The Napa Valley Wine Train, that sometimes controversial but undeniably splendiferous cross between mass transit and mass tourism, has a new engineer at the throttle.

The family of the founder, the late Rice-a-Roni mogul Vincent DeDomenico, has sold the 25-year-old institution to a partnership of Seattle based Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Ltd. and Brooks Street, a real estate development and investment company with an office in Walnut Creek. The transaction was announced Tuesday in a press release but took place earlier this month.

Jake Donoghue, CEO of Noble House Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement that the privately held company looks forward “to embracing this treasured icon with the goal of giving our guests a memorably wonderful on-board experience.”

There was no reference in the release to the Wine Train’s most recent appearance in the press: the furor that erupted on social media after a book group made up primarily of African American women was ordered off the train on Aug. 22. Other riders complained that the 11 women were being disruptive, and there were police on hand when they were forced to leave the train in St. Helena — halfway through the round-trip journey up valley from Napa.

A spokesperson for Noble House said via e-mail that the sale “has been in the works for a number of months.”

Back to Gallery Family sells Napa Valley Wine Train to partnership 18 1 of 18 Photo: Napa Valley Wine Train 2 of 18 Photo: Lisa Johnson 3 of 18 Photo: Lisa Johnson 4 of 18 Photo: Jose Carlos Fajardo, Associated Press 5 of 18 Photo: Sam Wolson, Special to the Chronicle 6 of 18 Photo: Sam Wolson, Special to the Chronicle 7 of 18 Photo: Sam Wolson, Special to the Chronicle 8 of 18 Photo: Sam Wolson, Special to the Chronicle 9 of 18 Photo: Napa Valley Wine Train 10 of 18 Photo: Hoberman Collection, UIG via Getty Images 11 of 18 Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle 12 of 18 Photo: photo by Craig Lee 13 of 18 Photo: photo by Craig Lee, SFC 14 of 18 Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle 15 of 18 Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle 16 of 18 Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle 17 of 18 Photo: Craig Lee, The Chronicle 18 of 18 Photo: Susan Fornoff



































This summer’s controversy wasn’t the first time the Wine Train had been in the news for reasons beside its promise of “an unparalleled memory-making journey,” to quote the company’s web site. Before the trains started running along a 19th Century rail line in September 1989, DeDomenico had to fight off local critics who said that it would cause traffic gridlock or be the final nudge sending Napa Valley into full Disneyland mode.

“When you sort of intrude on someone else's turf, you get negative reactions. We were competition,” DeDomenico, who had sold off his Golden Grain pasta company a few years earlier, said to The Chronicle in 2002. “If I had called it the walnut train or acorn train, it would've been all right.”

DeDomenico died at 2008 at the age of 92. The current Wine Train offerings start with a $124, three-hour roundtrip that includes lunch or dinner. Toss in a tour of a winery or two and the cost climbs as high as $234.

“The Wine Train is an iconic and treasured attraction in the Napa Valley,” Tony Giaccio, who will remain as the Wine Train’s top executive, said Tuesday in a statement. “We are confident that the Noble House family, with its proven hospitality expertise, will not only preserve this wonderful institution, but ensure its continued growth and enhancement.”

Noble House got its start in Dallas in the 1980s by restoring a lavish 1912 hotel that had fallen on hard times. It now operates 16 hotels and resorts, including the Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco and Napa’s River Terrace Inn.

John King is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron