New Faces at Larkmead

Production Manager Dan Petroski

Dan Petroski

In January 2007, we hired a new Production Manager at Larkmead Vineyards: Dan Petroski. Dan's journey into winemaking was untraditional as he spent most of his life in the city of New York. He was born and raised in Brooklyn and attended college at Columbia University. After graduation, Dan entered the world of publishing and worked for many years at Time, Inc. as an advertising sales manager. He was introduced to the wonders of wine while entertaining clients at restaurants and became quite an aficionado. Dan decided in 2005 to seriously pursue his love of wines, so he sold all of his worldly possessions and moved to Sicily where he lived for a year in the town of Catania making wine on a small estate called Valle dell'Acate. He also spent quite a bit of time exploring the Italian wine regions, enjoying the food and wines unique to each area. Dan left Italy and came to California for harvest 2006 where he worked as an intern at both DuMOL and Larkmead Vineyards. In his new role at Larkmead, Dan is in charge of the cellar and assists with all winemaking and viticulture operations at the Estate.

Michael Lewis

Vineyard Manager Michael Lewis

We have taken management of our vineyards in-house which means that Larkmead staff will be overseeing all aspects of farming on the Estate. This is the final step in our plan to tap the full potential of this exceptional property by having the ability to more closely control farming activities and produce the highest quality fruit from the vineyard. In turn, this will allow us to craft the best possible wines in our Estate production facility. Our new agricultural team is headed up by Vineyard Manager Michael Lewis (right) who was most recently employed at Walsh Vineyard Management and spent four harvests there as a Manager. He is particularly interested in moving towards organic viticulture and sustainable farming practices. Michael is totally excited about working at Larkmead because of its excellent location in the valley, the incredible soils, and the talented winemaking team. He and winemaker Andy Smith will be working closely together to monitor the grape crop as the season progresses.