Winemaker Notes
The 2015 vintage is tight, complex and intense and will look its best with 5 years in the bottle and will certainly improve with age beyond 20 years.
Blend: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plenty of mineral, blueberry and blackberry character with hints of slate and spice. Full body, very fine and chewy tannins. Slate undertones. Needs three or four years to soften but a classic styled red harking back to the 1970s.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Single Vineyard Spring Mountain is ripe and beautifully concentrated, with no shortage of tannin, and offers classic notes of blackcurrants, crushed rocks, graphite, and leady herbs. With full-bodied richness, a rounded, expansive texture, and a big finish, it’s another wine from this team that’s going to benefit from short-term cellaring and keep for 15+ years.
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Decanter
Grapes from a 40-year-old block on the estate are the source of this sturdy, slightly astringent, minty wine. Vibrant black fruits lurk beneath a cloak of tannin and oak in this infant example, although it will have plenty to offer after cellaring. 80% new French oak.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Newton's 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain Single Vineyard is deep garnet-purple with a nose of black currants and blackberries with hints of underbrush, bay leaves and chargrill. Medium-bodied with firm, grainy tannins, it's just a little lean in the mid-palate, finishing long and earthy.
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Wine Enthusiast
Freshly turned earth underlies burly grippy tannin and integrated oak in this complex and concentrated appellation wine. Cedar, graphite and currant provide nuance along a tension of acidity and moderate ripeness.
Newton was founded in 1977 by English businessman Peter Newton and his Chinese wife Su Hua. Peter Newton was already renowned as a pioneer of winemaking in the Napa Valley, having founded the Sterling Winery near Calistoga in the 1960s. The Newtons transformed one square mile of rolling hillside in Spring Mountain into one of the Napa Valley’s most prestigious estates, whose wines have graced the official dinners of several US presidents.
The Newton estate encompasses 170 acres of prime Napa Valley terroir, distributed over four separate, wholly owned vineyards: Spring Mountain, Yountville, Mount Veeder and Carneros.
Newton is renowned for producing wines that are uniquely characterful expressions of varietals emblematic of the Napa Valley, notably Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Working patiently with nature, we are committed to precision viticulture and winemaking techniques yielding wines that are acclaimed for their balance, harmony and full, abundant flavors.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Above the town of St. Helena on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains sits the Spring Mountain District.
A dynamic region, its vineyards, cut by numerous springs and streams, vary in elevation, slope and aspect. Soils differ throughout with over 20 distinct types inside of the 8,600 acres that define the appellation. Within that area, only about 1,000 are planted to vineyards. Predominantly farmed by small, independent producers, the region currently has just over 30 wineries.
During the growing season, late afternoon Pacific Ocean breezes reach the Spring Mountain vineyards, which sit at between 400 and 1,200 feet. Daytime temperatures during mid summer and early fall remain slightly cooler than those of the valley floor.
Spring Mountain soils—volcanic matter and sedimentary rock—create intense but balanced reds with lush and delicate tannins. The area excels with Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot and in some cooler spots, Chardonnay.