Anakota Helena Montana Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

Anakota Helena Montana Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: Sonoma, California, USA

Vintage: 2010

Bottle size: 75cl

Grape: Cabernet Sauvignon

ABV: 13.5%

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.

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.

Back in the late 1990s, exploration began for new locations to grow Grand Cru-level Cabernet Sauvignon. The goal was to find a site that could deliver the opulence and concentration of Napa coupled with the acidity, precision and age-worthiness of Sonoma. The perfect site was found in the Kinghts Valley AVA, a little-known wine region that earned AVA status in 1983. We named our ranch Anakota and in 1997 began surveying the terrain, analyzing the soils and planting vines. Today, under the direction of Vigneron Pierre Seillan, small quantities of single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons are made from two hillside estate vineyards: Helena Dakota and Helena Montana