing isn't half bad.

Edited December 26, 2023 by MandL

[Bullswood]

8 hours ago, MandL said:

  Gotta love Australia for their laws!  

Yup, it's the same on the cruise price for Aussie customers - any advertised price here has to be final with no compulsory or de facto compulsory items (e.g. gratuities) to be added later. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Bullswood

[Moby Jones]

10 hours ago, MandL said:

My goodness!  Thank you for posting this.  Some of these bottle prices are outrageous for Cali wines.  Born and raised in wine country. The mark up is unreal for some of these table wines.  Might be okay if you have an Elite +, Pinnacle discount, OBC, to apply.  But then again, Celebrity holds us all hostage by not offering anything decent by the glass.

 

Just reread your disclaimer on the pricing.  Gotta love Australia for their laws!  Wish the U.S. had the same.  So maybe the pricing isn't half bad.

It's the same with international wines. The Villa Maria private bin sauvignon blanc is one we're very familiar with. It is £8.50 ($10.80) per bottle here in the UK. 

So the Celebrity markup is over 650% there. That's very high when compared to hospitality industry averages. I could have used several other examples with similar mark ups too. 

And this is why I always ignore comments from people questioning why people take their own bottles onboard. The margin on one bottle of high end claret might just get you a short Bahamas cruise! 

[Winemaker_1]

Even if pricing is in Australian dollars this has to be some of the worst gauging I've ever seen on mass-market swill.

[Contretemps]

Can you buy a bottle of wine from Celebrity before you board and bring it into the dining room? Or do they charge you a corkage fee?

[Winemaker_1]

Like most wine lists, the biggest mark-ups are always on the wines they believe people might recognize under $100.  

 

Sassicaia and a few other Italian wines look to be a relative bargains.

 

No vintages listed either (for the non-Champagne wines).   How can you set a price if you don't know the vintage and provenance of the bottle?

Edited December 27, 2023 by Winemaker_1

[scotlanders]

Wine I bought a few weeks ago at $38 is now $60 A mark up of over 60% I’m sorry Celebrity but there’s no way I’d pay that much for that wine so I’ll pass and have a soda Ive never witnessed such blatant gauging 

[Contretemps]

1 hour ago, Contretemps said:

Can you buy a bottle of wine from Celebrity before you board and bring it into the dining room? Or do they charge you a corkage fee?

After doing some more research I can answer my own question. If you purchase a bottle of wine from celebrity for your room they will not charge you a corkage fee in the dining room.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Winemaker_1 said:

Even if pricing is in Australian dollars this has to be some of the worst gauging I've ever seen on mass-market swill.

Prices are even worse for you as all prices are in USD.     The only difference is on Australia Sailings they have to add the 20% gratuity that is usually not applied until you get your bill.  

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Contretemps said:

Can you buy a bottle of wine from Celebrity before you board and bring it into the dining room? Or do they charge you a corkage fee?

If you buy it from the Gift section it will be in your room and you can bring it or even up to 1 bottle per adult passenger and no Corkage fee if you have a drink package.    If no drink package there is a corkage fee for the bottle you  bring aboard with you but not the one from gifts.

[Contretemps]

Thank you!

[Winemaker_1]

13 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Prices are even worse for you as all prices are in USD.     The only difference is on Australia Sailings they have to add the 20% gratuity that is usually not applied until you get your bill.  

Brutal.   Thanks for posting.   P.S. Obviously, I meant gouging, not 'gauging' above.

[markeb]

1 hour ago, Winemaker_1 said:

Like most wine lists, the biggest mark-ups are always on the wines they believe people might recognize under $100.  

 

Sassicaia and a few other Italian wines look to be a relative bargains.

 

No vintages listed either (for the non-Champagne wines).   How can you set a price if you don't know the vintage and provenance of the bottle?

 

In fairness the vintage probably isn't going to matter much for most of the wines people discuss around here. I'd probably be hesitant with a 2020 Napa because of the smoke, but we're mostly talking $10-15 retail bottles, not high end single vineyard wines (large parts of the valley weren't impacted, but you'd need to know the difference between Calistoga and Coombsville).

