A brief history
Napa’s Iconic Mountain Estate
Newton Vineyard was founded on Spring Mountain’s steep hillsides in 1977 by Peter Newton. We continue to stay true to Peter’s ambitious quest of creating wines that deliver a rare & fresh expression of the Napa Valley through unfiltered, truthful terroir expression and a deep commitment to sustainability.
Peter and his wife, Su Hua, set their sights high to Spring Mountain’s steep hillsides, whose volcanic, well-draining soils held the key to the wine quality they sought. It was Peter Newton’s ambitious quest to create wines that embrace contrasts, delivering a classic freshness and precision while inviting the supple ripeness that Napa’s climate offers, in absolute harmony with nature.
To unlock this terroir’s full potential, Peter turned to a time-honored Burgundian technique: Unfiltered winemaking that involved a great deal of time and precision. Released in 1990, Newton’s iconic Unfiltered Chardonnay became the first Napa Valley wine to indicate this method on the label.
Being first and foremost, passionate about red wine, Peter Newton started with Cabernet Sauvignon & Merlot plantings, that yielded the first Puzzle Cabernet Sauvignon (1992 vintage) in 1994. Created for nearly 30 years, this was the flagship, representing the passion for blending the finest grapes across Newton’s vineyards.
Pursuing even deeper terroir exploration, in 2016, Newton released three exceptional single-vineyard Cabernets from the Spring Mountain, Mt. Veeder and Yountville AVAs and two single-vineyard Chardonnays, revealing the character of each individual estate through the best blocks, each season.
Committed to sustainable practices from the beginning, at Newton we aim to express nature with precision, pursuing a natural, patient approach in the vineyards and winery. The estate holds the Napa Green Land & Winery certifications, with the Spring Mountain vineyard certified Organic by the CCOF in 2020 and the Mt. Veeder and Carneros vineyards to be certified in 2021.
Newton is defined by its unique combination of Place and Philosophy. Despite its incredible diversity of soils and exposures, the sense of place would get lost if not farmed and vinified with this approach of sustainability, intention and precision. The unfiltered philosophy alone wouldn’t express the wine so fully without having these specific vineyards and native yeasts to work with. The combination is what sets Newton apart, creating a very fresh profile that offers a rare interpretation of Napa.