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Feature Article
Heavy rains in Alexander Valley turn Coppola’s newly acquired Souverain vineyards into roiling rivers.
Downpour Drenches Coppola’s Birthday Party
Francis Ford Coppola receives a wet, but enthusiastic reception in Alexander Valley
by
Thom Elkjer
April 11, 2006
GEYSERVILLE, CA – April 7. Francis Ford Coppola staged a “moving in” party at his newly purchased chateau in Alexander Valley on Friday evening, and apparently everyone in the appellation came on over. Unfortunately, the party also attracted one unwelcome guest: yet another winter storm. Standing under a party tent running with water on all four sides, Coppola needed a microphone to be heard above the drumming rain. As cars crawled up the driveway in a long, slow queue for parking, the vineyards on either side ran with muddy water that soon became roiling creeks.
There’s been little respite from the rain in Alexander Valley this winter and spring, and the local weather gods couldn’t even find it in their hearts to give Coppola a little sunshine on his 67th birthday. So he gamely posed with the locals who lined up again, this time for photos with the Hollywood vintner most of them had never seen in the flesh.
Coppola purchased the historic Chateau Souverain property this past winter as part of a brand makeover involving his equally iconic property in Napa Valley. His Niebaum-Coppola estate (formerly the Inglenook property founded by Gustav Niebaum in the 1880s) is now called Rubicon Estate. There, Coppola is producing Bordeaux varieties exclusively from the estate vineyards surrounding the winery. He bought Chateau Souverain’s land and buildings (but not the brand or its wine production) from Foster’s Wine Estates to give his “Diamond Series” of Cal-Italian value wines a home of their own – far from Napa.
The distance between the two estates is not just physical. Production of the Rubicon Estate wines is low enough to qualify them for scarcity pricing and collectability status. When Coppola paid millions for the Cohn ranch adjacent to Niebaum-Coppola a few years ago, he threw a party at the winery that featured valet parking, a lavish sit-down dinner, and the great man pressing the flesh with a glittery crowd.
Production of the Diamond Series, on the other hand, runs into the hundreds of thousands of cases and gets sent wherever bargain wines are sold. The party in Alexander Valley featured paltry pours in throw-away plastic glasses, undressed roast beef on plain buns, and locals gaping at Coppola from beyond a rope.
Still, it was a nice gesture to invite the whole neighborhood to his new digs, and the whole neighborhood responded enthusiastically despite getting drenched as part of the occasion.
~ Thom Elkjer, Northern Sonoma Editor
To comment on Thom Elkjer’s writings and thoughts, contact him at t.elkjer@appellationamerica.com
There’s been little respite from the rain in Alexander Valley this winter and spring, and the local weather gods couldn’t even find it in their hearts to give Coppola a little sunshine on his 67th birthday. So he gamely posed with the locals who lined up again, this time for photos with the Hollywood vintner most of them had never seen in the flesh.
Coppola purchased the historic Chateau Souverain property this past winter as part of a brand makeover involving his equally iconic property in Napa Valley. His Niebaum-Coppola estate (formerly the Inglenook property founded by Gustav Niebaum in the 1880s) is now called Rubicon Estate. There, Coppola is producing Bordeaux varieties exclusively from the estate vineyards surrounding the winery. He bought Chateau Souverain’s land and buildings (but not the brand or its wine production) from Foster’s Wine Estates to give his “Diamond Series” of Cal-Italian value wines a home of their own – far from Napa.
The distance between the two estates is not just physical. Production of the Rubicon Estate wines is low enough to qualify them for scarcity pricing and collectability status. When Coppola paid millions for the Cohn ranch adjacent to Niebaum-Coppola a few years ago, he threw a party at the winery that featured valet parking, a lavish sit-down dinner, and the great man pressing the flesh with a glittery crowd.
Production of the Diamond Series, on the other hand, runs into the hundreds of thousands of cases and gets sent wherever bargain wines are sold. The party in Alexander Valley featured paltry pours in throw-away plastic glasses, undressed roast beef on plain buns, and locals gaping at Coppola from beyond a rope.
Still, it was a nice gesture to invite the whole neighborhood to his new digs, and the whole neighborhood responded enthusiastically despite getting drenched as part of the occasion.
~ Thom Elkjer, Northern Sonoma Editor
To comment on Thom Elkjer’s writings and thoughts, contact him at t.elkjer@appellationamerica.com
