Schramsberg Vineyards

Very disappointed with Schramsburg. We have toured here several years ago and were extremely impressed. This time we felt they are taking tasters for their money. The tour/​tasting was to last 1 hour 25 minutes, we were done in 55 minutes — that included sitting around visiting a bit. The tour we took in the past was very detailed and had many stops in the caves. This time we had two stops and the host skipped many of the fascinating details! And the worst part was the tasting. They only shared their most expensive bottles of sparkling wine with us ($ 100, $ 120 per bottle), vs a mix where we might want to buy their $ 44 per bottle. It felt like they were pushing the most expensive bottles and not giving us a chance to try the others. Since we have been there before, we know the lesser expensive bottles are very good and we were not as impressed with the taste of some of the over the top priced bottles. Would not recommend unless you are fine with above.

Really great winery, cave tours and sparkling wine! I loved this experience so much. They have some of the oldest caves in Napa and our tour guide gave us so much interesting information on the history.
Its an hour and a half cave tour for $ 60, it was only about 8 people and we tasted several different wines. From sparkling, to reds. Really delicious. I would highly reccommend this tour.

Okay to be completely clear, I have never been to this Vineyard, however after reading the reviews I’m definitely putting it on my bucket list. My mother’s loyal customer got us three bottles of sparking wine from here and OH EM GEE was it amazing! The three bottles we tried were the Brut Rose, Blanc DE Blanc, and Cremant. My absolute favorite was the Brut Rose. I definitely recommend these wines for a dinner party or something!

Amazing staff tell you the great story behind this vineyards. You can tell this is the real deal because employees seem very happy and proud to work there and they’ve officially supplied wine to historic events and the white house. Would highly recommend taking the champagne tour into their caves!

Holy cow! What a great place. 3 miles of caves into the mountains with over 3 million bottles of sparkling wine waiting for us to drink them. Great tour, great tasting, wonderful atmosphere in an unbelievable setting. One of the best tours and tastings we have had in a Napa Valley! This place is not to be missed.

Schramsberg has one of the best tasting and touring experiences in the Napa Valley. If you like sparkling wine Schramsberg makes pure ambrosia. The Blanc de Blancs (white from white in French, in case you took Spanish in school like me) and the Blanc de Noirs (white from black) were my favorites. These are the type of bubbles that are great for a special occasion (Christmas, New Years, graduations, birthdays…) or even a normal occasion… This wine will make any occasion special.
I highly recommend going on the tour. the winemaker still does all the riddling by hand, which appears to be quite rare these days. Riddling involves turning the bottles a few degrees every so often. So this sparking wine is very labor intensive. They show you this process if you go on the tour and may even let you try to do it yourself. But trust me, it is MUCH harder than it looks!
Good bubbles, good ambiance, nice and down to earth people. A perfectly decadent experience.
PS! They have so much history behind their brand. One of the coolest things about this sparkling wine is that it was served at the Toast to Peace in Beijing with President Nixon and the Premier of China! So when you drink Schramsberg you are drinking a piece of history! They even have some of the glasses from the evening on display in addition to some photos. So you are drinking a part of history when you pop open a bottle of Schramsberg.

We made an appointment for a weekend visit. We were a tad late and the guide was already talking. Note: BE ON TIME! Our guide told a nice story about the founding and history of Schramsberg — jaunty little story it is! Guy started it, then left, no one around, then rediscovered, revitalized, third kid involved, now it is is the Schramsberg we see today!
Neat little tour, but admittedly, I’ve probably done less than 5 winery tours. We are not big winery tour people. Neat to see how they stack the wine. Neat to learn that earthquakes don’t affect them because their caves and winery is built on magical lava! Say WUH?!? Can I make my house out of your wine cave material?
Tour is more crazy talk of hand turning bottles. No way! Master turner does like 50,000 turns a day and no carpal tunnel. Baller! Then we drank the sparkling and ate breadsticks. The sparkling has strong notes of apple, apple, and apple. Nice, if you like apple! Overall, a very nice tour. A tad pricey, but a lovely experience.

An absolute must-​see, must-​do if you enjoy sparkling wine.
I mean, it’s very hard to go wrong, sparkling-​wise, in California Wine Country. But the Schramsberg experience is really, really special. I enjoyed the setting, the history, and the wines themselves.
I took the cave tour and – well, let me start there. It seems like few wineries offer tours anymore, except maybe to wine-​club members. For that reason alone, it’s worth coming here.
That said, the tour itself is great. Our guide was very knowledgeable and able to answer any question that came our way. Plus, you are walking through caves with a) a fascinating history and b) a mind-​boggling amount of champagne!
And the tasting is very cool… they set up a table for us in the cave, and we got to try four sparkling wines plus a fantabulous still red. And as another reviewer mentioned, those breadsticks are AMAZING. In fact, I need to track those buggers down!
If you’re thinking about Schramsberg, don’t hesitate to add it to your list.

