P&O Cruises has one more reason to be proud about its house wine collection. The wines, blended exclusively for the company by Olly Smith, have won two awards at the prestigious 2011 International Wine and Spirits Competition. Porta Palo Rose 2010 vintage was honoured with a Bronze award while Porta Palo Red 2010 vintage walked away with a Silver award, which means it was the best wine it its class.

The wines are available on all seven P&O Cruises ships. They are blended exclusively for P&O Cruises at the Settisoli vineyard in Italy by winemaker Olly Smith.

Smith responded by saying “I’m so pleased and proud that these Porta Palo wines have won awards. I passionately believe that you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy good wine.”

He also said that it was his mission to share the best wines he can find with P&O’s discerning passengers.

Olly is, of course, also in charge of the new wine bar called The Glasshouse on board Azura. For wine lovers this is simply the best place on the ship to be. It features a top-of-the-range Enomatic wine system, allowing passengers to select single glasses of wine from 32 different types. Once a bottle has been opened, it can be re-sealed again using groundbreaking inert gas technology. This prevents the wine from reacting to the oxygen in the air, thereby preserving the characteristics and flavours of the wine as if the bottle has never been opened.