Schramsberg J. Schram 2008
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Winemaker Notes
Blend: 82% Chardonnay, 18% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
There is an amazing brightness to this bubbly. The 2008 J. Schram Brut starts out with outstanding complexities in both its aromas and in its flavors. The wine exhibits roasted nuts, creaminess, and bright citrus fruits. Its decidedly fresh, crisp, and biting finish pairs it well with shellfish in rich cream sauces. (Tasted: September 18, 2017, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
A rich gold color and spicy, complex aromas get this wine off to a great start. It follows with ginger, cinnamon, baked apple and lemon on the palate, which sets up a layered flavor profile supported by fine bubbles and fresh acidity. The finish lingers on slightly nutty and doughy notes. Enjoy through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Blended of 82% Chardonnay and 18% Pinot Noir, the 2008 J Schram is intensely scented of brioche and toasted nuts with a core of peach cobbler, cinnamon toast and beeswax, plus a hint of dried mandarin peel. The palate is multilayered, opulent and spicy with layers of toast, nut and fruit marked by crisp acid and finishing with wonderful persistence. Delicious now, you can consider cellaring this for 5-6 years for a toastier character.
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Wine & Spirits
Focused on chardonnay (82 percent of the blend, the remainder pinot noir), this is the top selection from the 250 lots Sean Thompson and Hugh Davies consider in their cellars. Most of the blend grows on the Napa Valley side of Carneros. They barrel-ferment a third of the wine and age it on the yeast in bottle for seven years, presenting it in a toasty, oxidative style, rich rather than fresh, but still bracing and focused in its structure. There’s a tangy orange note at the center of the wine, providing sweetness to balance the salty notes of the lees. Serve it at dinner with salmon tartare.
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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.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Reaching up California's coastline and into its valleys north of San Francisco, the North Coast AVA includes six counties: Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake. While Napa and Sonoma enjoy most of the glory, the rest produce no shortage of quality wines in an intriguing and diverse range of styles.
Climbing up the state's rugged coastline, the chilly Marin County, just above the City and most of Sonoma County, as well as Mendocino County on the far north end of the North Coast successfully grow cool-climate varieties like Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and in some spots, Riesling. Inland Lake County, on the other hand, is considerably warmer, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc produce some impressive wines with affordable price tags.