Amid Post Fire Regeneration, Newton Vineyard, A Napa Classic, Now Certified Organic (113 Acres)

Newton viticulturist Laura Deyermond
displays the winery's new CCOF sign

After a four year transition, Newton Vineyard has completed organic certification on all of its estate vineyards. 

The last few years have been a bumpy ride for Newton Vineyard. It rebuilt portions of the classic estate, with its underground winery, gorgeous English gardens, and stunning views, only to have much of it destroyed in the Glass Fire (2020) that struck Spring Mountain hard. 

It was a low blow. Newton had just celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019 with much fanfare and a celebration of the very talented team and winemakers who went on to become successive waves of Napa rock stars–John Kongsgaard, Aaron Pott, and Andy Erickson.

But now it's being rebuilt. 

The winery was founded by Englishman Peter Newton (1926-2008) who made a fortune in the paper industry and then again by creating Sterling Winery in 1964 and selling it to Coca-cola in 1976. His love of wine led him to reach for even grander dreams in the then untested wilds of Spring Mountain, where he bought 560 acres in 1977, transforming it into a thing of splendor. 

The 2020 fire took out most of the 73 acres of Spring Mountain vines–all but 6 acres are now being replanted–but the winery still looks to its 23 acres in the Carneros and its 16 acres on Mount Veeder for uninterrupted production. 

LVMH has owned a majority stake in Newton since 2001, bringing in French born Jean-Baptiste Rivail as estate director in 2017.

The winery began the organic certification process in 2018, completing certification on the Spring Mountain estate in 2020 and on its two other vineyards in July of this summer.  

It is best known for its unfiltered Chardonnay, from the Carneros vines (a blend of organic estate fruit and purchased non-organic fruit), and a Bordeaux blend, The Puzzle, from Spring Mountain. 

It also produces a 100% Cabernet from the Mount Veeder estate.

(The winery also purchases non-estate, non-organic grapes for a number of other Newton wines).

Newton's new winemaker, Andrew Hove 

Also this summer, Newton has just seen its former winemaker Alberto Bianchi depart to focus on his own label, Ena, and to become the winemaker for Adamvs on Howell Mountain. The new winemaker is Andrew Holve, who has been the assistant winemaker for the past 6 years, giving him deep familiarity with the grapes, terroir and wines from the property. Philippe Melka continues as the consulting winemaker. 

Viticulturist and grower manager Laura Deyermond (seen above), with Newton since 2018, is overseeing the replanting. Assessment of the vine damage was done with state of the art aerial mapping.

The winery intends to fully rebuild on Spring Mountain, but in the meantime, current releases are all the more precious as the estate grown The Puzzle will be in short supply while replanting begins. It generally takes 3 years after replanting to harvest and then 3-4 years for aging before a fine red wine is released. But these vines will get a nice, fresh start on organic soils this time around as regeneration begins anew.