Ratings & Tasting Notes:

91 points Vinous

A relatively soft, open-knit expression, this bottle serves as a fabulous introduction to the estate’s hillside range. The medium-bodied palate offers lovely purity to its dark red cherry fruit, sweet spice, and mocha flavors. While showing all the distinct signatures of the property, it delivers them in a beautifully approachable, small-scaled style that “is a relatively soft, open knit wine. There is lovely purity” to the core. Antonio Galloni, December 2016

Cult Wines International Notes:

Dalla Valle Vineyards stands as an absolute, iconic titan of Napa Valley’s elite cult landscape, founded in 1986 by Gustav and Naoko Dalla Valle on the sheer hillside benches of Oakville. Perched on a spectacular plateau overlooking the valley floor, the estate is globally revered for pioneering the profound potential of hillside terroirs, crafting estate wines defined by an exotic gravelly minerality and a majestic structural grace. Conceived as a highly refined, accessible companion to their legendary flagship Cabernet Sauvignon and Maya cuvées, “Collina”—which translates to “hill” in Italian—is a beautiful proprietary blend engineered for early enjoyment. Sourced primarily from the estate’s younger hillside blocks, the 2014 bottling is composed of a unique, Cabernet Franc-dominant blend of two-thirds Cabernet Franc and one-third Cabernet Sauvignon, accented with a small dollop of Petit Verdot.

The 2014 growing season in Oakville was a textbook masterclass in consistency, marking the third consecutive year of an exceptional, drought-defined trilogy for Napa Valley. A mild winter and a remarkably warm spring prompted an uncommonly early budbreak, setting the stage for a smooth, steady vegetative cycle completely free of destructive frost events. A warm, temperate summer followed without any major, late-season heat spikes, allowing the hillside blocks to achieve a flawless, completely uniform phenolic maturity with thick, highly extracted skins. Harvest kicked off seamlessly in late September under pristine blue skies, yielding compact, deeply concentrated berries that retained a vibrant natural acidity. The 2014 Collina emerged from this stellar vintage as an entry-level showstopper, marrying a pliant, open-knit core of dark red raspberries, graphite, and dark chocolate with highly polished, silky tannins that provide immediate drinking pleasure.