[category]
[title]
The Napa Valley Wine Train is one of those amazing entities that combines two lovable things—wine tasting and train travel—into one very attractive experience. I’d heard about the wine train for years and finally decided that, given the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris (the blind tasting that pitted French wines against Napa wines—and Napa won!), it was time to board.
Along with a girlfriend, I enjoyed the six-hour Legacy Experience, which takes you past vineyard vistas, through tastings on the train, and at two wineries, and provides four separate dining experiences on board: breakfast, lunch, a cheese course, and dessert. You’ll also get a chance to dance on the way back in an open-air car if you desire, as you say goodbye to the grapes. For those who can’t spend all day on the train, there are shorter three-hour experiences, but I will honestly say that the six hours flew by. As long as you have a great companion with you, the ride seems a perfect length.
How much wine is happening on the Napa Valley Wine Train?
When you first board, a glass of JP Chenet French sparkling wine is waiting at your seat for you. This is the first of a calvacade of tastings. You’ll taste three Vice wines in the open-air car (chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon) when you pause to take photos (without deboarding) at the famous Napa wine country sign. The Vice wines are vinted and bottled by the Napa Valley Wine Train from local grapes; each label depicts one of the train stops, and the back of the label shows a curving set of train tracks. At Charles Krug, the oldest winery in Napa Valley, you’ll disembark to taste three wines (rosé, cabernet sauvignon and a family reserve Generations red blend).
I also “accidentally” ordered another glass with my lunch on the train, so for me, this six-hour experience included 15 tastes [of wine].
You'll learn about this historic winemaking family whose rift led one brother to split off and found Robert Mondavi Winery. You'll also stop at V. Sattui winery, a longtime favorite of mine because they have beautiful picnic grounds and an extensive deli to create that picnic. In fact, their cheese collection for sale is the largest in California. There, you’ll go inside to taste four varietals (chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon and a powerful 19 percent APV Madeira), although we noticed that a very fun sommelier who had been pulled in from the upstairs tasting room loved to give extra pours, including two from the winery’s larger list, and an extra bump of that gorgeous Madeira.
I also “accidentally” ordered another glass with my lunch on the train, so for me, this six-hour experience included 15 tastes. I hasten to mention that I didn’t finish each; the dump bucket is an important component to ensure that you stay alert to give proper attention to the next glass. Besides the included minimum of 11 tastings, there’s also a five-page wine and cocktails list and the option to order a sommelier flight tasting, so if you haven’t found happiness and ebullience in your nose, tongue and brain, that’s on you.
What is the Napa Valley Wine Train like?
This is an aesthetically pleasing train, inside and out. The two historic restored Pullman cars from 1915 and 1917 are painted white and hunter green (though other trains may be maroon and white), with golden lettering that reads "Napa Valley Wine Train." Our car was originally a dining car on the Southern Railway.
Inside, you’ll plunk down in a blue velvet and leather seat, separated from others with frosted, etched glass. You’ll have a large picture window from which to appreciate the views as you pass vineyards and, less glamorous in some stretches, Highway 29. As you leave the station, you pass by murals visible only from the train, part of the Rail Arts District.
Our server Alicia was also a fun narrator who let us know when we chugged past notable things, like the silver rabbit statue leaping in the vines (by the same artist Lawrence Argent who did the giant red rabbit sculpture Leap in the Sacramento airport), the mountain ranges that create this famous terroir (only 2 percent of the earth’s surface has this climate, she says), and the 1884 Yountville Veterans Home, an impressive complex on the hillside. She also solved a mystery for me: why you often see rows of vines with a rose bush at the end. It’s because the roses help vintners detect disease before it hits the vines.
Because of the closeness of the seats and the deboarding at the wineries together, you tend to chat with your neighbors across the aisle, and it’s a friendly, bonding experience. We met a couple who had just gotten engaged at Muir Woods and were as bubbly as champagne. At the end of the ride, Alicia went row by row asking us where we all hailed from. Answer: all over the world. Other than a San Francisco couple, we were the only Californians on the train. There were visitors from Chile, Peru and Canada, and from Ohio, Portland, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Kansas.
Another key personality on the train is Nick, dressed in a spiffy red suit, who leads you through the open-air tasting and is also a party-maker when it’s time to dance on what he jokingly calls “the most dangerous dance floor in the world, a moving concrete lawsuit waiting to happen.” His quips made me laugh out loud, such as his warning to constantly hydrate: “since 58 out of 61 bachelorettes were asleep by 3pm because they underestimated the power of day drinking.” He and Alicia really enhanced the experience while also allowing passengers to have their own time with their group. (Also props to the friendly engineer who let us peek into the cab after the ride and blow the horn!)
Food on the Napa Valley Wine Train
The food on the train is all scratch-made daily and is absolutely delicious. For breakfast, we loved the smoked salmon eggs Benedict with an arugula frisée salad. At lunch, I chose the grilled beef tenderloin with a bordelaise sauce, parsnip purée, charred shallots and forest mushrooms. To accompany, I ordered a Grgich Hills Estate cabernet sauvignon; it was my little “salut” to Mike Grgich, no longer with us, who was the winemaker at Chateau Montelena at the time it won first place for white wine at the Judgment of Paris. (I was riding the train on May 28, just four days after the May 24, 1976 oenological coup!)
There were three other lunch choices, including a vegetarian risotto; my friend had the pork tenderloin. The chef’s cheese course included two generous slabs of cheese, local honey, olives, fennel pollen and ciabatta. Finally, I chose chocolate lava cake for dessert, while my friend had the orange crème brulée. We are in awe of head chef Alejandro making these delicious plates on a moving train!
What does it cost to ride the Napa Valley Wine Train?
Pricing fluctuates by season, day, and time of purchase, but the lowest price I could find online for the six-hour Legacy Experience is $614 per person, including all taxes. This is probably a good time to mention that my friend and I were hosted (thank you, Napa Valley Wine Train), but I honestly believe it's worth it if you can swing the splurge. The experience includes—in addition to everything mentioned above—a keepsake photo of you taken just before you board and a commemorative rail pin. It's an all-day affair; we boarded at 10am and were back at the station at 4:30pm.
There are multiple other excursions to choose from at significantly lower prices, including lunch trains and dinner trains, some with vista dome cars, some that stop at different wineries, and even one with a tea tasting and a garden spritz cocktail instead of wine. In the fall, watch for an excursion that includes grape stomping during harvest. If you’re not a wine drinker, there are plenty of mocktails and juice options to make the day still entertaining.
We recommend arriving early to walk around the station. There’s a 3-D photo opp (place your camera on a mount that whirls around you twice, with a backdrop photo of the train), a cute miniature train and a coffee/wine stand to get the morning started.
