Dalla Valle - Giannikos Winery

Founded in 1982 by Naoko and Gustav Dalla Valle, the winery sits about 800 feet above the Silverado Trail and offers excellent views of the landscape. In the early 1980s, people in the Napa Valley were amazed by Naoko's visionary idea of placing the vines against the hills. Today, some of California's finest wines are produced here. Already in 1992, Dalla Valle's cabernet sauvignon received 100 Parker points. It was the second California wine to receive this perfect score.

Naoko Dalla Valle comes from a Japanese dynasty of sake producers, but became more interested in the local wines in California. Since her husband's untimely death in 1995, she has led Dalla Valle alone. She has since taken it to the top of the Napa Valley. She is supported by winemaker Andy Erickson, consulting oenologist Michel Rolland and also her daughter Maya, who for a long time wanted nothing to do with the winery. After Maya had studied in Washington, she decided to pay a visit to Michel Rolland in Bordeaux. Ornellaia, Pétrus and Château Latour followed. "Now she's overqualified," her mother says with a wink. Maya is interested in the biodynamics she learned during her travels. In Dalla Valle, biodynamic work has been going on for a long time. In addition to barrels from the best cooperages, the cellar also contains clay amphorae, such as those at Pontet-Canet in Bordeaux, where biodynamic work has also been carried out for a long time.