Schramsberg Vineyards – Sparkling Wine and More in the Napa Valley

A BIT OF HISTORY

As the second winery in the Napa Valley, Schramsberg is bubbling with history. It began in 1862 when Jacob Schram, a German immigrant and barber by trade, purchased 200 acres of land on Diamond Mountain in the Napa Valley. He planted 30,000 vines from European varietals and built a home on the land for his wife, Annie. In 1870, Schram took advantage of the surplus of Chinese laborers in the San Francisco area (they had just completed building the Transcontinental Railway) and employed them to dig Napa’s first caves to age and store the wines. Because the volcanic rock was so soft, they couldn’t use explosives and had to dig the caves by hand. In 1879, Schramsberg produced 5,500 cases of wine (Riesling, Hock, Burgundy and Chasselas). When Jacob passed away in 1905, his son, Herman, took over. Herman sold the property in 1920 at the beginning of Prohibition. From 1920 to 1965, the property saw five different owners. In 1965, Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the property with the goal of producing sparkling wine in the French style (the traditional méthode champenoise). Their goal involved more than just wine production – they wanted to change the way Americans viewed sparkling wine. The Davies set out to make “America’s most prestigious, select and admired sparkling wine.”

The Davies’ innovation and notable achievements earned them praise and recognition throughout the world. Their 1965 Blanc de Blancs was the first commercial use of Chardonnay (from the Charles Krug winery) in sparkling wine. Their 1967 Blanc de Noir used Pinot Noir grapes. In 1968, they introduced Cuvée de Gamay and Brut Rosé, and in 1972 they introduced Crémant Demi-Sec.  That same year, Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs made its debut at a state dinner hosted by President Richard Nixon in Beijing, China. Since 1972, Schramsberg wines have been served by every subsequent presidential administration and have been enjoyed by visiting dignitaries, including Queen Elizabeth II, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, King Juan Carlos of Spain, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

In 1996, Jack and Jamie’s son, Hugh, joined Schramsberg and the winery produced its first red Bordeaux style wines. Jack passed away in 1998 and Jamie passed away in 2008. Hugh, as President and CEO, carries on with the same ambition and innovation as his parents. In addition to producing award-winning sparkling wines, Schramsberg is a model of agricultural land preservation and conservation. In 2009, Schramsberg received certification as a Napa Green Winery and in 2010 they completed their installation of a 1,655-panel solar power system.

THE EXPERIENCE

Schramsberg offers tastings in conjunction with an educational tour through the caves. John and I visited Schramsberg on a Thursday with our friends, Garrett and Kasia. We pulled into the visitor parking lot facing three buildings nestled among the hills. The administrative offices and production are on the right - there’s a 1957 Historical Landmark designation by one of the cellar doors. In the middle is the beautiful yellow Victorian house and pond. To the left is the Visitor’s Center and winery.

After checking in, we wandered through the lobby looking at the photos, news articles and bottles. Towards the back of the lobby is the “celebrity wall of fame” with pictures and letters from the various state dinners and events that featured Schramsberg wines. There’s also a photo of Jacob Schram with the Beringer Brothers and Charles Krug – talk about Napa history.

There were 10 visitors on the tour. Our wine educator and tour guide, Donia, personally greeted each and every one of us. She began the tour in the lobby with a history of the winery. From the lobby, we went directly into the caves. The caves were cool and dark, with lichens (a fungus and alga combination) covering the walls and ceiling. Stacks of bottles and wooden riddling racks lined both sides of the tunnels.

At the end of the first tunnel, Donia showed a map of the vineyards and their varietals. She also took us through the process of making sparkling wine. Our next stop was at the wall of sparkling wine. At Schramsberg, sparkling wines are bottled and aged in the caves for a minimum of 2 ½ years. The bottles are arranged neck-to-neck and each wall is made from 4,000 bottles.

 

Donia talked about riddling and showed us a picture of Ramon Viera, their master riddler, at work. Riddling is the process of angling and turning the bottles so that the sediment collects in the neck of the bottle.  Schramsberg riddles 80% of their sparkling wines by hand every day – that’s approximately 60,000 bottles each day for six-to-eight weeks. Ramon has been riddling for more than 30 years and can turn an entire rack (front and back) in nine seconds!

