Newton Vineyard

Newton Vineyard is a very hidden, beautiful winery called Newton Vineyards. Only the finest grapes from each are selected and trademarked into their famous Puzzle wine. Each year it is different and a mystery as to how much of each varietal is in it, hence the name Puzzle. The winery itself is extremely unique. Founders, Sua Hua was from China & Peter was from England which has influenced several interesting landmarks on the property. There is a Chinese pagoda, Chinese red gate, and Chinese lanterns alongside a London phone booth and full English gardens.
Tours and visits to the winery are available by appointment only and only available for small groups. This is a very different feeling from nearby Domain Chandon that is crawling with people. Our tour group consisted of only six people. Driving up, I was convinced that our gps had taken us to the wrong entrance. We left the main road, drove through a little neighborhood that felt like suburbia, passed some farm land, then were told that we had arrived. There was no grand entrance, no winery that we could see, nothing. We drove up to what looked like a truck delivery entrance to a call box & got no answer. To our surprise, someone answered, asked for our name, & buzzed us in! We then drove another 15 minutes up a very windy road, past a barn with some goats & a donkey, a full soccer field, a London phone booth, big red Chinese gates, then finally arrived. We were personally greeted immediately with a warm hello & some wine. It was well worth the visit. We had so much fun and hope to go back soon!

I have a wine tour business, Kim Smith Wine Driver and Tours. I love this place. My clients always walk away with an exceptional experience. Loving the wine educators to the wonderful wines. There hasn’t been one client that walks away not loving Newton.

Established winery with a lot of history. The wines are consistent and predictable (in the best way). We confused our tour and tasting appointment time, and the staff was kind enough to accommodate us anyway.

I have no words to describe how amazing this experience was! This winery is such a hidden gem! Over a mile up the hill and gated! We ended up being the only 4 on our tour, the other party didn’t show up so we had some one on one wine education! The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the vineyard, wine, staff and napa in general. The unfiltered cabernet is one of my favorite wines and being able to experience the whole process and creation on our tour made it even that much better. The view is pure perfection and the grounds are immaculate. Don’t pass up this hidden gem! It’s so worth it!!!

if this is your first time in Napa — definitely the way to go about it! The place is SUPER quiet. Beautiful, private, great views and most importantly with some amazing staff! We showed up without an appointment and were invited back in couple of hours for a tour. That was very nice of them to accommodate us considering it was my first time in Napa. Jamal was our tour guide and he was exceptional! the ladies in the office were super fun and nice as well. The tour started off with some delicious welcome wine (chardonnay) and a little history of the place, nothing boring just fun interesting facts. We then went onto the tour, barrel room, etc garden, more wine tasting. It is so peaceful there, so quiet and so relaxing we didn’t want to leave. Their wine is DELICIOUS and the views are breathtaking. I want to go back just to lay down on the grass in their English garden and drink all of that delicious unfiltered chardonnay! THANK YOU !!!

The experience of visiting this fantastic winemaker offered a lot of insightful information about viticulture, the entire wine making process, including the marketing part. Getting up to the vineyard was a long walk uphill. Cars can only go upto a point uphill. The are where we parked is just a dirt road. It was a sunny day, you feel like a king when tou make it to the top. The blend of Japanese garden with the vineyards can be noticed as you admire the grounds. I believe this has to do with the fact that the wife of the owner is Japanese. By the way, you can get their wines at costco, so dont be fooled this wine maker is a first class act. They offer a red varietal knowns as Claret Bourdeaux blend (red blend of cab, petit verdot) very smooth and supple.(about $ 27 bottle)
The unfiltered Chardonnay is a unique wine, i believe they may be the only wine maker to offer it with consistent supply and quality for the last 8 yrs or so.
They have some high end wines in the $ 75 and up range price but thats just too rich for my blood. Their red labels have proven reliable year after year. I discovered then in 2008 and i have been following their varietals since. As an avid wine, I had the chance to get the wine tour with Chris Millard who was the wine maker at the time. Fantastic tour, a lot of information beyond the basics and he encouraged guests to ask questions. I was i a private group tour so as part of our deal, we also got to attend a tasting
All i have to say is that i also visited the Opus /​Robert mondavi vineyard, although a beautiful building i did not feel that they took the time to engage clients in the manner that Newton Vineyards did. I felt like a rock star and Newtow. Now they are one of my favorite wine maker and i am a follower of their products for life.

