2011 Anakota Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (2) Avg Score: 92 points

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  4/12/2024 - Josch48 Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Impenetrably dark blue/black hue with a slim crimson corona at the edge. Freshly opened, The nose is bouquet forward, showing Bordeaux evoking dried tobacco, graphite, cigar box, aged saddle leather, notes of cedar, and a brilliant central core of heady blackberry and blueberry, tightly wrapped in a sweet toasted oak smokiness.
  The medium body, silky mouthfeel shows sweet, yet slightly faded fruit flavors commensurate with the nose, immediately overtaken by an intrusive tannic presence that almost completely displaces the fruit from the mid palate, with the fruit returning timidly, on the finish.
  The visually inferred level of extraction is not readily appreciated on the palate past the initial first impressions, and is overtaken by the tight grained French (70% new) oak barrels. The Anakota website does not state whether the oak is tight grained Allier, that usually exhibits delicate flavors and smoother tannins, or Troncais, a more coarse grained oak, that can impart a more heightened oak influence to a wine.
  The fruit is supple, sweet, and elegant, but is regrettably overshadowed by demonstrably persistent tannins.
  This wine was a gracious gift, one my wine budget does not frequently allow, and the wines from this elevated Sonoma location, Northwest of Calistoga, is not one of familiarity.
  The wine exhibits a conundrum, one not readily solved with a snapshot tasting of one vintage, of three location offerings. I will, in all fairness, revisit this review after we enjoy the wine with dinner.
  With food, the tannins are tamed and ably support and transport the creamy and sophisticated flavors, in accord with an appropriate acidity. The wine reminds me of my favorite Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon producers, but somehow a wormhole seems to have been opened from Southwest facing, 4,000 feet altitude Sonoma Valley, through to an area midway between Pauillac and Margaux, resulting in a wine wholly uncharacteristic of California.

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  7/13/2018 - Ianjaig Likes this wine: 91 Points

  This is a big wine and not for the faint hearted. Blueberry dominant with intense, ripe fruit. Big tannins balance it out but for me, this needs 4 or 5 years more time in the cellar. Quite similar in some ways to Chateau Poyferre.

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