A CORKING WINE TOUR
Hop on board the Napa Valley express for vintage tipples and retro luxury, says LARA KING
YOu ideally need a car to see California’s vast wine country. The downside to that is someone has to do the driving — so take the train instead.
The Napa Valley Wine Train is California’s answer to the Orient Express — opulent, elegant and unashamedly decadent. Departing from a dedicated station five minutes’ walk from downtown Napa (50 miles north of San Francisco), most journeys are 36-mile round trips through the Valley’s vineyards — rattling along a line originally built in 1864 to take tourists north to the hot springs of Calistoga.
We are travelling in a vintage 1915 Pullman carriage. Once a first-class coach on the Northern Pacific Railway, it’s been meticulously restored to evoke early 20th century train travel. Ours is a fourand-a-half hour ‘twilight tour’, but other options include, three-hour trips with a three-course lunch or dinner, or winery tours with stops at up to three vineyards.
Whichever you choose, there’s no such thing as standard class. You might be travelling in the twostorey 1952 Vista Dome, with panoramic views, or the antique 1915 Cabernet Sauvignon Lounge Car, which has an observation deck.
And forget plastic-wrapped sandwiches from a buffet — this is fine dining table service, with meals prepared on-board by chef Donald Young.
As soon as we’ve taken our seats, the food and wine begin to flow. First is a board of local cheeses and charcuterie, alongside the first of many chardonnays.
This is a wine journey in more ways than one, serving a selection inspired by the 1976 Judgment of Paris — a blind tasting that pitted renowned French white burgundies against new Napa Valley chardonnays.
Shocked French judges named Mike Grgich’s 1973 Chateau Montelena chardonnay as the finest white wine in the world — putting California on the wine map.
Today, it’s the fourth-largest wine producer globally, with 599,000 acres of grapes.
While the train clack-clacks through the valley, we’re served three wines, all from wineries that submitted entries in the famous tasting. As the sun sets, we come to a halt. Our stop is the Grgich Hills Estate — where that worldbeating 1970s chardonnay was made. Our third course is served outdoors among the vineyards, and is accompanied by three Grgich cabernet sauvignons.
After dinner, the train is waiting — and back on board there’s dessert and dessert wine. As we trundle back into Napa the lights of the town twinkle. As days out go, this is just the ticket.
TRAVEL FACTS
JOURNEYS on the Napa Valley Wine Train start at £130 per person for lunch or dinner on the Gourmet Express (winetrain.
com). Norwegian Air London Gatwick to San Francisco from £318 return.