Schramsberg Vineyards

Schramsberg Vineyards is America's most historic sparkling wine estate and the producer that proved California could make world-class traditional-method bubbles. Founded in 1862 by German immigrant Jacob Schram, the estate was visited by Robert Louis Stevenson during his 1880 honeymoon trip through Napa Valley. Stevenson devoted an entire chapter of The Silverado Squatters to his visit, calling the wine "bottled poetry." The property fell into disrepair during Prohibition and remained dormant until Jack and Jamie Davies revived it in 1965, dedicating the estate exclusively to methode champenoise sparkling wine at a time when virtually no one in California was doing so.

The estate covers 220 acres in the hills above Calistoga, with vineyard sources extending across the coolest growing regions of Napa, Sonoma, and Marin counties. Sparkling wine requires grapes that are harvested early, with high acidity and lower sugar levels, and the Davies family identified cool-climate sites decades before the rest of the industry recognized their value. The caves tunneled into the volcanic hillside in the 1870s provide ideal conditions for aging, maintaining a constant temperature and humidity that allows the wines to develop complexity over years of lees contact.

Winemaker Sean Thompson oversees a portfolio that ranges from the entry-level Mirabelle through vintage-dated Blanc de Blancs, Brut Rose, and the flagship J. Schram, a Chardonnay-dominant blend that spends seven or more years on the lees before disgorgement. The wines are consistently among the finest sparkling wines produced outside of Champagne. In 1972, President Nixon served Schramsberg at his historic "Toast to Peace" dinner with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing, cementing the brand's status as America's sparkling wine of state.

The tasting experience at Schramsberg is built around a tour of the historic caves, the oldest tunneled wine caves in Napa Valley. Visitors walk through passages lined with hundreds of thousands of riddling bottles before arriving at a seated tasting of the current portfolio. The cave tour is one of the most atmospheric experiences in the valley, and the contrast between the cool, damp caves and the warm Calistoga sunshine is dramatic. Reservations are required and the experience runs roughly 90 minutes.

Schramsberg's place in American wine history is secure. Jack and Jamie Davies bet their futures on a grape variety and a winemaking method that nobody else in California was pursuing, and they won that bet convincingly. Today, under the leadership of their son Hugh Davies, the estate continues to produce the benchmark by which all American sparkling wine is measured. For visitors who have spent a day tasting Cabernet after Cabernet, a visit to Schramsberg is a refreshing reminder that Napa Valley's greatness extends well beyond a single grape variety.