Napa Valley Travel Tip: Dakota Shy Estate and Winery
Make no mistake about it. We, here at DP Wine Cellar, are head over heels in love with the wines of Dakota Shy! I mean to say we all LOVE THEM! So, it seems, does everyone we introduce them to, making them a challenge for us to hold on to an adequate number in our cellar!
As a result of our love of Dakota Shy wines it was no surprise their winery was one of the earliest visit appointments we scheduled as we began planning our most recent trip out to Napa Valley. Spoiler alert: They provide a wonderful, relaxed, and welcoming experience so don’t miss their estate!
An APPOINTMENT is REQUIRED so be sure to make one! They are just a short drive up Soda Canyon Road from its intersection with Silverado Trail.
While Dakota Shy might be viewed as a newcomer to the Valley, having released their first vintage in 2013, but the team has decades of experience in wine! Todd Newman, Founder, Tom Garrett, wine maker, along with Ryan Clark, the general manager, are the Dakota Shy core and have worlds of wine experiences between them. They have immediately become famous for creating Napa wines far beyond what many others are crafting! With only their second vintage, Dakota Shy’s 2014 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, landed on the 2016 Wine Spectator’s Top 100 List who also, in 2015, were recognizing Dakota Shy as ‘a rising star of California Cabernet’.
The winery and hospitality area of the estate are just recently completed and are real gems. The setting, facilities, and grounds are all beautiful. We really loved the décor in the tasting area, which gives a lovely, but not overdone, tip o’ the cap to the Dakotas. Comfortable for relaxing and plenty of light so you don’t feel cooped up.
The staff is top notch, extremely well versed in the location’s history as well as their wines, and are incredibly welcoming! Payton Smith, the Dakota Shy estate manager met us before we were even out of our rental car! Upon arriving you can easily sense all this history surrounding the estate since their lands date back to the 1850s and George Yount’s possession from the Spanish Land Grant.
We toured the grounds and then got to the heart of the matter – the wine! Their estate in nestled in a lovely spot with towering trees, ample open space, and, naturally, some adjacent rows of grape vines. The estate boasts over an acre of Italian and Spanish olive trees from which they press their own olive oil. Located at the base of Pritchard Hill, Dakota Shy sources their grapes “from the mountains of Howell and Veeder, to Pritchard Hill, the bench of Oak Knoll, and the stunning valley floor AVAs of Oakville, St. Helena and Calistoga”.
We were very lucky with our timing and we got to see the cellar master in action as he tending the wines getting ready for bottling and we benefitted from a wonderful explanation of their operating philosophy and their focus on making truly exceptional wines. Our luck extended further as we able to take a taste, right out of the barrel of the not yet released 2016 TEN cabernet sauvignon, which is absolutely one of our favorites of all our Napa Valley wine holdings.
We believe the 2016 TEN is destined to be another incredible wine since we all agreed it was already fabulous right from the barrel! A generous draw poured into glasses kept us mesmerized and we could have stayed right there, never budging from the sweet smells of a winery combined with the tantalizing, bold, and delicious red wine we were enjoying.
We finished our time at Dakota Shy sitting and chatting with staff outdoors just talking wine, Napa, our future visit plans, and the exciting growth of this fabulous wine brand!
The wines of Dakota Shy are wonderful and only sold DtC so you might want to get on their wait list and definately schedule a visit to this very special winery!
You won’t regret either decision!
