Just announced today, the full Top 100 from Wine Spectator and we are excited to have #19 from Schramsberg, the 2018 Blanc de Blanc. Good time to round out your bubble list with California's best!
Schramsberg Vineyards is a winery located in Calistoga, California in the Napa Valley region. The vineyard, which was originally founded in 1862 produces a series of sparkling wines using the same method as champagne. Schramsberg is considered one of the premium brands in the production of sparkling wine in California and the first U.S. wine to "match the style and quality of the best French Champagnes.
2018 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs
3 cases only
#168164 $54.97 whols 6X750ML spec
The Schramsberg style of Blanc de Blancs is dry and crisp. Small lots of barrel fermented wines, some of which complete malolactic fermentation, are added to the stainless-steel fermented wines to create added complexity in the blended base wine. After undergoing a second fermentation in bottle, the wine then ages on its yeast lees for about two years prior to disgorgement. With its vibrant, fruitful and focused nature, this sparkling wine will maintain its freshness, structure and refined finish for many years, even decades following its initial release.
#19 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2022
The 2018 Blanc de Blancs has bright aromas of fresh apples, lemon-lime and warm wheat toast, intermingled with hints of baked pineapple and toasted almonds. Its vibrant flavors of Meyer lemon and Granny Smith apples bring a nice tartness to the mid-palate, leading to a clean, bright finish.
2017 Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs
3 cases only
#168167 $54.97 wls 6X750ML spec
Making a white wine from a red grape requires great care—hand-picked fruit, early morning harvest, optimal fruit maturity and delicate pressing. A balance of bright flavors, crisp acidity and minimal tannins is achieved. Barrel and malolactic fermentation of wine lots add richness and body. Yeast contact in the bottle harmonizes all the elements together in a mature, toasty style. The youthful fruit character of the wine will develop and soften with additional age in the bottle. With proper storage, this sparkling wine will be delicious for many years, even decades to come.
93 points Tasting Panel
The fruit sourced for this blend of 83% Pinot Noir and 17% Chardonnay hails from Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa, and Marin counties. It’s a lovely, medium-bodied brut with aromas of late-spring fruit: fresh and succulent apricot and crisp apple with a spark of gingerbread. The perfume continues as honeyed tropical fruits and Asian pear chime in on the palate.
2018 Schramsberg Brut Rose
9 cases only
#168206 $58.97 wls 6X750ML spec
Schramsberg Brut Rosé is fruitful, 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 along the coast from southern Mendocino County to northern Marin County. A few small lots of Pinot Noir are fermented in contact with their skins to add depth and subtle color to this vibrant sparkling wine. Chardonnay gives spice, structure and length on the palate.
92 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium cherry-pink in the glass, the 2018 Brut Rosé is scented of baked apples with tones of flint, mushrooms and toast. The palate is dry and energetic with a slightly foamy mousse, rounded acidity and a savoury finish.
2011 Schramsberg J Schram
2 cases only
#764522 $134.98 wls 6X750ML spec
From the inception of Schramsberg’s efforts in 1965, the winery has sought to achieve the greatest elegance and individuality possible in our sparkling wines. J. Schram epitomizes Schramsberg’s philosophy to create a wine in which no effort has been spared and no care has been omitted. Representing only 3% of the winery’s annual production, the Chardonnay-focused J. Schram blend is assembled from the very best base wine lots of the approximately 300 produced each year. This special bottling is dedicated to Schramsberg’s founder, Jacob Schram, and has been a great success since its premier 1987 vintage was released in 1992.
“This sparkling wine opens with pleasant aromas of baked pear, lemon meringue and baked apple, enhanced by nuances of toffee and honey. The rich palate features fruitful elements of baked pineapple and Meyer lemon, layered with crystallized ginger. Good depth on the finish is driven by a backbone of lingering natural acidity.”
95 points Connoisseurs' Guide
95 points Connoisseurs' Guide
90% Chardonnay; 10% Pinot Noir. The latest J. Schram from the 2011 vintage is, as always, a wine with richness to spare. It is, at every point, from its keenly autolzyed aromas to its seemingly unending flavors, a very deep and involvingly complex working with lovely integration of its manifold parts. It possesses terrific energy while displaying an uncanny sense of grace for a wine that is as uncompromisingly rich as it is, and, although on the one hand close to hedonistic, it is, on the other, a bottle that invites slow contemplation as it reveals more and more layering with each successive sip.