A vine grows in Bel Air
On the tram ride up to the Getty, the cares of every day life fall away, with the sight of the 405 receding into the floor of the Sepulveda Pass. As you rise up through the mountains, you gaze at the lovely homes of Bel Air, leafy trees and expensive facades. Suddenly, it falls away and you see something you never expected. A...vineyard? What is this, Napa? But no, it is a vineyard, smack in the middle of Los Angeles. California natives and conservationists, Tom and Ruth Jones purchased the sixteen acre property from some people who had used it as a horse farm in 1959 (though they didn't start planting until 1978). The white clapboard house was built for Gone With the Wind director, Victor Fleming who let his friends keep horses in his stables as he was the only person living in the area at the time. They named it Moraga Vineyards after the street on which they lived. They claim that the gravel deposits make the soil like that of Bordeaux, France. They have over two thousand wine plants per acre. They were the first people to get bonded as a winery since the beginning of Prohibition in 1920.
The Jones' produce two wines. The Moraga White, first sold on the market in 1998, composed mostly of Sauvignon Blanc grapes and Moraga Red in 1993 (though it was the 1989 vintage) and is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon grapes with some Merlot as well. Both are aged in French oak barrels. They retail for between $70 and $124 a bottle and are served at the Bel Air Hotel as their "neighborhood wine."
When you long for a vacation, take heart. You live in wine country!
Moraga Vineyards, 650 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
Not open to the public
No tours
posted by kuaptic. @ 4:34 PM
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