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Tasting notes
The 2014 Maya is superb. Pliant and resonant in the glass, it is another impressive wine from the Dalla Valle family. The Maya offers striking depth, with nearly seamless contours and magnificent balance, all in the more delicate style of the year. Black cherry, incense, tobacco, espresso, menthol and dried flowers open with time in the glass, but it is the wine's balance, its overall harmony, that I find most captivating. After all these years, the 2014 Maya finally expresses all the potential it first showed as a young barrel sample. Andy Erickson made one of the wines of the vintage here. Magnificent.
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Robert Parker, Wine Advocate
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent
More reviews and scores
The 2014 Maya is deep garnet in color. Scents of black cherries, dried sage, and preserved plums spill from the glass, followed by wafts of fallen leaves, tapenade, and dusty soil. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers taut, savory-laced black fruits and firm, grainy tannins, finishing with a lively lift.
60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% C abernet F ranc . Maya Dall a Valle’s parents came to Napa Valley in 1982. Her father from Veneto fell in love with the site and, only because there were some vines there, decided to make wine in 1986. Maya was born soon after so they named the vineyard after her. They were early adopters of Cabernet Franc which is now 30% of the estate’s vines. (It was originally 45%!) Dall a Valle produced Napa Valley’s second 100-pointer in the early 1990s before Maya’s father died. Maya took over in 2017. The oldest blocks are from 1999 when they were replanted because of phylloxera, leafroll virus, nematodes etc. From 2002 onwards Michel Rolland has consulted. T hey do their own farming (no vineyard - management company) and have been organic since 2000 and biodynamic since 2019. Originally it was thought that the site was too high and rocky for decent yields. Aged in 75% new oak for 22 months. Andy Erickson was winemaker then, from 2007. The most expensive wine of the tasting at more than £400 a bottle. 850 cases made. Maya loves the 2014 because it’s more elegant than most drought vintages. Very deep crimson again! Extremely luscious! Lovely tannins (but they are beautifully managed) and quite a bit of alcohol on the end but there’s a gorgeously hedonistic texture. Real glow on the end. Complex. (JR)
Cabernet Sauvignon and (40%) Cabernet Franc. Candied fruit – rhubarb, blackcurrant sweets – plus clove and anise spice. Loads of flavour intensity through the palate, and very fine chalky tannin. Plenty of volume and weight on the finish. Napa through and through! (RH)
About the producer
Dalla Valle Vineyards was founded in 1986 by Naoko and her late husband Gustav Dalla Valle, in Oakville. Initially they had wanted to create a luxury resort, but when they discovered the potential of the site, they changed tack and decided to make wine.