Tasting Notes
Vinous 95.5
The 2014 Maya is powerful, compact and closed in on itself. That’s not much of a surprise given the wine was just bottled a few months ago. Dark, powerful and intense, the 2014 offers plenty of energy, but is also holding back much of its potential at this stage. The blend is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Cabernet Franc, which is to say more Cabernet than has been the norm in recent years. There is plenty of intensity to the pomegranate, plum, red cherry and blood orange flavors, but the wine needs time to come into its own.
Anticipated maturity: 2020-2039
Robert Parker 95.25
It is excellent, but not one of the great efforts from this iconic winery situated on the eastern Vaca hillsides above the Oakville corridor. That said, the 2014 Maya Proprietary Red may not be as perfect as the 2013 was, but it is a fabulous effort. Finishing at 14.6% alcohol, this wine (generally a blend of about 60% Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon) has incredibly gorgeous aromatics of black and blue fruits, forest floor, violets, and an almost Graves-like, scorched earth, gravelly nuance. The wine hits the palate with a full-bodied richness and terrific harmony among its structural elements such as alcohol, acidity, tannin and wood, with moderately sweet tannins in the finish. It is a good 30- to 35-year wine, as most Mayas have tended to be, and is impressive and surprisingly structured for a 2014. Forget it for 3-4 years and drink it over the following 35-40 years.
Anticipated maturity: 2019-2060
JancisRobinson.com 17.5
82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc. Candied fruit – rhubarb, blackcurrant sweets – plus clove and anise spice. Loads of flavour intensity through the palate, and very fine chalky tannin. Plenty of volume and weight on the finish. Napa through and through! (RH)
Anticipated maturity: 2018-2034