Anakota "Helena Montana Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
(Knights Valley, Sonoma, California) - [WA 97+] [JD 97] [JS 94]

About the Winery:
Sourced from estate-owned vineyards, Anakota is a collection of single vineyard, single varietal wines that personify the rustic elegance and spirit of rural Sonoma County. Rising more than 4,000 feet above sea level, Mount St. Helena looks down on our two prized estate-owned vineyards, Helena Dakota and Helena Montana, which are quietly situated on the rugged flanks of the Mayacamas Mountain Range.

About this Wine:
Lush, velvety and opulent, Helena Montana chronicles the terroir at this steep, Knights Valley hillside site. The signature attributes include blackberries, currants, violets, chocolate, spice and licorice. The palate offers deep, expansive flavors supported by soft, silky tannins. While Helena Montana typically shows well in its youth, it is a wine that will expand and improve with age.

Tasting Notes:
Focused and powerful on the nose, showing ripe red and black currant, along with dried bouquet garni and a subtle frame of sweet baking spices. The palate is a tour de force of varied fruit and non-fruit flavors, wrapped around a powerful core, teeming with firm tannin and juicy acidity.

Technical Information

Vineyard Notes:
Running northeast to southwest at an elevation of 950 feet above sea level, the 60-acre Helena Montana vineyard is marked by rolling hills and steep benches that tilt up to 30 degrees. It features firm, dense, white/yellow gravelly loam soils that drain extremely well. The combination of hills, knolls and trees helps route cool, westerly winds away from the vines. Helena Montana Cabernets are concentrated and powerful with black fruit flavors, spice, minerals and muscular tannins. Pierre finds the Cabernet from Helena Montana to be reminiscent of the wines of Margaux.

ELEVATION: 950 ft
SOIL: Yellow-white sandy and gravelly loam
VINEYARD: Shallow roots, stressed vines
CELLAR AGING: 20 years

 

97+ Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate:
"Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana Vineyard spent 12 months in 100% new French oak. Deep garnet-purple in color, it bursts from the glass with bold scents of fresh blackberries, black currants and mulberries plus suggestions of cedar chest, pencil lead, iron ore and truffles, with emerging wafts of crushed rocks and charcoal. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers firm, grainy, exquisitely ripe tannins and seamless freshness supporting layer upon layer of black fruits, finishing on a long-lingering fragrant earth note. 800 cases were made." - Lisa Perrotti-Brown (1/14/2021)

97 Points - Jeb Dunnuck:
"The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana Vineyard hails from a single vineyard in Knights Valley located at 950 feet in elevation. It has a brilliant nose of savory red and black currants, dried herbs, saddle leather, and tobacco, with a decidedly Bordeaux-like vibe in both its aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied and nicely concentrated, with ripe tannins on the palate, this is a serious, captivating, incredibly impressive Cabernet that will shine for at least two decades. You could put this beauty in a lineup of First Growth Bordeaux and it would do just fine." (7/22/2021)

94 Points - James Suckling:
"Lots of pine and walnut with gravel and dark fruit on the nose. It’s very fine-tannined with nice austerity and a dusty texture. Long and juicy. Needs to soften. Better in a year or two. Try after 2023." (3/26/2021)