Text by: Gleb King
Photos by: Dalla Valle Vineyards
At Symbolicwines.com we are very proud to export Dalla Valle wines. Also we are twice as proud that we had an opportunity to make this interview with Maya and Naoko Dalla Valle. Founded in the 1980-s by Gustav and Naoko Dalla Valle on the hillsides of Oakville, an estate gained a reputation as one of Napa Valley’s loudest voices. With its iron-rich volcanic soils and commitment to site-driven winemaking, the estate became known for producing wines of rare depth, elegance, and longevity. Today, Dalla Valle is spoken of in the same breath as Napa’s most elite wineries – often likened to a “first growth” for its consistency and quiet power. Its reputation is upheld not just by the land itself, but by decades of thoughtful choices, rigorous standards, and meaningful collaborations with iconic figures like Michel Rolland and Axel Heinz.
Crucially, Dalla Valle’s legacy is also a story of women shaping the future of fine wine. Long before it became common, Naoko Dalla Valle took the reins of the estate with remarkable vision. And now, joined by her daughter Maya – globally trained, deeply intuitive – the winery is led by one of the rarest partnerships in the world of wine: a mother and daughter team at the helm of a truly great estate. In this conversation, Maya and Naoko share their views on stewardship, intuition, and the evolving character of Napa Valley – offering a candid look into what it means to lead with both legacy and innovation. Also we tried to disclose some personal details like Maya’s inspiration from horses and her intuitive approach to winemaking.
N. – Naoko Dalla Valle
M. – Maya Dalla Valle
Dalla Valle is often mentioned as one of the “first growth” Napa estates. Do you welcome these comparisons?
N: It’s a wonderful thing to be called so. We are literally one of Napa Valley’s first growths.
What’s the story behind Dalla Valle’s logo?
N: Our logo is based on one of the amphoras we own. Amphora, as many of you know, is the oldest container of wine. My husband used to be an avid diver, he owned a company called Scubapro. He used to joke that all of his money came from the sea. One day he literally found this amphora on the bottom of the sea and brought it up. By the way, it’s not that easy to do so—there’s a huge pressure there, but he had an archeological diving experience so, very carefully, he brought this amphora up and we decided to use it as our logo. Later we joked that we would swim in a sea of wine.
When you hear Dalla Valle described as a “cult wine,” does that label still serve you—or does it trap you in a certain expectation?
N: We are honored to be considered a “cult” wine and to be placed in a category with some of the world’s most iconic Napa Valley wineries is an honor. It does not bother me. We strive to make the very best wines from this beautiful property and would do it regardless.
Dalla Valle Vineyards often draws comparisons to Bordeaux. In your view, where does the estate align with Bordelais principles—and where does it consciously break away?
M: I think it’s pretty common that Napa is compared to Bordeaux obviously because we grow the same varieties, predominantly Cabernet-Sauvignon. I think in the earlier years, as Napa Valley was established, it was an easy comparison to make—we often looked to Bordeaux for technique and development of the vineyard and viticulture. I think now given the fact that we have such different climates—we are in Mediterranean climate whereas Bordeaux—they are Continental, the viticulture has changed quite a bit, because it’s not one like—one size fits all—model. Here in Napa we have freedom to be able to implement any type of technology we like without having constraints of appellation laws. The only law that we have in terms of appellation rules is that it has to come from Oakville for example. I think it’s easy to compare to different regions because we both grow the same varieties, but there’s a lot of divergence as well.
How does the collaboration with Michel Rolland influence your winemaking philosophy?
N: Collaboration with Michel Rolland is a wonderful thing. And he’s our good friend as well. Michel is an amazing blender. He comes and tastes our wine and helps to make a blend which is wonderful cooperation. We value his opinion very highly and it’s great to work together.
Bottling has achieved near-mythic status. What’s the hardest call you’ve had to make when deciding which fruit is worthy of Maya?