Schramsberg Vineyards was my favorite Sparkling Wine winery in Napa Valley that I visited (out of Domaine Chandon and Domaine Carneros). The location is beautiful and very rustic. We did a tour and tasting which I highly recommend doing both. You learn a lot about the property, the change of owners, the development of their sparking wines, how they are cellared, etc. The tour takes place for the majority of the time in the caves. It wasn’t that cold, but a light jacket may be suitable for you.
We were able to taste a few different sparkling wines, shown how to open the bottle properly, etc. Our tour guide was also a science teacher whom you could tell how much he enjoyed talking about the wine and how it is made. There is no food offered on the tour, but you are provided some breadsticks at the end which were very good.
The road is very narrow getting to the top so take your time going around the corners. Large vehicles are not best to travel on the road if you can avoid it.

We went on the tour with a tasting afterwards. The tour was neat. You went in the caves where they store their sparkling wines. Our tour guides were very informative and super friendly. My husband liked all 4 sparkling wines. I liked 2 of them. It was a fun experience.

I highly recommend the cave tour and tasting for the BREADSTICKS!!! These are the most magical sticks you’ll ever insert into your mouth. Long, girthy, salty and crunchy. Apparently, they can be purchased at Sunshine Foods in St. Helena.
Shramsberg, if you are reading this — please consider serving more than one breadstick per person. Please!!!

Schramsberg is one of the Napa Valley’s historic wineries. Robert Louis Stevenson visited it during its early days (no wonder he went onto the «bottled poetry» rant) They have a fun cave tour, and their sparkling wines are excellent. They’re very personable. The drive there seems scary, but it’s worth it. It’s a must-​see on any tour of the Napa Valley. You’ll be sparkling!

We did a tour and tasting here. Kelly was our host and she was very knowledgeable and personable. Our tour started outside in front of the tasting room and we were provided some history on Napa, the families that had owned the vineyard, and some of the presidential history associated with Schramsberg.
The caves were really cool. Neat to see so many bottles stacked on each other and learn about the process. We even saw someone placing labels by hand on some of the higher end bottles (J. Schram).
The tour ended with a seated tasting inside the retail shop. They close the sliding wood panels to provide some privacy. We tasted 4 sparkling wines (Blanc de Blancs, Brut Rose, J. Schram, and the Reserve) and a cab (J. Davies). They provided crunchy breadsticks with the tasting. This was my favorite bubbly that I tried in the area. They were not offering the option do just do a tastings (just tasting and tour), but I think the price was worth the experience and my husband will have a tough time keeping me away from here any time we are in Napa. Thank you for an amazing experience!

I’ll admit, I was a non-​vintage champagne guy before my girlfriend introduced me to Schramsberg. I just never gave the California sparklings a chance.
Schramsberg was one of our must-​see wineries on our recent trip. We really wanted to go to wineries that provided an educational experience for small groups, as opposed to free booze for bus tours.
The tour, which requires an appointment, will cost you $ 60 per person. They limit the group size to 12 (our tour had 10).
Our tour guide was Rimple and he provided an exceptional experience. His tour started with some light history of Napa and Schramsberg, before getting into exactly how the wines are made. The amount of effort that goes into each bottle really made me appreciate the brand even more. Wine is more than just a beverage as there is science and artistry in every bottle. Every brand has their own subtle variations that make them unique.
The tour ended with a grand tasting of the blanc de blanc (100% chardonnay), blanc de noir (89% pinot noir), J Schram, and Reserve. The J Schram and Reserve were both ’07 vintages and retail for $ 120/​bottle. There was a red wine from the J Davies line served, but I forget which one. It was okay — I was really there for the bubbles. In all, you are trying over $ 300 in wine.
The tour ends with an explanation of their wine club which is actually one of the best deals in wine country.
I highly recommend a visit to Schramsberg and also recommend joining their wine club. I think everyone could use more fizz in their wine racks.