I have been wanting to visit Newton for years but never had the opportunity to do so. I finally got to go last weekend was really impressed by the grounds. We weren’t sure what to expect when pulling up to a metal gate that had a «No Trespassing» sign. We called the box and sure enough we were at Newton. After a drive up a hill, we were greeted by our tour guide. JJ gave us a tour of the grounds, the beautiful gardens, where the wine is made and some reserves.
Throughout the tour, we tried different wines, Merlot, Cab, The Puzzle and a few more. We had a group of 14 girls and we loved JJ and we expect he loved us back! He was friendly, fun and willing to take a million group photos of us. The tour and tasting was $ 40/​pp. Great price for all the wines we drank! At the end of the tour, we all relaxed on some chairs outside and kept drinking, drinking drinking… Great day! Beautiful Winery! Amazing view! Must see/​drink!

Came here with friends and had a blast. Elana met us and made the experience wonderful. This winery is tucked away but is a hidden treasure. Great tour to begin with. Elana was very knowledgable and gave us a wonderful tour. The property is beautiful and is a must see. The pours are generous and you get a great sense of what their winery offers. I would definitely return.

Hanging out with friends ! Worth the trip…500 acres. Amazing caverns. Great wines

What a magical place! There were 6 of us together and another couple. The only reason I picked this one winery to visit is because I bought my husband a bottle of the unfiltered Cab (2012) and he said it was the best wine he had ever had. Newton exceeded our expectations. The wine, views, tour guide and history were all amazing!
Our tour guide, Jamal, was great. He was very knowledgeable, patient and had some great stories to share with us. We never at anytime felt rushed or pressured into buying anything beyond the tasting and tour.
Such a lovely afternoon. We went at 3 on a Monday and I think that was also to our advantage. I love that they only do tours by reservation. I felt like more of a guest than a potential wine club member.
Not your average wine tasting experience people! I would rather pay $ 40 per person for something so special that go to a roadside room and taste some mediocre wines. These wines were all lovely. It was an afternoon that will be hard to match.

For context, we spent three days in Napa and visited some nicer wineries like Duckhorn Vineyards, Château Montelena, Quintessa Winery and Round Pond winery. All that said, Newton Vineyard was, by far, the highlight of the trip.
Food and Wine called it «Epically Beautiful», but I’m not really sure that does it justice. You go through a residential neighborhood, through a gate, and then into another world. One «getting there» watchout is that as we got close to the winery Google told us to make a right at the end of Reisling Way, but the entrance to Newton is actually right in front of you. Also, make sure you allow another five minutes after you enter to actually get to the winery. It is way back in the property near the top of the hill/​mountain. Reservations are required since I think they can now only have 12 people up there at a time. Don’t just stop by. I’m not even sure how you get past the gate at the entrance if you do stop by and don’t have a reservation. That said, if you are one of the 12, you will really appreciate that. It is beautiful, quiet, and the staff is totally focused on you.
Speaking of staff, Justin is fairly new — three (?) months — to the property but was awesome. He knows both wine and food and was happy to spend as much time as necessary to answer questions. That may not be true all days, but when we went he had the time and was happy to spend it with us.
The tour itself is great. There are multiple tours where the guides are awesome (Quintessa’s guides being one example). This tour wins if only because the scenery is so beautiful. The gardens we saw were awesome with the roses and bushes (including the unique but what I thought was clearly french-​inspired garden, but I’m guessing must actually be English-​inspired given the owners). Looking out over the valley was incredible from multiple parts of the tour. I think the technical part of Quintessa’s tour is a bit better, but if you had to choose a single tour and Justin was your guide I would take this over any of the other ones I’ve been on.
The tasting was also fantastic. While the tasting room has an incredibly cool wine and bottle rack (I won’t ruin the surprise here), overall the room is just okay. The windows, while big could have been bigger to make it even easier to see outside. I’m sure there are many tasting rooms that people would consider way more beautiful. However, you are there for the view when you are outside and the wine. I’ve already mentioned the view. The wine is overall right up there with Duckhorn and Quintessa in my opinion. Some examples are better that those two, while some, to my taste, not quite as good. However, the flight overall is really, really good. For perspective, most of our group, including me, is a member of Chaine des Rotisseurs — a nicer international food and wine club. While I can’t say I’m an expert, I don’t think anyone in our group would dispute that Newton makes and pours some amazing wines. I actually joked about one wine that if I was Parker I’d give it a 94. It turns out Parker gave that wine a 96. Of the five couples, three signed up to become members and we all left with one or more bottles in hand.
All that said, you don’t need to know anything about wine to enjoy this winery. There was no pretense, everything was explained in clear English anyone could understand, any question seemed a good one. Justin clearly loves wine, loves sharing that love, and has an awesome story to tell over amazing wine in an awesome setting.
I’m not sure if the price varies by season. We paid $ 40 a person while the food and wine article said it was $ 80. That said, we didn’t get the drive up to lone pine, so maybe it is more expensive when they do that. Regardless, if you can only do one winery, even if you have to stretch for the money, do this one. You’ll drink more than that in really nice wine, and have the pictures you see in books. Seriously… there was one of those coffee table-​sized books on the most beautiful wine country wineries. I don’t have to tell you which winery was one the cover…

