Description
About Lark Hill
Lark Hill was established in 1978 by Sue & Dave Carpenter, high on the escarpment above Bungendore, 30km North East of Canberra. Lark Hill is a cold vineyard and at 860m elevation, is one of the highest plantings in the Canberra District. The soils are shallow depleted shale over clay, and vineyard receives ~600mm of rainfall annually.
In 2002, their son Chris joined the winemaking team at Lark Hill.
The vines were planted in 1978 & are not very vigorous, giving intense flavours but limited crops. Lark Hill is sparingly irrigated, as most water available in the area is saline. Instead the vines are pruned for low yields and heavily mulched to make the most of any available soil moisture. The first vintage was in 1981 and comprised Riesling and Chardonnay in tiny quantities.
Whilst a wide range of varieties were initially planted, the cold, dry nature of the site does not suit some varieties like Cabernet or Shiraz, and these have been grafted to more suitable choices. The Lark Hill estate vineyard grows Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Gruner Veltliner.
In 2003, the Carpenters sought Biodynamic certification for this vineyard through NASAA (minimum 5 year transition) and in 2006 the ‘transition to Biodynamic’ certification was granted. 2008 marked the first vintage of ‘Certified Biodynamic’ wines from Lark Hill.
In 2011, Lark Hill purchased a 2nd vineyard, in Murrumbateman and renamed it “Dark Horse Vineyard”. Dark Horse was established in 2001 and comprises Shiraz, Viognier, Sangiovese and small amounts of Marsanne & Rousanne. It has supplied some of these varieties to several prestigious labels in the Canberra District, and was the source of our 2009 and 2010 Shiraz Viognier & Viognier.
Dark Horse is lower than Lark Hill (at approx. 600m) and planted on deep granite soils. It has good vigour and delivers very generous, rich fruit. Dark Horse is now certified Biodynamic (2013 onwards) by NASAA.
