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Coppola Releases His First Rubicon Wine Under the Inglenook Label

He's got high hopes for this property.
He’s got high hopes for this property. Photo: Getty Images

Francis Ford Coppola today announced that his 2009 Rubicon has now been released under the renowned Inglenook label.* He has long owned the fabled Inglenook property, once thought to be Napa’s equivalent of “premier cru,” and he recently acquired the brand name, which had languished and become associated in the middle of the last century with cheap jug wine. But back in the day, from about 1890 into the 1940s, Inglenook was a world-class, Bordeaux-style wine appreciated by connoisseurs long before Napa made a name for itself on the world stage in the seventies. Coppola purchased the vineyard and wine facilty under the name of Gustave Niebaum, who had owned Inglenook, and renamed it Niebaum-Coppola, but he’s now restored its original name, and intends to restore the Inglenook name to greatness over the next couple of decades — noting that in grape-growing terms, it may take that long to coax the full potential out of the land, even if he himself might not live to see it. The 2009 Rubicon, with the Inglenook label, is retailing for $200. [Earlier]

* This post has been corrected to show that Coppola actually released one wine previous to this one, the 2009 CASK Cabernet, under the Inglenook label.

Coppola Releases His First Rubicon Wine Under the Inglenook Label