I took my friends to mayaans place for tasting a year and and a half ago It was our last day in Napa Usually I m not big on reviews or tasting notes Specifically did not share any notes on that visit Wanted to try his wines at home Finally that day came I have to tell you that previous comments perfectly describe his wines Not only one can place his wines against any cult wine in Napa but also spend extremely reasonable amounts to acquire them Very few people in Napa are as hard working as him Amazing how he keeps his sanity He is so humble, mellow Had the whole lineup prepared for us Great wines , just great Believe me I follow ct notes constantly All of the reviews left here were written by folks who know their wines and palates.I try to narrow down the reviews that go along with my taste and usually it comes down to the same wines and the same reviewers over and over Read these reviews and try to taste his wines You won’t regret it Mayaan cheers to you David and Mila are your huge fans We are always looking forward for your new projects Don’t work too hard 🫠😊
What a ridiculous value in Napa. This wine is off the charts good and I'd encourage you to blind it next to wines twice the price in Napa and see how it stacks up. I recently had the 2019 edition, and remarkably, I think this is even better.
Soaring aromas of creme de cassis, fragrant earth, olive tapenade, and dark chocolate. The palate is defined by power wrapped in elegance, with deeply concentrated layered pure fruit lifted by significant acidity and tons of grainy, earthy complexity. This wine hits all the right notes, with a full mid palate, ripe yet firm tannins and a super long finish. It was the truly the best of all the vineyards La Pelle sources from, and a wine that I can't recommend highly enough. Add on top that Maayan is one of the nicest guys in the business and you have a no brainer. 98+
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Nose: [55°-58°] Blue berries, cassis, intense red fruit, clean and new oak (almost like snapped pencils), subtle but firmly spiced earthiness with hints of wet stone, and dark roses. Gentle chocolate notes emerge with some air time. [64°-66°] Develops into a deep red and savory graphite nose, with a freshness from the fruits that rounds everything out. There is also this pleasant, fruity, decaying mulch that comes with some time. Deeper earth comes with plenty of time.
Palate: [56°-60°] Elegant but rich, intense black and red currants, some sort of exotic and dried spice with oak, dark green herbs, twigs and dark earth. Finely powdered graphite with savory, clean river minerals and pure, steeped tea that trails into the finish. The finish of tannin and savoriness plays quite nicely with the red fruit component. [62°+] Profile currently, with little air time, portrays more of the savory, earthy side with an open sky of dark fruit. With air, flavors becomes more fresh with juicy, dark fruits and maintains a swiftness from the savory minerals.
Attributes: Dark ruby. Dry with medium-plus amounts of strong, fine tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium-plus acidity. Amazing finish of at least 35+ seconds.
Thoughts: Obviously young, but wanted to get a sense of what is coming. Amazing structure and flavors already. This is more on the restrained style, not in-your-face fruit. The longer I have this in the glass, the more serious the sip becomes. As always, I hate how the last sips were the best. I definitely rushed this too much. Even so, amazing freshness, bold flavors and stupid long finish. Try not to touch until 4-6 years, like most 18s from personal experience. Started off as a 96 but gained a point through evolution and length on the finish.
Serving notes: Bordeaux glass. Served one glass and emptied bottle into a decanter at cellar temp ~55° and consumed over 5 hours. Recommend serving and maintaining ~56°-62° with a decant of at least 3-5 hours at cellar temp if opening now, and taste along in the earlier hours.
Popped the cork on the bottle this time. Gave it about 3-4 hours of air. Decanting made a big difference, along with being more at room temperature. Much more expressive nose now. This wine comes off as elegant with red ripe cherries, sweet blackberries and some iodine. On the palate, similar fruit notes with great acidity and a tannin structure that will allow this to age. As it sits in glass, more chocolate notes come out. I think the best window was the 3 hour mark at this stage. I might have been wrong this is "shutting down" but I do think its best years are yet to come. I'll wait another 3-5+ years to try this again.
Coravin pour. Enjoyed indoors while the outdoors hit 100F with some salami and crackers. Dark, brooding purple color, concentrated and almost syrup like. The wine might start to enter a sleepy phase as the nose was a tad muted. You cannot mistaken this for anything but Napa with its dark blackberries, velvety tannins and fruit forward character on the palate. This is good stuff, but it is still quite young. I would wait if you have this as I really believe the wine is starting to close up. Even with couple hours of air after pouring, it wouldn't unfurl and untangle all that is bunched up. Still this was worth opening as it is my first La Pelle and I'm glad to see there is some restraint here and it is not ripe, fruit bomb. My next bottle will be opened in another 5+ years.
