Francis Ford Coppola appoints Château Margaux winemaker

Francis Ford Coppola has appointed current estate director at Château Margaux, Philippe Bascaules as estate manager and winemaker at Inglenook, his newly named Napa Valley vineyard.

Bascaules, who said he was charmed by the beauty of the estate and its unique environment and recognised the potential of the property, will take up the position this summer.

Coppola has acquired the iconic Inglenook trademark from The Wine Group in order to change his Rubicon Estate in Rutherford, Napa Valley back to its original name.

He said: "Welcoming a pre-eminent winemaker like Philippe Bascaules to the renamed Inglenook expresses my intention to honor the estate's heritage and restore its legacy."

"There's an interesting idea that the owner of a wine estate is part of the terroir, and it's in this spirit that I've spent the last year assessing Inglenook's future needs, including recruiting Philippe Bascaules, invigorating the vineyards, planning a new state-of-the-art winemaking facility, and focusing on what it would take to achieve my goal of restoring this property into America's greatest wine estate."

Inglenook and its wines have played a prominent role in defining Napa Valley as one of the great wine regions of the world, with a legacy dating back nearly 150 years.

The 1941 Inglenook Cabernet, which is considered one of the greatest wines ever made, was produced from vineyards that are still part of Coppola's estate in Rutherford.

Rubicon will continue to be the proprietary name of Inglenook's flagship wine.