Newsom's Wine Empire Caught in Illegal Alien Labor Scandal: 'About 80 Percent' of Vineyard Crews Illegal, Ex-Worker Says
By Oreo Express | November 11, 2026
Gavin Newsom has spent years turning California into a sanctuary for illegal aliens. Now a new investigation says his own wine business may be cashing in on the labor.
City Journal published a report today by Christopher F. Rufo, Ryan Thorpe and Kenneth Schrupp that digs into the PlumpJack Collection of Wineries, the wine and hospitality business Newsom founded. Their findings center on the Oso Vineyard, a 129-acre property in Napa's Pope Valley that PlumpJack bought in 2022 for $14.5 million.
According to the report, PlumpJack contracts Renteria Vineyard Management (RVM) to run the field work at Oso. A PlumpJack website calls RVM owner Oscar Renteria Oso's "long-time vineyard manager." City Journal says neither PlumpJack nor RVM disputed that the contract exists.
"About 80 Percent"
Here's where it gets ugly. A former long-time RVM employee, who told City Journal he has lived and worked in the U.S. illegally for more than a decade, said most of the field crews were in the same boat:
"About 80 percent of all of us who worked there [were in the country illegally]. The other 20 percent had regular status . . . . We're talking about the majority across all the work crews being in the same situation."
Asked whether the company knew, he said: "Absolutely, of course. There was a lot of them."
City Journal also reports that RVM does not appear in the federal government's searchable E-Verify database, and that after 2023 the reporters found no H-2A guest-worker filings listing Oso as a worksite. In other words, no visible legal paper trail for the workers picking Newsom's grapes.
Then the reporters ran a test. A contact called RVM posing as a Mexican national who had just arrived in California. When he said he had no Green Card and no Social Security number, the RVM employee took his phone number and said a manager would follow up. An illegal alien source who has been in California more than two decades told City Journal what that means: "That means they're going to hire him."
RVM's record isn't clean either. The Department of Labor found wage-and-hour violations involving 45 RVM workers in 2022, and the company paid back wages and civil penalties. Labor Department data lists $6,810 in back wages plus $23,018 in penalties. Two wage lawsuits by workers followed in 2024 and 2026, and City Journal reports the 2026 case ended in a settlement this September.
The Governor Gets Paid, Taxpayers Get the Bill
Newsom never sold his stake in PlumpJack when he became governor. He put it in what he calls a blind trust. City Journal reports that tax returns show Newsom and his wife pulled in at least $11 million between 2019 and 2024, mostly from wineries, restaurants and other investments.
Meanwhile, Newsom's Sacramento has rolled out the red carpet for illegal aliens: Medi-Cal for illegal aliens, rental help, college grants and tax credits. City Journal puts the tab at at least $11 billion in the past fiscal year. The report also says Napa's taxpayer-funded farmworker housing welcomes illegal aliens, and that Newsom signed A.B. 1890 in September, raising the state's annual contribution to those complexes to as much as $500,000.
Think about that. Taxpayers subsidize housing for the workforce, the vineyards keep their labor costs down, and the governor's family business sits right in the middle of an industry that, per one anonymous Napa vineyard-management owner quoted by City Journal, runs on illegal labor: "I think it's 80 percent."
And according to City Journal, Oscar Renteria was a donor to Newsom's original run for governor.
What Newsom's Side Says
Newsom spokesman Izzy Gardon told City Journal the governor "placed his business interests in a blind trust when he took office in 2019" and "has no involvement in PlumpJack's operations or management." A PlumpJack spokesperson said the company expects "all vendors working with [it] to comply with the law." RVM did not respond.
To be clear about what's confirmed: the PlumpJack-RVM contract, the Oso purchase, Newsom's stake and RVM's labor violations are on the record. The claim that most RVM workers are illegal aliens comes from sources City Journal interviewed, including a former employee, and has not been independently confirmed by any government agency.
But this is the Democrat playbook in one vineyard. Open the borders, hand out the benefits, let the taxpayers carry the cost, and let the connected class enjoy the cheap labor. Every small business owner in California who plays by the rules and pays legal wages is competing against that.
Newsom has his eye on 2028. Voters should ask him one simple question: who is picking your grapes?
Sources
City Journal, "Gavin Newsom's Illegal Labor Problem" (Nov. 11, 2026): https://www.city-journal.org/article/gavin-newsom-illegal-immigrants-napa
Labor Department wage case data for Renteria Vineyard Management: https://eghbalilawfirm.com/wage-theft/employer/renteria-vineyard-management
Napa Valley Patch on RVM's temporary layoff notice (Nov. 10, 2026): https://patch.com/california/napavalley/napa-vineyard-company-lists-temporary-layoffs
PlumpJack's Adaptation winery on its 2022 Oso Vineyard purchase: https://www.adaptationnapavalley.com/vineyard
Los Angeles Times on Newsom's blind trust (2018): https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-governor-newsom-business-conflicts-20181220-story.html
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