Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Helms Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon captures the intensity of the vintage. The aromas are heady notes of blackberries, spice, and the classic Rutherford mix of cocoa and sage. A dense yet lively palate, with a complex core of cassis, blackberry, plums, and sage mingled with hints of mineral, floral, and citrus peel. The 2015 Helms provides a bolder, richer expression of the vineyard, but maintains a balance and nimble feel on the palate. A powerful and compelling wine in its youth, yet with great potential to develop through 2037.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Just about pure perfection, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Helms Vineyard comes from vines around the estate, just outside of Rutherford, which were planted in 1997. Sensational notes of crème de cassis, burning embers, bay leaf, and graphite all flow to a full-bodied 2015 that has a deep, layered, multi-dimensional texture that’s hard to describe. With building structure and a beautiful floral character that emerges with time in the glass, perfect balance, and a huge finish, this quintessential Napa Cabernet will benefit from a few years of bottle age and cruise for 3-4 decades. Bravo!
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
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. Bottled in June 2017, 225 cases were made.
-
Vinous
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Helms Vineyard is a gorgeous, open-knit wine that is drinking beautifully today. Sweet red cherry, cinnamon, new leather, mint and orange peel all grace this sensual, open-knit Cabernet Sauvignon. Effusive and gracious, the 2015 is in a lovely spot today.
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.