1400 Schramsberg Rd. Calistoga, CA 94515
Tour: yes
Picnic Area: no
Hours: Appointment only
Description
Located off St. Helena Hwy, down a private, forest lined road is Schramsberg. Founded in the late 1860's, Schramsberg was the innovation of Jacob Schram. He came over from Germany and began the hillside winery, doing everything to keep it a float including cutting hair just to make ends meet. Eventually his dream would take off and become the grand tradition of Schramsberg, but would suffer a long period of dormancy brought on by Prohibition.
Today, their are no more Schrams attached to the winery, and it had passed through many hands until 1965 when the Davies brought the Winery back to life and brought it the reputation that it is known for today. There is a great deal of history that is well worth learning, so a visit here is the best way to get the full story.
Grounds
The grounds are filled with lush gardens, running springs, and a frog pond located next to the new tasting room site. In the middle of the frog pond stands the statute that inspired the Schramsberg logo, a frog that's having a night on the town, with a bottle of the Schramsberg bubbly. The piece was inspired by an employee who works for the winery and goes to the overall philosophy of the winery that employees are the most important thing. The temporary tasting room is the entrance to the wine caves, and is dark like the rest of the caves. This is again is only temporary, until they open the new tasting room to receive their guests. It should be completed by the end of April 2008.
Update
The construction of the new tasting room is completed, as well as a new paved road and a turn lane from Hwy. 29. The new visitors center has two rooms to have tastings, so guests will either end up in one of the two rooms where they will sit and taste, or they will have their tasting within the caves.
Tour
The only way to taste Schramsberg's sparkling wines it to take one of the tours that are offered daily. They are currently building a new tasting room to greet guests in the future, but they will always require that guests make an appointment for the tour and tasting prior to visiting the property.
The tour takes you through the wine caves and gives a complete history of the Winery start to finish. Going through the caves allows you a brief look at some of the processes that occur to bring about their famous sparkling wines and ends in a candle lit tasting space where you will try anywhere from 4-5 different sparkling wines. It lasted about an hour and a half total, but never got boring.
The Staff
The staff is great here, and they really make the experience the best that it can be. Though each tour guide is different, we were assured that they are each dedicated to the wines and want to share that with their guests the best way that they can. Ours was quite the comedian. He actually moonlights as one, so his tour is excellent and entertaining. It was truly a great experience because of our guide, but I'm sure that others are just as a great.
Rating
The tour and tasting at Schramsberg is one of the best in the Napa Valley and I would suggest to anyone to make this stop when visiting. Its a beautiful property, and the Methode Champagnoise wines certainly live up to their worldly reputation. There is a great deal of history including a funny story about how Jamie Davies won back a special Schram family wine barrel in a poker game from Beringer Vineyards. The best way to learn more about Schramsberg's history would be to make an appointment for the tour.
