California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, just listed their $7.5 million Sacramento-area estate — double what the couple paid for it eight years ago — and one detail buried in the listing is doing more talking than the governor would like: a 5,000-bottle wine cellar tucked into the 12,000-square-foot home’s basement.
Asked about it point-blank at a press conference, the winemaker-turned-politician acted stunned by his own house.
“Are you serious? Really?” Newsom said. “No, I never filled it. I didn’t even know I had that much.”
He went further, insisting he “literally didn’t even know” the cellar held anywhere near 5,000 bottles — claiming he only learned the figure from news reports about his own residence. His explanation for the shelves lining the space: books, not bottles.
“By the way, I put books in there,” he said. “There’s no wine there, it’s books,” adding that they were his “only inheritance” from his late father, former judge and Getty family confidant William Newsom.
Photos of the space tell a different story — a glass-enclosed room with built-in racks, seating, and rows of shelving holding both books and bottles, according to the listing photos.
The mansion itself is no modest starter home. Beyond the wine cellar, the property comes with a “personal wellness oasis,” a resort-style pool, a full tennis court, and a private guest casita — the kind of amenities Newsom rarely mentions while running for president as a champion of the working class.
It’s the latest reminder of the gap between Newsom’s populist pitch and his own balance sheet. The governor and his wife reported earning between $1.7 million and $2 million a year from 2022 to 2024, much of it flowing from Newsom’s stake in the wine and hospitality business he built on connections to one of California’s wealthiest families, the Gettys. The Newsoms also own a separate $9 million home in Marin County, purchased in 2024.
The listing comes as Newsom winds down his final months as governor and positions himself for an expected 2028 run, and as his family’s finances remain under scrutiny amid a federal investigation Newsom has dismissed as a political hit job.
Read the full story on the New York Post here.
