Schramsberg Vineyards
Jack and Jamie Davies found a wrecked Victorian and a set of collapsed caves above St Helena in 1965 and made a Blanc de Blancs that year. You taste standing in those caves all winter.
Why go
Jack and Jamie Davies looked for a year before they found this. They bought an abandoned 19th-century winery on the mountainside, a Victorian mansion over the wreck of its gardens, and cellars nobody had gone down in for decades.1 They wanted world-class sparkling wine out of it. The 1965 Blanc de Blancs came out of that first year, and the winery calls it the first commercial use of Chardonnay in American sparkling wine.1 You drink in the caves they dug back out. You take that tasting standing up inside them from November through April, six people at a time.2 May to October it moves outdoors and the cap drops to four.2 A county permit limits how many people come through in a day. That is why nothing here is walk-in, and why they will not split a tasting between two of you.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Cave Tour with the Classic Tasting, $100, six wines across Schramsberg and Davies Vineyards, held indoors.2
- Order: the Reserve pairing at $150 if you want cheese, meat, fruit and nuts against the six. Non-drinkers pay $75.2
- Avoid: wearing perfume, cologne or aftershave. The winery asks you not to, and around sparkling wine that is a real request rather than a formality.2
- Avoid: being late. More than ten minutes and they may not honor the booking, and there is a 24-hour cancellation policy on a card taken at booking.2
What locals & experts say
- Schramsberg, on what the Davies found:
In 1965, after a yearlong search, they discovered a run-down winery on the mountainside above St. Helena. The 19th century Victorian mansion presided over the tangled remains of once stately gardens and underground cellars.
1 - The same page, on the first wine:
Later that year, the 1965 Blanc de Blancs came to be, and would be the first commercial use of Chardonnay in American sparkling wine.
1
Both are the winery's own account, and I did not verify the Chardonnay claim anywhere else. No outside palate was read on these wines, so I have no critic's line for you.
Good to know
- Booking: appointment only, through CellarPass or on 707-709-2469. The visitor centre is open 9:00am to 4:30pm for retail.2
- 21 and over, no children, no pets. If the day you want is full, the winery points you at Davies Vineyards, its sister property in St Helena.2
- Hygiene: not established. No inspection instrument for this county is on file here.
Verdict
should-visit — Jack and Jamie Davies spent a year looking, found a wrecked Victorian and a set of collapsed caves above St Helena in 1965, and made a Blanc de Blancs that same year which the house says was the first commercial use of Chardonnay in American sparkling wine. You taste inside those caves, and between November and April you do it standing up in them, six people maximum. A hundred dollars gets the cave tour and six wines across the Schramsberg and Davies Vineyards range, and the winery asks you not to wear scent that day, which is the right instinct around sparkling wine and tells you how seriously they take the glass. Everything read here was the winery's own, which is what keeps this off the top rung.