This is both a holiday suggestion and a hope! While channel surfing earlier this week, I chanced upon a rather nifty documentary on the ‘Wine 

Train’ — a ride through the vine-laden valleys of Napa in California. The carriages looked like a cross between the Orient Express and a modern first class bogey and the kitchens appeared to be fabulous. 

The star attraction, of course, was wine. Much of Napa’s best was there on offer for tasting and buying. The sight of miles and miles of green and serene vineyards stretching onto the Californian horizon only increased the temptation to taste and buy apparently! That made me wonder where else such train rides were available. 

Delving into the net I found a few others in the same mould as the Napa train, notably in the happening South American wine destination of Chile. According to what I could gather, after a short bus ride to the railhead at San Fernandez, the guests board a train whose vintage carriages are named after the grapes that have catapulted Chile to the near-top of the New World wine list — Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. 

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