17 Poets Wine was founded by Todd Newman, a consummate story teller and philosopher. He was born and raised in Minot, North Dakota and later moved to Eugene, Oregon to attend the University of Oregon. While living in Eugene he made a road trip to Napa Valley for a three day visit, a short break from the brew pub he was working at. Working at this pub had some unusual benefits; he recalls some clients wanted to pay for their meals with marijuana. Todd remembers his first winery visit during his first trip to Napa Valley was at Napa Wine Co., where he tried the Showket Wines.
Todd wanted to learn the the business side of the culinary world and had a vision to create elevated cuisine from comfort foods, i.e. an example of turning a chicken sandwich into something more creative and innovative. And then take his knowledge and proof of concept back to Minneapolis. But he fell in love with California weather and that move never happened.
Dennis Kelly who later became a Master Sommelier and Head Sommelier at the French Laundry also worked at the same brew pub as Todd. He secured an interview for Todd at Martini House in St. Helena. But the interview wasn’t immediately confirmed. After spending several days in Napa Valley Todd began driving back to Eugene, OR. He reached Vacaville and received a call at 3pm from the general manager at Martini House. He told Todd he would like to see him for an interview – so Todd turned around and drove back to Napa. The interview went well and so he resumed his long drive back to Eugene. The general manager soon called him again and said we need you to start within one week. Todd accepted his offer.
Todd returned to Napa Valley, recalling he only had $1300 to his name; he started as a food runner at Martini House, working for co-owner chef, Todd Humphries. Incidentally Humphries was from a part of Saskatchewan, not far from Minot, North Dakota where Todd grew up. Todd began trying a diversity of wines, and after about 10 months of working there, he discovered his epiphany wine, the 2002 Revana Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. That soon became Martini House’s most sold wine.
The sales of Revana’s wine attracted Dr. Revana. He visited one night and told Todd that Martini House was the number one account in the entire country for sales of Revana wines. Dr. Revana invited him to Revana Vineyards for a tasting where he was introduced to winemakers Thomas Brown and Heidi Barrett. Todd was 24 years old. The assistant winemaker at Revana at the time, Tom Garrett gave Todd an internship in the cellar in 2005. Todd was a hard worker and was soon offered the cellar master job. Later he worked in the Revana tasting room for one year where he built important and lasting connections with clients. The perspective of both having worked in the cellar and the front of the house was an integral part of Todd’s wine journey.
Tom Garrett and Todd began Dakota Shy as a wine brand in 2012, but ultimately wanted property and a physical winery for the brand. In 2014 Tom Garrett’s wife KC, a real estate agent, began showing Todd various properties in Napa Valley. Todd recalls thinking he would never be able to afford land in Napa Valley. She offered to show him a particular property near the corner of the Silverado Trail and Highway 128 in Rutherford. Todd knew the price and suggested they meet at 6am – figuring that was too early a time, trying to get out of the appointment. But the owner and KC agreed to meet early. Ultimately Dakota Shy partners purchased this property in 2014 and opened the Dakota Shy winery in time for the 2017 harvest.
The name Dakota Shy is rooted in Todd’s personality during college; at that time he was extremely shy and some of his friends started referring to him as ‘Dakota Shy’ in reference to his home state and his proclivity at the time for being quiet.
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17 Poets, an ‘outside the box’ project, carries a deep personal dimension; he calls 17 Poets, “a love letter to his daughter Olivia”. She was one year old when he started this brand in 2022; she will be 18 and have graduated from high school when he discontinues production in 2038, after a total of 17 vintages. He wants to record each year as a record for his daughter – who her father was and his progression through the prime years of his life. Todd has long been attracted to the number 17 – with 1+7 equaling 8, an auspicious number in Asian culture, a part of the world he has travelled to a number of times.
Todd draws inspiration from William Ernest Henley’s Invictus, especially the final two stanzas, which he describes the effect of this prose on him as like, “a thunderbolt to the bones.” For him, the poem reflects the evolution of who we are and who we become.
