Early July, just after our National Holiday, we finished bottling the 2008 red wines and bottled the first of our 2009 wines. The three wines (2008 Salon and Solari and 2009 Sauvignon Blanc) are classic Larkmead wines that truly represent a sense of place. If any of you have visited Larkmead and sat on the tasting room porch in the middle of our vineyards; you will understand what we mean when we say sense of place – a quiet, elegant experience that caters to the desire to relax and take another sip of wine. I promise that the 08 reds and our 09 white wine will keep you coming back for more. However, as any farmer will tell you, each year, each harvest we are under the influence of Mother Nature. In 2008 Mother Nature provided us with a wonderful harvest, the saddening part is that we just don’t have very much of the wine to go around. We’ll save those details for when we begin to release the wines later this year and next. Right now, the wine team is proud to have put our best wine in bottle.
On the subject of Mother Nature, let’s talk briefly about the pending 2010 harvest. Late winter 2009 and early 2010 has provided us with a regeneration of rain. Earlier this year we surpassed the Napa Valley average of rainfall (a number that we hadn’t come close to reaching since October 2006). The long, cool winter rolled into a late, wet Spring and delayed vine growth a few weeks. Bloom at Larkmead took place the first week of June; historically it would have happened in the middle of May. The next major vineyard event will be verasion that happens on average, at Larkmead, 75 days after bloom. Historically that would land us in the last week of July / first week of August but this year we are closer to the middle of August. We are not trying to rush the moderate weather as it is reminiscent to some of our favorite vintages – 2006, 2005, 2001. We’ll keep you posted as we get into the dog days of August and if you are planning any last minute travel to Northern California, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line and stop on by.
Dan Petroski, Associate Winemaker
It has been busy the previous five weeks in the cellar. Starting April 14 we racked and blended our 2009 Estate Cabernet and on April 19 racked and blended the 2009 Firebelle. Following that, we laid our '08 Firebelle and Cabernet down for bottle racking and on May 19, 20 and 21st we bottled the 2008 vintage Firebelle and Cabernet.
The preliminary 2009 Cabernet is quite distinctive with only 80% of the wine comprised of Cabernet. The remaining wine is split between Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. This is only a preliminary blend at the first racking, but it is a wine that we feel, like its sought after siblings, Salon and Solari, truly is an expression of Larkmead’s unique parcel of land in Northern Napa Valley. Larkmead Vineyards' distinction lies in its inherent richness in the front of the palate while maintaining freshness at the back; a sought after balance in all wines. In this particular blend of the 2009 Estate; we are impressed with the wine’s lift on the nose and broad mouth filling appeal that finishes with a gravelly tannin structure that makes you sit up and appreciate what Cabernet is capable of.
We find that blending wines allows for greater depth and nuance in the finished product. Especially when you are dealing with a vineyard that has three distinct soil types, a varied selection of rootstock combinations for each soil type and 12 Cabernet and five Merlot clones. That being said; in this blend of '09 Cabernet; you’ll find five Cabernet clones from nine parcels of Larkmead’s vineyard. The Petit Verdot is from two parcels of the vineyard and the Cabernet Franc is from another. Twelve lots created this one wine. To maintain the diversity during the wine’s elevage we used five different cooperages for our barrel program. Five of the cooperages provided the “new” French oak component and the same five cooperages provided a “once used” influence on the wine (these once used barrels were prior used with the 2007 wines).
The 2009 Firebelle is one of our most serious efforts in the wine’s short history. Due to its Merlot focused composition, Firebelle is logisitically formed in our heads before any of the other wines. Merlot is also the first red fruit we harvest each year; thus it is one of the first to finish fermentation, be barreled down, finish maloactic fermentation and typically be ready to show itself in the early Winter months. The rich, creamy Merlot tends to be seductive on the nose and in the palate. In a supporting role, Cabernet Sauvignon will give the Merlot a grandstand to continue to present itself; from there the final components of the blend are based on the best available secondary varieites form the vintage. In this parituclar year, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc all take the stage in the preliminary blend. In the 2009 wine there is a bright nose of red and blue fruit, hinting at black, almost saying, I am not your typical Firebelle. From there the wine hides behind a deep, dense, dark cloak of brambling forest floor scents and flavors. The wine is quite intriguing for its seriousness than its youthful flamboyance. This backwardness excites us about the wine's future development because Firebelle can be a gauge on how the remaining wines in the vintage will show themselves. The total composition of the 2009 Firebelle is a blend of 53% Merlot, 29% Cabernet, 10% Petit Verdot, 5% Malbec and 3% Cabernet Franc.
