![]() “Cabernet is the story of Inglenook,” McLeod said.Īfter McLeod left in 2010, Coppola hired Philippe Bascaules of Chateau Margaux, who took the wine in a more restrained direction and kept the cabernet percentage high the 2013 is 100 percent cab. When winemaker Scott McLeod arrived in late 1991, he started picking the grapes a little riper and used more cabernet (more than 90 percent of the blend). The wines were 60-70 percent cabernet at first. The early vintages were produced under rustic conditions, with no temperature control during fermentation. But it, too, has changed some over the years. The transformation included renaming the estate as Inglenook.Īs the property went through all the changes, Rubicon continued to be produced. In 2011, he also acquired the Inglenook brand, which had come to be associated with cheap jug wines, and set about restoring its reputation, just as he had renovated the chateau. The first vintage of the flagship wine, a Bordeaux-style blend called Rubicon, was produced in 1978.Ĭoppola nearly lost it all when he risked his personal assets to make “Apocalypse Now” – now considered a classic but a flop at first – but he rebounded and in 1995 paid nearly $10 million to buy much of the rest of Niebaum’s original property: the historic Inglenook chateau, built in the 1880s, and its 70 acres of vineyards. Soon, the Niebaum-Coppola winery was born. As the men talked and shared the wine, Coppola came to see the potential of the estate to produce great wine. They shared a bottle of Inglenook cabernet from the 1890s that Coppola brought up from the cellar. It was reinforced one day when famed vintner Robert Mondavi stopped by. Gradually, Coppola began to understand the historic importance of the property. The Inglenook chateau was built in the 1880s Francis Ford Coppola bought it in 1995. The house had been built by Gustave Niebaum, founder of the Inglenook winery, and the vines, part of the original Inglenook estate, had once been a source for some of the state’s most important wines. In 1975, riding the success of the first two installments of “The Godfather,” Coppola paid $2.5 million for a Victorian home and roughly 100 acres of grapes. But it all began with a piece of property in Rutherford that Coppola had planned to use as a family getaway. Concentrated yet elegant, it`s a wine you can’t refuse.Filmmaker and vintner Francis Ford Coppola presides over a formidable wine empire these days: his eponymous Sonoma County winery/restaurant/movie museum complex, which attracts about 200,000 visitors every year the Virginia Dare Winery, also in Sonoma County and the historic Inglenook estate in the Napa Valley. What begins with an intriguing nose of lavender, leather, and graphite emerges with rich layers of cassis, cherries, and wild raspberries. Together, they create a distinctive wine made more alluring by the vintage's dramatic fruit flavors.Ībundantly spicy with notes of pepper and toasted wood, the debut vintage of Vendetta boasts juicy fruit, a velvety mouthfeel, and supple tannins. Offering complementary flavors, the Cabernet Sauvignon selection, chosen for its textural dimension, moderate tannins, and floral nuances, harmonizes well with our Malbec, which boasts a cherry cola aroma and has peppery, mineral qualities. Vendetta's bold, assertive character is created from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon from Mendocino County and Malbec that hails from Monterey County. ![]() Purity, lush flavors, and balanced natural acidity became the hallmarks of this outstanding vintage. Despite the lack of precipitation, temperatures never got excessively warm like some years, so the vines, already optimized from the vintage before, produced low yields and exceptionally fragrant, ![]() The weather was unrelentingly dry in 2013.
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