He has already mapped out 17 truths for each of his vintages; for example, the 2022 vintage represents resilience, marking his transition from Dakota Shy to a new brand and reinforcing the idea of believing in oneself. Each vintage is aligned with a truth that both speaks to him personally and parallels the character of the year both in terms of the growing season and his own personal development.
He describes his philosophy as: “The wine is the ink, memory is the paper, and the mind is where it’s written.” His work is driven by the impact he has on the people around him rather than by financial gains.
The brand has since evolved to reflect themes of generational connections and shared experiences. In his view, wine transcends taste and enters the realm of emotion, where its power is most profound. Each vintage ultimately expresses a distinct truth, creating a narrative that links personal growth, time, and place.
The label
From lantern to light. From fire to electricity. The simple act of flipping a switch represented not just a generational leap, but a millennium leap — a moment when everything that came before gave way to something entirely new. That is the spirit behind the visual of the light bulb on the label.
The Edison bulb has long been the universal symbol for an idea — the moment illumination strikes, when vision becomes possibility. It captures the feeling of standing at the threshold of something revolutionary. That is exactly where this brand lives: at the beginning of a new era in winemaking, one that rewrites the industry playbook on how great brands are built and what they stand for. As Todd told us, “The label is not decoration — it is a declaration”.
And the statement on the back of the bottle carries equal weight and reads, “17 POETS wine is the switch between story and soul, past and future, hardship and triumph.
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Starting with the 2024 vintage, Todd began producing Abandoned Saints, a premium brand where the wines are bottled exclusively as large format with magnums as the smallest bottling. The grapes for this brand are sourced from Oakville Ranch in the Vaca mountain range above Oakville.
Winemaker Thomas Brown
Thomas is one of the busiest wine makers in the Napa Valley. Several producers have showed us lists of all the Napa brands that he consults for and or provides direct winemaking services; this is an extensive list. He is from South Carolina and developed an interest in wine while attending the University of Virginia where his major was not wine related (he studied English and Economics).
He moved to the Napa Valley in 1996 and took a job at All Seasons Bistro in Calistoga, known for their California cuisine, wine selection and long time in business – but unfortunately permanently closed in 2020. While there, Thomas met winemaker Ehren Jordan who was working for Larry Turley at the time of Turley Wine Cellars. Thomas took a job with Ehren in the cellar at Turley in 1997 – spent several years there before beginning his own career and starting to consult for various clients (some of which were clients that Ehren was already working with).
And within only 10 years of making wine in the Napa Valley Thomas received two 100-point scores from Robert Parker – regardless of what your perception is of scores, creating several wines within a short period of time that receive 100 points from Parker was a watershed moment in Thomas’s consulting career.
Today Thomas is highly sought after for his winemaking services, experience and access to premium area vineyards. And while he was once the student, over the years he has become the teacher. We have met with a number of winemakers who worked under Thomas – and consider him one of their mentors. These are winemakers who have gone on to establish their own brands or consult for other Napa based brands.
Clone 6 Cabernet Sauvignon
The 17 Poet wines are 100% varietal made from Cabernet Sauvignon, clone 6. This particular clone in Napa Valley is originally rooted with one individual, winemaker Anthony Bell. In late 1979 Bell began what became instrumental research on clonal variations of Cabernet Sauvignon while working at Beaulieu Vineyard. He is most known for introducing Clone 6 to Napa Valley; in 1980 he oversaw the planting of 14 unique clonal selections of Cabernet Sauvignon for Beaulieu Vineyard and then after several years, harvested, fermented separately and produced an individual wine from each clone.
One of the clones caught his attention; this was clone 6 Cabernet Sauvignon also called the Jackson clone. It had come to California originally from Bordeaux sometime during the gold rush years and was taken as a cutting from a single vine in an abandoned field station near the town of Jackson in the Sierra Nevada foothills. His propagation of this clone was the first time it has been planted in California since after the Gold Rush. Unlike other clones of Cabernet Sauvignon in which the bunches of grapes are tightly packed, these grapes grow in loose clusters and as a result, visually are fairly easy to identify. And this clone is known for its low yields.
