1990 Maya

Dalla Valle's Maya is one of Napa Valley’s most iconic wines. This complete vertical back to the inaugural 1988 is a poignant reminder of just how trailblazing Maya was back in the 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, though, Maya is timeless and enduring in its beauty.

Naoko Dalla Valle and her husband Gustav purchased their estate in 1982. The sunny, well-exposed property reminded Gustav Dalla Valle of his native Italy. Dalle Valle is located about mid-slope on the eastern side of Oakville in what is now recognized as one of the pockets of true excellence within Napa Valley. Pedregal, Weitz, Backus, Peter Michael’s Au Paradis and Oakville Terrace are some of the sites that surround Dalla Valle. Sadly, Gustav Dalla Valle passed away in 1995, but he left behind a rich legacy that even he probably could not have envisaged. Today, the winery is run by Naoko Dalla Valle with the assistance of Winemaker Andy Erickson.

The spectacular Dalle Valle estate sits on a hillside east of the Silverado Trail, above Oakville. This strip of ground has quickly proven to be one of the greatest sites for cabernet franc outside of France, and is also ideal for cabernet sauvignon. The estate proprietary Maya bottling, inaugurated in 1988, has become one of Napa Valley's most craved limited-production red wines (annual production is in the 500-case range).x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D x000D Maya is a 55/45 blend of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc; there was a bit of merlot in vintages prior to 1994, but the merlot vines have been budded over to cabernets. Maya, named after the daughter of Naoko Dalla Valle and her late husband Gustav, comes from a favored, gently sloped five-acre plot planted in 1985. The soil is loamy, with low water-retaining capacity, more pebbly and rocky than sandy. Yields are quite low: in Napa Valley's huge '97 harvest, the Maya plot still yielded less than three tons of fruit per acre.x000D x000D x000D x000D Maya spends longer on its skins and is aged in a slightly higher percentage of new oak than the estate's Napa Valley bottling (about 60%, vs. 40%). In fact, it typically receives one to three weeks of further maceration after the end of the alcoholic fermentation—for flavor, texture, and, according to Naoko Dalla Valle, to get the tannins to move further back in the mouth. During my annual visit, Dalla Valle showed me all vintages of Maya dating back to the 1990. Consulting enologist Heidi Barrett was the winemaker here between 1988 and 1995, with Tony Soter and Mia Klein taking over in '96. Klein is now solely responsible for winemaking following Soter's recent retirement from consulting.