N: One of the hardest decisions I made in this case was in 2003. Then we harvested the fruit, Michel made a blend of 2003 Maya, but I have decided to declassify it. It was a good wine, but it was not the level of Maya, so I declassified it and the Maya’s blend went to our Cabernet-Sauvignon. So that was really sort of a difficult situation but we have to make things right here.
Cabernet Franc plays an unusually prominent role in your blends for Napa. Has that been a strategic choice, or did the vineyard simply demand it?
M: I think it’s a good question and I think the answer is both. The site where we are, at volcanic, iron-rich soils, really calls for Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Cabernet Franc. My parents had an intuition for it and foreseen in the early eighties, when it was not a very popular grape, that we needed to plant it anyway. And I think that really rewarded us in our blending, especially now when climate becomes more extreme, and having multiple varieties planted on a singular site allows us to have flexibility at a season that’s more challenging or like 2022 which was really ideal for Cabernet Franc that really excelled.
But it’s harder to work with, right?
M: In Napa Valley we have half of the world’s soils as well as the number of microclimates, Cabernet is versatile in that sense whereas Cabernet Franc cannot grow in every part of Napa. So that’s one limiting factor for Cabernet Franc. The other one is that it's really important to manage crop load, the grape clusters can become quite large, they can develop what we call wings or shoulders and they can ripen at different speeds than the rest of the clusters. You really have to manage in certain years the cluster architecture to ensure that you have even ripeness throughout, also, from a vineyard-manager’s standpoint, we train Cabernet Franc mostly in Cordon system because the shoots grow very straight, so that really allows us to build a split canopy and provide shading, because it doesn’t like extreme heat but ironically it does do well in extreme heat because it has the capability of just shuttling off. So in a year like 2022 we had a massive heatwave. We had 10 days of over a hundred degrees, and Cabernet Franc was actually more resilient than the Cab. From winemaking standpoint, it has typically more thin skins than Cabernet Sauvignon, depending on the clonal type, and you have that really beautiful aromatic complexity—you have those red fruit, you also have violet, black olives, there’s dried herbal characters, and it has a spectrum. There’s many different styles of Cabernet Franc. Coming from the Loire Valley, for example, it has a more green style, more pyrazines, a little more lean style. Here in Napa we are really able to develop more ripeness and get more aromatic complexity.
You’ve been farming sustainably for years, long before it became a marketing trend. Do you think “sustainability” risks becoming an empty buzzword in luxury wine?
M: We’ve been not only sustainable, but we have been farming organically since 2007, and only seen the benefits of doing so. Sometimes sustainability is an issue because the term itself is vague and it sometimes leads to greenwashing. But it led us to really double down our farming efforts by going forward with CCOF certification. Since 2021 we’ve been certified organic and it’s really important for us as an estate to show the accountability of what we do in the vineyards.
Napa is heating up and harvest dates are creeping earlier. Are there vineyard changes you’ve made—or resisted—that you think will define Dalla Valle in 20 years?
N: Global warming is happening, and Napa is no exception. But there it is not happening only now, it has been here in the past. We do our best and we are committed to farming according to the weather for a long time. We will just try to preserve the beauty of this terroir.
Napa is sometimes criticized for producing wines built for scores rather than for place. How do you ensure your wines are a true expression of your site rather than a market product?
N: Napa has been criticized for scorechasing winemaking, I’ve heard of it, but that is totally not what we do. As I’ve mentioned before, we absolutely do the best we can. We produce world class wines for many years, so we just will continue to emphasize the beauty of our wine. I don’t think that we’re going to change anything, we will just stay true to the site.
How have you balanced ripeness and freshness in these latest releases, given Napa’s increasingly warm seasons?
M: Our site was always early ripening, being given the location is western-facing, so we get long hours of sunlight. That benefits us both in years of extreme heat and extreme cold. In 2017 we started to track the phenolic ripeness in addition to normal technical Brix.
