Los Angeles Wine Country
From the birthplace of California winemaking to hidden canyon estates and the Malibu Coast AVA, greater Los Angeles hides a serious wine story beneath the city.
About Los Angeles
Los Angeles is not the first place most people picture when they think of California wine, yet it is where the industry began. Commercial winemaking took root in downtown Los Angeles in the early 1800s, and by the mid-19th century the region was the state's leading wine producer, before urban growth and Prohibition swept the vineyards away.
Today a small but fascinating wine scene endures across the metropolis. In a hidden Bel Air canyon, Moraga Vineyards farms what may be the most valuable vineyard land in the country. Cal Poly Pomona keeps an agricultural tradition alive with its teaching winery in the San Gabriel Valley. And to the west, the Malibu Coast AVA climbs into the Santa Monica Mountains, where vineyards catch ocean breezes within sight of the Pacific.
Los Angeles wines lean toward Bordeaux and Rhone varieties that thrive in the warm, sunny climate, with the Malibu Coast contributing cooler, ocean-influenced expressions. For visitors, it is a chance to taste wine in some of the most unexpected settings in California, from university vineyards to canyon estates hidden among the hills of the nation's second-largest city.
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