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Rupert Murdoch wants to make ‘world-class wines’

03 June 2024 By James Evison

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has used his California vineyard as the setting for his fifth wedding as he looks to make his wine famous.

The Australian-born businessman is looking to make the wine from the Moraga estate in Bel Air, the only vineyard located in the city of LA, into a ‘world-class’ quality product, according to reports.

Murdoch, who is 93 years old, was marrying biologist Elena Zhukova this weekend, and, ever the publicist, he decided to host the wedding at Moraga. By marrying and having photos at the estate, the media man was making millions of people aware of the Moraga vineyard, and ultimately his plans to take the brand further.

World-class wines

It was reported two months ago that making ‘world-class wines’ was now Murdoch’s key focus after decades as arguably one of the most important figures in the media industry.

He purchased Moraga in 2013 for US$22.3m, which is located on an 16 acre site in the middle of the city’s Bel Air district, and includes 14 acres of vineyard on top of the Benedict Canyon fault.

Although challenged by the severe weather conditions often found in LA, including wild fires in 2017, according to the Daily Mail, Murdoch wanted the vineyard to be “a big part of his legacy”.

He sees “his responsibility to make sure the property has a secure future and that more people get to know the wine”, the report states.

Vineyard

Moraga was originally a horse ranch, owned by the director of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming. But in 1980, its then-owner Tom Jones, the CEO of defence and aerospace technology firm Northrop Grumman, decided to plant vines.

When Murdoch purchased the estate in August 2013 from Jones, after seeing it listed in one of his own newspapers, The Wall Street Journal, it was requested that he keep it as a working vineyard — a desire it would appear the media magnate was happy to keep.

According to the Moraga website, and in typically straight-talking style, Murdoch states that Moraga is “not Napa or Bordeaux” but that Moraga “deserve a place at the table with the rest of the world’s top wines”.

Although the winery doesn’t make a huge amount of money, and has the potential to make around 10,000 bottles a year, Murdoch has gone into the business with the sales panache that has made him one of the world’s richest men.

Expensive

His attention to detail of the costs of making wine can be seen in an interview with Bloomberg that is on the winery’s website. Murdoch commenting that it is “wildly expensive” to make a dessert wine, and also that taxes are challenging in Bel Air, and it’s “the land that kills you”.

Last year he hired a new director of sales and marketing, Suzette Hébert, with the aim of finding new listings for the wine in the on-trade, especially high-end restaurants, which he also mentioned in the Bloomberg interview in 2017, calling on New York sommeliers to come and taste his bottles.

Murdoch also amusingly mentioned his friend Jacob Rothschild in relation to “winery-owner friends”. When quizzed on whether Rothschild had any advice, he said: “Not really. I gave some to Jacob to drink, and he said it was a serious wine, so I was quite pleased.

“Then he gave me some 1956 Latour, which is the year of my wife’s birth. They’re pretty good. Very different.”

Opening up

As part of the drive to make people more aware of the vineyard, it now offers tastings at $150 per head, and is open to the public. It currently makes around 500 cases of a red wine, which retails at US¢140 and a slightly cheaper Sauvignon Blanc, at US$92.

The Estate Red is produced from grapes cultivated on the hillsides and benchland blocks on the property, and is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and some Petit Verdot and Cabernet France — although this changes for each vintage. Depending on the year, it consistently has notes of cherries, cassis, plums and berries and “a hint of what is described as the scent of the Santa Monica bay breeze”, the producer said.

Winemaker Paul Warson said that it was “time that people really know about this”.

“It’s time that people really know about this. We want people to have access. We have a gorgeous, rare and exceptionally special property in the heart of Los Angeles, and we want to bring neighbors and visitors together by creating the ability for us to share it whenever possible.”