Presents California-based Napa Valley Wine Train, a rail tour of the Napa Valley wine region with narration for tourists unfamiliar with the area. Describes the Train's three-hour trip from Napa to St. Helena. Lists prices for various brunch, lunch, and dinner packages. Includes a history of the railway and an events calendar. Contains an e-mail request for information and a sample menu and directions to the main station.
The Napa Valley Wine Train is a major attraction for both visitors and residents alike in the world famous home of great wine in the United States, The Napa Valley. This book reproduces Dr. Block's original, unmodified notes from 1983 through 1986, containing his memories of those tumultuous days when a small, unlikely band of people managed to “lay the tracks” for what later, in the hands of Vince and Mildred DeDomenico, became the sleek and elegant train now internationally famed. In September 2009, the Wine Train celebrated its 20th year of service and, accordingly, these memories have become a significant page in the history of Napa Valley. The fact that the train came to life at all, under the most improbable circumstances imaginable, the offspring of the most unlikely combination of seven people, is the tale of a project that never should have suceeded...but did. This is the intriguing story of why and how that came to be.
Five million visitors a year travel to California's Napa Valley to experience the good life: to taste fine wines, eat fine food, and immerse themselves in other sophisticated pleasures while surrounded by bucolic beauty. Tourism is the world's largest employer, and tourists today want to experience the world through all five senses. Tasting the Good Life tells the story of Napa tourism through the words of the tourists who visit and the men and women who provide the products and services they rely on. The stories of 17 people--from winemaker to vineyard manager, from celebrity chef to wait staff, from hot air balloonist to masseuse--provide extraordinary insight into this new form of tourism and its impact on an iconic American place.
The Napa Valley Wine Train is a major attraction for both visitors and residents alike in the world famous home of great wine in the United States, The Napa Valley. This book reproduces Dr. Block's original, unmodified notes from 1983 through 1986, containing his memories of those tumultuous days when a small, unlikely band of people managed to "lay the tracks" for what later, in the hands of Vince and Mildred DeDomenico, became the sleek and elegant train now internationally famed. In September 2009, the Wine Train celebrated its 20th year of service and, accordingly, these memories have become a significant page in the history of Napa Valley. The fact that the train came to life at all, under the most improbable circumstances imaginable, the offspring of the most unlikely combination of seven people, is the tale of a project that never should have suceeded...but did. This is the intriguing story of why and how that came to be.
Over the past decade, the town of Yountville has received worldwide recognition as a tourist destination specializing in fine wine, luxurious hotel and spa accommodations, and award-winning restaurants. In fact, these achievements and accolades have earned it the name "Heart of the Napa Valley." Longtime residents, however, realize that Yountville's temperate weather, rich soils, and serene environs have been attracting visitors to the area not for decades but rather for thousands of years. The original indigenous residents called the surrounding area Caymus and constructed their homes out of willow and tule. Later the village of Caymus became known as Sebastopol, a name used by mountain man George C. Yount, the first American settler to receive a Mexican land grant. Yount's Kentucky-style blockhouse provided a welcome mat for many of California's early pioneers. He is also credited with planting some of the first grapevines in the Napa Valley. Upon his death in 1865, local residents wanted to honor the contribution of Yount and changed the name from Sebastopol to Yountville.
Inspired by Jules Verne’s classic adventure tale, celebrated editor-in-chief of The Wine Economist Mike Veseth takes his readers Around the World in Eighty Wines. The journey starts in London, Phileas Fogg’s home base, and follows Fogg’s itinerary to France and Italy before veering off in search of compelling wine stories in Syria, Georgia, and Lebanon. Every glass of wine tells a story, and so each of the eighty wines must tell an important tale. We head back across Northern Africa to Algeria, once the world’s leading wine exporter, before hopping across the sea to Spain and Portugal. We follow Portuguese trade routes to Madeira and then South Africa with a short detour to taste Kenya’s most famous Pinot Noir. Kenya? Pinot Noir? Really! The route loops around, visiting Bali, Thailand, and India before heading north to China to visit Shangri-La. Shangri-La? Does that even exist? It does, and there is wine there. Then it is off to Australia, with a detour in Tasmania, which is so cool that it is hot. The stars of the Southern Cross (and the title of a familiar song) guide us to New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina. We ride a wine train in California and rendezvous with Planet Riesling in Seattle before getting into fast cars for a race across North America, collecting more wine as we go. Pause for lunch in Virginia to honor Thomas Jefferson, then it’s time to jet back to London to tally our wines and see what we have learned. Why these particular places? What are the eighty wines and what do they reveal? And what is the surprise plot twist that guarantees a happy ending for every wine lover? Come with us on a journey of discovery that will inspire, inform, and entertain anyone who loves travel, adventure, or wine.
