What could be better than a scenic ride through stunning countryside whilst being able to eat and drink at the same time? Well, welcome to the Napa Valley Wine Train. A sedate three hour lunch experience in lovingly restored vintage rail cars. Sound like your cup of tea -or should that be wine?

The experience starts with a wine tasting before setting off on your journey. There are different dining options on board and we chose the Gourmet Express Lunch with a Domaine Chandon tour afterwards. Guests are called by car so you don’t have people wandering the length of the train in search of their seats. We were seated at a table for two that was immaculately presented and attended by staff in the Wine Train livery. Perusing the wine list brought a couple of pleasant surprises. Many wines are available by the glass and a decent champagne selection if you’d like to treat yourself to a Vintage Krug.

As we were served our starters, a delicious Soup du Jour, the train pulled out of the station and headed towards the historic town of Yountville. It moves carefully so as to give as little disruption to your lunch as possible. We finished our sweet corn soup with salmon and finished our Domaine Carneros Brut which went down very well. A decent break followed before the mains were served which gives you plenty of time to soak up the scenery and choose your next accompanying wine. A rather delicious Sola Rosa Rosé paired up nicely with our mains. A grilled Pork Chop with seared kale in truffle jus and a Chefs’ special, Halibut with a tomato salsa. Very well presented on the plate and a testament to Chef Kelly MacDonald’s skills.

As you pass through the Napa Valley on past Yountville, Oakville and finally arriving in St Helena the vistas that greet you are truly stunning. This is what makes it so much more than a dining experience. Where else can you sit in a 1915 Pullman lounge car whilst being served top quality food, treated to excellent service and watching one of the world’s great wine producing areas idle by? The Wine Train has been serving Napa for 20 years now and has a whole host of events in preparation of this. Murder Mystery nights, Moonlight Escapes - the list is loaded with variety.

But back to the journey. Dessert is served in a separate Lounge car where you can sit back and relax (some more) with coffee and a very decent Crème Brulee. Swivel lounge chairs mean you can turn to take in the view or talk to your fellow guests.

Alas this is where the journey ends for the Pullman Lounge crowd as we were all to head off on our tour of Domaine Chandon. A sparkling wine producer outside Napa. A coach waited as we said our farewells to the staff and headed off to the Winery. Established in 1973 by one of the great French champagne houses, Moet-Hennessy, it has been producing award winning sparkling wine since 1976.

Our tour guide Mark was, shall we say, very enthusiastic. He obviously loved the produce and felt very passionately about their wines. After the tour of the wine making facilities finished we were treated to the most important part of the experience....tasting! Four very different sparkling wines producing very different reactions from our group. They must have gone down remarkably well as people were laden with bags as we left.

So the day was over, a bus took us back to the station and we headed our separate ways. The Wine Train is one of those experiences that is worth every penny for memories alone. It isn’t all about the wine though obviously that being the area it helps. It’s about the people that you meet on board who are sharing this unique day with you. You feel as if you are transported back in time to a bygone, gentler age and surely that can be no bad thing. So take a trip back in time with The Wine Train you won’t regret it, I promise.

For more information visit the website: http://winetrain.com/

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