Six weeks out from our most important event of the year, Wine and Fine Things, we’re almost ready to party. We hope you will join us on December 2nd! Word is out and you want to make sure you have a place among the cattails! [Cartoon Credit Gary Larson].

Until then continue cruising with us, this week inspired by Ceylan Yeginsu’s lovely piece in the New York Times, “‘You Couldn’t Plan It All if You Tried’: Cruising the Rhone River in High Style.” (NYTimes October 2, 2023).

If you can’t open the article, here are some favorite paragraphs:

Marble floors, an emerald-green Murano chandelier, a life-size glass horse set against the backdrop of a cascading waterfall: Boarding the S.S. Catherine was like stepping into a meticulously curated room featured on the cover of Architectural Digest.

It wasn’t until I checked into my stateroom in late August and pulled back the curtains to reveal the lush green banks of the Rhone River that I remembered this wasn’t a lavish boutique hotel in Paris, but a luxury riverboat, and we were about to embark on a Uniworld cruise from Lyon through Burgundy to Provence….

At 7 the next morning, I stepped onto my room’s balcony and beheld the picturesque city of Mâcon in southern Burgundy, where the banks of the Saône are lined with pastel-hued houses, with the two towers of St.-Vincent cathedral and St.-Pierre church piercing the sky above them…

I strolled down to breakfast — a buffet served from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. — and was immediately uplifted by the collective excitement about our upcoming excursion.

The medieval town of Beaune is in the heart of the Burgundy winemaking region…

Ah, to be their sommelier aboard such a cruise. But with imagination and a great glass of Burgundy wine — my favorites — as the song goes, “It’s all coming back to me now.”

Bringing it to you today with Burgundy wines only — chardonnay (Burgundy style!), aligoté, pinot noir (the best!) and gamay.

Don’t miss this cruise of the mind and mouth.

— Maggie O’Brien