Putting the glamour back into train travel aboard the Krug express
This summer’s UK timetable chaos may have turned travelling by train into hell on wheels but Krug Champagne has come up with the perfect reminder of the glamour of rail travel.
This year’s Krug Encounters – the house’s annual immersive celebration of the release of its latest Grande Cuvée – is a luxury train experience called Tracks on Tracks.
Headed up by rhythm-and-blues legend Jools Holland and rising-star chef Luke Robinson, the private train will leave London Victoria on the morning of 31 August and wend its way through the countryside of the home counties, stopping at three platforms en route for a series of musical performances, before returning to Victoria in the evening. The locations are top secret, but it’s safe to say that the train won’t be pulling in to Clapham while Holland plays ‘Up the Junction’.
“I’m really looking forward to Tracks on Tracks – it’s going to be an adventure,” Robinson said at a sneak preview of the menu at his Soho restaurant Evelyn’s Table. “There’s a romance to cooking on a train in the countryside. We’re putting three things together that I love very much – music, food and Krug. Rather than just thinking about what I might want to cook, I’m looking at the profiles of the champagne and what Jools is doing in terms of the music.”
Passengers are in for a treat. To start, Krug Rosé’s bold berry fruit coped with the jostle of savoury flavours in a textbook vitello tonnato. The new Grande Cuvée Edition 166, both rich and fresh, matched those qualities in a plate of lemon sole, sweetcorn and girolles. And to finish, the luscious shimmer of Krug 2004 provided the perfect foil for a sublime slice of Amalfi lemon tart.
The three musical performances, meanwhile, have been chosen by Holland to communicate a sense of family – not least because he feels part of the Krug family himself.
“I am a great fan of Krug, which is without question the most delicious of all champagnes,” he said. “I particularly admire the way the same family have evolved and developed the vineyard over the last six generations. They treat the growing of grapes and the creation of champagne with the sensibility of musical art.”
Holland and Robinson are following in illustrious footsteps: in 2016, The Clash’s Mick Jones and Michelin-starred chef Michael O’Hare took over Osea Island in Essex, while last year it was the turn of Argentinean steak superstar Francis Mallmann, accompanied by a live acoustic soundtrack courtesy of online music platform Mahogany.
Other Krug Encounters around the world include ‘Out of the Lake’ in Zurich on 13 September and ‘Krug Pier – Anchors Away’ in Hong Kong on 21 November. But Tracks on Tracks sounds like the most fun. After all, if you’re going to get on a train, it may as well be a Krug Encounter rather than a Brief Encounter. And if nothing else, you won’t go thirsty should there be a signal failure.
Tickets, starting at ￡450 including all food, drink and return travel to London, are available from krug.com