After the riddling is complete, the bottles go to the disgorgement line where the sediment is expelled and the bottles are corked. The disgorgement room was in use during our tour and we weren’t able to go in due to safety issues – when the glycol bath freezes the sediment, the pressure shoots the plug out at 70mph. Instead of dodging flying sediment plugs, we went straight to the tasting.

Donia took us into a private room with two tables set up for all 10 guests. Each table setting contained five glasses, a price list of current releases, a sheet for tasting notes, a wine club invitation, and a holiday catalog with more details about the wines, unique bottle sizes, gift sets and gift ideas. A plate of crackers sat in the middle of each table. A basket of crackers or bread has become a rare sight in tasting rooms lately. It may seem like a nit, but as a taster, I want a palette cleanser nearby – and sometimes I just to snack on something to help with the buzz I get from the wine (since I believe it’s a sin to spit). It was nice to see that the Schramsberg team thought about it and included crackers as part of the tasting experience.

 

Our tasting included four sparkling wines (2007 Blanc de Blancs, 2003 J. Schram, 2007 Brut Rosé and 2001 Reserve) and one still wine (2007 J. Davies Cabernet Sauvignon). After demonstrating the proper way to open a bottle of sparkling wine, Donia asked us to look at color of each wine and to smell the aromas before tasting. She also talked about what to look for in quality sparkling wines including the “string of pearls” – the tiny, tight and fast rising bubbles.  My favorite line of the day was “The bigger the bubble, the bigger the trouble”. If you’re pouring Andre sparkling wine, chances are pretty good that you’ll see some big bubbles.

My favorite wines from the tasting were the Blanc de Blancs, the Brut Rosé and the J. Davies Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2007 Blanc de Blancs was crisp, refreshing and light, with biscuit and pear aromas. I love a sparkling Rosé and the Schramsberg Brut Rosé did not disappoint me. The light pink, almost salmon, color gave way to aromas of strawberries, roses and apricots.  People often think of a sparkling rosé as a sweet wine. The Schramsberg Brut Rosé is a dry sparkling wine.  With less residual sugar and with hints of citrus and cantaloupe flavors, it was the most flexible and food friendly wine in the tasting. The J. Davies Cabernet Sauvignon, named for Jack Davies, was a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Malbec and 4% Petit Verdot.  With its deep color and strong aromas of cherry and black current, we expected a big tannic wine. Instead, we got a softer, silkier and balanced wine with berry and cherry flavors. It’s a perfect wine to pair with a nice cheese plate.

 After the tasting, Donia took us back into winery to see the disgorgement line while the workers were on a break. The room was amazing. With machinery to freeze the neck, disgorge the sediment plug and cap the bottle, the line handles 400 bottles in four minutes. Donia finished the tour at the gift shop so that we could make our wine purchases and she left to start another tour.

The Schramsberg tour and tasting was one of the best winery experiences I’ve had. From the start, Donia was warm and welcoming. She had great energy and kept the tour moving at a good pace. Additionally, the information that Donia shared and the stories she told were really interesting. The other guests in our tour helped to elevate the experience. At some tours, people stay in their own groups and don’t talk to anyone else. This group was outgoing and engaging. We talked and joked throughout the tour and tasting – it felt like one unified group instead of four groups of strangers.

TOURS AND TIDBITS

Schramsberg offers five scheduled tours / tastings each day ($40 per person) by appointment only. Tours / tastings run approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. Reservations may be made on the Schramsberg website or by calling the winery directly.

OTHER DETAILS

Schramsberg Vineyards

1400 Schramsberg Road, Calistoga, CA 94515

707.942.4558

Wine tasting / tours by reservation: 10:00am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:30pm daily.

Trefethen Family Vineyards – One Family. One Estate. One Passion.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Gene and Catherine Trefethen moved to Napa Valley in 1968 and created a 600-acre wine estate by purchasing six small farms and the old 1886 Eshcol Winery. Gene’s son, John, and daughter-in law, Janet, produced their first commercial vintage in the renovated winery in 1973. More than 40 years later, Trefethen Vineyards has a few notable distinctions. It continues to be a family business with John running the winery, Janet managing all marketing efforts, and their children, Loren and Hailey, working at the winery full time. In 1988, the winery was recognized as a National Historic Landmark. And Trefethen is one of the only American wineries that has never purchased a single outside grape to make its wines.