On March 29 we tasted through the 2009 wines again and found the wines to be of similar stature from when we tasted back in January. The cool summer in 2009 produced long wines with subtle elegance. These are wines that show the vineyard’s character quite predominantly in each and every sniff and sip. During the March tasting we sampled trial blends and set the schedule for wine work. Starting from the top down, we are quite pleased with the quality and quantity of production of our reserve Cabernet, Solari. The wine will be made up of 100% Cabernet from four parcels on the vineyard. Our gravel dominate soils on the Highway 29 side of Larkmead’s estate carry the majority of the blend and offer penetrating aromas, breadth of mouth feel and full, ripe tannins. Classic Larkmead cassis, graphite and minerality are present here and are supported by the structured balance and brambly nuances of the Cabernet from our darker, richer soils on the Eastern side of Napa River.
We’ve also put together the core of our Bordeaux blend, LMV Salon. Historically this wine has been a blend of all five Bordeaux grape varieties planted on the Estate – Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. With our initial blend the wine maintains quite a palate with only four of the varieties included this year. We’ve left out Petit Verdot from this year’s initial blend. Right now the blend consists of 63% Cabernet, 16% Cabernet Franc, 16% Malbec and 5% Merlot. Think about the Solari above and add in some bay leaf and woodland aromas of the Cabernet Franc. Mix a bit of blackberry liqueur from the Malbec and creamy, ripe, black-skinned plums from the Merlot and you’ll have a hedonistic view of this vintage’s Salon.
Year in and year out we have had the good fortune of working with some amazing natural resources here at Larkmead. And today we continue our praise of the elevated levels of care and meticulous farming that is really allowing the Larkmead wines to sing these past few vintages.
We’re in the midst of racking and blending our 2009 Estate Cabernet (the week of April 12) and similarly the Firebelle (the week of April 19). I’ll post an update when we complete those wines and they begin their next stage of development in barrel.
It is early February 2010 and Napa Valley is already picture perfect with mustard cover crops creeping up between the vines. In the vineyards we are pre-pruning and in the winery we are taking stock of our inventory. This past year we touched three vintages at Larkmead. We bottled the highly anticipated 2007 vintage; we blended the 2008 wines and harvested the 2009 vintage.
In about two weeks time we will “officially” release the 2007 red wine vintage for Larkmead. A great many good things have been said about the 2007 vintage coming out of California. To echo the sentiments, 2007 is the vintage of opulence. It seems I shouldn’t be talking about hedonism during times like these, but it is hard to hold your tongue around these wines. Juicy. Lush. Mouth-watering. Rich. Savory. Tender. Flat out exquisite wines. It is going to be hard to match the extravagance of this vintage. We are all in for a grand treat in the weeks and months to come when these wines arrive on retail shelves, restaurant wine lists or in our wine cellars. I am not going to be afraid of opening these wines upon release. I speak for the Larkmead wines, they will be approachable. Go for it.
Just a few short weeks ago, Andy and I tasted through the 2008 and 2009 wines.
Since January 2009 we have not been more pleased with the overall development of the red wines from the 2008 harvest. It was an interesting vintage in the cellar that perplexed us at times and we truly didn’t know where the wines would go post-fermentation. When we tasted the wines in January 2009 we were quite pleased at how they began to pull together and cloak themselves in characteristic Larkmead cassis and fruit purity. A year later, dark red, black and blue fruit nuances began to add depth to the wines and the tannins and acid held a firm structure on the finish. The 2008 wines are stunning, classic wines and we plan to bottle the Firebelle and Cabernet in mid-May and the Salon and Solari in early July. Look out.
I have written before about the 2009 harvest, its intensity and concentration - mostly in the workload (see the prior posts below), but now is time to talk about the early development of the wines. Well, it is hard not to lead without the same descriptors – intensity and concentration. However, unlike the luxurious concentration of the 2007 wines, the young 2009 vintage is showing much more depth which I’d attribute to a focused intensity. The wines are superbly balanced with an elegant front of the palate fruit purity followed by a rich and clean mid-palate and some of the finest tannins I’ve tasted in a Larkmead wine. Since the early stages of fermentations I have talked repeatedly about the mouth-watering, flavorful tannins of the 2009 wines. In my opinion the 2009 vintage will be a candidate for the finest set of wines produced at Larkmead. I’ll check back in a couple of weeks when we rack and produce the preliminary 2009 blends. Until then, cheers.
