Reality Tour 2: Napa Valley Wine Train

It was sad leaving Sacramento behind. I’d grown fond of California’s capital. But as always, today we had something to look forward to.

I wasn’t sure what to expect on Day 8. Would the Napa Valley Wine Train live up to the hype?

Now I enjoy a glass of red wine now and then but it’s not my drink of choice. Lucky for Napa Valley there are millions of wine aficionados in the world.

We open our latest rail adventure at the depot and immediately are thrown into the world of vineyards, vinters and vino. There’s a brief tasting that explains what to look for in a good glass of wine.

The train ride itself was very social. Passengers moved about, trying the wine tasting and enjoying the scenery.

The lunch inside our restored 1915 Pullman car did not disappoint. In fact, I ended up in a conversation with a non-Collette passenger who, after seeing Chad and I with cameras and notebooks, stopped me to find out what we were doing. The journalist in me started asking him questions. He said he had been to a world-famous Napa Valley restaurant the night before. I am paraphrasing but he laughed at the portion size at the other place. “Usually,” he said. “Restaurants like that are good but it’s not a meal. Here (The Napa Valley Wine Train) you get a MEAL and the food is much better.”

This is something I love about travel. It pulls you out of the everyday. You never know who you are gong to run into. You could tell that this guy had a very interesting back-story. Something about a successful son-in-law, a family with loads of money and far off European cities.

Chad and I were joined by the Wine Train’s  Andrea Guzeman. She showed us around as the train rolled down the tracks, pointing out the Robert Mondavi winery and the Rubicon Estate Winery owned by Francis Ford Coppola.

The Wine Train represents something a little different then the trains we’ve been on. Rather then the old west or the gold rush or manifest destiny, this train feels like the peak. The restored Pullman car made all the difference. We are at the pinnacle of train travel. It would never get better than this. With the right kind of eyes you could almost see an age before interstate highways and jet engines, a time of elegant railcars and stunning countryside. Sure, that sounds like an idealized image but the Napa Valley Wine Train delivers just that.

I spent sometime looking off the back of the train, watching the track unfold behind me. Maybe I’d had a glass too many but it was a great symbolic moment. Read into it what you will.

---

posted by John Geysen

Collette Vacations

Tags: Napa Valley Wine Train, Reality Tour 2, Video

•