THE EXPERIENCE

Trefethen is one of those wineries you need to plug into the GPS navigation system – it’s on Oak Knoll Avenue off of Highway 29 in Napa. If you're not looking for the road sign, it's easy to miss. Once you turn onto Oak Knoll, you need to do a series of left turns to get to the winery parking lot. It’s a beautiful drive and worth the extra five minutes. The driveway runs through the middle of the vineyards and ends at the historic winery and tasting room.

John and I visited Trefethen on a Saturday with two of his friends from the sommelier course, Frank and Mark. We got to the winery at about 10:15am – it was right after they opened, so there were only a few other visitors. As we entered the lobby, we were welcomed by three of the tasting room staff. One of the associates, Keith, took us around the corner and into the tasting room. Keith is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY and is planning to take the sommelier exam so there was a lot of discussion about the test and how everyone was preparing for it. As a professionally trained chef, Keith also does a lot of Trefethen’s food / wine pairings and events (Twilight at Trefethen) – some of his recipes and pairing recommendations sounded amazing. Keith was friendly, really knowledgeable about the wines, and passionate about how food and wine go together to provide the ultimate tasting experience.  

The Trefethen tasting room was warm and inviting with lots of wood and deep red hues.  It was decorated for the holidays with twinkle lights, Christmas trees and holiday displays. I really liked the tasting room because it felt roomy and relaxed. There were two bars at different ends, as well as a few overstuffed chairs and some barrel tables (wine barrels turned into high cocktail tables). While the tasting room filled up, the variety of bar and seating options enabled everyone to spread out and enjoy the wines with their friends and family. Additionally, there was a really pretty side room set up for private tastings.

The tasting room features a “tasting passport” of two options – an Estate Tasting and a Winemaker’s Reserve Tasting. The Estate Tasting is $10 and you choose four wines from a total of eight featured wines (the tasting wines that day included a 2009 Dry Riesling, 2008 Chardonnay, 2008 Viognier, 2008 Quandary – a white blend, 2007 Cabernet Franc, 2006 Merlot, 2007 Double T Red – a “Bordeaux blend”, and a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon). The Winemaker’s Reserve Tasting is $25 and includes a selection of five special, limited release wines (our featured wines included a 2007 Harmony Chardonnay, 2008 Pinot Noir, 2007 Dragon’s Tooth, 2002 Library Cabernet, 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon).

Sometimes it pays to hang out with the sommelier guys as Keith poured wines for us from both tasting options. My favorite wines were the 2007 Dragon’s Tooth, the 2002 Library Cabernet and the 2006 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.  Dragon’s Tooth is a blend of 61% Malbec, 22% Petit Verdot, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. It’s got a deep purple color and aromas of berries, cherries and chocolate. In addition to the jammy fruit, it tastes of oak, nutmeg, chocolate and spices – the Petit Verdot gives it a nice peppery kick. Yum.

During our tasting, Keith treated us to a private tour of the barrel room and the historic production area.  When John and Janet Trefethen restored the winery, they kept the Eshcol winery’s original de-stemmer/crusher and the gravity-flow system. Trefethen was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the only 19^th-century wooden gravity-flow winery in Napa Country. The barrel room is gorgeous with its casks and painted barrels that are used to age the winery’s Bordeaux variety red wines.  

TOURS AND TIDBITS
In addition to the Estate and Reserve tastings, Trefethen offers tours and special tastings.  There’s a 30-minute winery tour daily at 10:30am and includes a tasting of the current releases ($25/guest) and a “Twilight at Trefethen” event on Friday evenings at 6pm that features a private reception, winery tour and barrel tastings ($100/guest). 

OTHER DETAILS

Trefethen Family Vineyards
1160 Oak Knoll Avenue, Napa, CA 94558
707.255.7700 / 866.895.7696
Wine tasting hours: 10:00am to 4:30pm daily
Tours by reservation: 10:30am daily