Newport Beach Vineyards Celebrates First Estate Wine

Newport Beach Vineyards & Winery has been nestled behind the Back Bay for more than 10 years, patiently waiting to produce estate wine. The payoff is almost here.

When owner Richard Moriarty opened the vineyard in 1998, he expected to wait about about a decade for the vines to mature enough to produce estate wine. During the interim, he and his team brought in outside grapes to blend with his own harvest.

Soon, Moriarty will uncork his 2010 vintage, the first wine grown and processed entirely on his Newport Beach property.

Vineyard spokesman Justin Myers said when people hear there is a vineyard and winery in Newport Beach, the first thing they ask is, “Where do the grapes come from?”

In fact, Newport Beach offers an ideal growing environment, Myers said: "The weather is neither too hot or too cold, and while others claim to have 'coastal influence,' you can’t get much more coastal than Newport Beach."

While the 2010 estate wine ages a few more months, Moriarty's crew harvested grapes for the 2011 estate wine in September. Those grapes are in the grape-to-glass stage, in which they will be racked three times before the juice is transferred to wine barrels to rest for two years.

Moriarty's 2010 estate wine will go on sale in late spring 2012 at NapaStyle and Irvine Ranch Market.