We visit beautiful Napa Valley at the Dakota Shy Estate in St. Helena, California. We’ll learn about the process for creating their award-winning Cabernet Sauvignon, along with their other wines. Plus, the story behind the estate and exactly what makes them “Dakota Shy.”

DAKOTA SHY
Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019
93 | $95 | California

Napa Valley veteran winemaker Tom Garrett, proves to be a suitable counterpart. After 20 years of working at Turley, Joseph Phelps, Robert Mondavi and his family label, Detert, Garrett has experience with some of the valley’s top vineyards, which helped secure grape sources for Dakota Shy. The winery makes numerous single-vineyard bottlings from these sites, with this Napa AVA bottling drawing from multiple sources, including the winery’s estate vineyard at the base of Pritchard Hill in the eastern foothills above Oakville. 2,500 cases made.

Before the pandemic, Kristi Devlin Delovitch, a Washington, D.C.-based director of sales for the wine importer and distributor Winebow, kept her home and professional lives rigidly separate. Often away on business, she’d excitedly schmooze with winemakers and wine bar owners. But once back at home with her husband and three kids—aged five, 12 and 15—wine talk was kept to a minimum.

A typical 60-gallon wood barrel produces 300 bottles of wine. That’s a lot for one person to drink. So this St. Helena winery got its hands on some very rare, ¼ size barrels, and is offering you the opportunity to make your own wine with a more reasonable output of 72 bottles.

“A place where old souls and dreamers would share a bottle and good conversation.” The resulting space features Persian rugs, leather chairs, and a vintage typewriter so guests can type notes after sampling winemaker Tom Garrett’s stellar Cabs.

Napa Valley
Because It’s Not Your Father’s Napa Now

The region that put American wine on the map has a lot new going on. Forget mansion-size tasting rooms; there’s a crop of intimate places from small lot producers like Tom Garrett’s Dakota Shy and Favia Wines (from Screaming Eagle’s Andy Erick-son and his wife, Annie Favia). Casual dining is better than ever, with newcomers like Charter Oak, a shrine to open-fire cooking. Even Thomas Keller, fresh off renovating the French Laundry, is reportedly doing Mexican food in Yountville. And Calistoga Ranch is no longer the only place to stay in hot springs country: The five-room Francis House opened in August, and Four Seasons Resort & Residences arrives this summer.

Welcome to VERANDA’s Perfect Weekend, where we show you how to make the most of 48 hours in one of our favorite destinations. This month, we’re Napa-bound to relax and unwind in one of the world’s premier wine-growing regions. Renowned for its vine-covered rolling hills and the exquisite wine that’s a result of the labored landscape, Napa is the ultimate U.S. destination for wine lovers—but make no mistake, the valley has so much more to offer than delicious bottles of vino.