The Vipava Valley wine express tour rolls along a single-track line that opened in 1906 to carry Austro-Hungarian postal freight between the Adriatic and the Julian Alps. By the 1990s the route had been reduced to a twice-daily local service, and by 2010 passenger traffic had all but ceased. In 2018 a cooperative of Vipava winemakers and the Slovenian Railways heritage division revived the line as a seasonal wine train, restoring three wooden carriages and negotiating stopping rights at sidings adjacent to family estates. The Saturday service now carries up to 120 passengers per departure, with registration closing at 13:30 and the locomotive pulling out of Nova Gorica at 13:40. The valley itself is a narrow limestone corridor that runs east from the Soča basin toward the Karst plateau. The microclimate is shaped by the bora wind, which funnels cold air down from the Nanos massif and keeps frost at bay even in January. Malvazija and Zelen are the dominant white varietals; reds include Barbera and Merlot, planted on terraces that climb to 350 metres. The train makes three scheduled stops over a five-hour loop: the first at Ajdovščina, where passengers walk 200 metres to a stone-walled cellar for vertical tastings of single-vineyard Malvazija; the second at Vipava township, with access to a family farm producing natural wines from amphora-aged Pinela; the third at Podnanos, beneath the ruins of a medieval watchtower, for charcuterie and a flight of four estate reds. Each tasting lasts 40 to 50 minutes. Guides on board provide commentary in Slovene, English, and Italian, covering viticulture history, the geology of the valley floor, and the role of the railway in connecting village cooperatives to the Trieste export market before 1918. The carriages retain their original slatted benches and oil lamps, though LED strips have been added for evening visibility. Windows open manually; air conditioning is not fitted. The route climbs a maximum gradient of 1 in 40 and crosses two stone viaducts, both dating to the line's inaugural year. Tickets include all tastings, a printed route map, and a complimentary half-bottle of blended white to take home. The return journey arrives at Nova Gorica by 19:00, with passengers disembarking at the same platform where they boarded.