That gave us a curve where the grapes reach their peak maximum potential. Since then we are able to make decisions when it comes to picking for freshness as well as ripeness. Ripeness is not an issue for a site. That is something that we have no doubt about. But I think that in terms of freshness, again, keeping Cabernet-Franc in a blend is really important—for adding back acidity as well as just being comfortable picking earlier, knowing where phenolic curves are.
Why does Dalla Valle pay so much attention to charity?
N: We pay attention to charity because we are very fortunate to live in this beautiful place, and we are able to grow and produce fantastic wines. We are very passionate about what we do, and also we really believe that supporting and giving back is very important.
Maya, you’ve studied and worked in some of the world’s great wine regions. What lessons from your time abroad have most influenced your approach at Dalla Valle?
M: There are a lot of lessons that I’ve learned from my time abroad. At every place I worked, I was able to take away something profound, something to implement on a daily basis here at Dalla Valle. At Chateau Latour I was exposed to biodynamic farming. That was my first exposure to that and being able to work with it with my own hand, I felt the value of it and desired to bring it to our vineyards here in Napa. When I came back, I moved our vineyards to biodynamic practices, just in terms of looking at the vineyard from a holistic viewpoint and really looking beyond singular vines but also looking at soil, looking at enriching the biodiversity around the vineyard and really trying to turn to very basic concept of complete farm but in a way that if can improve the wine quality and general vine health. I think that’s one of the biggest implementations that I’ve put in place since coming back.
How did your collaboration with Axel Heinz shape the evolution of Dalla Valle wines?
M: I learned a lot during my time with Axel when I was at Ornellia, where he, when we worked on the DVO collaboration, was also working as my mentor. But in terms of influence on Dala Valle Wines, I think we worked really hard to keep that separate. So it was more about opening my eyes and thinking more philosophically about different ideas working with the different vineyard sources for the DVO project. Also, an experience with him in 2013 was my first exposure to working at a large scale winery, at a very high quality level. But because we're so much smaller, it hasn't really translated so much in terms of Dala Valle winemaking.
(To Maya) As a winemaker who’s part of a new generation in Napa, how do you balance respecting the estate’s heritage with bringing in new ideas?
We've been very successful for a reason, and I have to honor and respect that. For me, it's not so much about putting my handprint onto the wines or the vineyards. It's really about being able to see through the vision of my parents, which is to make a great wine of the world, and utilizing all the tools I've learned from studying and working in other regions and being able to help contribute to ensuring that it's a success for future generations.
(To Maya) Away from the cellar, your love of horses is well known. How does time with horses influence your mindset or creativity as a winemaker?
I think it's working with something I can't talk or indicate anything to. So you have the creative ability to try different things and there's risks involved with that and there can be rewards or there can be failures. But being able to connect—connect with either a plant or a horse—is something I really love. I don't really love talking a lot. I like being quiet and listening, working through feeling. Waiting for a signal or a sign for something to happen and following your intuition and your gut. I think it’s really important in winemaking because there's so many influences around you and especially with social media. You can see all different things people are doing and using different equipment or picking at different times or making different kinds of wine... And I think at the end of the day, it's really important to take away the noise and really listen to your intuition, make wine with feeling and have that presence. I think horses have really taught me a lot about that—not just talking and talking and talking— it's about listening, being patient and working with your feeling.
Looking ahead, what do you envision for the next decade of Dalla Valle—both in the vineyard and in the global wine conversation?
N: Looking ahead, I see a very bright future for Dalla Valle. Now that we are a true mother–daughter team, with Maya bringing such strong training and education—not only here in the U.S. but also globally—she is well prepared to lead. Her background, being half Japanese and half Italian, along with her ability to speak French and Italian, has already helped her build meaningful connections in the European wine community. With her vision and talent as a winemaker, I’m confident she will guide the winery on the right path. Our commitment will remain the same: to keep improving, to maintain the highest quality, and to honor this special vineyard. I look forward to supporting her and watching her carry Dalla Valle into the next decade and beyond.
