Whom You Know Celebrates our 3,000th Post with 2006 Brut Rosé by Schramsberg!!!

We are American at Whom You Know, and we are pleased to celebrate our 3,000th post with an American wine of this caliber!  Whom You Know is exactly 13 months old now, but this brand has a far longer illustrious history. 



Schramsberg Brut Rosé is flavorful, complex and dry, making it both versatile with food and delicious by itself as an apéritif. The character of the wine is most strongly influenced by bright, flavorful Pinot Noir grown in Carneros, Anderson Valley, and the Sonoma and Marin coastal areas.


A few small lots of Pinot Noir are fermented in contact with their skins to add depth 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.  It certainly appeals to us at Whom You Know and Peachy Deegan highly recommends it.


Tasting Notes
“The unusually late harvest of 2006 produced bright, fruitful Pinot Noir. Aromas are generous and bursting with strawberries and ripe watermelon accentuated by subtle nuances of freshly baked rhubarb pie. The palate is knit seamlessly together. A crisp entry leads way to bountiful flavors of juicy strawberry, fresh peach and blood orange. The 2006 Brut Rose finishes with a long tangy and balanced acidity.”
– Winemakers Keith Hock and Hugh Davies


Varietal Composition: 68% Pinot Noir, 32% Chardonnay
County Composition: 42% Mendocino, 31% Napa, 22% Sonoma, 5% Marin
Appellation: North Coast
Harvest Dates: August 28 - October 17, 2006
Barrel Fermentation: 32%
Alcohol: 12.6%
TA: 0.85 g/100mL
pH: 3.04
RS: 1.06 g/100mL
Release Date: May 2009
Cases Produced: 7,400 (9-Liter)
Suggested Retail: $41


http://www.wilsondaniels.com/



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 20 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 Champenoise style. Theirs was the first California winery to provide a Blanc de Blancs in 1965 followed by a Blanc de Noirs in 1968. 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 Champenoise technique to create its nine styles of sparkling wine: 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 70,000 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 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-Carneros, Anderson Valley, Sonoma County and the Marin Coastal area. The winemakers draw from 90 individual vineyards to create 200 base wines each year. These wines are then used to create Schramsberg’s nine 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 two 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 30,000 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 42 acres planted to vines.

Official dinners: From President Nixon’s Toast to Peace with China in 1972 to President George W. Bush’s State Dinner in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the White House in April of 2007, every presidential 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

Website:

www.schramsberg.com

President/Winemaker:

Hugh Davies

Winemakers:

Keith Hock and Sean Thompson

Master Riddler:

Ramon Viera