93pts Wine Spectator

Lively and refined but festive, with pretty accents of strawberry, lemon, apple and graham cracker that sail on the crisp yet supple finish. Drink now. 11,400 cases made.

Winemaker's Notes

Our 2022 Blanc de Noirs opens with enticing aromas of yellow peach, apricot, lemon
zest, and elderflower, complemented by notes of puff pastry, glazed orange, and almond
paste. A tart and zippy entry, showcasing bright citrus and honey, intertwines with a touch of custard and lemon bar. A vibrant acidity in this bottling supports a long, quenching finish.

About the Bubbles

Schramsberg first produced a Blanc de Noirs brut sparkling wine in 1967. This “white” sparkling wine produced from “dark” grapes is more complex, creamy and medium bodied than the Blanc de Blancs style. The key to our success here is the great
diversity of cool, maritime climate Pinot Noir vineyard blocks that we work with.Low yielding sites from Mendocino’s Anderson Valley to the north thorugh the Sonoma Coast, Marin Coast and Carneros to the south combine, to develop a sparkling wine with a breadth of fruitful aroma and flavor. Select Chardonnay lots are then added, to give zest and backbone to the blend.

Making a white wine from a red grape requires great care—hand-picked fruit, early morning harvest, optimal maturity, and delicate pressing. A balance of bright fruit, crisp acidity and minimal tannins is achieved. Barrel and malolactic fermentation of select wine lots add richness and body. Yeast contact in the bottle harmonizes all the elements together. 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. Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs is particularly well-suited to serve with a variety of foods, including soft and nutty cheeses, macadamia nut-crusted halibut, and pork tenderloin with fresh rosemary and lemon thyme. 

About the Winery

In 1965, Jack and Jamie Davies founded Schramsberg and set out to make world-class sparkling wine in the true méthode traditionelle style on the property originally established in 1862 by German immigrant Jacob Schram. There were only 22 bonded wineries in Napa Valley and fewer than 100 acres of California vineyards planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Schramsberg was the first California winery to provide a Blanc de Blancs in 1965 followed by a Blanc de Noirs in 1967. Now their son, Hugh Davies, leads the winery’s management and winemaking team.

The Schramsberg estate in Napa Valley’s famed Diamond Mountain District is a registered historic landmark with Napa’s first caves, hand-dug in the 1880s, and its first hillside vineyards. Quality focus drives all aspects of wine production starting with access to over 120 cool-climate sites in Carneros, Marin, Mendocino and Sonoma, which result in over 200 separate lots. Unique among California sparkling wine houses, Schramsberg ferments about 25 percent of its juice in oak barrels to produce rich, flavorful, complex wines.

Most of Schramsberg’s viticultural and winemaking practices are carried out by hand: grapes are hand harvested, the wines are handcrafted, and the bottles are stacked and riddled in underground caves. The family and the winery embody excellence and innovation in winemaking, as well as preservation of their land, their history and their community.

Blend: 89% Pinot Noir, 11% Chardonnay

Sustainable