“When wine lovers talk of California sparkling wine, despite the other fine producers in the state — including several launched by the great French Champagne houses — it is Schramsberg that they talk of first and foremost. There has been a winery on the spot since Jacob Schram founded one in 1862, but it was the purchase of the property in 1965 by Jack and Jamie Davies that made it a vital player in the modern California wine game. The wines are impeccable — lively, fresh, and complex — and have won countless awards and other honors (Richard Nixon and Chou Enlai toasted peace between their nations with a ’69 Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc in Beijing in 1972). In recent years, the winery has added cabernet sauvignons and pinot noirs under the J. Davies Estate and Davies Vineyards labels, proving that their expertise extends beyond sparklers.”

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