A New Winery Home in 2005!

The biggest news for Larkmead in 2005 is that we are very close to completing our new winery on Larkmead Lane. Kate's father decided to sell the original historic stone winery building in 1950 following a very serious health mis-diagnosis but kept Larkmead and all the vineyards. It is therefore very meaningful for the family to see a new Larkmead Vineyards winery rising above the vines on our property.

For the last decade, we have been making our wine at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville with our talented winemaker Andy Smith under our own license and are very grateful to the Napa Wine Company. With the wines we make of a consistently high quality, most of the vineyards replanted with new varieties and clones and the remaining fruit we sell going to very good wineries, it felt like now was the time to take this bold and logical step. There is a wonderful feeling in the air, a sense of creation and momentum and those of you who know and recommend our wines have definitely helped create this moment.

There has been a tremendous push from all involved to get the winery ready for this crush and it has been both exciting and very frustrating at times. The priority has been to finish the production building first so that Andy Smith, Manny Rios and their teams can start working the 2005 vintage.

The tasting room will follow as it is in a separate building and will be finished before the 2005 holiday season... It has a large veranda and we are all looking forward to joining the many friends we have made over the years for a glass of wine and some good conversation in the shadow of Mt. St. Helena all in the spirit of Lillie Hitchcock Coit's Salon at Larkmead.

Finally we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting us and Larkmead Vineyards over the years and hopefully we can do it personally with you at the new winery in the near future.

All at Larkmead.