Rosenthal - The Malibu Estate featured in Bloomberg Personal Finance

While looking for great wines is a pastime that takes me to rustic villages like Gratallops (and Walla Walla), it occasionally delivers me into luxury. George Rosenthal, the very private Los Angeles businessman who owns Raleigh Studios and Hollywood's Sunset Marquis hotel, has been growing grapes for most of this decade at his hilltop compound in Malibu. Set above the coastal fog, the estate is one of two commercial producers in Los Angeles County, an area that 100 years and a few hundred strip malls ago held as much promise as Napa.

Visiting Rosenthal's Mexican-inspired manse in the Malibu hills, sipping the bluish-black Rosenthal Cabernet with its exotic spiciness unmatched by its $40 rivals from Napa and Sonoma, I was reminded again that fine wine is an integral part of the good life. It's a hobby for the wealthy, an art for the creative, and a blessing for those who get to drink the product. Rosenthal came to winemaking after working in real estate, entertainment, and aviation, and it quickly became his passion. "It's the first thing I put my name on in 44 years of business," he told me.

You probably can't wangle an invitation to Rosenthal's estate, and you'd struggle to find Gratallops on a map, let alone get there. But you can drink these wines, preferably with good company over a fine dinner, and feel that you're living life the way it should be lived. And at $35 to $65 a bottle, that makes them a bargain.

By Bruce Schoenfeld
Bloomberg Personal Finance

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