A Toast to Peace

Schramsberg Vineyards in the Napa Valley makes sparkling wine that many believe is the rival of French Champagne. It has been served at White House dinners, and famously in 1972 President Richard Nixon took Schramsberg's Blanc de Blancs to China for the "Toast to Peace" dinner with Premier Zhou Enlai. Unfortunately for everyone, the winery is now embroiled in a family feud that threatens to tear apart the wine dynasty. Considering the winery's historic connection to China, from its caves, which were hand-dug by Chinese immigrant laborers in 1880, to President Nixon in 1972, perhaps the Chinese can send some wine to help settle the dispute (and I don't mean sake). Labeled by some as the "new Chile" China is the sixth largest wine-producing country in the world.

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Tags: california wine, chinese wine, Napa Valley, Schramsberg Vineyards, sparkling wine, winemaking

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Sparkling Wine. You can subscribe to any comments to this entry via RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.