My sister Megan has been talking up the “Wine Train” for ages. She tried to sign us up for a tour, but it was cancelled. We think there was a train strike, but we’re not sure.

The website Visit Korea describes the wine tour like this:

Situated in Yeongdong (Chungcheongbuk-do), Wine Korea is the only winery in Korea that maintains a vineyard and produces the wine brand, Chateau Mani. Beginning in November 2006, Wine Train run by Wine Korea offers a one-day train tour between Seoul and Yeongdong. Departing from Seoul Station, its passenger cars, themed Red/White Wine or Ginseng, boast an elegant café atmosphere. Above all, visitors can enjoy as much of the wine produced in Yeongdong as they want. Upon arriving at Yeongdong, visitors head to Wine Korea, enjoy foot massages in wine, participate in making natural cosmetics, and tour the wine production facilities. The tour goes on to visit Ginseng Exhibition Hall in Geumsan and Traditional Medicinal Herb Market. High quality wine, wellbeing grape juice, and Chateau Mani cosmetics are also available online for purchase.

Although we couldn’t take the Wine Train and despite the warning by Google Maps that the drive would take two hours (it did), we decided to check out the winery on our own with Britt behind the wheel. When we arrived at Chateau Mani, we found lots of exhibits and signs in Korean. The lady behind the counter covered her mouth and giggled, “Sorry, no English.” Megan phoned her friend, Sun, who got us sorted. We were supposed to taste a few wines, visit the exhibits upstairs and then relax with a wine-infused foot bath. So that’s what we did!

We sampled four wines from small metal plates. Dry white, dry red, sweet red and Nouveau (not sure what kind of grapes they used, but the wines were not bad).

Then we poked around upstairs, where exhibits featured dolls and Korean signs that seemed to explain the wine-making process. With no translator, that took about two minutes.

Back downstairs, we were herded into a little garden where another woman was filling a square tank for our foot bath. Meg and I rolled up our jeans and happily dipped our frozen tootsies into the hot water, which probably included a cup or so of wine. It didn’t smell very wine-y. Eventually, we moved to a bench for our own individual foot buckets and a snack of mandarin oranges. Megan’s wine bath was scalding hot and nearly melted her toes right off, while mine was lukewarm. Never mind. My feet stayed toasty for the whole ride home.

On the way out the door, the salesclerk handed us two bottles of “Eau Wine” perfumed body mist. I wouldn’t necessarily use it, but I didn’t think it was disgusting. Meg thought it smelled like hand sanitizer.

And that concludes our Wine Korea tour. The general consensus was: Worth a visit, but take the train next time.