Winemaker notes: Replenishing winter rains ushered an exceptional start to the 2018 growing season, leading to a lengthy budbreak and flowering, with nearly perfect fruit-set throughout a cool spring. Warm weather and bright sunshine settled in by June, but the nights remained very cool, and the season progressed without any major heat spikes. These ideal conditions continued well into the fall, leading to even ripening of tannins, sugar levels, and acidity. The 2018 Helena Montana is focused and powerful on the nose, showing ripe red and black currant, along with dried bouquet garni, and a subtle frame of sweet baking spices. The palate is a tour de force of varied fruit and non-fruit flavors, wrapped around a powerful core, teeming with firm tannin and juicy acidity.