Issue #11: Keeping Napa Real
Snowden Vineyards aims to stand out in a new world of wine
I’ll say it… Wine is a world way beyond my beverage comprehension.
That’s been changing slowly, not as quickly as I’ve liked, but its nuances go far beyond those of the beer and spirits I’ve learned much about in past years. But one thing is sure, there are winemakers out there who are passionate about the industry and want to bring their products to the world in a down-to-earth manner.
Randy Snowden is one of those people. As managing director of Snowden Vineyards in Napa Valley, he chatted with me twice in the last two weeks, once over the phone and then at a Snowden wine dinner at Grove in Grand Rapids.
He guided me through the way they make their wine, the ethos they take and the struggle of being a small, family-owned winery in an increasingly consolidating and private-equity-backed wine industry in Napa, and the world.
As a paid perk, later this week we’ll have a breakdown of the Snowden wines by Tristan Walczewski, chief operating officer at Grove’s parent company Essence Restaurant Group and an Advanced Sommelier. (Note: One of Tristan’s missions is to make wine less stuffy.)
A passionate wine family
There is a very distinct split in the beverage world.
Some people are extremely passionate about their jobs and it oozes into the way they talk about it. Then some people see an opportunity to make money.
There are the waves of brewers who, in the 1980s to mid-1990s and early 2010s, started in their garage and followed their passion to leave their jobs. (Note: I’ve reported heavily on those brewers over the years, including two books, but my favorite was this piece in Thrillist on the “Class of 1988.”)
There are people like Frey Ranch (we profiled them a few weeks ago) who turned their family farm of more than a century into a farm-to-bottle whiskey company to see the fruits of their labor in final form.
And unfortunately, as increasingly is the case, we see money hungry entrepreneurs and private equity firms seeing dollar signs in their eyes and finding their way into the beverage markets without passion and eager to cut costs and make big profits. Sometimes money talks and we see those passionate owners take their payday — and who’s to blame them, really?
Despite a huge push of private equity into Napa Valley, Snowden Vineyards remains a family-owned company and property, and Randy Snowden was proud to tell us the next generation is ready and wants to take over the 160-acre property and wine business.
The Snowden property was first homesteaded in the 1870s, and wine was planted by 1891. Now, Snowden, managing director of the vineyard, said they view themselves as stewards of the property in the middle of Napa.
Despite having 160 acres, they only farm on 23 of them. The rest is woodlands, with an array of animals including mountain lions, bald eagles and many more.
The Snowden family took over the property in 1955 and supplied other winemakers like Stag’s Leap, Silver Oak and Caymus until they held juice back for their estate line in 1993.
While many of the vineyards in California take a new-world approach to making wine, Snowden’s winemaking is led by Randy’s niece, Diana Snowden Seysses, a full-time winemaker in Bordeaux and Burgundy. She comes back each year to help out at home.
Snowden said he’s not too concerned about the rise of the PE-backed wineries. He called the mass-produced wine coming from the consolidated wineries “grocery store wine” and they’re not going after the same customers.
And it goes beyond the small production levels, they also deeply care about the environment, first evidenced by their commitment to keeping their land wild.
They also recently became certified organic, a process they started 10 years ago. Snowden changed their bottle to help lighten its CO2 load on the planet because, oddly, the bottle production and movement are the biggest CO2 contributors of wine growing, far more than the grape growth, making up to 70% of the emissions.
And the care for the environment is more than just because. They see it in the way the grapes grow and taste. Snowden is also not the first wine grower or expert to tell me climate change is affecting wine growing so much that sparkling wines from England are giving Champagne a run for its money — something NBC News covered back in 2019.
Is Snowden more expensive than “grocery store wine?” Yes. Are there reasons for that, like that they’re taking care of Napa land and Earth, with special care in their production methods and keeping a vineyard family-owned in a world of constant consolidation and worry about profits? Yes.
Is a producer like that worth it when considering who to support when picking up a beer, wine or spirit? That’s up to you. I say yes.
Literary Libations
This is Alyssa jumping in to supply you with a book and beverage pairing!
My book club recently read Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur, a book I first read last summer. Taking place on a remote piece of wild land on Cape Cod, readers follow the nuanced dynamics of the Gardner family — Adam, a storied oceanographer with mental health struggles, Ken, an aspiring politician with unresolved trauma, and Abby, a talented but struggling artist. One of the most enjoyable parts of this book is the complexity of the secondary characters, including a pair of feisty twin girls and their repressed but strong mom, as well as a mostly level-headed couple in search of a newly discovered biological parent.
If you’ve been following the past few issues of Literary Libations, you know we are deep into beach reads and this novel is no different!
We are pairing it with a Cape Codder, mine and Pat’s drink of the summer in 2021!
Cain and Abel’s Cape Codder
1.5 oz vodka
Cranberry juice
Lime wedge
Method: Add the vodka into a highball glass with ice. Top with cranberry juice and garnish with a lime wedge. Read and enjoy!
Reads of the week
For as long as I’ve been writing about food and beverage, I’veread Pete Wells, the NY Times food critic. He has stepped down after 12 years and wrote a goodbye column detailing his job — largely its health effects.
On a similar note, the Wall Street Journal dove into How Much Alcohol You Can Drink a Week and Still Be Healthy.
WSJ also dove into the fall from the No. 1 spot atop beer for Bud Light, all the way down to No. 3.
A one-of-a-kind Roman ruin was recently uncovered: A brewery. In a region known for wine, a brewery dating back to the 5th or 6th century.