Wine

Widely acclaimed as a California wine trailblazer, Newton Vineyard was one of the first wineries on Spring Mountain, a rugged yet serene appellation located west of St. Helena on the eastern flank of the Mayacamas range which separates Napa and Sonoma Valleys.

Peter and Dr. Su Hua Newton founded Newton Vineyards on Napa’s Spring Mountain in 1977 after they sold their Sterling Vineyards winery, which Peter had founded in 1964. Newton's first vintage was 1982, with winemaking led by Ric Forman.

Its Bordeaux grape varieties are grown on the estate vineyard and Chardonnay fruit comes from a small property in Carneros owned by Newton and through long-term contracts. The winemaking team is meticulous in harvesting fruit only at optimal ripeness, an approach which sometimes requires four passes in the vineyard to complete the harvest. Newton’s unfiltered bottlings present Newton grapes at their purest.

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Grapes for Newton wines come from its 560 acres of estate vineyards. The estate site located at 1600 feet on the eastern slopes of Spring Mountain. This is a premium location because the peak of the mountain shields most of vineyards from the hottest rays of the afternoon sun and the high elevation helps maintain lower average temperatures. This way, the vines receive all the sunlight they need, with long exposure to the cooler morning sun, without the baking effect or heat stress that can affect fruit on the valley floor.


Newton Vineyard's raison d'être is terroir. This French word refers to the complex interplay of a specific site’s geography, geology and climate in the making of wine--especially soil structure and exposure to sun.


Newton's vineyards are planted in deep volcanic, free-draining soils. The estate vineyard is planted with Bordeaux varieties: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Merlot thrives in rocky soil mixed with clay beneath the surface, while Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot do best in well-drained, poor soil. Cabernet Sauvignon sees greatest success in stony loam. The mountainous slopes of the vineyards have each of these soils and a full range of exposures. Hillside vineyards may be difficult to cultivate and very labor intensive, but the reward is richly flavored fruit.


Chardonnay, however, thrives in cool regions with chalky or loamy soils. To make its excellent Chardonnay, Newton owns an old vineyard in Carneros and also has long-term contracts for fruit from several hillside vineyards nearby. Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay, introduced in 1990, was one of the first unfiltered wines produced and sold in California, now regarded as an industry benchmark.

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Newton harvests only perfectly ripe grapes from the vine. In some vintages, it's necessary to do to four separate pickings in a single vineyard to ensure that only the finest quality grapes are harvested. This is incredibly time consuming and strenuous, but Newton's philosophy is that this is the way to produce a great wine.

Newton's respect for nature is reflected in the development of the vineyards. The 110 acres or so of estate vineyards are scattered carefully throughout the heavily forested land so as to minimally disturb the balance of the environment. Similarly, the winery is tucked into its surroundings, rather than in a large obtrusive structure. Finished wines are aged in handcrafted French oak barrels set in caves in the heart of the mountain, thus maintaining constant cool temperature and even humidity levels.

Low input farming is at the center of Newton's viticultural philosophy. The use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are not used.

The outcome of collaborating with nature is a stable of wines that with each new release heralds another expression of Newton Vineyard’s range of terroirs.

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Winemaking at Newton is an extension of the care taken in the vineyards.

Newton is well known for its "Unfiltered" wines, bottled without filtration to preserve the integrity and natural essence of superior fruit and to foster the resulting wine's unique aroma and flavor.

Indigenous yeast is also used as a winemaking choice to cultivate natural flavor which eliminates the need to use cultured yeast. The outcome of working in tandem with nature is a range of wines considered among the finest.
Newton wines are fermented by natural yeast to obtain complex aromas, and no sulfur is added during their elaboration. The wines are never acidified, and they go through the malolactic fermentation naturally. Aging takes place in hand-crafted French oak barrels in cool caves and Newton produces unfiltered wines that are the purest expression of the beauty of these vineyard sites.

Newton’s Red Label Chardonnay is barrel fermented with wild yeast before being aged for nine months in French oak, fined, filtered and bottled. The Claret label undergoes cold maceration prior to fermentation on natural yeasts with gentle extraction before spending 20 months in cask. Both of these wines utilize a higher proportion of older oak in order to maintain only a gentle oak influence on aromas and flavors.

The Unfiltered Chardonnay is barrel fermented in French oak on natural yeasts prior to a natural malolactic fermentation and periodic lees stirring during the 21 month élevage (the French word for maturing) in cask. Both the Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon and the Unfiltered Merlot are blended with small quantities of other Bordeaux varieties. The Merlot is fermented on natural yeasts with frequent pumpovers and punching down, and fermentation begins in stainless steel before being pressed off and finished in barrel. The Cabernet Sauvignon is fermented with wild yeasts in wooden upright fermenting tanks at low temperature, with malolactic fermentation finished in barrel. Both of these wines are 22-24 months in cask.

The Puzzle is the top Icon wine of the estate, produced exclusively from estate-grown fruit naturally fermented and gently extracted during a warm fermentation. The wine is aged 22–24 months in cask, and the 2002 vintage was 35% Cabernet Franc, 33% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and 9% Petit Verdot.

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