2016 Dakota Shy Cabernet Sauvignon

Dakota Shy was founded in 2008 by Todd Newman, who had worked in fine dining and at Revana Family Vineyard. But he wanted to create a luxury wine estate, so he teamed up with his friend Tom Garret, a winemaker and Napa Valley native whose winemaking experience included stints at Turley Wine Cellars, Joseph Phelps Winery, Robert Mondavi and Revana. Dakota Shy has an estate at the base of Pritchard Hill, but it also sources grapes from all over Napa Valley. The estate makes Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc and a rosé. The wines have earned ratings in the mid-90s from reviewers. Vinous has noted that the estate’s flagship wines “are contemporary Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons that offer a compelling interplay of richness and structure, with perhaps a slight leaning toward the more extroverted end of the spectrum.”

Napa Valley AVA is the most famous winemaking region in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. With nearly 43,000 acres of vineyards and more than 300 wineries, it is the heart of fine wine production in the United States. Winemaking started in Napa in 1838 when George C. Yount planted grapes and began producing wine commercially. Other winemaking pioneers followed in the late 19th century, including the founders of Charles Krug, Schramsberg, Inglenook and Beaulieu Vineyards. An infestation of phylloxera, an insect that attacks vine roots, and the onset of Prohibition nearly wiped out the nascent Napa wine industry in the early 20th century. But by the late 1950s and early 1960s Robert Mondavi and other visionaries were producing quality wines easily distinguishable from the mass-produced jug wines made in California’s Central Valley. Napa Valley’s AVA was established in 1983, and today there are 16 sub-appellations within the Napa Valley AVA. Many grapes grow well in Napa’s Mediterranean climate, but the region is best known for Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay is also very successfully cultivated, and about 30% of the AVA’s acreage is planted to white grapes, with the majority of those grapes being Chardonnay,

One of the most widely grown grape varieties, it can be found in nearly every wine growing region. A cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a hardy vine that produces a full-bodied wine with high tannins and great aging potential.