Tren del Vino: Jujuy's solar wine train sets 40 trips for 2027
The wine service of the Quebrada de Humahuaca tourist train will leave every Saturday from February. It stops at small high-altitude cellars between Volcán and Tilcara.
The Tren del Vino, the wine service of Jujuy's solar-charged tourist train in north-west Argentina, will run on 40 Saturdays in 2027, starting in February, the provincial government has announced.
The calendar was presented at FIT, the international tourism fair in Buenos Aires, where the province says more than 500 visitors tried an augmented-reality carriage reproducing the ride. Until now the wine train has run on selected dates since its first trip on 26 July 2026, which sold out, according to local outlet Las 24 Horas de Jujuy.
The aim is to turn an occasional outing into something a travel agency can sell. A fixed weekly departure, the province's press office argues, gives tourists and above all tour operators the predictability they need to build the trip into packages for the Argentine north, itineraries that usually begin in the capital, the subject of our guide to what to eat in Buenos Aires.
For small cellars, a train that delivers a carriage of visitors every Saturday is a sales channel.
What the Tren del Vino includes
The train runs 42 kilometres between Volcán and Tilcara through the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2003. On wine days passengers get off for tastings: Antropo Wines and Bodega El Molle in Tumbaya, Yanay and Bodega Fernando Dupont in Maimará, with lunch in Purmamarca.
The day ends in Tilcara, where the operator's own wine shop pours labels from a further group of small producers, among them Viñas de Uquía, Bodega Kindgard and Huichaira Vineyard. A sommelier and guides travel on board, each passenger keeps a commemorative glass and transfers are offered from San Salvador de Jujuy, Salta and Tilcara.
No fares for 2027 have been published. The announcement gives dates, not prices.
A solar train that runs on batteries
The line opened in June 2024 and is operated by the Jujuy provincial government. Its two units, built by China's CRRC Tangshan, are battery-electric: they carry 70 passengers each, top out at 60 km/h and are recharged from solar plants in the region. The province markets it as Latin America's first solar train.
Jujuy is a small player in Argentine wine, far behind Mendoza in volume, and its pitch is altitude: vineyards planted along a high desert valley by producers with little reach beyond the province. For them, a train that delivers a carriage of visitors every Saturday is a sales channel as much as an attraction.
Forty Saturdays from February leaves few weekends of the year empty. Whether small cellars can pour for a full train every week is the question the calendar does not answer.
