TOM JONES

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Owner, Moraga Vineyards

For Tom Jones, former chief executive of Northrop Corp., retirement was just the end of Act I. Concluding his 50 years at the aerospace firm gave him the chance to launch a second career, one driven by his passion for fine wine. He has run a winery outside his Bel-Air home for the past two decades.

Now 88, Jones makes daily walks through the vineyard on his property. And not just for exercise, either. “There’s an old saying in France: ‘The quality of the wine is proportional to the number of steps the owner takes in the vineyard each day,'” he said.

Jones stays on top of trends by reading wine-industry trade publications and sharing ideas with other vintners, especially those visiting from Europe. “If you ask the right people questions, you can get a lot of free advice.”

Advice he would give to others: “You must first have a passion for the business. But you must also be genuinely curious.”

Jones said the best part of working past 80 is that it keeps his creative juices flowing. His wife fully supports his working, but that may be because he’s usually nearby.

“It helps that everything is right at home,” he said.

He is making some concessions to his age.

“I used to work about 50 or 60 hours a week while I was at Northrop. Now I work about 30 hours a week, and it’s so much more relaxed.”

His interest in wine had meshed with his travels while at Northrop.

“Whenever I would visit the air shows in Europe, I would always take time out to visit vineyards and chat with people from Bordeaux and Burgundy.”

During his visits, Jones made a serendipitous discovery: The soils in Bordeaux and Burgundy were remarkably similar to the soil at his home, high in the hills of Bel-Air.

“Curiosity drove me to plant our first grapes back about 30 years ago,” he said. A few years later, Jones had several top connoisseurs sample his wines, and they told him he had good grapes.

Jones then decided to launch a commercial winery when he retired from Northrop in 1990. It’s a modest operation. “I decided to focus on top quality, not quantity,” he said. His vineyard, east of the San Diego Freeway, is visible from the Getty Center.

Jones started with mail orders to friends and acquaintances, and his clientele slowly grew. He also offered bottles to a few dozen top restaurants.

The decision to keep the operation small the staff numbers about 10 was also prompted by the limited size of his Bel-Air parcel.

“I’m never going to retire,” Jones said. “I’m tremendously interested in what I do and will keep going as long as possible.”