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The earliest dedicated use of caves as wine storage is generally credited to the Etruscans around 800
B.C. Etruscan advances in civil engineering made extensive tunneling possible. The Romans who
followed also saw the advantages of building underground; their catacombs became legendary—
historical evidence suggests that they were also used for wine storage. Throughout Europe, during
the reign of the Roman Empire, miles and miles of tunnels were excavated. The French utilized
the abandoned crayères—limestone excavations left by the Romans—to store their wine. In the
Champagne region of France, ancient stone quarries are used today for aging sparkling wines. In
the Loire Valley, caves built in the Middle Ages by French noblemen now store wines. Although
fewer in number, there are also medieval wine caves in use in Bordeaux and Burgundy.
In 1867 Jacob Schram cut the first wine cellar in Napa Valley in the side of Diamond Mountain. The
cave was only a few yards long, limiting storage as the crew encountered rhyolite, a very hard rock.
In 1881, with the help of Chinese laborers, excavations continued in a different location. Jacob's
wife, Anne, supervised the construction, and by 1891 they had formed a massive underground
network of caves.
