Born from a rain-soaked detour and crafted by an all-woman winemaking team, Holland America Line’s exclusive sparkling wine now pours by the hundreds of thousands on ships worldwide.
Holland America Line has been sailing the world for more than 150 years, but its most-traveled bottle today comes from much closer to home. The Seattle-based cruise company recently partnered with Four Feathers Wine Services in Eastern Washington to craft an exclusive sparkling wine, one that just earned a 90-point rating from Wine Enthusiast and has quickly become the most-served adult beverage across the fleet.
For Drew Foulk, Holland America’s beverage director, the beverage was born out of necessity.
“Sparkling wine is our number-one consumed alcoholic beverage onboard,” Foulk says. “But for years, we were pouring wines that I honestly wasn’t proud of. As a luxury cruise line, our guests expect more, and so do we. I wanted a sparkling wine that actually reflected the quality of our brand.”
Foulk explains that for years, the company purchased sparkling wines from big international suppliers. “Their solution was essentially: here’s our on-the-shelf sparkling wine, mostly a crémant or Prosecco, and we’ll just slap your label on it,” he recalls. “It wasn’t representative of who we are.”
With 11 mid-sized ships and a food and beverage program at the heart of the brand, Holland America needed a wine worthy of its legacy. The idea of creating a proprietary sparkling wine became unavoidable. “When people come on a cruise, they want sparkling wine — at the captain’s toast, at hosted events, or just to mark the start of vacation,” Foulk says. “It was frustrating that my number one product wasn’t one I was proud of.”
After years of searching, the breakthrough came almost by accident. During a Washington Wine Road Trip — an annual industry immersion — a rained-out vineyard tour rerouted Foulk to Four Feathers’ facility in Prosser.
There, he walked into a brand-new, automated méthode traditionnelle sparkling line. “It was an eye-opener,” he recalls. “I didn’t even know this was available in the market.” The timing was perfect: Four Feathers, led by general manager and winemaker Rebecca De Kleine, had just ramped up their sparkling program and were looking for projects that could showcase Washington’s potential in this category.
With that, an collaboration was born.
The collaboration unfolded over nearly 18 months, balancing economics, style and scale. Four Feathers presented a range of base blends capable of meeting Holland America’s enormous volume demands: about 185,000 bottles annually, or six to seven shipping containers’ worth.
From there, the process became about fine-tuning. “It was three or four rounds of trial and error,” Foulk says. “A little more fruit, a little more acid, a little less sugar, until we landed on something that felt right. The most important thing was that it be approachable. This isn’t meant to be polarizing or overly esoteric. It’s meant to be celebratory, a wine anyone can enjoy the moment they step onboard.”
De Kleine and her team took that mandate seriously. “The vision was clear: approachable, local, fun, and consistently delicious,” she says. “We translated that into a blend that balances brightness and fruitiness with a playful effervescence. The result is a sparkling wine that’s easy to enjoy, and reliably delightful with every sip.”
For De Kleine, keeping the wine rooted in Washington was essential. “To make it feel distinctly of the region, we leaned into what makes Washington terroir so special,” she says. “It’s fruit-forward but not sweet. It’s crisp and refreshing.”
The Four Feathers team highlighted two of their standout vineyards, The Cliffs in Horse Heaven Hills and Stonemark in Rattlesnake Hills. These sites, they noted, bring vibrancy and balance that speak directly to Washington’s sparkling identity.
The final wine shows notes of peach and apple, a round melon mid-palate, and a saline finish that subtly nods to life at sea.
“For me, that salinity was important,” Foulk says. “It ties you to the experience of being on the ocean, standing on deck with a glass in hand, watching the horizon.”
Onboard, the wine is everywhere: it greets guests at the captain’s toast, pours freely at loyalty events, and anchors the wine list across all bars. Its consistency and quality have made it Holland America’s most popular drink, consumed in higher volume than any other beverage.
“It feels good knowing that when someone steps on our ship and raises a glass, they’re drinking something crafted in our own backyard,” Foulk says.
