2018 Dalla Valle Maya Proprietary Red Blend Oakville

Winemaker Notes:  The bright red-purple hue of the wine is a great indicator of its depth and fresh fruit character. Aromas of raspberry, thyme, rosemary, and frankincense light up the glass. As the wine opens, these aromatic notes knit together to create increasingly complex patterns. On the palate, the immediate impression is one of raspberry coulis, bringing attention to the precise red fruit character, along with vanilla bean, clove, toasted almonds and campfire. At present, the wine is showing its youth, with the fruit flavors and bold structure driving the sensation. This bolds well for the future, as the underlying framework and bold flavor profile will carry the wine for years to come. This latest vintage of Maya should easily age in bottle for twenty years or more.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Jeb Dunnuck - "A smaller production cuvée from a single parcel of the estate vineyard, the 2018 Maya Proprietary Red Wine is the normal 60/40 split of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon brought up in a mix of new and used barrels. Incredibly perfumed with complex notes of blue fruits, flowers, loamy earth, graphite, and tobacco, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, polished, silky tannins, no hard edges, and a finish that won’t quit. While this is a rich, concentrated wine, it’s the complexity, elegance, and finesse that define this cuvée, which is going to benefit from just short-term cellaring and cruise for 2-3 decades."


Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - "The very deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Maya is shy and restrained to begin. With swirling, it begins to reveal beguiling notes of fragrant earth, lavender, garrigue and Sichuan pepper, giving way to a core of wild blueberries, boysenberries, black raspberries and black currants plus a hint of iron ore. The palate is full-bodied, revealing itself in slow-releasing layers of black and blue fruits with exhilarating earth and mineral sparks, framed by firm, beautifully ripe tannins and bold freshness, finishing on a persistent ferrous note. As cerebral as it is downright hedonic, this Maya is simply jaw-dropping."


Vinous - "The 2018 Maya is stratospheric. Inky, deep and wonderfully layered, Maya is off the charts. Inky red/purplish fruit, cedar, licorice, spice, tobacco and mocha are some of the many notes that grace the 2018. The wine is young, but exceptional and vivid. Maya is usually much more forbidding at this stage, this is an incredibly refined vintage. The purity and delineation of the flavors is unreal. Moreover, the 2018 is a wine of extreme pleasure."


James Suckling - "A polished, full-bodied red with aromas and flavors of blueberry, black cherry, sandalwood and crushed praline. Superb flavor intensity and a creamy texture, supported by firm, velvety tannins. Lingering vanilla notes. Delicious already, but better from 2022."