KEEPING AMERICA ON TOP: WHOM YOU KNOW CELEBRATES AMERICAN STYLE INTELLIGENCE and EXCELLENCE with Schramsberg 2010 Brut Rosé. It Earns Whom You Know's Highest Recommendation! Excellence from California is What You Are Looking For to Ring in the New Year in 2014-Don't Miss the Highly Impressive Timeline: Excellence from 1862 and forward: Served in The White House Since 1972! First American Wine Ever to Be Served at a State Event.
The New Year's countdown at Whom You Know has commenced! When that ball really does drop in Times Square (follow it on Twitter here https://twitter.com/timessquareball) it is absolutely essential to have the proper bubbly to toast to, and as we are American it would be hard to convince us that there's anything better than the
Schramsberg 2010 Brut Rosé. This proper bubbly is flavorful, complex and dry, making it both versatile with food and delicious by itself as an apéritif. True enough-you can start sipping it at cocktail hour and proceed during the whole meal, dessert and the ball drop! You may even want to start a day early like us. The character of the wine is most strongly influenced by bright, flavorful Pinot Noir grown along the Sonoma/Marin Coast and in Mendocino’s Anderson Valley. A few small lots of Pinot Noir are fermented in contact with their skins to add depth of flavor and subtle color to this unique sparkling wine. Chardonnay gives spice, structure and length on the palate.
Hand picking, careful handling and gentle pressing produce a wine of delicacy, free of skin and seed tannin. Following the fall harvest and base winemaking period, an extensive process of blending trial and refinement is carried out in the spring. The finished blend is aged on the yeast in the bottle for about two years, just enough to achieve refined effervescence and toastiness without diminishing its refreshing, vibrant appeal.
Enjoy this rich, delicious sparkler on almost any occasion: at your favorite restaurant, a special dinner at home, at a beach picnic or a backyard barbecue. A very versatile wine; try it with sushi, salmon, rock shrimp, pizza, roast chicken, BBQ ribs, burgers, chocolate raspberry tarts and creamy cheeses with summer fruits. And, absolutely essential for New Year's!
Tasting Notes
“The 2010 Brut Rose has bursting aromas of fresh strawberry, Mandarin orange and Ruby Red grapefruit. The fruitful nose is complemented by notes of warm bread dough and roasted hazelnuts. On the palate, there are flavors of watermelon, strawberries, tangerine and lemon chiffon. The wine finishes with a bright and crisp acidity that is long, tangy and refreshing.” – Winemakers Keith Hock and Hugh Davies
Varietal Composition: 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay
County Composition: 44% Sonoma, 24% Napa, 20% Mendocino, 12% Marin
Appellation: North Coast
Harvest Dates: August 16 - October 11, 2010
Barrel Fermentation: 30%
Alcohol: 12.8%
TA: 0.92g/100mL
pH: 3.11
RS: 1.05 g/100mL
Release Date: October 15, 2013
Cases Produced: 7,058 (9-Liter)
Suggested Retail: $43 (750mL)
Available Formats: 750mL
***
America’s Sparkling Wine Artisan Innovator
Family-owned: In 1965, Jack and Jamie Davies established Schramsberg as a sparkling
wine estate on the property originally founded in 1862 by German immigrant Jacob
Schram. At a time when there were only 21 wineries in Napa Valley and fewer than 50
acres of California vineyard planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, they set out to make
world-class sparkling wine in the true Méthode Traditionnelle style. Theirs was the first
California winery to provide a Blanc de Blancs in 1965 followed by a Blanc de Noirs in
1967. Now their son Hugh Davies, who was born the same year the Davies arrived at
Schramsberg, leads the winery’s management and winemaking team.
The Wines: Schramsberg uses the Méthode Traditionnelle technique to create its nine
distributed sparkling wines: the signature vintage dated Reserve, J. Schram and J.
Schram Rosé; the classic vintage dated Blanc de Blancs, Blanc de Noirs, Brut Rosé and
Crémant; and the multi-vintage Mirabelle and Mirabelle Rosé. Since the 2001 vintage,
the winery also produces the J. Davies Cabernet Sauvignon, made exclusively from
grapes grown in the Schramsberg estate vineyards on Diamond Mountain.
Focused on quality: Producing just 60,000 cases annually, Schramsberg Vineyards is
focused on the finest and most complex hand-crafted sparkling wines in California.
Schramsberg’s premium wines are crafted in very limited quantities: an average of
1,500 cases of J. Schram and 1,000 cases of Schramsberg Reserve are made each year.
Rivaling the best of Champagne, Schramsberg wines are clear favorites amongst wine
professionals in blind tastings conducted annually.
Handcrafted:
Most of Schramsberg’s viticultural and winemaking practices are carried
out by hand: grapes are hand-harvested, the wines are handcrafted, the bottles are
stacked and riddled in underground caves. The J. Schram, Schramsberg's top
Chardonnay offering is even hand-labeled.
