Larkmead 

Lillie Hitchcock Coit

In the 1870s, an army surgeon and his wife from North Carolina bought 1,000 acres between the Napa Valley towns of St Helena and Calistoga. Charles and Martha Hitchcock and their spirited daughter, Lillie, had arrived in San Francisco in the 1850s, where Lillie, captivated by the fire department, as a teenager became the mascot of the "Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5." Later, for her enthusiasm and unwavering support, she became patroness of all San Francisco's firemen.

Married to businessman (and womanizer) Howard Coit, 'Firebelle Lil' left San Francisco and her husband, to settle in the Napa Valley. Several hundred acres of her parents' property were given to her, and she built a beautiful Indian bungalow she named 'Larkmead' for the songs of its many larks. Sadly, the bungalow, a short distance from the vineyard, burned down. The Hitchcocks' charming existence - days filled with gardening, cooking, winemaking and entertaining company - are chronicled in the diaries of Martha Hitchcock and published in 'A Salon at Larkmead' by Drew Sparks and Sally Kellman. The diaries give a truly fascinating account of daily life in the late nineteenth century in this idyllic valley.

After her death in 1929 at age 86, Lillie left a third of her fortune to the city of San Francisco. Named in her honor as a benefactor, Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill is a tribute to Lillie and to the brave firemen of her city. The Firebelle blend celebrates the spirit of this remarkable woman.

Felix Salmina

The Salmina family arrived in the Napa Valley from Switzerland in the 1860s, and in 1892, bought a wooden winery and vineyards. Felix Salmina had learned to make wine in Switzerland and set about converting the old wooden winery into a much larger winemaking facility, built of stone quarried from the nearby hills and expanding the vineyard into Larkmead Vineyards.

In the early days at Larkmead, wine grapes sold for $5 a ton and wine for 5 cents a gallon. Prohibition hit hard, but Larkmead Vineyards was able to survive by selling grapes and making sacramental wine. By the late 1930s, releasing wine under its own label again, Larkmead had built an impressive reputation, regarded as the smallest of the 'big four wineries' in Napa Valley alongside Beaulieu, Inglenook and Beringer. Indeed Andre Tchelistcheff, the legendary Russian, French-trained enologist who worked at Beaulieu in 1938, talked of four "outstanding wine processing plants: Inglenook, Beaulieu, Larkmead and Beringer".

Felix and his sons produced between 5,000-10,000 cases of quality wine each year with blends such as 'White Chianti', 'Chablis' or 'Burgundy' and also varietal wines including Cabernet and Zinfandel. Significantly in 1937 Larkmead gained several first places at the California State Fair, and during the same year was awarded a 'diplome d'honneur' from the Paris Exposition, delighting locals that Napa Valley wines could compete so well with the French. Clearly industry leaders of their time, the Salminas chaired many local wine organizations and contributed much to the development and promotion of Napa Valley wine. After Felix's death in 1940, the family sold Larkmead Vineyards in 1943 to a Chicago based bottler and distributor, Bragno & Co. The property was later resold to National Distillers and, in 1948, to the Solaris.

Larry and Polly Solari

In 1948, Bruno (Larry) Solari and his wife Polly bought Larkmead Vineyards from National Distillers. Larry was 37 at the time. As a boy of nine, he had immigrated to the US from Tuscany with his family in Geyserville, California in 1920. In 1933 he was the first in his family to earn a college degree, graduating from UC Berkeley at the height of the Great Depression. Despite difficult times for the wine industry in the years following World War II, Larry recognized the huge potential of the historic vineyard site and acquired it in 1948.

Larry was enormously optimistic about Larkmead's future.  He commuted to San Francisco during the week, where he worked as sales manager for Italian Swiss Colony, while Polly ran the winery and supervised daily winemaking operations. For Polly, the mother of three young children, this was no easy task, and was highly unusual work for a woman at that time. To their delight, their first harvest at Larkmead was so bountiful the Solaris were able to make a sizable payment on their mortgage.  Larry continued to work as President and CEO of United Vintners, the 1,500-member grape grower cooperative that owned Italian Swiss Colony and Inglenook, and later Beaulieu. President and CEO of United Vintners, an Executive Director of Heublein (which aquired United Vintners) and Chairman of the Wine Institute, Larry had a distinguished career in the Napa Valley and California wine industry.

Regarded as one of the 'giants' of the wine industry, his good friend Robert Mondavi referred to Larry as his "mentor". After Larry's death in 1984, the family continued winemaking and growing premium varietal grapes from the historic vineyard. The property has now remained in the Solari family for over 55 years. 

Kate Solari Baker and Cam Baker

Growing up at Larkmead, Kate remembers a very different Napa Valley. There were many orchards of prunes and walnuts, cattle ranches and acres of empty fields. The towns were very small, catering to the local farmers and ranchers. Main Street St Helena was so quiet in the evenings that she and her friends could play kick the can with no risk from traffic!

A Bay Area artist with a studio in Sausalito, Kate is well known for her pastel landscapes and figurative work. In 1995 she produced the official Napa Valley Wine Auction poster. Our website features several of Kate's pastel drawings of her family and Larkmead, including this image of her mother, Polly Solari.  Manager of Larkmead operations and wine program, Cam worked for many years with his father-in-law, the late Larry Solari, whom he well remembers as a giant of the California and US wine industry. Cam has a passion for the land, and his goal is to enhance Larkmead's status as one of the finest vineyards in the Napa Valley.  Kate and Cam have 3 children and 2 grandchildren, often found spending time at Larkmead.

The historic Larkmead Estate vineyard comprises 120 acres of the entire 145 acre site, split among 3 distinct blocks. Vines range in age from 4 to 90 years. This is a naturally low vigor and low yielding vineyard, averaging 3 to 4 tons per acre.

2004 Larkmead Cabernet  $54.99