Here’s All The Vineyards, Restaurants And Properties In Which Gavin Newsom Owns Stakes

With help from a billionaire benefactor, California’s governor built a hospitality company even as he gained power in America’s largest state.

A wealthy, imperious politician with ties to billionaires owns a hospitality empire. While serving in office, his family helps run the business empire he refused to divest. Conflict of interest allegations surrounding the properties just don’t seem to stick.

California governor Gavin Newsom may be posting like Donald Trump on social media, but clearly, the similarities don’t end there. The rumored presidential hopeful was a businessman before and while he ran for office, and built a brand of his own: PlumpJack Group, which he started with investors including oil heir and billionaire Gordon Getty, a family friend. Today, PlumpJack is a power player in both Napa Valley’s wine industry and San Francisco’s social scene.

Newsom was groomed for such success. His father, William, was a college friend of future California governor Jerry Brown, who appointed William to two judgeships. William Newsom was also employed by Getty as administrator of the Getty trusts. Despite dyslexia and struggling in school, Gavin went to Santa Clara University. He managed to earn a degree in political science in 1989, but had to make up a class he failed after graduating. He went into business just a few years later.

Named after the portly Shakespeare character Sir John Falstaff, PlumpJack, co-founded by Newsom, began as a wine store in San Francisco in 1992. Newsom and his partners—including Getty, John Conover (who initially joined as one winery’s general manager in 1999), Newsom’s sister Hilary and his cousin Jeremy Scherer—have since expanded it to encompass multiple wineries, restaurants, bars, stores and a hotel. Not every venture has panned out; several hotels and a sporting goods retailer have since shuttered, for example. But some have been enormously successful. The wineries alone, Forbes estimates, are worth over $400 million, so even a minority stake could be worth tens of millions of dollars to Newsom.

His exact share of each business is unclear, thanks to the vagueness of California’s financial disclosure forms. After serving on San Francisco’s parking and traffic commission and then on the city’s board of supervisors, Newsom sold off his stakes in the San Francisco-based businesses, reportedly to Getty, for just $1.7 million when he became mayor of the city in 2004. He repurchased them (using a loan from Getty) when he left the mayor’s office to become California’s lieutenant governor in 2011. “These are my babies, my life, my family,” he told journalists in 2018 while running for governor. “I can’t sell them.” Ultimately, Newsom put his business holdings in a trust and gave up control—even signing an executive order barring state agencies from doing business with PlumpJack. Today, sister Hilary, cousin Jeremy and Conover run the company.

With Newsom rumored to be gearing up for a White House bid, Forbes combed through his state financial disclosures, real estate records and PlumpJack’s websites to assemble a picture of his holdings. He doesn’t list much in the way of liquid assets on his disclosure—but, notably, is not required to list most diversified mutual funds or interest, dividend and capital gains income. His wife founded and helps run the nonprofit The Representation Project, which makes documentaries addressing gender stereotypes. Her stake in a related film production company called Girls Club Entertainment is worth between $100,000 and $1 million, according to her husband’s disclosures.

When reached for comment, Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click, who handles communications for the governor for non-state matters, would not comment on any of the holdings or Newsom’s stakes in them. Click instead reiterated that the governor’s holdings are in a blind trust and that he has “no role” in them, sending a link to coverage of the governor’s blind trust decision. He declined to share Newsom’s tax returns, which have previously been made available to reporters. A PlumpJack representative directed requests for comment to Click, as did a representative from the governor’s office.

Below is a snapshot of his properties and businesses held through PlumpJack, including four vineyards and two restaurants; as well as his two personal residences, one closer to home in the Bay Area and one closer to work in Sacramento.