Bel-Air's winery

Moraga Vineyards, the eight-acre patch of wine grapes that faces the Getty Museum across the 405 freeway, has been one of those charming little-known features of the L.A. cityscape that long-time Angelenos like to lord over the newbies. Time to update the trivia file. In this week's Food section in the Times, Corie Brown says Moraga recently added a barrel cave and a winery on the property and is crushing, racking, fermenting and blending its own Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc right there in Bel-Air. In the past, the grapes were trucked up north. It's the first winery to be bonded in the city of Los Angeles since Prohibition, Brown writes.

At $125 a bottle for his Cabernet, which includes 20% Merlot, and $65 for his Sauvignon Blanc, [owner Tom] Jones certainly makes a profit on Moraga wine. He sells out his annual production of 600 cases to a list of 500 loyal mail-order customers, a handful of Parisian restaurants including Alain Ducasse, and a number of the most expensive restaurants in New York City and Los Angeles. Hotel Bel-Air carries Moraga as its "neighborhood" wine. And the wine is usually on the shelf at the only two stores that Jones allows to stock it: Wally's in Westwood and the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop.

Is it good enough to be one of California's most expensive wines? British wine critic Jancis Robinson called it one of her favorites when she tasted through a flight of 1994 and 1995 California Cabernets in 1999. But she hasn't tasted it since, she says. American critic Robert Parker gave the 1993 Moraga Cabernet an 89 on his 100-point scale.

That was enough criticism for Jones, who has declined to send samples to any more critics. Anyone who wants to judge Moraga wines has to arrange for a visit with Jones at the vineyard. "I don't want to be rude about it, but that's the way I feel," he says.

The Joneses also keep chickens, but apparently the neighbors are all friends anyway.