About Snow's Lake Vineyard
This Red Hills site was first planted by Napa legend Louis Martini in the late 1970s, when it was considered a premier spot for Barbera, on land whose walnut-orchard history dates to the 1920s and whose vernal lake is named for early settler Sam Snow. George Myers bought the property in 1997 and expanded plantings to roughly 800 acres of vines at 2,000 to 2,500 feet, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, on the deep red volcanic soils that gave the Red Hills Lake County AVA its name.
Snow's Lake operated primarily as a grower, supplying fruit to Chalone's Dynamite brand, Beringer's Carmenet label, and other premium wineries rather than running a tasting room of its own. E. & J. Gallo purchased the vineyard in 2012 for a reported $42 million, one of the landmark investments signaling Lake County's arrival as a serious Cabernet region; there is no public tasting room, so this entry serves as a reference to one of the county's most significant vineyard properties.
