OWNING THIS VINEYARD gives me the greatest satisfaction I have ever had outside of my own profession," says hotelier Georg Rafael, who co-founded Regent International Hotels and sold his Rafael Group Hoteliers to the Mandarin Oriental in 2000.

While still working in the industry, he purchased 10 hectares of the finest vineyards at Mount Veeder in California's Napa Valley and released his first vintage earlier this decade. "Every time we drink our own wine we think we are in heaven."