Survival of the fittest, sparkling style

A special camp has been offered in Napa Valley for the past 17 years; it is tucked away, high up on Diamond Mountain in the western hills, and this one is for adults only. Nothing sordid, we assure you, but Saber swords, dark caves and dirt are all involved.

Camp Schramsberg vineyard

Camp Schramsberg takes place at Schramsberg Vineyards twice each year, when consumer and trade visitors alike come to immerse themselves in all things bubbly. There is a Spring Blending Seminar the second week of March and a Fall Harvest Camp the second week of September each year.

Over the course of three-days, guests partake in Schramsberg’s premium sparkling wines regularly; endure multi-coursed lunches and dinners paired with various-aged wines; taste displays of gourmet foods and sparkling wines in order to learn the principles of expert food pairing; tread out to the vineyard to master pruning or pick grapes, and yes, wield a sword while learning to behead a bottle of sparkling wine.

This is survival of the fittest, sparkling style. This is Camp Schramsberg: three days of pure sparkling wine and food ecstasy. Expect no mercy.

Whether you choose the Blending Seminar or Harvest Camp, you are poured glasses of Schramsberg sparkling wine upon arrival and it doesn’t stop until you are waving goodbye to your many new friends three days later. Your hosts throughout Camp are second generation vintner, Hugh Davies; winemaker, Keith Hock; camp counselor, Matt Levy and other key staff. But at Camp, you are the star of the show, right along with Napa Valley’s historic sparkling house, Schramsberg Vineyards.

Schramsberg is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, a winery steeped in Napa Valley history with roots of fearless pioneering. The original owners of the property, the Schrams, settled here in 1862, some of the first Germans to move to the valley. Just as the vineyards are planted on steep hillsides in Germany, the Schrams went into the hills and created their homestead on this property north of the town of St. Helena; the caves dug here were some of the first of the Napa Valley.

Jamie and Jack Davies arrived in Napa Valley in the 1960s at a time when there weren’t even two dozen running wineries in the region. The property was in great disrepair at the time, yet the Davies felt the spirit of the pioneering Schrams and were intrigued with the idea of bringing this sparkling house back to life.

Today, son Hugh Davies is lead Camp counselor. On opening night of Spring Blending Camp, he guides guests underground to the caves – a maze of 10,000 square feet of tunnels lined with bottles and barrels of aging sparkling wine – for dinner. At Harvest Camp, guests dine al fresco among the vines in the J. Davies Vineyard.

Haute cuisine enters Camp in the slender and spunky form of French-trained chef and Napa Valley icon, Holly Peterson. Meals such as lobster risotto, black truffle gnocchi, and roasted venison loin are perfectly paired by Holly with an endless stream of wines. Try to leave Camp without an appreciation for flavour exploration, and Holly will follow you out the door.

Dinner in the caves

At dinner on your first night, you will be armed with camping gear: a travel size bottle of Schramsberg sparkling wine, Champagne stopper, Camp Schramsberg monogrammed hat and water bottles, and binder. Now that’s camping gear. Never mind that the bottle of sparkling wine will likely be gone by morning, you’ll still have your hat and water bottle for a romp through the vineyards. At the Blending Seminar, you will learn to prune dormant Napa Valley vines; and those at Harvest Camp will pick and press grapes.

For complete luxury and comfort, campers are given a special sleeping room rate at the Meadowood Resort in St. Helena. This is five-star camping all the way. Many of the meals are served at Meadowood as well. Their restaurant and private dining rooms excel in the very best cuisine and service. You haven’t seen service until you witness eight servers all exiting the kitchen in a uniform line and placing down a table-full of guests’ plates at exactly the same time. And then, out come the vintages and rare bottles of Schramsberg to go with the meals. Don’t even try to cry uncle.

Open-air dining

Breakfast also gets full attention. Held every day at the Meadowood Resort; it is everything you could hope for. But be warned. You will have just about digested your crab omelette and apricot pastry (as well as the warm cookies you’ll receive on the private shuttle) when you are then led to a lunch by Meadowood’s Executive Banquet Chef Alejandro Ayala.

A sample meal? Pear and leek soup followed by roasted capon with black truffle gnocchi, both paired with a vintage 2004 Schramsberg Extra Brut, followed by an apple torte with cream cheese frosting and caramel ice cream served with a 2007 Schramsberg Cremant Demi-sec. And this is just lunch. No mercy, we tell you. Your afternoon wine pairing seminars with Holly Peterson are conducted with delicious foods, each served with a different wine.

Get your arm ready, because you will take up sabering lessons. A large, ancient blade will be placed in your (hopefully) deft hands—and you can’t back out; you are opening up your seminar wines. After mastering this and your food and wine pairing classes, you’ll be the life of your next party when you get back home.

During Spring camp, you will get an inside look into the art of assemblage, and taste through several flights of wine to help Schramsberg craft an actual blend. At Harvest Camp, you taste through all phases of the wine from freshly pressed juice to barrel-aged. You will also disgorge a bottle, add your own dosage and then re-cork and label a bottle that you take home.

Then things really start rocking. You’ll be taught the fine art of riddling – where and how to place your hands to slightly shift and lift the bottles and assist the yeast sediment into its slow decline towards the neck of the bottle. Just one more part of traditional-method sparkling wine production that you will master at Camp.

The 2013 Camp Schramsberg sessions take place on March 10-12 and September 8-10th. Take one, if you dare.

For further information on Schramsberg and their camps visit: www.schramsberg.com.