Dear Davies and Schramsberg Club Members,
On behalf of our family and the whole two-winery team, we thank you for helping us celebrate our Diamond Anniversary! It has been one heck of a year, taking us on the road to be with all of you … to Big Sky, the Windy City, Buffalo, Manhattan, Baltimore, Palm Beach, San Juan, the Big Easy, the Big D, Sedona, Las Vegas, Corona del Mar, Beverly Hills and beyond. Your enthusiasm for our craft – our Cabernets, Pinots and Bubbles – is truly appreciated. 60 years in, we feel like we have connected with the best fans in the world, giving us the opportunity to pursue our passion to the “nth” degree. We count our blessings and extend our absolute best wishes to you all for the holidays and the year ahead!
It is so cool to think how far we have come since Jack, Jamie and a small cohort of friends bought this abandoned 200-acre vineyard property in the hills above Calistoga with a vision of making “world-class” sparkling wines! 60 years later, our sparkling program thrives with vineyards planted across an outstanding range of coastal pockets from Mendocino County to the north, Sonoma County to the west, to Marin County and the Carneros to south.
The vineyards on our home property took on a new life starting in the early 1990s. We carefully manage our forty-six planted acres today with regenerative, sustainable practices to grow a set of delicious Cabernet Sauvignon blocks in conjunction with supporting varietals in the production of our J. Davies Estate Diamond Mountain red wines. The broader Davies Cabernet program now extends across the valley to Howell Mountain, and down the valley to the Leonardini Vineyards in St. Helena, the Renteria 360 Vineyards in Oakville, and the Simpkins Vineyards in Coombsville. And our Davies Pinot program encompasses some of the most renowned vineyards in California’s North Coast, including Ferrington and Goorgian/Wendling in the Anderson Valley, Nobles Ft. Ross-Seaview, Keefer Ranch Estate Russian River Valley, and the Hyde and Three Amigos Estate in Carneros.
With our 61st harvest now in the books, we reflect on the cooler growing season of 2025, and the bright, vibrant, fruitful depth of the young wines now resting in our tanks and barrels. Our team, including 19-year veteran VP-Winemaking Sean Thompson, 15-year veteran Sparkling Winemaker Jessica Koga, Red Winemaker JP Pierce, and Viticulturalist Sam Rubanowitz, look forward to the blending season ahead and to the serious aging potential of the vintage. Top lots include …
Any success that we have had could not have been made without the extraordinary effort of our skilled and committed staff. Epitomizing that dedication and effort is Miguel Moreno, who retired this fall after 45 years with us. Having started just a few years after coming to the Napa Valley from a small rancho in Michoacan, Mexico, Miguel has been a steady hand for ¾ of our history. He worked in our cellar, managing the labeler on the packaging line and corners of the bottle stacks throughout out caves. Ernesto Herrera, also coming to Schramsberg from Michoacan, is now our longest-tenured staff member. Starting in 1985, he has managed the disgorging/dosage block on our finishing line and the filling/crowning block on our bottling line. Quite simply, we would not be where we are today without the steadfast focus and positive energy of these two outstanding men.
In the meantime, it is time for the holidays, and it is a thrill to share a whole bunch of tasty bottles from our cellar with all of you for the occasion. The highlights from our Schramsberg sparkling wine program are the “60th Anniversary” labelled 2007 and 2000 Late Disgorged J. Schrams! While their small production limits our club shipment of these remarkable bottles to our Riddler’s Circle members, we invite you to reach out to us at the wineries for the additional bottles that we have remaining. At 17 and 24 years of aging en tirage in our caves, these bottlings break new ground for us, exhibiting exquisite richness and depth from gentle aging built on the vibrant, tart frame of the tasty fruit that we harvested those many vintages ago.
Jack & Jamie’s Circle members are in for a library treat as well, as our 2002 J. Davies Estate Diamond Mountain Cabernet and 2014 Nobles Ft. Ross – Seaview Pinot are coming your way. Now just over 20 years into marketing our Davies red wines, we are excited to now be able to offer more aged bottles to our red wine enthusiasts in the same way that we have been able to over the past two decades with our library Schramsberg bottles to our sparkling wine enthusiasts. 2002 was our J. Davies Cabernet vintage, and the layers of complexity it exhibits today was something that we could only dream of when we were 23 years younger! We think that you will love the balance seasoning found in the 11-year-old Nobles Pinot as well, just approaching its teen years.
And for those that have joined the Hugh & Monique Collection, we are thrilled to be delivering our first holiday sparkling and red wine combination shipment to you. This club opportunity has been in the hopper for several years now, and we have at long last reached the point where there are enough bottles in both our sparkling and red wine cellars to make it a reality. With many thanks to all who have pushed for this club option, we are proud to present seven select bottles, including three 2021 vineyard designate Cabernet Sauvignons (Simpkins – Coombsville, Leonardini – St. Helena, Oliven – Calistoga) and our 2016 Chardonnay-based Tete de Cuvee sparkling wine (J. Schram Blancs). We invite all to consider this new club shipment option as we move forward.
Here’s to all club members at this most wonderful time of year! Thank you for allowing our wines to play a role at your table. We look forward to raising a glass with you in the year ahead – at Davies in St. Helena, at Schramsberg on Diamond Mountain, at an upcoming club party, a wine dinner in a restaurant in your hometown, or on next holiday season’s Australia / New Zealand Cruise!
With our very best,
Hugh, Monique, and the Schramsberg / Davies Family
