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News
"Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Helms Vineyard has a gregarious nose of freshly crushed black currants, black berries and mulberries with touches of red roses, Indian spices, dried mint and unsmoked cigars. Medium-bodied, fine, fresh and elegantly styled, it delivers tons of black berry and spicy layers with a fine-grained backbone and very long, lively finish."
98+ points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown (Dec. 2017)
Wine Description
The Story
This gently sloping site is relatively cool, and is protected from the intensity of the late afternoon heat during the height of the growing season. The gravelly loam soils provide excellent drainage and wonderful fruit purity. Helms Vineyard Cabernet displays the classic profile of the Rutherford Bench: dark fruit, richly layered with a touch of spice and earth. The finely grained “dusty” tannins so prevalent in the appellation are integrated and harmonious, producing a wine of sophistication and depth.
Dana's commitment to converting our vineyards to dry-farming continues to show positive results. Dry farming encourages the roots to dig deep for water, and increases their ability to with stand heat events. As a result the vines produce wines that are more vibrant and representative of the terroir. The even temperatures over the summer and fall ripened the vineyard evenly, allowing the team to harvest all of Helms in only two days. They started with the clone 337 on October 9th. The SEE clone in front of the winery was picked the next day on October 10th. Both picks were fermented in upright oak tanks. The fruit was macerated for 35 days. After native yeast fermentation the wines were pressed directly to barrel, where native malolactic fermentation took place.
Wine Information
The 2015 vintage produced excellent fruit quality. Our vineyards received slightly less than average rainfall, but compared to the previous years of drought conditions the vines started the growing season with ample water in the soil. The winter and spring were among the warmest on record, and pushed bud-break two to three weeks ahead of 2013 and 2014, setting up for an early harvest. The warm dry spring led to less vine growth with shorter than average shoots. However, the much smaller than average crop with small berries and loose clusters created balanced vines. The warm spring gave way to a summer that was hot and dry, causing some challenges with numerous heat spells that lasted multiple days. The small vine canopies and our dedication to minimal irrigation over the last decade paid dividends in 2015 with exceptional fruit integrity, even after prolonged 100F+ days with extremely low humidity. This gave us the flexibility to harvest based on flavor, not desiccation level. The vintage will be remembered as an early, low-yielding, hot vintage, with focused, intense wines of defining quality.
