This is the second release of the joint venture wine of Tuscany’s Ornellaia and Napa’s Dalla Valle, and it’s a step up in quality. Beautiful blue fruit with blueberry and boysenberry aromas that go to blackcurrants, together with some graphite. Full-bodied, yet toned with polished tannins. Nutmeg notes come through. The tannins spread across the palate and caress. Lovely texture to the wine. Drinkable already, but better in two or three years.

I was blown away by the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon DVO, a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Cabernet Franc made as a collaboration between the team at Dalla Valle and Ornellaia. Remarkable notes of red and black currants, spring flowers, lead pencil, loamy earth, and classy oak all emerge from this young yet amazingly balanced, seamless Cabernet. Full-bodied on the palate and perfectly balanced, with silky tannins, it will probably be as good as it gets with 7-8 years of bottle age and is a magical Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that will evolve for 30 years or more.

Only the second release of this collaboration project between Dalla Valle Vineyards of Napa Valley and Ornellaia of Tuscany. A glass-staining dark ruby colour. Gorgeous red berry fruit aromas, white pepper, lavender, graphite, tobacco and sweet cedar. Full-bodied with immense concentration and exuding sweet black fruit and cassis, fragrant wild herbs, palate-etching pixelated tannins that build and build, layered by fractured slate, cocoa nibs, black olives and a long cedar-kissed finish. A magnificent youthful wine built for long-term cellaring.

This is the second vintage of this new joint project between Ornellaia in Tuscany and Dalla Valle in Napa Valley. This year’s blend is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Cabernet Franc, and the contributing sites are similar to last year, based around the AVAs of Oakville, Mount Veeder, and Coombsville.

This has a tightly layered core of cassis, mulberry and damson plum, while notes of warm earth and a bright iron spine drive underneath. Features a floral flash in the background, as the fruit and iron notes coalesce seamlessly on the finish. Steady as a rock. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023 through 2036. 550 cases made.