Would give zero stars if I could. The wine was good but the management and pricing was horrible. Worse than horrible. Dreadful. After a nice tasting, and purchase of a bottle of their full priced $ 60 Unfiltered Chardonnay, I received a bill for $ 146 dollars including two full priced tastings. Surprised that not even one of the tastings was comped with the purchase, I offered to buy a second bottle but was told that $ 200 of wine purchases were required to remove a single tasting fee. That’s unheard of to me in all my experiences in Napa. To make matters worse, we befriended Newton wine club members who kindly offered us their complimentary tasting passes. The management refused to honor the complimentary passes! Apparently they can define which friends can use the passes as well!!! It’s really a shame that such a beautiful property is run so horribly out of pure greed. So Newton, enjoy the extra $ 86 you earned. You couldn’t have purchased worse goodwill if you tried. Happy Holidays.

If you love fine Napa Chardonnay, with selections available at a full-​range of price points, from $ 28 Red Label, to their $ 60 Unfiltered, to their single-​vineyard Carneros and Knight’s Valley Chardonnays (same price as Unfiltered), then Newton Vineyard will please all your senses. As part of the pre-​wedding trip my now-​husband took me on for my birthday, he did his research and here it really shows with our tour and tasting at Newton.
Back to the wine: I personally loved their Unfiltered Chardonnay, with hints of vanilla and a butter/​cream note from malolactic fermentation but balanced by Old World fruit and minerality. A superb representative of artisanal California Chardonnay. Even better was the 2010 Carneros, which was just nuanced heaven in a glass, and probably by far my favorite wine. It took the balanced richness of the Unfiltered, brought the buttery, vanilla, fruit, and floral notes to a new height, and still found them in equilibrium with heightened complexity. Also standing out was the 2011 Unfiltered Merlot, a fantastically rich red wine, really demonstrating the best of the varietal in Napa Valley, with notes of cocoa, tobacco, roasted coffee, and red berry pie. A very special treat in the tasting was the 2002 bottling of «The Puzzle,» Newton’s Bordeaux blend drawn specifically from the mountain vineyard around the grounds you are touring. The 2002 evokes some of St Emilion with its unusual placing of Cabernet Franc as the major varietal in the blend, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot following close behind, with a bit of Petit Verdot. A superb claret-​style wine with the whole panoply of notes and a bouquet to follow you would expect from a right-​bank Bordeaux Classified Growth.
Following the wine, the grounds are nothing short of gorgeous, and be sure to check out the grounds with English and Japanese inspired gardens. The estate has a history with its British founder before being acquired by Moët Hennessy, and the guide will be sure to fill you in. I thought the time spent on the grounds and discussing the history was a bit lengthy in proportion to time examining the vines and the cellar, but it was a great tour. They will even take you on a short sojourn in a six-​wheeler vehicle up the steep slope for beautiful valley vistas from nearly the crest of the mountain ridge. I highly recommend Newton Vineyard for any discerning oenophiles!

We did a Vineyard Tour and left feeling robbed.
We were told the tour was a full tour of the vineyard and winery and it would be two hours. What we got was a rushed drive in a six-​wheeler to the top of the property where we tasted 3 wines, took some pictures, then rushed back. Upon returning we tasted one more wine and were pressured into joining the wine club. That’s it. The end. To call what we got a «tour» is misleading and deceptive. We literally paid $ 180 for a pretty view and a tasting. The entire «tour» was less than an hour and a half, as opposed to the 2 hours I was told it would be when I signed up, and we felt super rushed. Not to mention we didn’t get to see the winery at all. No barrels, no production, just a drive up to a big hill.
The vibe of this place was super snooty and pretentious. Granted our «tour guide» was knowledgable, the wines were good, and the view was beautiful but was it worth a whopping $ 90 a person? Absolutely not. We left feeling robbed, deceived, and taken advantage of. It made us sick and regretful and left feeling like the entire experience was a huge waste of money.
I absolutely do NOT recommend.

The service here or lack thereof rather is horrendous. Our group stopped by hoping to tour their garden but did not make reservations for a tasting. I walked into the front office asked for directions on the garden’s whereabouts and a gentleman simply said «No we have too much going on today. Now can you shut the door?» What the fk??? I would have accepted a no but not the rudeness. Horrible service!

