Napa Valley Wine Train makes a comeback with fun new offerings

The whistle of a locomotive, a string a vintage cars and a wide-open track are irresistible to connoisseurs of nostalgia. Pour in a few glasses of wine, and the train will completely seduce railroad romantics.

Michael and Brittany Cabra of Nashville were recently won over. Forty-eight hours after they said “I do” in a private Napa vineyard, they hopped aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train for a honeymoon ride.

“We like trains,” Brittany said, “and we like wine. My great-grandfather was a conductor in Nebraska ... we grew up liking trains because of him.”

The Cabras were among a group of 20 people who each paid close to $400 for a four-course meal and a chance to tour three family-owned wineries in Napa Valley during a six-hour ride. They were passengers in the vintage car circa 1945, replete with banquette seating, a copper ceiling and large pane windows.

“The La Famiglia,” which launched in the spring, is the newest adventure in the Quattro Vino series of food and wine-centric packages drawing a younger crowd. Nearly a third of the riders are 35 and under, comprised of adventuresome foodies and wine geeks who like the uber-like comfort of door-to door service. Shuttles meet the train to usher guests to and from the wineries for tours.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is part of a dynamic renaissance with 14 unique rides, including special events such as the “Murder Mystery Tour” and “Meet the Maker,” and even a “Hop Train” that offers tastings of local beer and accompanying bites. In addition to its diverse offerings, the train owners are working on a $100 million project to transform the current station into a European-style terminal linked to a 148-room luxury hotel. Plans call for a 65-foot glass atrium in the station’s lobby to showcase the trains on the tracks.

“There are only a handful of train station hotels in the United States,” co-CEO Scott Goldie said. “We hope to get the approval from the Napa planning department by the end of the year and build it out in three or four years.”

Rocky start

It has been an ambitious few years since Goldie’s commercial real estate firm, Brooks Street, and partner Noble House Hotels and Resorts purchased the train in 2015. Shortly after the purchase, the owners had to deal with a monumental public relations crisis when a book club of mostly black women riding the train said they were kicked off the train for talking too loudly, unleashing a torrent of racist accusations and criticism and an $11 million lawsuit. The new owners settled the case for an undisclosed amount.

“We all had to collectively decide we could overcome it and move forward,” Goldie said.

On a recent run of The Famiglia Tour, only two of the 19 passengers on board said they were aware of the incident.

“I believe we have overcome it,” Goldie said. “It’s been nearly three years without an incident. With the new ownership group, it has been onward and upward.”

Last October’s wildfires offered a new set of challenges. While none of the trains or the 21 miles of right of way were damaged in the fires, operations were closed for a week because of the smoky conditions.

“Everyone lost business in Napa,” he said. “October is our busiest month because of harvest, and it was a ghost town.”

Goldie suffered personal losses as well: He made it out of the Atlas Peak fire with only his dog and a briefcase, losing many of his possessions from a rental home perched a half-mile from the top of the mountain on the outskirts of town.

“It was pretty devastating personally and for the business,” he said. “But we’re back on track now.”

To encourage tourism after the fires, Goldie invited elected officials to ride the train and help spread the word that Napa Valley was open for business.

Except for the weeks after the October wildfires, Goldie said the train has been profitable and growing, from 400 rides in 2015 to 1,300 in 2018.

Foodie focus

The group’s strategy now is to draw locals for repeat business. To that end, they have nearly doubled the number of train trips and worked to upgrade the dining experience. Eighty percent of the passengers, he estimated, come from Northern California.

“The food scene in Napa is really incredible with some of the best restaurants in the world, so we really had to up our game,” he said.

To draw foodies, they hired executive chef Donald Young, with a resume full of posh resorts like the Waldorf Astoria Group’s Boca Raton Beach Club in Florida.

“When I got here the food was really very mundane,” Young said. “The menu hadn’t changed in 20 years. So what I’ve done is take the bread basket of what’s available on local farms and offer it seasonally.”

The chef creates all the menus and is responsible for 95 percent of the sauces.

In an 8,000-square-foot commissary on Eighth Street in Napa, next to the rail yard where the trains sleep at night, Young can often be found making a host of reduction sauces. One of his favorites is a brown veal stock, which he simmers for three days, reducing it further after blending it with ruby port.

“At larger places, I didn’t get to touch the food anymore,” Young said. “Half the time I was in sales meetings and doing paperwork. Here, I’m not chained to the stove, but I’m still able to create.”

Young’s entrees include citrus braised pork belly and miso glazed fillet of salmon.

Young oversees a staff of about 40 people and spends $100,000 to $300,000 a month on food. With this budget in mind, it’s not surprising the chef has a big vocabulary when it comes to local artisan offerings. Point Reyes Blue Cheese, Sky Hill Farms Goat Cheese and Caggiano’s duck sausage with hazelnuts are a few of his prized items.

A couple from Los Angeles, Kira Stearns and Michael Mills, both in their thirties, gave their train experience earlier this summer the thumbs-up.

“We liked the four-course meal,” Mills said. “We liked the all-day event and the scenic route.”

Stearns smiled. She adjusted her sunglasses and added, “We didn’t have to bother with reservations and we didn’t have to drive. It was seamless.”

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.