2016 Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon The Lark
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Tasting notes
Family-owned and certified organic. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, planted on sand. 21 months in 83% new French oak from Tonnellerie Sylvain. 283 cases produced. Ripe. Sweet-and-sour dried plums, mushroom, dry oak mulch, cedar, dried cherries, iodine, hoisin, rose hip, bitter cocoa. This wine feels a bit older than it is, but it was tasted from a half-bottle so that could have some effect. (SCJ)
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Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
So much tile and brick character, highlighting the cherries and currants. Dark chocolate too. Hints of fresh herbs. Full body, soft, chewy tannins and such beautiful currant, coffee and chocolate flavors. Very long. 2020 release. Try after in 2023.
Brought up in 83% new French oak, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon The Lark (and actually the whole lineup in 2016) is one for the old-school California Cabernet lovers out there, with a firm, focused, old-school feel that's going to require serious bottle age to be drinkable. A complex bouquet of lavender, sage brush, graphite, blueberries, and iron all emerge from this deep, intense, yet inward wine that has tons of tannins yet matching depth and intensity. It's a brilliant wine but needs at least a decade of bottle age and I suspect will be a 50-year wine.
Gravel, smoke, game, licorice and tobacco are some of the many notes that take shape in the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon The Lark. Powerful, vertical and explosive, the 2016 possesses tremendous depth and intensity. In the glass, The Lark is vertical in shape and intensely mineral-driven in profile. I can't wait to see how it ages. Lavender, menthol, spice and new leather add the closing layers of complexity.