2023 Dalla Valle Vineyards Collina Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

Dalla Valle is an Oakville icon. From 20 certified-organic acres on the eastern hillside of the Vaca Mountains—at elevations reaching 450 feet, on iron-rich volcanic soils that drain perfectly and stress the vines just enough—the estate has produced some of Napa Valley’s most sought-after wines for nearly four decades. It’s not uncommon for a taste of their terroir to cost over $500. Almost everything they make goes directly to mailing list members, and the list itself has a waitlist.

The Collina is how the estate lets a few more people in. “Collina” is Italian for “hill,” a reference to the younger-vine hillside blocks that form the backbone of this wine. It’s grown on the same certified-organic acres as Dalla Valle’s flagship bottlings, made by the same team, built to the same standard—it simply offers a more approachable profile in its youth, at a fraction of the price of the estate’s Cabernet or Maya.

The 2023 marks the first harvest from Dalla Valle’s newly remodeled winery, with updated fermentation systems designed to further elevate the winemaking. The season was one of the finest Napa has seen in years—an abundant winter replenished soils that had endured years of drought, a mild summer gave the vines everything they needed, and an unhurried harvest from late September through mid-October brought the fruit in beautifully balanced.

“2023 was the first vintage since 2019 that we didn’t have any climate or weather constraints,” said Maya Dalla Valle. “We could do more extraction and still have wines of great elegance.”

The estate is guided by Naoko and Maya Dalla Valle, working alongside consulting winemaker Andy Erickson and internationally renowned consulting enologist Michel Rolland—a team that approaches this hillside site with the care typically reserved for the great First Growths.

The 2023 Collina is a blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Cabernet Franc, aged 22 months in 100% French oak, 50% of it new. Generous and expressive in its youth, it’s also built to develop gracefully for a decade or more.