Rich purple color. Aromas of deep currants and plums with complex tones of earth, rocks, graphite and minerals, and opens wonderfully to show lots more floral and spice notes. Solid grip and structure on the palate, while the acidity is crisp and lively, and there’s an elegance to the mouthfeel that is wonderful. The plum and currant fruits are deep but crisp and woven together expertly with tones of violets, coffee, mint, potting soil, graphite. Deep but perfumed and expressive, this needs time to show its best, but a beautiful young Napa Cab. Includes 2% apiece Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, aged 21 months in 80% new French oak.
Exploring 2018s and 2019s in Napa - Spring 2021; 4/18/2021-4/22/2021 (Napa Valley, CA): First impression was that this is a powerful and highly structured wine. 80% new French oak used. Big and complex with notes of crushed gravel, chocolate covered blueberries, espresso, caramel, bell pepper, eucalyptus, tobacco leaf, earth, cassis, blackberry, and tart cherry. Grippy tannins and slightly hot on the palate, but definitely plenty of aging potential. Interested to see how this develops.
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Dream Trip - Napa On A Mission - All My favorites Plus A Few New Ones; 4/1/2021-4/4/2021 (Napa Valley): Whoa - this is built like a brick sh-it house in every way. It is not a heavy syrupy cassis driven wine (which don't get me wrong I like those as well as long as they are complex vs sugar) rather a deep excellently structured wine that begs for time in the glass and even then still needs 3-5 years to fully strut its stuff. This has all of the elements I love - dark red and black fruit, chocolate, coffee, smoky, rocks and tremendous lift and tannins to give this a nice long life (not that it will last that long in my cellar). Not much else to say but put this in your cellar and enjoy this layered beauty as the makeup of the vineyards provide such a unique and compelling cuvee that is just so intriguing. One other note, and maybe due to his time in Chili but there is even an ever so slight Chilean influence which adds to the complexity - so yummy!
11/10/2023 - Dpal670 Likes this wine: 99 Points
I took my friends to mayaans place for tasting a year and and a half ago
It was our last day in Napa
Usually I m not big on reviews or tasting notes
Specifically did not share any notes on that visit
Wanted to try his wines at home
Finally that day came
I have to tell you that previous comments perfectly describe his wines
Not only one can place his wines against any cult wine in Napa but also spend extremely reasonable amounts to acquire them
Very few people in Napa are as hard working as him
Amazing how he keeps his sanity
He is so humble, mellow
Had the whole lineup prepared for us
Great wines , just great
Believe me I follow ct notes constantly
All of the reviews left here were written by folks who know their wines and palates.I try to narrow down the reviews that go along with my taste and usually it comes down to the same wines and the same reviewers over and over
Read these reviews and try to taste his wines
You won’t regret it
Mayaan cheers to you
David and Mila are your huge fans
We are always looking forward for your new projects
Don’t work too hard 🫠😊
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (1)
7/7/2023 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 98 Points
What a ridiculous value in Napa. This wine is off the charts good and I'd encourage you to blind it next to wines twice the price in Napa and see how it stacks up. I recently had the 2019 edition, and remarkably, I think this is even better.
Soaring aromas of creme de cassis, fragrant earth, olive tapenade, and dark chocolate. The palate is defined by power wrapped in elegance, with deeply concentrated layered pure fruit lifted by significant acidity and tons of grainy, earthy complexity. This wine hits all the right notes, with a full mid palate, ripe yet firm tannins and a super long finish. It was the truly the best of all the vineyards La Pelle sources from, and a wine that I can't recommend highly enough. Add on top that Maayan is one of the nicest guys in the business and you have a no brainer. 98+
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7/25/2022 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 97 Points
Nose: [55°-58°] Blue berries, cassis, intense red fruit, clean and new oak (almost like snapped pencils), subtle but firmly spiced earthiness with hints of wet stone, and dark roses. Gentle chocolate notes emerge with some air time. [64°-66°] Develops into a deep red and savory graphite nose, with a freshness from the fruits that rounds everything out. There is also this pleasant, fruity, decaying mulch that comes with some time. Deeper earth comes with plenty of time.
Palate: [56°-60°] Elegant but rich, intense black and red currants, some sort of exotic and dried spice with oak, dark green herbs, twigs and dark earth. Finely powdered graphite with savory, clean river minerals and pure, steeped tea that trails into the finish. The finish of tannin and savoriness plays quite nicely with the red fruit component. [62°+] Profile currently, with little air time, portrays more of the savory, earthy side with an open sky of dark fruit. With air, flavors becomes more fresh with juicy, dark fruits and maintains a swiftness from the savory minerals.
