"Agoura Hills is right at the top of the canyon, so this still feels like home turf to us," Ryan Ahrens told The Malibu Times in late August. He was explaining why Malibu Brewing Company's second taproom opened in the old Ladyface Ale Companie building on Agoura Road and not anywhere along Pacific Coast Highway.
His line also describes the bigger change. A year ago you could still drink a Malibu glass of wine within sight of the water. This holiday season, more taps and tasting rooms than ever carry the Malibu name, but most of them sit north of the ridgeline, on Mulholland Highway or along the 101. The coast has only a short list of local pours left.
The coastal pours that closed
The clearest example is Rosenthal Malibu Estate. George Rosenthal planted his first vines in 1987, in what the winery calls Malibu's first vineyard. The 28 acres of vines sit about 1,450 feet up in Newton Canyon, inside the Malibu-Newton Canyon American Viticultural Area. For most people, though, Rosenthal meant the wine bar and patio on PCH. The Palisades Fire destroyed both in January 2025.
The estate then moved tastings up the hill. At an August 2025 soft opening, guests sat beneath the vineyard's oak trees. Two pieces of the old PCH venue came along: a fragment of the Berlin Wall and the oversized chair that used to stand outside. Both had survived the fire. That arrangement lasted just over a year. The Malibu Times reported that Saturday, Sept. 26 was the last day of public tastings at the Newton Canyon property. As of that report, the winery's online shop was still selling wine.
Further east, Moonshadows had already closed for good after nearly 40 years, LAist reported at the fire's one-year mark. Fans of its pumpkin tortellini can still find it at sister restaurant the Sunset.
Where the Malibu name pours now
The pattern started before the Palisades Fire. Malibu Wines, the tasting room and beer garden that served Saddlerock wines on Mulholland Highway, closed on Nov. 9, 2018, the day the Woolsey Fire began. Eater LA reported at the time that the company planned to rebuild and was sending guests to its West Hills location, which had opened that September. Today, according to Malibu Wines' own visitor page, the tasting room is at 23130 Sherman Way in West Hills.
Malibu Brewing went the same direction this summer. Ryan and Jill Ahrens opened the PCH taproom four years ago, and in late August they opened a second one in Agoura Hills. Malibu Brewing also plans a third location at Universal CityWalk.
Here is where each Malibu-named pour actually is, using the hours each business posts:
| Name on the glass | Where it pours | Posted hours |
|---|---|---|
| Malibu Brewing Company | 30745 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu | Sun–Thu 11 a.m.–8 p.m., Fri–Sat 11 a.m.–8:30 p.m. |
| Malibu Brewing Company | 29281 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills | Mon–Fri 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Sat–Sun 10 a.m.–9 p.m. |
| Malibu Wines & Beer Garden | 23130 Sherman Way, West Hills | Sun–Thu noon–7 p.m., Fri–Sat noon–9 p.m. |
The Agoura taproom is also much bigger. It seats 190 inside, with 22 taps at a central bar and a 115-seat all-weather patio for live music. Some of the PCH design made the trip, including white brick around the bar and a bar top made from reclaimed bowling alley wood. The menu carries over too, with the smashburger and fish tacos from the Malibu location.
Two beers are poured only in Agoura Hills. Ladyface IPA is named for the mountain you can see from the patio. Overly Ambitious, a Belgian Dubbel, pays tribute to Blind Ambition, a beer the building served in its Ladyface days. Even the salad points back to the coast. "The Pink Lady Salad, for example, is named after the Pink Lady mural in Malibu Canyon," Jill Ahrens told The Malibu Times.
The short list still on the Malibu side of the ridge
If you want a local pour without driving to the 101, this is what's left. Most of it sits along Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains, and most of it needs some planning.
- Malibu Brewing Company, 30745 PCH. This is the only Malibu-named pour in the table above that's still on the coast. It's the original taproom, open daily.
- Summer Somewhere Wines, 3822 Cross Creek Road. A family-run Malibu wine company with a tasting room in Malibu Village. Its website lists Wednesday by appointment, Thursday 1–6 p.m., Friday 1–7 p.m., Saturday noon–7 p.m. and Sunday noon–6 p.m.
- Cornell Wine Co., 29975 Mulholland Highway, Cornell. A wine bar and shop offering tastings, plus wine by the glass and bottle. Hours are Thursday 4–7 p.m., Friday noon–7 p.m. and Saturday–Sunday 11 a.m.–7 p.m. It's closed Monday through Wednesday. The old Cornell Winery tasting room closed at the end of 2022 ahead of an ownership change. It now has November events on its calendar.
- Cielo Farms Vineyard & Wine Bar. A family vineyard in the Santa Monica Mountains that pours its own small-batch wines. You need a reservation, either a pass for the Wine Bar at The Barn or a seat on The Terrace.
- Saddlerock Ranch, 32111 Mulholland Highway. The ranch behind the Saddlerock label now hosts visitors through Malibu Wine Hikes. The options are hikes, 4x4 tours and VW bus tours with wine, all booked ahead. Customer service is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Tuesdays.
None of these replaces the old setup of walking off PCH, sitting on a patio and ordering a glass of Malibu wine. The Mulholland stops are a winding drive inland from the coast, and two of the five run on reservations. Malibu Brewing's PCH taproom and the Cross Creek tasting room are the only two in the city's commercial areas.
Why the hills can't simply add more
The wine side has its own limits. The grapes behind these labels grow in the Santa Monica Mountains, and Los Angeles County has spent more than a decade tightening the rules for new vineyards there.
In August 2014, the Los Angeles Times reported, county supervisors approved a Santa Monica Mountains coastal plan that banned new vineyards in the coastal zone. Existing vineyards could stay. Inland, a 2015 compromise reported by the Daily News capped new vineyards at two acres per parcel, kept them off significant ridgelines and slopes steeper than 33 percent, and required a conditional-use permit. In May 2021, LAist reported that an updated North Area ordinance prohibited new vineyards. The Malibu Coast Vintners and Grape Growers Alliance sued the county over it that year. The county's current Santa Monica Mountains Local Coastal Program treats winery and tasting-room development as its own category, with separate standards and permit requirements.
Under these rules, the region's local wine comes from vines that are already in the ground. So when a vineyard stops hosting the public, as Rosenthal's did in September, it can't easily be replaced by a new one.
Planning a local pour through New Year's
Because so much of what's left needs a booking, plan ahead for the holidays. Cielo Farms is selling tickets on Tock for a New Year's Eve celebration with Eli Nissan, Nico Morano and Sama, plus a special guest still to be announced. Cornell Wine Co. is open Thursday through Sunday, so a weekday visit won't work. Saddlerock tours go through the Malibu Wine Hikes booking desk, which is closed Tuesdays.
If you want a Malibu beer at the beach on a weekday afternoon, Malibu Brewing's PCH taproom opens at 11 a.m. every day. If you want a beer you can't get at the beach, the Ladyface IPA is poured at the top of the canyon in Agoura Hills.
Where you can grab a glass close to home is part of what everyday life in Malibu actually feels like, from the Trancas end of PCH to the vineyards off Mulholland. If you'd like to talk through how those trade-offs look from different parts of the city, Danny Mishevski is happy to share what he knows. Let's Connect.
