A Sense of Place: An Intimate Portrait of the Niebaum-Coppola Winery and the Napa Valley Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

A Sense of Place: An Intimate Portrait of the Niebaum-Coppola Winery and the Napa Valley Book

Obscenely wealthy entrepreneurs--men who made their bundle in the coffee business, mining, shipping, commodities, and politics--decide to buy hobby vineyards in the trendy Napa Valley. The San Francisco Examiner publishes a special lifestyle edition on California wines. Sound familiar? Welcome to Rutherford, California circa 1890. And welcome to A Sense of Place: An Intimate Portrait of the Niebaum-Coppola Winery and the Napa Valley by Steven Kolpan, professor of wine studies at The Culinary Institute of America. By charting the history of one piece of Napa soil, the author provides an absolutely fascinating tour that is part documentary, part Hollywood fable, and part scathing chronicle of corporate ineptitude. When Finnish mariner-turned-San-Francisco-millionaire Gustav Niebaum establishes Inglenook Estate in 1879, his dream is to make the finest wine in California. His heir comes close to fulfilling the dream before selling a portion of the estate to a wine co-op, which is purchased by liquor giant Heublein. Heublein turns the once-proud estate into a jug wine brand. Meanwhile, the heir's Mormon wife--who hates everything about the wine business--sells the original house and remaining vineyards to film director Francis Ford Coppola, who 20 years later buys Heublein's parcel to reunite the original estate. Chapters recount this tale through the recollections of Rafael Rodriguez, a migrant laborer working at the property in the 1950s and now vineyard manager; Scott McLeod, current Niebaum-Coppola "winegrower" and artisan of the high-end Rubicon; and Dennis Fife, Inglenook's final president during the tumultuous Heublein days and now a respected winemaker in his own right, in a chapter that reads like a financial report written by Mel Brooks. Captain Niebaum's 1884 Inglenook Claret sold for $3 a case. Coppola's 1995 Rubicon was $75 a bottle. For the price of A Sense of Place, every Cabernet fan will be able to savor a little piece of "Rutherford dust." --Tony MasonRead More

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  • Product Description

    In A Sense of Place , renouned wine expert Steven Kolpan tells the stry of how Francis Ford Coppola brought California's most distinguished and historical vineyard back to life. Gustave Niebaum's Inglenook Estate, started in 1879, was one of California's first established vineyards and the birthplace of its premium wine industry. Generations after Niebaum's death, the vineyard was sold to Heublein (the distributor of Smirnoff Vodka, among others) who broke up the land and changed the brand from a premium, connoisseur wine to a mass-market jug wine. In 1975, Coppola bought the Niebaum residence and the surrounding estate. Along with the original estate reputation, he also brought back some of its original workers, including Rafael Rodriguez, who, in his late seventies, now serves as the vineyard manager and historian. Coppola overcame naysayer, red tape, and financial turmoil to reestablish the winery as a defender of quality, producing wine under four different labels, including the revered wined Rubicon and Cask Cabernet. In 1995, Coppola purchased the Inglenook Chateau and its adjacent vineyard, fulfilling his dream of reuniting the original Napa Valley Estate. Kolpan's luscious, flavorful narrative is worth enjoying now and keeping for later.

  • 0415920043
  • 9780415920049
  • Steven Kolpan
  • 2 September 1999
  • Routledge
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 325
  • 1
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