Founder of Napa vineyard known for its sparkling wines
Jamie Davies, who with her late husband, Jack, founded Schramsberg Vineyards in the Napa Valley, one of the first vintners in the U.S. to produce sparkling wines using traditional French Champagne methods and grapes, died Tuesday at her home in Calistoga. She was 73.
The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, according to Schramsberg spokeswoman Joy Henderson.
In the mid-1960s the Davieses bought a run-down estate in the Napa Valley and began making sparkling wines using the French technique. Soon they were able to produce wines with a mix of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, the traditional combination for French Champagne.
“The Davieses were pioneers,” said Mitchell Davis of the James Beard Foundation, which awarded Schramsberg Vineyard the Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional Award in 1996.
The Davieses set out to make wine using French Champagne methods, “a wacky idea at the time,” Davis said, “but they stuck to their guns.” The result was “an American sparkling wine that Americans can be proud of,” he said.
Their early success encouraged a number of the top names in French Champagne to establish vineyards in the Napa Valley, starting in the early 1970s with Domaine Chandon, now owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.
“It is to the Davieses’ credit that Schramsberg sparkling wines rate at the top of the list, even among sparkling wines made by French Champagne makers in California,” Davis said.
Schramsberg gained international recognition in 1972 when President Nixon took the vineyard’s Blanc de Blancs, vintage 1969, to China for a state dinner with then-Premier Zhou Enlai. A later vintage was served at a state dinner at the White House in 1981, hosted by President Reagan in honor of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
“Jamie and her husband were icons in the Napa Valley,” said Margaret Duckhorn, co-founder of Duckhorn Wine Co. and a longtime friend of Davies.
When their winery was new, Jamie Davies worked in every area of the business, Duckhorn said. Later, she concentrated on marketing and sales, often speaking in public panel discussions and at wine-tasting dinners. “As a speaker she was very dynamic,” Duckhorn said.
Jamie Louise Peterman was born Dec. 8, 1934, in Pasadena and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1956. After graduation, she and a friend, Wanda Hansen, co-founded the Hansen-Peterman Gallery for modern art in San Francisco, which was later sold.
She married businessman Jack Davies in 1960 and settled in Los Angeles. Five years later they moved to the Napa Valley.
Several friends of Davies said her personality paired well with her line of work. “Jamie was bright, intelligent, sparkling. She really was like Champagne; it’s no exaggeration,” said Robin Lail, founder of Lail Vineyards and longtime friend.
The Davieses had three sons, Bill, John and Hugh. Hugh is president of Schramsberg, and Bill is on the board of directors. John is a businessman who resides in Moscow. Last year he filed a lawsuit over the family trust. It is still in litigation, according to Henderson at Schramsberg.
Along with her sons, Davies is survived by a sister, Dallas Price Van Breda, and five grandchildren. Her husband died in 1998.
Contributions in Davies’ name can be made to the Jack L. Davies Agricultural Land Preservation Fund, 811 Jefferson St., Napa, CA 94559.
For information, go to www.jldagfund.org.
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