Absolutely fantastic place! While it is more expensive than a regular tasting, you definitely get to taste many amazing sparkling wines and an amazing red wine.
Even though I have been on the tour several times, I’ve never been bored by the story. And each guide adds his personal flare to the story :)

Such a romantic tasting experience! Kari Zepeda was absolutely lovely, so knowledgable and super fun! We will definitely be back to see her and taste more of these delicious bubbles.
Left with a set of flutes, 3 bottles and even something fun for the garden! Thanks Kari!

After reading all of the reviews for this place I was looking forward to our tour and couldn’t wait to try some bubbly. Well, I was disappointed and so upset that I pretty much tossed $ 60/​person down the drain!
The tour guide was friendly, but she only took us to a few spots in the cave and that took about 45 minutes total. Then, we were guided into a tasting room where we tried 4 sparkling wines and 1 red. They were good but I honestly cannot say they were my favorite at all.
I was upset that the tour ended so quickly and that it was SO boring, but I was even more upset that while we were tasting our wine the guide tried to sell us into becoming wine club members!!! That was ridiculous. I would not have minded a little mention of the club, but that’s all she talked about the whole time.
I will never come back here again and will not recommend this to anyone that I know.

Ask for Todd’s tour. He is very knowledgable and his tour was fantastic! I loved going through the caves and seeing the thousands of hand stacked bottles in there. It was just jaw dropping. Learning about their hand turned bottles had me in awe and just thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the tasting!
I highly recommend visiting this spot. Appointments are required from what I understand. My girlfriend was the one who secured our appointment.
The area is beautiful and very serene. Have your camera ready. The drive up to the winery itself was wonderful.

It is worth every penny. The tour was informative, our tour guide mentioned my sisters birthday (which was in the reservation), and we met some interesting folks on our tour from San Diego and Texas.
This was the first time I got to see the bottling line as well as the walls of the cave when you walk into the cave area (they are removing bottles to shore up the walls).
Wonderful time. A+ I would highly recommend. This isn’t a gimmick like a castle, it has real history and everyone at the winery loves working there.

What a beautiful tour of their lovely winery & one that I’ve been wanting to do for some time now. It’s true that the cave tour & tasting is a bit expensive, but I felt it to be worth it. Schramsberg is so rich in history & produces such elegant sparkling wine so why wouldn’t you want to spend the money? You must make a reservation to take the tour which can be done online quick & easy. The Schramsberg Estate is pretty large so it can be confusing to find the winery. Once you do find it, it is surprisingly understated & serene. Which I found to be refreshing as most big name wineries can be so over the top & pretentious. The tasting room is surrounded by lovely gardens & a frog pond. Overlooking the tasting room up on a hill is the Victorian mansion that the Davies family currently live in. We even saw a couple of their boys running around playing. Once you are all checked in the tour starts.
Our tour guide began with the history of Schramsberg which was started by Jacob Schram in 1862. He planted some pretty special European varietal grapes which was a small production to start. From there we were informed that the winery had been abandoned & brought back to life by the Davies family during the 60’s. Schramsberg is so special that it is served to the presidential administration, starting during the 60’s & a tradition that is still continued. Soon after our history lesson we moved on to the cave tour portion. You literally walk into a functional wine cave that can hold up to three million bottles of wine at any given time. It’s a dark dank experience with moss growing on the walls & lit by candles. Sort of eerie, but really cool. The tour guide then explained the classic method of producing sparkling wine to our small group. She even touched on the riddling method created by Madame Clicquot & used by the master riddler of Schramsberg.
Once the history & tour portion is over, then you get to the best part — THE WINE. The tasting is set up on a elegant table surrounded by candelabra lighting. We were able to taste five different sparkling wines. To start we tried their Blanc de Blancs sparkling made from Chardonnay grapes. This sparkling is their most popular. It is a pretty dry & crisp wine. The second wine we tried was the Blanc de Noirs which is made from Pinot Noir grapes. This one has always been my personal favorite because of the medium-​bodied fruity flavor, that was until I tried the Brut Rose. Their Brut Rose was excellent! We moved on to the Mirabelle which like the Blanc de Blancs had a nice crispness & a bit of citrus notes. Last, but certainly not least was their 2006 Reserve — the most expensive of the sparkling & for good reason. It was divine. Since the Davies family also makes red wine, we also sampled a couple of their reds. Both the Pinot & Cab were nice.
This winery is truly special & their tour is one that I’d recommend to anyone venturing to the Calistoga area.

You can drink Champagne or Schramsberg ! Wie wahr ! Die Führung war toll, informativ und selbst für Leute geeignet, die schon etliches in der Champagne gesehen haben. Todd kennt sich aus !