Retail Team | March 14, 2024
Since 1895, Larkmead Vineyards has played a quintessential role in the Napa Valley canon, producing classically styled Cabernets and Bordeaux-style reds that are tightly wound yet lusciously appointed with dark depths of concentration.
Sotheby’s Wine is pleased to present three library cuvées from the sun-kissed 2014 vintage that attest to Larkmead’s esteemed place in the Napa pantheon.
The historic property includes 115 acres on a Calistoga valley floor, north of St. Helena. This remarkable vineyard occupies one of the narrowest points in Napa, described as “first growth terroir” by critic Robert Parker. With much of the topsoil washed away, rock, alluvial gravel, loam, and clay drain easily while focusing the sun’s power. In the morning and evenings, fog rolls in from the Chalk Hill Gap, cooling grapes and providing sharp diurnal variation.
Larkmead was founded by the San Francisco socialite Lillie Hitchcock Coit and has passed through the hands of several families, including current owner Kate Solari Baker, who took over with her late husband Cam Baker in 1992. In the 2014 vintage, then-winemaker Dan Petroski played the season just right, picking early to preserve freshness.
In comparison to the year prior, 2014 was more rounded, showing elegance in addition to intensity. A classic release like the 2014 LMV Salon (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Cabernet Franc) provides everything a Napa drinker would desire in spades: chocolate and mocha richness, bold blackberry juiciness, sleek acidity, and long, robust tannins that will easily support another decade of aging in the cellar.
