Anakota Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana 2013 (750ML)

96+ RP / 93 VM

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana offers chocolate, sweet black cherries, a dense purple color, great intensity and purity – a real mountain style, but with surprisingly soft tannins. It is easily a 30-year wine. The good news is that there are 520 cases of this big, boisterous, yet voluptuously textured offering from Anakota. The winemaker behind the Anakota high-elevation mountain vineyard sites in Knights Valley is no other than Pierre Seillan, the Bordelais guru who makes the fabulous wines of Vérité from the same proprietor, the Jackson family. There are two cuvées from various elevations in Knights Valley, the lower elevation called Helena Montana and the higher site, the Helena Dakota. Production of these cuvées ranges from the smallest in 2013, with just over 500 cases of each produced, jumping to 700-800 in 2014 and a whopping 1,000-1,300 in 2012 – the most generous of the three vintages. These are all 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 100% French oak and are meant for long, long-term aging. I would suggest that these may be, potentially, the longest-lived wines being made in Knights Valley, even exceeding the potential age-worthiness of the Peter Michael Les Pavots cuvées that are made in this microclimate on the Sonoma side, but near the Napa County line. Robert Parker - The Wine Advocate

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana is a dark, powerful wine. Graphite, exotic spice, crème de cassis, menthol, licorice and plums are some of the notes that meld together in a powerful, jammy Cabernet Sauvignon that balances concentration, striking aromatics and a very classic sense of Knights Valley minerality. Give this sumptuous, opulent 100% Cabernet Sauvignon at least a few years in bottle and drink it over the next decade or so. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media