For this Winery Spotlight I wanted to talk about my FAVORITE stop during our honeymoon wine country tour (circa 2007): Newton Vineyards in St. Helena, CA.

Reasons I loved this winery:

• AMAZING Landscaping: To be able to say the landscaping was amazing in a place as beautiful as Napa Valley is something really special, but this place definitely stood out. All of the gardens in the vineyard are Asian inspired and meticulously maintained.
• WONDERFUL People: We ended up wine tasting with our chauffeur on a day that Newton Vineyards wasn’t open to the public; however, due to some miscommunication, we ended up at Newton and the wonderful people went ahead and gave us a complimentary tasting that included the drop-kick-me-in-the-face BEST Chardonnay I’ve ever had; Unfiltered Chardonnay. (Kinda pricey though, retailing at about $50.00/bottle.)
• GREAT Tips: The lady that lead our tasting was so well educated and full of knowledge that it was a tad overwhelming to take it all in, but the one thing I will never forget is the way she taught us to “cleanse our pallet”, which, in wine tasting terms, is extremely important as you try different varieties of wines. To cleanse your pallet, simply smell a plain white paper napkin for several seconds. I don’t remember how or why this worked, but it did!

I’m not going to tell you to run out and buy these wines UNLESS a) you are a wine connoisseur and have never tried Newton or b) filthy rich and could care less if you drop some serious coin on vino; however, if you do run out and buy any of the Newton wines, I promise you won’t shouldn’t be disappointed because they’re all amazing.

If you are planning a vaca to Napa Valley, make sure to include Newton Vineyards as one of your stops…and invite me of course!!!!

Final Question: 3 of the 5 pictures above were taken with my camera…can you tell which ones they are???????