Attributes: Dark ruby. Dry with medium-plus amounts of strong, fine tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium-plus acidity. Amazing finish of at least 35+ seconds.
Thoughts: Obviously young, but wanted to get a sense of what is coming. Amazing structure and flavors already. This is more on the restrained style, not in-your-face fruit. The longer I have this in the glass, the more serious the sip becomes. As always, I hate how the last sips were the best. I definitely rushed this too much. Even so, amazing freshness, bold flavors and stupid long finish. Try not to touch until 4-6 years, like most 18s from personal experience. Started off as a 96 but gained a point through evolution and length on the finish.
Serving notes: Bordeaux glass. Served one glass and emptied bottle into a decanter at cellar temp ~55° and consumed over 5 hours. Recommend serving and maintaining ~56°-62° with a decant of at least 3-5 hours at cellar temp if opening now, and taste along in the earlier hours.
3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (7)
9/2/2021 - bsumoba Likes this wine: 95 Points
Popped the cork on the bottle this time. Gave it about 3-4 hours of air. Decanting made a big difference, along with being more at room temperature. Much more expressive nose now. This wine comes off as elegant with red ripe cherries, sweet blackberries and some iodine. On the palate, similar fruit notes with great acidity and a tannin structure that will allow this to age. As it sits in glass, more chocolate notes come out. I think the best window was the 3 hour mark at this stage. I might have been wrong this is "shutting down" but I do think its best years are yet to come. I'll wait another 3-5+ years to try this again.
3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (9)
8/28/2021 - bsumoba Likes this wine: 94 Points
Coravin pour. Enjoyed indoors while the outdoors hit 100F with some salami and crackers. Dark, brooding purple color, concentrated and almost syrup like. The wine might start to enter a sleepy phase as the nose was a tad muted. You cannot mistaken this for anything but Napa with its dark blackberries, velvety tannins and fruit forward character on the palate. This is good stuff, but it is still quite young. I would wait if you have this as I really believe the wine is starting to close up. Even with couple hours of air after pouring, it wouldn't unfurl and untangle all that is bunched up. Still this was worth opening as it is my first La Pelle and I'm glad to see there is some restraint here and it is not ripe, fruit bomb. My next bottle will be opened in another 5+ years.
3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2)
6/5/2021 - isaacjamesbaker wrote: 94 Points
Rich purple color. Aromas of deep currants and plums with complex tones of earth, rocks, graphite and minerals, and opens wonderfully to show lots more floral and spice notes. Solid grip and structure on the palate, while the acidity is crisp and lively, and there’s an elegance to the mouthfeel that is wonderful. The plum and currant fruits are deep but crisp and woven together expertly with tones of violets, coffee, mint, potting soil, graphite. Deep but perfumed and expressive, this needs time to show its best, but a beautiful young Napa Cab. Includes 2% apiece Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, aged 21 months in 80% new French oak.
3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (1)
4/21/2021 - ffzhang Likes this wine: 95 Points
Exploring 2018s and 2019s in Napa - Spring 2021; 4/18/2021-4/22/2021 (Napa Valley, CA): First impression was that this is a powerful and highly structured wine. 80% new French oak used. Big and complex with notes of crushed gravel, chocolate covered blueberries, espresso, caramel, bell pepper, eucalyptus, tobacco leaf, earth, cassis, blackberry, and tart cherry. Grippy tannins and slightly hot on the palate, but definitely plenty of aging potential. Interested to see how this develops.
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4/3/2021 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 95 Points
Dream Trip - Napa On A Mission - All My favorites Plus A Few New Ones; 4/1/2021-4/4/2021 (Napa Valley): Whoa - this is built like a brick sh-it house in every way. It is not a heavy syrupy cassis driven wine (which don't get me wrong I like those as well as long as they are complex vs sugar) rather a deep excellently structured wine that begs for time in the glass and even then still needs 3-5 years to fully strut its stuff. This has all of the elements I love - dark red and black fruit, chocolate, coffee, smoky, rocks and tremendous lift and tannins to give this a nice long life (not that it will last that long in my cellar). Not much else to say but put this in your cellar and enjoy this layered beauty as the makeup of the vineyards provide such a unique and compelling cuvee that is just so intriguing. One other note, and maybe due to his time in Chili but there is even an ever so slight Chilean influence which adds to the complexity - so yummy!
5 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (13)