Wine grapes have grown on the ranch since 1878, when Levi and Lucretia Davis claimed the 160-acre parcel under the Homestead Act and planted the first vines. By 1891, the property had been sold to its second owner, Melchior Kemper, who expanded the orchards and vineyards to 60 acres, including Zinfandel, Malvoisie, and Chasselas.
But the following decades were unkind to the Napa Valley: phylloxera moved through the vineyards, Prohibition drastically limited wine production, and the Depression and war years slowed recovery. By the time Wayne and Virginia Snowden found the property in 1955, only twelve acres remained under cultivation -- six acres of grapes, mostly Petit Sirah and Palomino, and six acres of prunes.
The Snowdens had spent the three preceding summers exploring the Napa Valley — the first in a rustic country house close to Charles Krug and the old Domingos winery, the next in a house on Sanitarium Road down the hill from Souverain Cellars, then a cottage by the Hayne Zinfandel Vineyard. In 1955, they settled on this remote, wooded property on the eastern ridge of the Napa Valley between St. Helena and Rutherford. In the early 1960s, Wayne planted six acres of Cabernet Sauvignon at the top of the property, using budwood from Nathan Fay's newly developed vineyard in the Stags Leap district, and hauling water to the young vines in a pair of 30 gallon garbage cans tied into the back seat of an old Oldsmobile two door coup.
After Wayne's death in 1977, management of the ranch fell to his sons Scott and Randy. In 1981 they replanted the main vineyard using budwood from Jordan Vineyards, and spent the following decade supplying the fruit to Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. Since the early 1990s, grapes from the ranch have gone to a number of producers, including Silver Oak, Frank Family, David Ramey, Viader, Lewis, and Caymus.
And in 1993 the family kept enough fruit to produce 383 cases of their own wine — a share that has increased gradually but steadily over the ensuing years.
Today, the family farms 23 acres of vineyards, with the remaining hundred and thirty-seven acres of the property supporting natural woods and forest. The vineyards are certified organic, chosen deliberately to keep the ecosystem within and around them healthy. The same care extends to the surrounding oak woodlands, which we consider as important a part of the ranch as the vines.
In the cellar, our goal is to create a direct connection from the site to the glass. To do that, we intervene as little as possible, farming as carefully and cleanly as possible, fermenting with native yeasts and avoiding heavy manipulation, so each vintage reflects our particular hillside rather than a particular outcome.
Diana Snowden Seysses — our winemaker, and a third-generation Snowden — draws on both Old World restraint and New World experience to make wines of clarity and balance.
But the following decades were unkind to the Napa Valley: phylloxera moved through the vineyards, Prohibition drastically limited wine production, and the Depression and war years slowed recovery. By the time Wayne and Virginia Snowden found the property in 1955, only twelve acres remained under cultivation -- six acres of grapes, mostly Petit Sirah and Palomino, and six acres of prunes.
The Snowdens had spent the three preceding summers exploring the Napa Valley — the first in a rustic country house close to Charles Krug and the old Domingos winery, the next in a house on Sanitarium Road down the hill from Souverain Cellars, then a cottage by the Hayne Zinfandel Vineyard. In 1955, they settled on this remote, wooded property on the eastern ridge of the Napa Valley between St. Helena and Rutherford. In the early 1960s, Wayne planted six acres of Cabernet Sauvignon at the top of the property, using budwood from Nathan Fay's newly developed vineyard in the Stags Leap district, and hauling water to the young vines in a pair of 30 gallon garbage cans tied into the back seat of an old Oldsmobile two door coup.
After Wayne's death in 1977, management of the ranch fell to his sons Scott and Randy. In 1981 they replanted the main vineyard using budwood from Jordan Vineyards, and spent the following decade supplying the fruit to Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. Since the early 1990s, grapes from the ranch have gone to a number of producers, including Silver Oak, Frank Family, David Ramey, Viader, Lewis, and Caymus.
And in 1993 the family kept enough fruit to produce 383 cases of their own wine — a share that has increased gradually but steadily over the ensuing years.
Today, the family farms 23 acres of vineyards, with the remaining hundred and thirty-seven acres of the property supporting natural woods and forest. The vineyards are certified organic, chosen deliberately to keep the ecosystem within and around them healthy. The same care extends to the surrounding oak woodlands, which we consider as important a part of the ranch as the vines.
In the cellar, our goal is to create a direct connection from the site to the glass. To do that, we intervene as little as possible, farming as carefully and cleanly as possible, fermenting with native yeasts and avoiding heavy manipulation, so each vintage reflects our particular hillside rather than a particular outcome.
Diana Snowden Seysses — our winemaker, and a third-generation Snowden — draws on both Old World restraint and New World experience to make wines of clarity and balance.