Peter Leigh Newton (27 August 1926 – 4 February 2008) was an English-American winemaker, the founder of

Sterling Vineyards Sterling Vineyards is a winery near Calistoga, California, owned by Treasury Wine Estates. The winery achieved international recognition when its wine won first place in the Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981. Description Visitors to the winery take a ...

and

Newton Vineyard Newton Vineyard is a wine estate outside the city of St. Helena in California's Napa Valley. Newton was founded in 1977 by English businessman Peter Newton and his Chinese wife Su Hua. History Founded in 1977 by English businessman Peter Newto ...

Early life

Peter Leigh Newton was born in London on 27 August 1926, the son of racing driver Frank Newton (who won the Montagu Cup in 1908 at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields, ...

). He and his brother

Kenneth Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...

were educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

. He earned a law degree from

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

in 1949. Newton served in the British Army Rifle Corps during World War II.

Career

Newton became a journalist with the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' by chance, after writing a letter to the editor of the newspaper with "his views on the nationalisation of the UK iron and steel industry", and they offered him a job. In 1950, he was posted to San Francisco as their West Coast correspondent. In 1951, he founded his first business, Sterling International, a San Francisco wholesale paper company specialising in tissue paper, at first importing British products into the US and later specialising in the trading of paper and pulp, manufacturing in Canada, Trinidad and Thailand, and later sold it. Newton founded

in 1964 and later,

. He was responsible for designing and building

in 1973, on a hill close to Calistoga, with access to the winery building via an aerial tramway.

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

visited from England in 1977, and was "delighted" by the winery and its wines. In 1979, Newton sold Sterling to

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

, and started a new more exclusive venture,

, a pioneer in Napa Valley Merlot, and best known for its "trademark" unfiltered Chardonnay and Merlot.

Personal life

In 1950, he met an American, Anne St. Aubyn, at a party at his home in Pelham Place, Kensington, London. They married on 28 December 1951 at St Dominic's Church, San Francisco (her hometown), and had three children, Carol Boone of San Francisco; Gail Showley of St. Helena; and

Nigel Newton Nigel ( ) is an English masculine given name. The English ''Nigel'' is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Walter Scott published ...

of London. Anne Newton died in 1970. In 1979, he married Su Hua Lin, and they divorced in 2005. In later life, he was very proud that his granddaughter Alice, then eight, "discovered Harry Potter", after his son

, founder of

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

, gave her in 1997 a chapter of a new manuscript by the then unknown J. K. Rowling, already rejected by many other publishers, and she loved it. At his home in

St. Helena, California St. Helena ( ; Wappo: ''Anakotanoma'') is a city in Napa County, in the Wine Country of California. Located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the population was 5,814 at the 2010 census. St. Helena is a popular tourist d ...

, Newton built 15 separate gardens, including Zen, rose, hanging and traditional English, even including a croquet lawn. Newton died on 4 February 2008, at his St. Helena home, aged 81, and was buried there at the Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Peter 1926 births 2008 deaths Financial Times people People from St. Helena, California American winemakers Journalists from London Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford English winemakers People educated at Charterhouse School