Larkmead Vineyards: Single site, multiple terroirs

Napa Valley had a rich wine history long before Prohibition, and three of the most celebrated wineries from that bygone era – Inglenook, Beaulieu Vineyards and Beringer – are still famous today.

Family-owned Larkmead in Calistoga is a fourth, founded 125 years ago, but, jokes winemaker Dan Petroski, ‘It’s the one you’ve never heard of.’

Scroll down to see Elin’s tasting notes

Larkmead’s modern story began about 20 years ago, and it’s now making some of Napa’s top Cabernets and getting some serious recognition. So when Petroski invited me to a vertical tasting of six vintages of The Lark – the winery’s top Cabernet – that he was staging for collectors before the big-spend Napa wine auction, I emailed back: ‘Yes!’

On the warm summer day, bees were buzzing in the garden around the porch of the sleek, chic white farmhouse and winery designed by architect Howard Backen. The setting is idyllic: you look out on vineyards that stretch across the valley floor from Highway 29 on the west nearly to Silverado Trail on the east.

‘The soils,’ says Petroski, ‘are very diverse. They’re like a snapshot of the whole Napa Valley.’

Before the official tasting, he lined up three early vintages of The Lark and a couple of bottles of Solari, a Cabernet made from the estate’s oldest vines, for me to sample in the bright and airy farmhouse.

History

Cam and Kate Solari Baker, the owners, dropped by to reveal amusing tidbits about the winery’s history, which starts with the first owner, colourful Firebelle Lil, who drank bourbon, smoked cigars, and came up with the name Larkmead.

The Salmina family, originally from Switzerland, leased the winery in 1895 (purchasing it in 1903) and boosted the estate to a grand business. In 1948, Kate’s parents purchased the property and built a new winery long before vines covered the valley and tourists arrived in their Ferraris.

Since 1992, Kate and her husband Cam have been in charge of the estate. They carefully replanted the vineyards in the 1990s, and in 2006 built a new winery equipped with enough tanks to match the number of vineyard blocks. Larkmead also boasts lovely hospitality spaces like the one in which this tasting was held.

The wines

Reds, especially Cabernet, are at the heart of Larkmead’s eight-wine portfolio, which includes two whites – one of them a stunner made from Tocai Friulano vines that are over 100 years old.

But this is Napa, so the three top-tier reserve Cabernets from three distinct terroirs are where Larkmead is making its reputation.

The 2001 Solari was the first special cuvee, and since 2007 the wine has come from a single parcel of vines planted on clay and gravel soils.

The Lark started life with the 2006 vintage, a selection of the best barrels, but in 2012 it began morphing into a vineyard designate and by the 2013 vintage it came solely from a sandy, Bale loam parcel planted in 1998 to a single Cabernet clone, 337.

A third Cabernet wine, not tasted this time, is Dr Olmo, which comes from a gravelly parcel and debuted with the 2013 vintage.

A shift in style

Comparing The Lark 2006, 2007 and 2009 with Solari 2010 and 2011, then later sipping The Lark 2012 through to 2017 at a long table with a group of enthusiastic collectors was fascinating.

The final wine, The Lark Ascending 2017, is a barrel sample. Made since 2013, it’s only offered at Auction Napa Valley and Napa’s trade barrel auction, Premiere.

Larkmead used to make wines with rustic tannins and texture, and what struck me most was the shift in style between the earlier and more recent vintages, where the individual terroirs show through.

Though the parcels are practically next to one another, Solari is bigger, richer and more muscular, while The Lark is more rounded and refined, sexy and seamless. The standout vintages of The Lark for me were 2014, 2015 and 2016, which showed more elegance, complexity and freshness, along with silkier textures.

Part of that is surely down to Petroski, named San Francisco Chronicle’s 2017 Winemaker of the Year. Petroski began as cellarmaster at Larkmead in 2006, under experienced winemaker Andy Smith, and when he took over in 2012, he gradually began picking at lower sugars and dialling back the oak and extraction to tame the tannins.

Since 2015, the vineyard has been farmed 100% organically, but most important has been Petroski’s focus on specific plots. In that, he’s following the Napa zeitgeist:

The Lark is from a small parcel of Cabernet Sauvignon vines – exclusively the 337 clone – on deep, rich Bale loam that’s surrounded by more gravelly soil. The Lark Ascending is produced from the slower-ripening west side of The Lark parcel.

Solari is from a site just 200 metres from The Lark’s parcel, but is on gravelly, heavy clay.

Both Solari and The Lark are wines for lovers of California Cabernet that will age and age. The prices – $250 and $350, respectively – put them deep in collector territory, but I’d happily splurge on The Lark 2016.

Tasting the Cabernets:

Larkmead Vineyards at a glance

Location Calistoga AVA, Napa Valley

Founded 1895

Proprietors Cam and Kate Solari Baker

Winemaker Dan Petroski

Hectares under vine 44.5

Soil types 7 soil profiles, including riverbed gravel, clay, loam

Wines produced 8

Cases produced annually 8,000

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