Italian Wine Podcast

Welcome to Episode 984 Cynthia Chaplin interviews Maya Dalla Valle, in this installment of Voices, on the Italian Wine Podcast. More about today’s guest: Maya was destined to be a winemaker. In 1986, the year she was conceived, her parents, Naoko and Gustav, made their first vintage of estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon. The following year—the year she was born—they planted Maya’s Vineyard, a 5-acre block of Cabernet Sauvignon that has become one of the most revered winegrowing sites in America. In 1992, this remarkable vineyard yielded a wine that would go on to earn Dalla Valle’s first perfect 100-point score from legendary critic Robert Parker. Growing up at Dalla Valle in the company of winemakers like Heidi Barrett, Tony Soter and Mia Klein infused Maya’s formative years with a sense of place and purpose that has come to define her adult life. In 2017, Dalla Valle became a true multigenerational winery, when Maya joined the winery as director. Committed to earning her place in the family business before com