Cool climate diversity:
Schramsberg Vineyards blends Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
harvested from a broad array of cool-climate vineyard sources, including Napa-C
arneros, Sonoma-Carneros, Anderson Valley, Sonoma Coast and the Marin Coastal
area. The winemakers draw from over 90 individual vineyards to create over 200 base
wines each year. These wines are then used to create Schramsberg’s distinctive
sparkling wines.
Barrel fermentation:
Unique among California sparkling wine houses, Schramsberg
ferments 25 percent of its juice in oak barrels to produce rich, flavorful, complex wines.
In its top two sparkling wines, the J. Schram and Schramsberg Reserve, 40 percent of
the components are barrel-fermented.
Reserve wines:
Schramsberg Vineyards has an innovative reserve wine barrel-aging
program, aging small lots of wine for up to six years. Limited quantities of these aged
wines are then incorporated to give depth and complexity to the finished product. The
Mirabelle Brut and Mirabelle Brut Rosé, multi-vintage sparklers, contain 25 percent of
these exquisite wines.
Caves:
As many as 2.7 million bottles are aged for two to seven years in Schramsberg’s
hillside caves. These historic caves were dug into volcanic rock in the 1880’s by
Chinese laborers and currently cover 34,000 square feet. They maintain a consistent
temperature and humidity, an environment that is paramount in the flavor development
of sparkling wines.
The Estate:
The Schramsberg estate is tucked into Napa Valley’s famed Diamond
Mountain, a few miles south of the town of Calistoga. Tall trees and lush vegetation
surround this registered historic landmark, painstakingly restored by the Davies family.
A Victorian house built by Jacob Schram in 1889, the winery, an old barn and historic
caves hand-dug by Chinese laborers in the 1880's remain virtually unchanged since
Schram’s days. The Schramsberg estate totals 217 acres with 43 acres planted to vines.
Official dinners:
Starting with President Nixon’s Toast to Peace with China in 1972 to
President Barak Obama’s White House Dinner for Bilateral Chairpersons of the
Congressional Committees, every residential administration has served Schramsberg’s
sparkling wines during official functions.
Tours & Tastings:
Cellar tours and tastings are by appointment only. The Visitors
Center is open for retail sales seven days a week from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Location 1400 Schramsberg Road, Calistoga, CA 94515
Phone: Visitor’s Center: 707-942-4558
Business Office: 707-942-6668
Fax: 707-942-5943
E-mail: info1@schramsberg.com
***
A Timeline: 1862 to the present
1862 Jacob Schram purchases 200 acre Mt. Diamond property from the government and begins development of Napa hillside vineyards. Herman Adolph Schram is born.
1869 The Transcontinental Railroad is completed, creating a surplus of Chinese laborers in the San Francisco area.
1870 Schramsberg has 30,000 vines; Chinese laborers dig Napa’s first hillside caves for wine-aging and storage.
1875 Schram Victorian mansion with stately veranda completed on vineyard site.
1880 Author Robert Louis Stevenson visits Schramsberg. Descriptions of his stay are recorded in his book, Silverado Squatters. Schramsberg produces 8,403 cases of wine from 50 acres of vines.
1881 Construction for second set of cellar tunnels begins. In the past 17 years, Schramsberg winery has pressed 87, 237 cases of wine.
1890 Schramsberg produces 540,000 lbs of grapes (approx. 28,361 cases of wine) from 100 acres of grapes.
1891 Wines produced at Schramsberg listed as Zinfandel, Sauvignon Vert, and Burgundy, Hock, Sauterne and Riesling style of wines. Schramsberg Riesling served to President Harrison at Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
1905 Jacob Schram dies. Property inherited by son, Herman.
1912 The winery cease operation and is sold.
1957 Schramsberg is declared a Historical Monument by the California Historical Society.
1965 200 acre Schramsberg property purchased by Jack and Jamie Davies, who had moved to the Napa Valley, with young sons Bill and John, from Los Angeles where Jack had held executive positions at such companies as Ducommon, Inc., Fibreboard Corporation, Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation. Jamie had earlier owned an art gallery in San Francisco after receiving a degree from U.C. Berkeley. First crush of grapes under the Davies proprietorship of Schramsberg Vineyards and Cellars. Crush included the sole use of Chardonnay from the Charles Krug winery for Champagne; an innovation in the United States. It used the traditional Méthode Champenoise style of winemaking to produce premium quality sparkling wines.
Hugh Davies is born the month after the family took over the winery.
1967 Schramsberg produces vintage dated Blanc de Noirs of Pinot Noir grapes, an innovation in the United States.
1968 Introduced Cuvée de Gamay of Napa Gamay grape, vintage dated and Brut Rosé an innovation in the United States. Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve established. Jack Davies helped spearhead the passage of the nation’s first such agricultural preserve.