 

And worse, where vintage might matter, they're almost certainly current vintage/current release. They were tasting (and selling) a current release Barolo on my last cruise that was basically a barrel tasting. I might have bought a bottle at home, but it would have gone straight to the basement for at least 5 years! Great potential, but brutal to drink now.

 

Like you say, mark-ups are usually highest on the lowest priced wines. That's not unique to cruise ships. You can charge $30-50 for a $10 retail wine, but you're not going to (usually) get $1500 for a bottle of Opus One (for instance).

[Moby Jones]

1 hour ago, scotlanders said:

Wine I bought a few weeks ago at $38 is now $60 A mark up of over 60% I’m sorry Celebrity but there’s no way I’d pay that much for that wine so I’ll pass and have a soda Ive never witnessed such blatant gauging 

I've just emailed their executive office to explain my displeasure and given a detailed explanation as to why I'm unhappy. I'd recommend that everyone who is unhappy with recent changes do the same so they understand exactly what their customers think of recent changes. 

We normally sail in Sky Suites as I was more or less happy with their pricing. But in recent times you can sail in equivalent suites onboard the likes of Azamara, Oceania, Seabourn, Crystal and in some instances Regent for a per person per night price in the same ball park. And these lines don't try and desperately gouge every single cent they can out of you. So I've also told them they're free to cancel my E+ Captains Club account as I won't be needing it again. Not that they will care at all though. 🙂 

It's a really cheap, tacky and desperate approach in my opinion. Not at all representative of the 'premium' image they try and advertise. 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Moby Jones

[Winemaker_1]

30 minutes ago, markeb said:

In fairness the vintage probably isn't going to matter much for most of the wines people discuss around here. I'd probably be hesitant with a 2020 Napa because of the smoke, but we're mostly talking $10-15 retail bottles, not high end single vineyard wines (large parts of the valley weren't impacted, but you'd need to know the difference between Calistoga and Coombsville).

 

And worse, where vintage might matter, they're almost certainly current vintage/current release. They were tasting (and selling) a current release Barolo on my last cruise that was basically a barrel tasting. I might have bought a bottle at home, but it would have gone straight to the basement for at least 5 years! Great potential, but brutal to drink now.

 

Like you say, mark-ups are usually highest on the lowest priced wines. That's not unique to cruise ships. You can charge $30-50 for a $10 retail wine, but you're not going to (usually) get $1500 for a bottle of Opus One (for instance).

Agreed. Vintage is not critical for the roses or everyday wines.  But a $9000 Petrus with no vintage or preamble?  Who would just order that?  It reminds of the old joke:

 

Diner: "What's the soup du jour"?  

Waiter:  "It's the soup of the day"  

Diner: "That sounds delicious! I'll have that."

[markeb]

Just now, Winemaker_1 said:

Agreed. Vintage is not critical for the roses or everyday wines.  But a $9000 Petrus with no vintage or preamble?  Who would just order that?  It reminds of the old joke:

 

Diner: "What's the soup du jour"?  

Waiter:  "It's the soup of the day"  

Diner: "That sounds delicious! I'll have that."

 

I wouldn't buy a $500 California cabernet without knowing the vintage! I was looking randomly for something else in the app, and Tuscan on Equinox has has Opus One listed at $675 (about a 50% mark-up so not bad). That's almost certainly the 2019 (there is no 2020), and at roughly three years old it's going to be a brute. I've tasted it, probably a year ago, and it has great potential, but no way on earth I'd buy it at $675 and drink it on a cruise ship. We were at a very nice steakhouse in Texas a couple of weeks ago and they had a 2017 Gaja Barbaresco on their wine list. For sale...

 

I don't go into Petrus territory from Bordeaux. I'm sure it's absolutely amazing, but there's a point where I probably won't perceive the difference. I assume Petrus holds their product at the winery in the bottle for some period before release. But those are wines you lay down for your children and grandchildren! You drink the one your father bought twenty years ago. The truly sad thing is like a really good Barolo or Barbaresco, and some high end California wines, people drink them young and believe that's how they should taste. And Robert Parker gives them 100 points and everyone KNOWS it's a great wine and should taste like an over fruited tannin bomb! And the bottle (probably one, to get their Wine Spectator award) they have will be the current release...

 

Off the wine rant. If I want something really good I'll pull something out of the basement that's been resting comfortably for the last 8-10 years. Not in Petrus territory!