The Reserve is Schramsberg's flagship Pinot Noir-based wine.
Made from the finest raw materials, this wine is rich, full-bodied and represents just 2% of Schramsberg's annual production.
Aged for nine years before release, this free-tea, dry wine can age in bottle for over ten years.
Schramsberg was founded on the mountainsides of Napa Valley by Jacob Schram nearly 150 years ago.
Since 1965, the husband and wife Davies family has established the estate as a producer of sparkling wines made using the Champagne method.
Starting with Blanc de Blancs made from Chardonnay, the winery has continued to produce high-quality sparkling wines that represent America and have been served at countless official dinners for successive US presidents.
In 1965 the company was purchased by Jack and Jamie Davies, parents of current CEO Hugh Davies.
For years, Schramsburg had been abandoned, but Jack and Jamie Davies had the idea to use the land to create a sparkling wine that America could be proud of around the world.
At the time, there were only 21 wineries in California, with a total area of about 20 hectares cultivated for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Sparkling wines that are not from France were merely "drinks with bubbles" and were treated as less than wine, and everyone thought it was reckless to try to produce high-quality sparkling wine.
Still, Jack and Jamie didn't give up.
We will produce a domestically produced Champagne-style sparkling wine that is full of complex flavor and luxury.
They replanted vineyards that had been poorly managed for decades, paying close attention to grape cultivation, and reviewing all brewing processes, adjusting the aging period of the wine through trial and error to produce the best mouthfeel.
Above all, they traveled all over the country spreading the name of "Schramsberg," a story they believed in so strongly.
The 1965 Blanc de Blancs was the first commercially produced sparkling wine made with Chardonnay.
Blanc de Noirs, launched in 1967, became famous as a sparkling wine made using the traditional Champagne method, primarily made from Pinot Noir.
The next release, Reserve, established itself as a premium sparkling wine aged for more than 48 months, and the Crémant Demi-Sec, released in 1973, was made from Flora grapes, a cross between Semillon and Gewürztraminer, and has been served at official dinners for the President of the United States on many occasions.
In 1972, President Nixon made a surprise visit to Beijing and met with Premier Zhou Enlai, where he was served a 1969 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs.
Then, J. Schram, made from grapes harvested in 1987, was released in 1992, producing a wine that rivaled the Tête de Cuvées of the world's finest champagne houses.
Thanks to Jack and Jamie's tireless efforts, Schramsberg has become a world-renowned sparkling wine house.
American wine critic Nathan Chroman says:
"A sparkling wine from an ordinary producer can be described in just one sentence.
A paragraph about a French giant starting to make sparkling wine in California would be enough.
But the impact Jack and Jamie have had on California could take up more than a chapter to describe." All of the grapes are harvested by hand, and the wine is made by hand.
All wines are aged in cellars on the winery's premises, and most of the fermentation is done by hand by employees.
The labels for the flagship wine, Jay Schramm, are applied by hand.
Schramsberg stocks, ages and distributes 2.7 million bottles of wine.