HOMER FIRST SANG OF THE WINE-DARK seas Odysseus cruised 3,000 years ago, and today’s cruise lines paint a similar picture with their expanding wine lists, onboard tastings and visits to local wineries. When world-class varietals and vintages become the focus of a specially themed wine cruise, so much the better. Fortunately for oenophiles, many top cruise lines host designated wine cruises featuring resident experts and regional winemakers who preside over workshops, tastings, wine dinners and shore excursions to rare or legendary vineyards. Here we uncork a few standout wine cruises for 2019.

AmaWaterways’ Colors of Provence seven-night Lyon-to-Arles cruise aboard the AmaCello departs in March, April, August and November 2019. No cruise line conducts so many special wine cruises in Europe and the Mediterranean, and it does so in high style, with a resident wine expert on hand to handle tastings and cellar tours. This series of Rhone River cruises includes a Beaujolais excursion, wine and chocolate pairings at Château le Touron and wine tasting at Châteauneuf-du-Pape in Avignon, where a history lesson on the papacy goes down easily with sips of the Pope’s wines.

SeaDream Yacht Club scheduled its Lisbon to Bordeaux nine-day Portugal and Spain cruise aboard SeaDream I June 27–July 6, 2019. SeaDream’s annual Wine Voyage Program includes nine special cruises in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. A wine director is on board, and regional wineries host tastings and supply wines for the executive chef ’s degustation menu at Winemakers’ Dinners. On the Lisbon to Bordeaux wine cruise, passengers sample the wines of Galicia and Rioja and red and white Port wines along Portugal’s Douro River at Oporto.

Departing May 19, 2019, Silversea Cruises will lead its London to Barcelona 14-day cruise aboard Silver Whisper. A Wine Ambassador who presents special tastings and private vineyard tours directs Silversea’s wine cruise, focused on châteaux and cellars in Bordeaux and Médoc, with a wine tasting at the Bordeaux Wine Museum.

UnCruise Adventures launches Rivers of Wine weeklong Portland, Ore., round-trip voyages on the Columbia River aboard the S.S. Legacy. These wine cruises set sail October through December, paying intimate visits to numerous small Northwest wineries where Pinot Noir put Oregon and Washington on the world wine map. A sommelier and local wine expert or winemaker are always on board, and winery tastings and lunches are a daily affair.

Passionate wine lovers can also transform some regular cruises into wine cruises by booking through winecruisegroup.com. Noted experts and winemakers who preside over private tastings, discussions, dinners and special small-group winery visits host these add-on programs. Choose from 18 such optional wine programs available in 2019 on itineraries spanning the Caribbean, the South Pacific (on Paul Gauguin Cruises), Greece (on Oceania Cruises) and even South Africa (on the 28-passenger Zambezi Queen).