snowden vineyards and cellar

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     The Snowden Ranch is located east of the Silverado Trail between Rutherford Hill Road and Taplin Road. The property is a quarter of a mile wide and a mile long, extending from the tiny Spring Valley at the west end over the hill into Conn Valley at the east end. From different places on the property you can see St. Helena, Rutherford, Oakville, Yountville, Napa, and, on a clear day, the Bay Area. Elevations on the property range from approximately 450 feet to over 850 feet.
    The vineyards comprise approximately 24 acres at four different locations on the property. Most are planted at what we refer to as “the top of the property” – a relatively flat area on the ridge between Spring and Conn Valleys.
    Twenty five years ago, we would harvest all the grapes on the property on a single day. Each year we farm the vineyards, we become more familiar with them and learn about the variations in flavor and maturity that arise from different soil areas, exposure, elevation, and vine type. These variations are startlingly distinct, often occurring over a distance of just a few vine rows. By our last harvest, we had identified 17 different vineyard sections which we farm and pick separately.

For more information on our vineyards please visit the maps page, or click here.

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    We believe the role of the winemaker is to allow the wine to fulfill its terroir-determined destiny. Our winemaking choices during the two-year evolution from grape cluster to bottle are respectful of the natural process and of the primary material.
    The grapes are hand-picked early in the morning and driven to Fantesca, the custom-crush facility we use. The whole clusters arrive in St Helena still cool from the early-morning pick. They are de-stemmed then fall onto a conveyor belt and any remains of stem are removed by hand on the way to the tank. We then wait for a native yeast fermentation to begin. Fermentation lasts about one week, followed by two-week post fermentation maceration.
    The wine is then drained and the free-run is put into French oak barrels where they will stay for the next 20 months. Native bacteria metabolize malic acid in barrel after harvest and over the winter. Allowing secondary fermentation to take place in barrel results in a seamless integration of oak and wine tannins.
    Upon the completion of the secondary fermentation, sometime during the spring following harvest we will rack and make up the main blend. The Cabernet Sauvignon in the Snowden wine comes from several locations within our vineyards. The lots are kept separate during the fermentation and early aging periods, as is the Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot. Early blending allows all the composite parts to marry and stabilize over the following year. The last blending decision is made when the wine is approximately 18 months old and is made in tandem with egg white fining. In a typical year, the final blend will contain approximately 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the remaining 15% being a blend of the other varietals.
    After almost two years in barrel, we bottle our wines unfiltered and release them a few months after bottling.

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