Schramsberg Vineyard

Schramsberg Vineyard covers about 170 acres of hilly land southwest of the highway between St. Helena and Calistoga. Jacob Schram, a former barber who grew up in a German winemaking region, began planting there after 1862. He dug storage tunnels into the hillside to keep wine cool and humid, starting the first in the mid-1860s and adding a second in 1881. The district also holds an 1889 Queen Anne house, a bunkhouse from about 1870, a barn built in 1892 after a fire, a formal garden and an olive allee. Schram kept production small, used only his own grapes and sold no crop to large cellars, so his wine stood for quality at a time when many Napa Valley producers failed. The vineyard declined after 1905 and returned to production from 1965, adding newer buildings that do not contribute to the historic character. The older core remains largely intact.