1972 Introduced Crémant Demi-Sec, produced from the Flora grape in a creamy, less effervescent style and vintage dated; an innovation in the United States. February 25: Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs 1969 served at the State dinner “Toast to Peace” hosted by President Richard Nixon for the Premier Chou En-lai in Beijing, China. This is the first time Schramsberg or any American wine is served at any White House or State event, at home or abroad.
1980 Schramsberg Reserve introduced: vintage dated, aged on the yeast 4 years before disgorging, yet another innovation in the United States.
1985 Nineteenth Century 20 acre McEachran Winery Estate (contiguous with Schramsberg) purchased. This reunites under single ownership these two historical California properties. First use of barrel fermentation in production of Schramsberg sparkling wines. Schramsberg wins first Wine Spectator Critic’s Choice award. State Dinner at The White House with Schramsberg Cuvée de Pinot served for Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Great Britain.
1987 Schramsberg served at official banquet in San Francisco honoring Pope John Paul II. Sourcing of grapes from cooler coastal sites for sparkling wines begins in earnest. First non-Napa fruit used at Schramsberg.
1990 Schramsberg 1986 Crémant Demi-Sec served at the luncheon to honor President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Anderson Valley fruit in Mendocino County added to mix of vineyard sources.
1992 Schramsberg’s J. Schram, America’s first Tête de Cuvée, is introduced in London.
1994 The replanting of the winery’s historic Diamond Mountain property to Cabernet Sauvignon and the red Bordeaux varietals begins. Crémant Demi-sec served at dinner for the 30th Anniversary of Special Olympics featuring President and Mrs. Bill Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow.
1996 Hugh Davies joins Schramsberg with a master’s degree in Enology from U.C. Davis. First red Bordeaux style wines made at winery. Jack and Jamie presented James Beard Foundation’s National “Outstanding Wine and Spirits” Award.
1998 Jack Davies passes away and Jamie becomes Chairman of the company. Bill Davies joins the Company’s Board of Directors. Jack L. Davies Napa Valley Agricultural Land Preservation Fund established. Schramsberg Querencia Napa Valley Rosé produced with the proceeds going to the fund. The first “Sparkling Wine Symposium” is offered for members of the trade.This will eventually be renamed as Camp Schramsberg and opens up to consumers as well. Schramsberg Vineyards placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1999-2000 Special Schramsberg Millennium cuvees released including 1988 Blanc de Noirs late disgorged, 1990 J. Schram late disgorged. Hugh Davies becomes Head Winemaker.
2003 Schramsberg 1996 J. Schram voted “Best Overall Wine and Best Sparkling Wine” at Sydney International Wine Competition. This was the first time that an American wine, or a sparkling wine, have ever won these two awards.
2004 First vintage of J. Davies Diamond Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon (2001) released. The wine is named in honor of Jack Davies. Davies family chairs the Napa Valley Wine Auction. Hugh Davies marries Monique Nelson in the olive grove on the estate.
2005 Schramsberg celebrates 40th Anniversary with a series of special dinners across the country and releasing of 1994 Late Disgorged Blanc de Blancs, Blanc de Noirs and Reserve. Hugh is named as CEO/President of Schramsberg Vineyards and Jamie remains chairman. Hugh Davies elected President of the Napa Valley Vintners Association.
2006 Third vintage of J. Davies (2003) was released in April. Debut of J. Schram Rosé (1998) released September 15. Jamie and Hugh receive the COPIA Wine Award’s Lifetime Achievement Award. New production building is completed.
2007 Schramsberg 2005 Brut Rosé is served at the White House State Dinner honoring Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. 10th year of Camp Schramsberg , 3-day sparkling wine camp, and the first-ever Spring camp, which included a pruning seminar and base-wine blending along with additional food and wine pairing seminars by the Culinary Institute of America. Schramsberg launches the Riddler’s Circle.
2008 Matriarch Jamie Davies passes away. The oak grove in the lower vineyard is dedicated as “Jack and Jamie’s Grove.” New Visitor Center is completed. NASA Astronaut Ken Ham pilots the Space Shuttle Discovery on its 26th mission to the International Space Station with Schramsberg labels and corks in his pocket. The 2000 J. Schram Rosé is released, marking the second offering of this signature vintage wine.
2009 Schramsberg Vineyards receives final certification under both the Napa Green Winery program and the Napa Green Certified Land program.
2010 Schramsberg Vineyards installs 466,806 kilowatt-hours solar array, consisting of 1,655 panels.
2012 Schramsberg Vineyards celebrates the 150th anniversary of Jacob Schram’s founding of the property. Schramsberg Vineyards celebrates the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s “Toast to Peace.”