As I write this we are preparing to put the last of our young, 2009, red wine to barrel.
When we finished harvesting SB, the calendars were turning to early September and we were turning our attention to the development of the red grapes on the vine. The weather was consistent in early September with the entire growing season – warm and dry. Red grape maturity was in balance - sugar, acid and tannin in grape clusters were slowly plodding along. At this stage of September we were quite excited with the prospect of an elegant vintage with low alcohol levels. A long, cool and dry growing season would also give us the luxury of setting our schedule quite effortlessly so we would be able to focus and manage a handful of fermentations at once while maintaining the parcel by parcel individuality that has been designated in our vineyard.
However, as they say, the best laid plans… are wretchedly destroyed by Mother Nature’s wand. That is not exactly how the story goes, but on September 17th the story of Harvest 2009 commenced. Temperature rose to 99 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat orchestra played on. The following days topped 102, 90, 97, 100, 102, 100, 91, 100, 104 and 104 again.
In 2008 we had a similar heat wave, but that took place about a month prior in the middle of August, thus propelling an early start to red grape harvesting and an early finish. Delayed for a couple of weeks with the early, balanced ripening it didn’t take long for the sugars in 2009 to stand up and say, look at me. As we waited as long as we could during the early stages of the heat wave, vineyard parcel by parcel came ready to pick and we began harvesting Cabernet on September 22nd. That was the start of twenty days of which we harvested 110 tons of red wine grapes from 21 distinct parcels from our vineyard (there were a couple of days where we picked multiple parcels). The prior year, 2008, we actually harvested 10% less red wine grapes over a period of 40 days. So, low and behold, harvest 2009 can aptly be deemed a ‘crush’ at Larkmead.
The good news is that we survived unscathed and we truly believe that the vintage has given us some superb wines. The young Larkmead wines have the elegance and finesse of the 2005 vintage and the tannin structure of the 2006, which in my opinion makes for a masterful combination. Below please find some interesting facts and figures, I hope you enjoy.
• August 24, 2009 – First harvest of Sauvignon Blanc
• September 22, 2009 – First harvest of red wine grapes
• October 11, 2009 – Last harvest of red wine grapes
• Larkmead’s 2009 red grape harvesting happened within a span of 20 days
• All Larkmead’s red wine grapes were in fermenters at the same time
• In 2008 all Larkmead’s red grape harvesting happened in a span of 40 days
• In 2009 we will have pressed off all our red grapes in the span of 35 days
• The longest red grape fermentation/maceration: 30 days
• The shortest fermentation/maceration: 17 days
• Lowest Brix: 17.9 (a portion of the Tocai)
• Highest Brix: 27.7 (Cabernet Franc)
• Red Brix average: 26
On Monday, August 24th we picked our first grapes of the 2009 harvest. The late winter rains and the cool growing season had delayed the start of harvest seven to ten days versus the prior year. So, with the fourth week of August a foot, we began picking Sauvignon Blanc and by Friday the 28th ended with it as well.
There are ten acres of Sauvignon Blanc planted on Larkmead’s estate. Ten acres falls in third place behind Cabernet (67 acres) and Merlot (22 acres); however, the vines are more vigorous and hold a greater tons per acre ratio than its sister varieties on the property. So, with the total production of the vineyard catering 66% to Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc tends to fall into second place, producing about 20% of the vineyard’s output. However, Larkmead doesn’t produce wine from all its Sauvignon Blanc. Being a grower and a vintner, we sell the majority of our Sauvignon Blanc grapes to other wineries, such as Duckhorn and Spottswoode.
It is too early to stake a foot in the soil and claim that this will be a spectacular vintage for Napa Valley wines, but based on the development of the Sauvignon Blanc - the rich, deep, nuanced flavors and the healthy fermentations that we are managing at the moment, I am going to have to say, we are in for a very good year of wine growing.
Stayed tuned as we’ll be picking our century old Tocai vines in the next seven to ten days (the week of September 14). And from there, the red wine grapes (starting with Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet) are not far behind….
