Dana Estates Helms Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
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Robert
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Jeb
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Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Helms Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is perfumed with red currant, plums, dried violets, star anise, and savory mint and thyme. The tannins are present but precise and elegant. On the palate the wine opens with flavors of plums, black cherry, wildflowers, and sweet spice. The finish lingers with notes of pipe tobacco, fig preserve, and sassafras layered with cocoa powder like tannins. While delicious now, the wine will gracefully gain more volume and complexity as it ages.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Helms vineyard consists of five acres on gravelly loam, right on the northern edge of the Rutherford bench, planted in 1997 and 1998 to Cabernet Sauvignon clones See and 337. This barrel sample of the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Helms Vineyard is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and is due to be aged for 21 months in French oak barrels, 100% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, it explodes with bombastic scents of crushed blackberries, plum preserves and crème de cassis followed by nuances of red roses, black tea, eucalyptus oil and dusty soil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate shimmers with juicy black fruits, supported by ripe, soft tannins and lovely freshness, finishing long and fragrant.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Showing consistently (if not a touch better) than earlier this year, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Helms Vineyard is a medium to full-bodied, complex, incredibly satisfying Cabernet offering lots of cassis and plum fruits, ripe, integrated tannins, wonderful purity of fruit, and lifted, exotic notes of candied violets, tobacco, and spice. It's drinking nicely today, but it should have two decades of overall longevity.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and with good buried energy as a brambly hint runs underneath the core of raspberry and red currant reduction. Sleek, with savory, violet and licorice notes adding fuel to the finish.
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A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
The Rutherford sub-region of Napa Valley centers on the town of Rutherford and covers some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard real estate, spanning from the Mayacamas in the west, to the Vaca Mountains on the other side of the valley.
Inside of the Rutherford AVA, bordering the Mayacamas, is a stretch of uplands called the Rutherford Bench. (These bench lands technically run the length of Oakville as well). Mountain runoff creates deep, well-drained, alluvial soils on the bench, giving vine roots plenty of reason to permeate deep into the ground. The result is wine with great structure and complexity.
Rutherford Cabernet Sauvingons and Bordeaux Blends garner substantial attention for their enticing fragrances of dusty earth and dried herbs, broad and juicy mid-palates and lush and fine-grained tannins. The sub-appellation claims some of the valley’s most prized vineyards today, namely Caymus, Rubicon and Beckstoffer Georges III.
It is also home to Napa’s most influential and historic personalities. Thomas Rutherford, responsible for the appellation's name, made serious investments here in grape growing and wine production between the years of 1850 to 1880. Gustave Niebaum purchased a large swath of land and completed his winery in 1887, calling it “Inglenook.” Today this remains the oldest bonded winery in California. Georges Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900, making it the oldest continuous winery in the state. Latour also hired the famous enologist, André Tchelistcheff, a man credited for single-handedly defining the modern Napa winemaking style.