Winemaker Notes
This profound and powerful Chardonnay exhibits a rich, complex intensity that can only be found in unfiltered wines. The grapes are predominantly grown in the Carneros region where bay breezes and morning fog combine to create the cooler climate ideal for growing Chardonnay rich with concentrated flavors.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Fresh and pretty, this chardonnay’s ripe apple fruit combines with unctuous richness, like salmon oil, to deliver a plush white pleasure. Peach skin flavors tighten up the end. It’s a wine that will reward patience. “Not loud,” said Chris Dooley of (CK) “but it has things to say if you are listening.”
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Jeb Dunnuck
Newton's 2021 Chardonnay Unfiltered is light gold-hued and offers a great nose of sauteed stone fruits, honeyed white flowers, and spicy oak. Textured and medium-bodied, with bright acidity and terrific balance, it's made in a richer style but still stays wonderfully pure and balanced.
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Wine Enthusiast
Subtle oak spices mingle with lots of golden apple, yellow peach and pineapple flavors in this lightly oaked, medium-bodied wine that was barrel-fermented with indigenous yeast.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A Napa classic, Newton's 2021 Chardonnay Unfiltered continues a long tradition of excellence, delivering scents of toasted grain, caramelized pineapple and ripe melon. It's medium to full-bodied, starting off generous and round, then tightening up and turning citrusy on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Strikes an appealing balance between rich, spicy notes and a fresh thread of acidity and a juicy core of apple, pear and peach flavors and fresh-grated ginger. Reveals lingering hints of almond croissant, nutmeg and marmalade. Drink now. 5,600 cases made.
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.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
One of the world's most highly regarded regions for wine production as well as tourism, the Napa Valley was responsible for bringing worldwide recognition to California winemaking. In the 1960s, a few key wine families settled the area and hedged their bets on the valley's world-class winemaking potential—and they were right.
The Napa wine industry really took off in the 1980s, when producers scooped up vineyard lands and planted vines throughout the county. A number of wineries emerged, and today Napa is home to hundreds of producers ranging from boutique to corporate. Cabernet Sauvignon is definitely the grape of choice here, with many winemakers also focusing on Bordeaux blends. White wines from Napa Valley are usually Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that claim specific wine characteristics based on situation, slope and soil. Farthest south and coolest from the influence of the San Pablo Bay is Carneros, followed by Coombsville to its northeast and then Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford. Above those are the warm St. Helena and the valley's newest and hottest AVA, Calistoga. These areas follow the valley floor and are known generally for creating rich, dense, complex and smooth red wines with good aging potential. The mountain sub appellations, nestled on the slopes overlooking the valley AVAs, include Stags Leap District, Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley (farther east), Howell Mountain, Mt. Veeder, Spring Mountain District and Diamond Mountain District. Napa Valley wines from the mountain regions are often more structured and firm, benefiting from a lot of time in the bottle to evolve and soften.