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Tasting notes
Dark red. Alluring aromas of currant, plum, truffle and sexy oak spices are lifted by a note of cocoa powder. Plush, wonderfully dense wine with a youthfully restrained sweetness and serious spine. Less expressive today than the basic Napa Valley bottling, conveying a strong impression of medicinal reserve and subtle inner-mouth floral lift. A beautifully balanced blend but still needs another five or six years to blossom fully in bottle. Great potential.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
After the 2007, the 2008 Maya comes across as quite bombastic. Black cherry, plum, smoke, new leather and spices all hit the palate in an awkward Maya with more than enough intensity and pure voluptuousness to match its flashy personality. The long and dry season yielded a somewhat obvious, coarse Maya.
This is where I thought this famous Cab would be. Sublime aromas of milk chocolate, ripe blackberries and sweet spices. Notes of tobacco too. It's full and rich with firm tannins that turn velvety at the end. Long finish. Made for aging.
The 2008 Maya boasts an inky/blue/purple color as well as a sumptuous bouquet of blue, black and red fruits, crushed rock, spice box, licorice and subtle wood. Full-bodied, multilayered, pure and deep, this is a striking, seamless wine with flawless balance and great concentration as well as length. Multiple dimensions, incremental richness and a 45-second finish suggest this beauty is one of the top wines of the vintage. One of the iconic wines of Napa Valley is Dalla Valle's blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon (usually at least 50% Cabernet Franc), Maya. As history has proven, Cabernet Franc has flourished in the red soils above the Oakville Corridor. One can go back twenty years and find these wines still youthful with perhaps 40-50 years of total life in them. Tel. (707) 944-2676; Fax (707) 944-8411
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.