IWSC TROPHY FOR US PRODUCER OF THE YEAR: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA PRESENTS
Winemaking has been a Coppola family tradition for several generations. Agostino Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola’s grandfather, used to make wine in the basement of his New York apartment using concrete vats he constructed himself. The wines Ford Coppola makes differ greatly from those of Agostino, but they are produced in the same spirit – for sharing with friends and family. Coppola’s foray into wine started in 1975, when he 
and his wife Eleanor were living in San Francisco. Eager to find a small cottage in Napa Valley as a weekend retreat where they could make homemade wine, the cottage they so desired turned out to be the great Niebaum Mansion on the famed Inglenook Estate, bought from the proceedings of the first film in the famed Godfather trilogy.
Producing his first vintage in 1977 with his father, wife and children stomping the grapes barefoot, every year the family has a harvest party to continue the tradition. After purchasing the property, the director produced wine under the Niebaum- Coppola label. Acquiring the former Inglenook Winery property in 1995, Coppola renamed it Rubicon Estate in 2006, but changed it back to Inglenook this July, employing Château Margaux winemaker Philippe Bascaules as his managing director to work alongside Bordeaux-based consultant Stephane Derenoncourt, who has been with Coppola since 2008. Speaking at the time of the name change, Coppola said: “I want to return to elegance. I will go for the old Inglenook style – lower alcohol, more freshness, balance, more restrained tannins and less oak.”
