Celebrity Cruises has never been quiet about its wine program, and this week it had reason to be louder than usual. The line just earned 25 Wine Spectator awards in a single year, a new record, bringing its 14-year cumulative total to 165. The number worth pausing on, though, isn’t the total, but how every ship in the fleet sails with a sommelier in every single restaurant onboard.
That sommelier isn’t a luxury add-on or a specialty venue perk. Celebrity Cruises stations an expert in every restaurant across every ship in the fleet, backed by more than 500 wine selections spanning the world’s most recognized regions, a private label program and guest programming that includes Food and Wine Pairing Workshops and World Wine Tours. It is a wine initiative built over 14 years to look less like a cruise ship amenity and more like the cellar at a serious restaurant.
A record that keeps growing
Wine Spectator confirmed it this week in the most direct way possible: 25 awards in a single year, the most Celebrity Cruises has ever received. The honors include 17 “Best of” Awards of Excellence, a tier the line earned for the first time, as well as eight Awards of Excellence. The cumulative total now stands at 165 Wine Spectator awards over 14 consecutive years, a record that makes Celebrity the most awarded wine program at sea by a significant margin.
The awards span the Edge, Solstice and Millennium series ships, meaning the recognition cuts across the entire fleet rather than concentrating on a single class of vessel.
New and returning honorees
The backbone of this year’s Awards of Excellence tier is Fine Cut, Celebrity’s steakhouse concept, which swept honors across six ships: Celebrity Solstice, Xcel, Ascent, Beyond, Apex and Edge. Six ships, one concept, one year.
Two restaurants earned Wine Spectator recognition for the first time. Trattoria Rossa, which debuted aboard the revitalized Celebrity Solstice in March 2026, brings Roman and Southern Italian cuisine to a ship that already carried a strong dining reputation. It picked up an Award of Excellence in its first eligible year. Mosaic, aboard Celebrity Xcel, launched in November 2025 with a concept built around the regions the ship visits and menus that change with itineraries rather than staying fixed. It earned an Award of Excellence as well.
Together, Fine Cut, Trattoria Rossa and Mosaic account for all eight Awards of Excellence this year, and both new venues indicate that Celebrity is extending its wine credentials into newer, concept-driven dining spaces, not just defending the reputation of its established restaurants.
Le Voyage sets a new bar
The most striking recognition in this year’s haul belongs to Le Voyage, the exclusive restaurant by chef Daniel Boulud, who serves as Celebrity’s global culinary ambassador. Le Voyage earned “Best of” Awards of Excellence on three ships: Celebrity Xcel, Celebrity Ascent and Celebrity Beyond, the highest tier in this year’s awards.
Earlier this year, Le Voyage also became the first restaurant at sea to earn a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating. That designation carries weight far beyond the cruise industry. Forbes Five-Star restaurants are judged against the same criteria applied to the best dining rooms on land, and the list is short. For a shipboard restaurant to earn that distinction places it in a company that has nothing to do with its address.
“Celebrity Cruises constantly redefines the possibilities of food and beverage at sea, and this industry-leading recognition reflects our unwavering commitment to excellence,” said Jan Sorensen, the line’s vice president of food and beverage operations. “With up to 32 food and beverage venues on board, we offer something for every guest’s preference, while providing authentic, globally inspired experiences like no other.”
What this means for cruising
Premium cruise lines have spent years trying to close the gap between the onboard dining experience and what travelers find at top restaurants on land. Most of the effort has been incremental: celebrity chef partnerships, upgraded ingredients and tasting menus added to the rotation. What Celebrity has built is something more structural: a wine program with 14 consecutive years of recognition, sommeliers embedded in every restaurant and now a five-star-rated dining room that competes on land-based terms.
The pressure on competitors is real. Travelers who care about what’s in the glass, and increasingly they do, now have a clear benchmark for what a cruise line wine program can look like. The question for the rest of the industry is how far behind they’re willing to fall.
Jennifer Allen is a retired chef turned traveler, cookbook author and nationally syndicated journalist; she’s also a co-founder of Food Drink Life, where she shares expert travel tips, cruise insights and luxury destination guides. A recognized cruise expert with a deep passion for high-end experiences and off-the-beaten-path destinations, Jennifer explores the world with curiosity, depth and a storyteller’s perspective. Her articles are regularly featured on the Associated Press Wire, The Washington Post, Seattle Times, MSN and more.