In 1979, director and cinema pioneer Francis Ford Coppola bought part of the formerly world-famous Inglenook Estate, which had been founded by Niebaum 100 years earlier.
Initially pursued as a hobby in memory of his grandparents, who had pressed wines in their cellar in the Naples region, Coppola embarked on a serious winemaking career in the mid-1990s – so serious, in fact, that his Francis Ford Coppola Winery is now the twelfth-largest U.S. wine producer.
The vineyard
The Coppola wines are intended to be “everyday wines for everyday life”. But these wines are by no means simple Hollywood starlets. Francis Ford Coppola wines have a very personal touch, are powerful, perfectly balanced allround, long lasting and pleasantly mild.
All grapes for Francis Ford Coppola wines are certified organic.
Francis Ford Coppola Director’s Cut
After the success of his Napa Valley winery, Coppola sounded out the neighbouring Sonoma Valley in 2007, where he acquired the former Château Sovereign winery, expanded it, and created his Director’s Cut line of wines.
Wine region California
California is the United States’ largest and most important wine-growing region. Around 90 percent of the country’s wine production comes from here, resulting in wines which could hardly be more diverse due to the region’s widely differing climatic zones. Along the Pacific coast, California’s vineyards stretch over 1000 kilometres from north to south. Because of this vast expanse, viticulture takes place in a wide range of soil and climatic conditions.
The climate zones are divided into five regions (numbered 1 to 5), from cooler areas comparable to wine-growing regions such as Burgundy, Loire or Moselle, to regions similar to Bordeaux or Tuscany and hot regions like those of central Spain or even North Africa. This regional classification is quite controversial, and therefore the so-called AVA classification is often used.
A total of 320,000 hectares of vineyard area in California
There are more than 100 of these “American Viticultural Areas” making this classification more meaningful and reliable. It splits California into five major regions (Central Coast, Central Valley, North Coast, Sierra Foothills, and South Coast), each of which is further divided into smaller AVAs.
Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon dominate Californian viticulture, covering more than 30,000 hectares of vineyards. Colombard, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Zinfandel also play a prominent role. In addition to wine grapes, the Sultana table grape variety is also notable in California and is cultivated on about 30,000 hectares. Altogether, California has a total vineyard area of about 320,000 hectares, of which about 200,000 hectares are used for viticulture.
Wine region California