Vintner Peter Newton dies at 81

Memorial services for Peter Newton, a pioneer in the California wine industry who founded Sterling Vineyards and Newton Vineyard in Napa Valley who died Feb. 4, will be Saturday.

Newton, 81, had been in failing health and died at his St. Helena home, his daughter Carol Boone said. The cause was complications from a heart condition.

Newton became interested in the wine business after buying a weekend home in Napa in the 1960s. He and a partner established Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga and released the first vintage in 1969. At the time there were about 25 wineries in the area. There are about 325 now, according to the Napa Valley Vintners Association.

“Peter Newton was at the forefront of the California wine industry,” wine merchant Paul Smith of Woodland Hills Wine Company said this week. “He was very intelligent, he knew what he wanted and had a great vision.”

At Sterling, Newton created a compelling setting with an aerial tram, bell tower and architecture inspired by an Aegean monastery.

“It was one of the most unusual concepts for a winery,” Steve Wallace of Wally’s Wines and Spirits in Los Angeles said.

Newton hired winemaker Ric Forman, then 25, and sent him to France to study French winemaking techniques.

“Peter trusted me,” said Forman, who owns Forman Vineyard in St. Helena. “He was one of the most powerful mentors I’ve ever had.”

Sterling soon had a reputation for top-quality cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, with cabernet aged in small wooden barrels and chardonnay fermented in the barrel.

“It wasn’t what people here were doing at the time,” Forman said. “Sterling became known for an innovative, almost flamboyant style.”

Sterling also produced one of the first merlots from the Napa Valley.

Newton sold Sterling in 1977. The large property included 425 acres of vineyards.

He then established Newton Vineyard in St. Helena. It now has 120 acres of planted vineyards.

“Sterling was beginning to grow in the late ’70s, and I think Newton wanted to downsize and maintain the hand-crafted reputation,” Smith said. “A smaller winery is easier to handle.”

The result was “a more polished wine,” Smith said.

The Newton label became known for quality chardonnay and merlot.

“The unfiltered chardonnay is world class,” Wallace said.

The grounds of the winery were distinct. Newton designed extensive gardens, including one in the Japanese manner, that attracted horticulturists from Europe and the United States.

French luxury goods company Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey acquired the majority stake of Newton Vineyard in 2001.

Newton had enjoyed high-quality wines long before he ventured into wine making. Born Aug. 27, 1926, in London, he graduated from Oxford with a law degree. By his senior year he had developed a taste for Bordeaux wines and helped select the wine for the university’s cellar.

He served in the British Army Rifle Corps during World War II and later came to California as a West Coast correspondent for the London Financial Times. The first business he founded was Sterling International, a paper manufacturing company based in San Francisco.

He opened it in 1951 and later sold it.

Newton is survived by a brother, Dr. Kenneth Newton of South Fawley, England, daughters Gail Showley of St. Helena and Carol Boone of San Francisco, son Nigel Newton of London, and six grandchildren.

Saturday’s memorial service will be at 11 a.m. at Grace Episcopal Church, 1314 Spring St., St. Helena.

Memorial contributions may be made to the church. Memorial arrangements are being handled by Morrison Funeral Chapel of Napa Valley.