Rupert Murdoch toasts $28.8-million purchase of Moraga Vineyards

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Fox News Channel Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes received a $21-million pay package in 2012. He’s held these positions since 1996 and was formerly president of CNBC. (Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times)

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Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner Inc., received a compensation package of $25.9 million in 2012. Prior to this position, Bewkes was the CEO of HBO. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press)

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Thomas Dooley is the COO of Viacom Inc. He and Viacom Inc. CEO Philippe Dauman co-ran the private equity firm DND Capital Partners prior to their positions at Viacom Inc. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

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Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast Corp., received a compensation package of $29 million in 2012. Roberts is chairman of the board of directors of the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. (Suzanne Plunkett / Associated Press)

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Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., received a compensation package of $30 million in 2012. Despite legal controversy, Murdoch continues to dominate large portions of the media. ( Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA)

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Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom Inc., received a compensation package of $33.4 million in 2012. Prior to this position, Dauman ran his private equity firm, DND Capital Partners. (Rajesh Nirgude / Associated Press)

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David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications Inc., received a compensation package of $49.9 million in 2012. Zaslav was formerly president of cable and domestic TV and new media distribution at NBCUniversal. (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)

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Sumner Redstone is the executive chairman of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. He began building his empire at 64 years old and is still at it. His stock holdings in CBS Corp. are worth about $2.2 billion, and his holdings at Viacom Inc. are worth nearly 2.9 billion. He recently celebrated his 90th birthday. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Leslie Moonves of CBS Corp. tops the list as the highest-paid media CEO. He received a $27-million bonus in 2012. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press)

By Meg James

Aug. 29, 2013 8:53 AM PT

Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch has closed on his purchase of the Moraga Vineyards estate in the hills above Bel-Air for a tidy $28.8 million.

The 82-year-old chairman of News Corp. and 21st Century Fox acquired the picturesque property from Tom Jones, former chief executive of the Northrop Corp., and his wife, Ruth. The real estate transaction closed on Tuesday, Murdoch’s spokesperson confirmed.

The 16-acre estate -- which sits five miles from the Pacific Ocean and can be seen from the 405 Freeway -- is a rare trophy property in Los Angeles. Moraga was the first commercial winery to be bonded in the city of Los Angeles after Prohibition ended in 1933, according to the winery’s website.

ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll

Asking price for the Moraga estate had been a full-bodied $29.5 million.

The property also includes an 8,000-square foot home and lush gardens.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Victor Fleming, the acclaimed director of such Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer classics as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind,” owned the site. He plotted a horse ranch there in the late 1930s and completed work on the property in the early 1940s, after finishing “The Wizard of Oz.”

Jones and his wife purchased the property in 1959. When Jones learned the Moraga Canyon had deep gravel soil, he was intrigued enough to try to grow some Bordeaux varietals. Annual rainfall in the Moraga Canyon is about 24 inches, compared with 15 inches for downtown Los

Moraga wines now are sold in some of the region’s high-brow restaurants, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, Spago, Patina and Morton’s Steakhouse.

Murdoch gleefully announced his intent to buy the winery on Twitter in early May, even before he had signed on the dotted line. But the media baron’s acquisition soon got tangled in bureaucracy: Murdoch had to wait to take control of the property until the state of California issued him a license to manufacture and sell liquor.

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Twitter: @MegJamesLAT