Napa Producer Declassifies Two Vintages
By James Laube
From Wine Spectator magazine, July 31, 2006 issue

After a run of excellent vintages from 1993 to 2001, Snowden Vineyards has chosen to declassify its 2003 and 2004 vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Napa Valley winery's 2002 vintage developed a low level of brettanomyces, a spoilage yeast that can result in muddled, leathery flavors. Brett does not pose any health concerns, and at low levels it can add complexity, but owner Scott Snowden found the wine not up to his usual standards and cut its price from $65 to $50.

After examining the next two vintages in barrel, Snowden detected brett in some of the 2003 barrels and decided to face the problem by declassifying both 2003 and 2004. With the 2003 vintage, the winery sold 170 barrels on the bulk market (roughly 4,000 cases) and kept only 15 (375 cases), which will be sold under the winery's second label, Lost Vineyard, for about $30. All of the 2004 vintage is being declassified to Lost Vineyard.

The financial impact is enormous, and will require Snowden to postpone the replanting of its vineyard and the construction of a winemaking facility. "The decision to declassify the wines [and protect the winery's name] was easy, but it was a murderous business decision," said Snowden, who was unusually candid about the brett problem.

In addition, Snowden changed his winemaking team, bringing in his daughter, Diana Snowden Seysses, 28, to oversee production. Seysses, a graduate of the University of California, Davis, has worked for Araujo, Robert Mondavi Winery and Mumm Napa Valley. Last year she married Jeremy Seysses, whose family owns Domaine Dujac in Burgundy,
where she works as a winemaker. Snowden also hired prominent California winemaker David Ramey as a consultant.

Snowden appears to be back on track with its 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet, which will be released in about two years. Wine Spectator recently reviewed the wine in a blind flight of 2005 Cabernet barrel samples, and it received a score of 92-94 points, or potentially outstanding.