FOOD & WINE TRAILS announces their 2012 Wine-at-Sea Series

FOOD & WINE TRAILS has announced its 2012 wine-cruise season, with 20 wineries from around the United States and Europe hosting educational cruises for friends and fans.

"These wine cruises offer great value, as they are half the price of a comparable land-based wine tour," according to Larry Martin, the company's president. Martin also points out that a wine cruise offers more activity options, making it attractive to both the enthusiast and the non-enthusiast. Travelers can choose to further their wine-knowledge or spend time shopping, sightseeing or lying around the pool. They also gain access to people and places not normally available to the tourist, which is something everyone enjoys.

All FOOD & WINE TRAILS cruises are hosted by nationally recognized winemakers or winery owners and most include free-airfare as well as private-to-the-group parties, tastings, special dinners, visits to top wine estates, plus prepaid gratuities and shipboard credits. All offer the convenience of not having to pack and unpack and the fun and conviviality of traveling with a group of like-minded people.

The 2012 winery line-up includes some of Napa Valley's most prestigious brands including Joseph Phelps, Pahlmeyer and Robert Mondavi wineries, as well as wineries from other appellations around California, Oregon, Maryland, New York and Spain. The series will first visit New Zealand and Australia next February, with spring and summer arrivals to Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Morocco, the Canary Islands and Alaska on Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Oceania Cruises and Holland America Line. Prices start at $1,449 per person.

About Food & Wine Trails: FOOD & WINE TRAILS is America's oldest and largest wine-travel company, hosting its first wine cruise in 1989 and now handling over 3,000 food and wine lovers a year. FOOD & WINE TRAILS is the educational tour division of the HMS TRAVEL GROUP, a 25-year old company based in Santa Rosa, California that has designed travel programs for such culinary icons as Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and most of America's top food magazines and wineries. Larry Martin, the president of FOOD & WINE TRAILS, is a wine collector, vegetable gardener and the Northern California Regional Governor for Slow Food, an international food advocacy organization. The editors of CONDE NAST TRAVELER have chosen Martin for the past three consecutive years as "The Worlds Top Wine Travel Specialist" 2008, 2009 and 2010.