My first visit to Newton Vineyard was in 2009 and I was so impressed I went again recently. I’ve been to quite a few wineries in the Napa area and this one impressed me the most. What set them apart is that they made me feel like their guest rather than a customer being herded through their property. They have a maximum of 30 guests at a time on the property so you never feel crowded. The garden tour is beautiful, peaceful and moves at a relaxed pace. You get to see the caves and get a great explanation of the winery’s history and what makes their wines so special. The wine tasting is really nice because you sit at a large table with 4 glasses so you can have them all to taste side-​by-​side instead of having to taste them serially. Their wines are unfiltered so you must try it if you’ve never had unfiltered wine. I personally love their Puzzle (mix of their best grapes).
We enjoyed it so much, we joined their wine club. I’ll be going back much more often now. If you decide to go, make sure you make reservations (can be done online at their website).

The wine is 3 – 4 stars but the tour is 1 – 2 stars. Not a fan of group tours where you are stuck with people that ask relentless questions about the most basic wine making processes. I felt like I was a prisoner!

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AMAZING VINEYARDS AND WINERY, IMPECCABLE SERVICE, WORLD CLASS WINES.
Widely acclaimed as a California wine trailblazer, Newton Vineyard was one of the first wineries on Spring Mountain, located in the west of St. Helena on the eastern flank of the Mayacamas range which separates Napa and Sonoma Valleys.
Their winemaking is what set them apart from others — they are meticulous, an old-​world style including natural fermentation and bottling without filtration. The grapes are hand-​picked in small lots, gentle pressing to the Spring Mountain cellar. 112 distinct parcels to ferment separately, Barrel aging takes place in a cave built into the mountain directly underneath the winery, and they use only French oak. They plan only Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon or Petit Verdot, Bordeaux style that I heart so much. 560 mountaintop acres of land, but only 20% planted of the total ranch. The remaining is to keep the native forested state providing natural habitat for indigenous wildlife.
Driving up here was a treat itself, the luster green of the vineyards, it was so peaceful. It takes you to another world. The winery was designed and built to blend into the mountain and includes elements of the founders’ native lands interwoven with the California environment — roses, a pagoda, a Chinese red gate, lanterns, a London phone booth and English gardens. The founders: Dr. Su Hua and Peter Newton.
Newton Vineyard is Biodiversity, Irrigation, Cover Cropping, Conservation, Green, Design, Recycling, Unfiltered Wine Making.
Their wines are on the pricier side of Napa Valley, but for what their philosophy about wines, green, sustainable, recycling, and conservation, to the best of the best, you wonder what is the price to pay. You decide once you get to try Newton Vineyard wines.
Think of you try to compare Lamborghini and my little 1.5L hybrid Prius, you get it? Some wines and vineyards just can’t be compare, can’t be rated, period!
The tasting is only $ 40, for this world class wines, that’s a steal. A visit to this vineyard is worth a detour. For a tour is $ 85, totally worth it.
The chardonnay and Merlot were 2 wines that I love, think of the merlot as the Right Bank Bordeaux style, elegant, and flavorful.
The Puzzle — their pride wine of the vineyard. Every year they craft a single paramount wine that represents the finest expression of its Spring Mountain Appellation Estate. It’s truly a delectable old world wine blend, that you must try. A big, rich, intense, long finish wine, that’s perfect for any special day.
The famous garden, the stunning landscape, reminded me of Europe. It was a raining day, we saw a rainbow over the garden, it was a breathtaking view. The tasting room was by appointment only. I got our RSVP a week in advance. Their office got back to me via email in a timely manner. We got lucky with Debbie, the winery ambassador. Her service was impeccable. Sitting in the tasting room, gazing over the hill side of the vineyards, on 1,600 feet, the fog hung over by the trees, it was a picture PERFECT. It was so tranquil, stunning, and I forgot everything about life at that very moment. I wanted to pause life for just a few seconds, while sipping the 2009 Puzzle Bordeaux style blend.
Life was as good as it gets at the very moment.

Newton now offers a tour of their property via pinzgauer! The tour takes you up to the iconic Pinot Solo Oak well known my many St Helena residents. Its a view that is unparalleled from any winery — absolutely stunning.
I’m a huge fan of Newton wines, Stopping by their tasting room *which is by appointment only* is always a joy. They only offer their unfiltered teir at the winery, a small selction of wines but they’re all outstanding. Ask for a sip of the Knights Valley Chard — its new and a fantastic floral and tropical chard.

First things first… when you book your tour here make sure Ashley is your guide! Very personable and super knowledgable about all things Newton and the region in general.
Gorgeous property and epic views of the valley atop Spring Mountain. We loved the wines here and the UF Chardonnay and Merlot were delicious with the food pairings.
I proposed to my girlfriend here on 12.23.12 and Ashley and team helped make it even more special. I’ll spare you all the details, but trust me they are top notch here. We will definitely be recommending this vineyard to friends and family and will be visiting once a quarter for our wine pick up.
Thank You Ashley and Newton you guys have customers for life!!!
Cheers!
Jeff and Monica