Rails, Vines and Fine Dining – A Daylesford Adventure.

Two of the world’s splendid little luxuries have been bundled together for a unique Daylesford experience: a slow train journey on a vintage locomotive through the Australian bush, which drops you off at one of Victoria’s best family wineries to taste cool-climate wines and enjoy a meal cooked exclusively over coals.

Train, Wine and Dine is a collaboration between Daylesford Railway and Passing Clouds Winery. The lunch service departs from the historic Daylesford train station at 11am on Sundays – the same day as the famous weekly Sunday Market. Along with an enormous array of stallholders with plants, bric-a-brac, clothing and vintage items, this is now home to a permanent weekly local farmers' market with some of the best growers in the state. Before I leave, I pack the cool bag with steak and bacon from Brooklands Free Range Farm, bread from Two Fold Bakehouse, fresh vegetables from Mount Franklin Organics, honey from Des O’Toole, and pickles from Adsum Farm. Dairy Flat Farm (by Lakehouse) has also joined the fold, supplying a range of breads and pastries they bake daily at their regenerative farm in Musk.

There’s an air of anticipation as departure draws nearer. The volunteers from the railway, dressed in period uniforms, call the passengers to the old train and its carriages, pulled up at the platform. Small children press their faces to the inside windows. Groups of young adults grab bench seats facing one another. Grown men take photos of their own children in front of the engine. There is something about vintage trains that brings a palpable joy and energy to a journey.

The railway runs several little rail motors. These are smaller, self-contained trains that once ran on the branch lines of Victoria Rail. My favourite is the art deco-era 63RM, with its Australian native hardwood interior, finished with ornate brass fittings. The trains run on the old 1880s line that connected to the main Bendigo line at Carlsruhe and ran through the forest to Daylesford. You get a real sense of history on the journey to Passing Clouds, crossing old steel bridges and gazing out at homesteads rising from the rich, red earth.

The train eases to a halt at the little siding at Passing Clouds, complete with a small shelter. It’s a brisk walk to the cellar door, which looks up to the summit of the extinct volcano on which the vineyard is planted, and across the Loddon Valley to the north. The cellar door staff are knowledgeable about the wines and how the surrounding vineyards are managed using sustainable, biodynamic preparations and techniques. The 2022 Estate Chardonnay has a fine backbone of clean acidity, rich and buttery, with notes of pear and citrus. The 2022 Estate Pinot Noir, grown on one of the coldest sites in Australia, has notes of gooseberry and dark cherry.

After twenty minutes, we’ve been introduced to the wines of Passing Clouds and are led into the dining room. A bright, wood-lined space overlooking the dam, water birds, and the old Furphy tank, which doubles as a fountain. Sitting at beautiful, bare wooden tables, the set menu is brought out. Chef Cameron McKenzie cooks over hardwood and old oak barrel staves – no gas, no induction, no microwaves. The food comes from the kitchen garden and local growers, and it is beautiful, honest, delicious, and satisfying. Warm Mount Zero Olives are followed by plates of vitello tonnato – slices of tender veal sitting on a rich tuna mayo, a plate of finely sliced capocollo with giardiniera, and a plate of salmon, smoked over oak barrel staves, sitting on a remoulade of crisp and tangy kohlrabi. This is followed by a main course of grilled chicken – plump, succulent, and perfectly seasoned, served with a delicately spiced pumpkin purée. Then there is a plate of grilled dry-aged beef rump with a green pea purée, served with a side of cauliflower cheese. The plates are shared, the servings are generous, and the matching cool-climate wines pair beautifully with the food. There’s a sneaky cheese course with a splash of Ondine Sparkling Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon. Desserts follow, served with a little glass of Passing Clouds’ last dessert wine, Picolit, with its big honeysuckle hit of botrytis and fresh effervescence. A truly unique wine, and something you can only experience by dining here. We’re treated to a tour of the kitchen before the floor staff remind us that the train home leaves in 15 minutes.

We say our goodbyes, pick up the wine we bought at the cellar door, and wander back to the siding. Through the forest comes the muted sound of the horn and the rhythmic clackety-clack of steel wheels hitting the old track. The old 63RM pulls alongside with a rough purr, and we step into the warm cabin and fall into the great padded seats. As we trundle through the open paddock, bounded by old pines, a single white-shouldered kite hovers above the field, its wings glowing gold in the late afternoon light.