Sparkling Wine vs Champagne

Firstly, a quick introduction to Schramsberg Sparkling wines.

Schramsberg winery was the first in the United States to produce a drinkable Sparkling wine using the traditional Méthode Champenoise in mid 60th of last century. Jack and Jamie Davies, the owners of Schramsberg, called this wine, much to the French’s chagrin, “Champagne”. The vision was for their winery to become a premium Sparkling wine producer, and for their wines to match French Champagne in quality and style. With time the French got really upset with California wine producers who kept calling their Sparkling wines Champagne.

A law soon followed that prohibited any winemaker outside of the Champagne region of France from calling their Sparkling wines “Champagne”.

Consequently, the Schramsberg team stopped using “Champagne” and started using “Sparkling Wine” instead. But if you think they gave up on their idea of referring to their Sparkling wines as “Champagne”, you have to think again. One glance at their Sparkling wine labels will tell you that what you are about to consume is made using either “Méthode Champenoise” or “Méthode Traditionelle”.

In a not-so-subtle way, the labels tell you that the beverage in question looks like Champagne and tastes like Champagne. Whether you want to call it “Champagne” is totally up to you.

Why Schramsberg?

In 1972 president Nixon, during his famed trip to China, served Schramsberg’s 1969 “Blanc de Blancs Champagne” at the “Toast to Peace” banquet in Beijing. Since then, Schramsberg sparkling wines have cemented their place as ubiquitous alcoholic beverages for State dinners and inaugurations.

Clearly, a wine of much pedigree!

Considering the French “Champagne” controversy, we had to decide for ourselves if the Davieses managed to achieve their lofty goal and produced a Sparkling wine that is as much “Champagne” as the wines produced by the best Champagne domains in France.

Our first visit to Schramsberg vineyards was back in 2007. We were genuinely impressed with the quality of their Sparkling wines and have kept coming back ever since.

As with very nearly everything that comes out of Napa Valley, California vineyards, Schramsberg’s Sparkling wine prices are a good reflection of the wine quality. But even then, Schramsberg’s Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noir, both on the lower end of the spectrum, are very enjoyable wines and worth every penny. At least, that was the case when these wines went for $32 and $39, respectively.

Schramsberg Sparkling wines covered in these tasting notes

All three sparkling wines reviewed in this post were purchased by us way before the COVID lockdowns. These wines were sitting in a professional climate-controlled storage facility in California. We were constantly postponing getting these wines out of the States until COVID put any of our cross-border related plans on pause for way longer than we could have ever anticipated.

Wine Tasting notes and Food Pairing:

Way past the date when age adds to the complexity and richness of the wine. Significantly past its drinking window. If you have it in your cellar, drink it now and lower your expectations significantly.

Due to its age, this wine is very delicate. It is very hard to pair it with food without completely overwhelming the wine aromas. Our usual “go-to” dish that we know works well with the younger versions of this wine, baked oysters, did not work.

A reasonably passable food pairing is salmon sashimi.

Drinks better than our first wine, Blanc de Blancs 2006. It is way past the date when age adds to the complexity and richness of the wine. Past its drinking window. Should have been consumed around 2017. If you have it in your cellar, drink it now and lower your expectations.

We have two food pairing recommendations for this wine.

• As this sparkler is primarily Pinot Noir based, it is not a surprise that it worked well with roasted salmon roulade and creamed shrimp. Sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss a recipe for this dish.
• We also liked how this wine paired with the Mediterranean inspired mussels.

2011 Schramsberg Brut Napa Valley Carneros is a complex and traditional Sparkling wine.

Unfortunately, it is at the end of its drinking window. If you have a bottle of it stashed away, we recommend drinking it now

• We had this wine with baked oyster and scallop motoyaki and smoked prawn causa with Romesco sauce. Both pairings classify as “perfect pair” in our books. Sign up for our newsletter to stay tuned for our own version of these culinary delights in one of the upcoming posts.

• This wine makes a decent pairing with crab cakes, especially if served with Romesco sauce.
• Another OK pairing is sun-dried tomato hummus on a brioche bun.

Food pairings that do not work with this wine and should be avoided are quinoa, sable fish, poached egg, and roasted butternut squash.

Bottom line

In our minds, there is no question about the faulty storage or shipment that could have impacted the quality of these three wines. As these were not the first and only bottles of Schramsberg Sparkling wines we have tried, we know what to expect even from the most basic of Schramsberg wines. We have long since answered our question of whether Shrhamsberg Sparkling wines meet or exceed the quality of French Champagne wines.

Nevertheless, no matter how good these Sparkling wines were, to begin with, and no matter how well they were cared for, they appear to not have an as long a shelf life (20 + years) as this winemaker claims. It is especially true for our reviewed Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noir wines.

Blanc de Blancs was the biggest disappointment and had the most profound loss of fizz and flavour. It was 17 years old when we finally got to drink it. In our opinion, the window to drink 2006 Blanc de Blancs was from 2011 to 2013. Our general guidance is to cellar any vintage of this wine for 5 to a maximum of 7 years.

Blanc de Noir was not much better. It was 13 years old when we drank it. In our opinion, the window to drink this wine was from 2012-2016. We recommend cellaring any vintage of this wine for 3 to 7 years.

Lastly, Brut Napa Valley Carneros was a much-needed success story. The wine was 12 years old when we drank it. While the fizz was much less than expected, it was a small price to pay for the complex flavour profile of this wine. We wouldn’t have had an opportunity to experience its sophistication in full if we had drunk this wine much earlier. Our general guidance is to cellar any vintage of this wine for 6 to a maximum of 12 years.

To wrap this up.

Age adds nuances to quality wines, but wines do not age forever. You need to know when to stop and drink your fully developed mature wine.