After tasting through all the separate wines in multiple blind tastings it was clone 6 Cabernet Sauvignon that repeatably stood out – a wine that kept eliciting the word ‘wow’. In the 1980s, grape grower John Baritelle worked with Bell and Beaulieu Vineyard to grow Cabernet Sauvignon clone 6. In 1991 Anthony harvested and produced the first single-vineyard single-clone Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.
Several quick definitions are in order relating to clones. A variety is a specific type of grape with its own overall inherent characteristics; IE Cabernet Sauvignon is a variety and is a different grape versus Malbec. A clone refers to plant material from a variety that displays unique and or distinctive characteristics as compared to other clones from that variety. Clones are created through genetic mutations over periods of time. This can be shape of clusters, flavors, grape size, drought tolerance, differences in times of ripening or resistance to disease among other attributes. And another related word is ‘selection’ – this term refers to cuttings taken from an existing vineyard (regardless of variety or clone) which are then propagated in a new vineyard: IE a Cabernet Sauvignon selection from Eisele Vineyard.
Select Wines
The grapes for 17 Poets are sourced from a premium block in Rutherford that Todd discovered while he was at Dakota Shy.
While so far there is a small sample size for 17 Poets, regardless of vintage, these wines focus on site and variety with oak providing a complementary and supporting role, but never dominating. These are balanced wines showcasing an inherent freshness, a characteristic that perhaps Thomas Brown is not always known for.
The 2023 17 Poets Cabernet Sauvignon (100% varietal) is deep ruby in color; the bouquet smells bright, while showing layers of red and darker fruits. This wine offers aromas of raspberry, red plums, boysenberry, Persian mulberry, currant and chalk. And a light note of red chili spice as the wine evolves. And like the 2022 vintage, it offers florals including lilacs and rose petals. Its oak influence is complementary, letting the fruit do most of the conversation here. Balanced at 3 years post vintage, there is a depth and layering in terms of both flavor and texture, really representative of the vintage. This wine tastes red fruited with flavors of cherry, boysenberry, currant, Santa Rosa plum and mulberry. The tannins are dense, but never edgy or course. Their broadly dispersed texture fully coats the palate with a firm and extended dusty grip which outpaces the fruit on the finish. The acidity keeps this wine lively and fresh with a red fruited and lightly tart character on the finish. This wine is built to age and will still be quite enjoyable 12 years from now (2038) when 17 Poets produces its last vintage. 425 cases produced.
The 2022 17 Poets Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% varietal. This wine is deep ruby in color. The nose smells both red and darker fruits up front, with a savory edge. Its scents include a grapey note, Satsuma plum, blueberry, ripe blackberry, boysenberry, blueberry and dark raspberry and purple florals including lavender, dried rose petals, lilacs. Also chalk. Forward fruited on the bouquet, but not over ripe, this wine tastes like blackberry, boysenberry, blueberries, red mulberry, Santa Rosa plum, currant, smoked cedar, chalk and a light note of dried sage. The tannins are polished spheres at 4 years post vintage, with a gentle and seamless integration on the long finish. It is minerally with a ferrous character, which is more noticeable on the finish. Persists with a bright and balanced acidity which keeps this wine fresh and more lively than expected considering it was a vintage that was noteworthy for its extreme heat. Fruit, acidity and texture are in harmony with neither dominating the other. 175 cases were produced.
Starting in 2025, 17 Poets started producing a very limited production of Sonoma Coast old Wente clone Chardonnay.
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The wines are sold direct to consumer with very limited production locally including sometimes at Studio 750 in St. Helena and V Wine Cellar in Yountville. For more information, to purchase wines, or to join The Loyal, a membership society, please visit: www.17poetswine.com
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