A Visit to Coppola Winery

Francis Ford Coppola, director of movies like "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now", is also a wine maker, and may I say so, a darn good one. Two of our friends work at the winery, and yesterday, when Kaefer was staying with a friend, the Geek and I went to spend a few hours "in the vineyards". I love wine, especially red wine, and an excuse for a little wine tasting always works for me.

 The winery, formerly called "Rosso e Bianco", is situated in lovely Alexander Valley, near Geyserville.

The driveway

The winery turned out to be a photographer's paradise. After we had a wonderful wine tasting with our friends, we walked around the grounds of the winery, enjoying the good mood. It was crowded, but both the Geek and I were completely "in the zone" taking pictures that we couldn't bother less.

The former small winery was completely remodeled and turned into a family-friendly facility in 2010. The architecture is quite fascinating with those two pyramid towers (this is one of them). There is a huge pool and bocce courts - good summer entertainment.

Inside is a restaurant which is supposed to be VERY good, the tasting room and showrooms where you can stroll through. It is pure eye-candy. See for yourself.

The wine on the left - the Director's Cut Zinfandel - is my favorite wine from this winery. But every wine I tasted here is excellent. I couldn't find a single one that I didn't like.

Coppola collaborates with production designer Dean Tavoularis, whom he first met during the production of "The Godfather". They have worked creatively together ever since - Tavoularis worked on the interior and exterior design of this winery -, and he also designed some of the bottle labels of the Francis Coppola Reserve wines - like this one, the Syrah. This is my favorite wine label (and the wine is delicious as well):

Isn't this some great inspiration? Guess what will be in my art journal pretty soon?

And talking of the "The Godfather", this is the desk and the chair you can see in the movie:

Coppola's Oscars and the Berlinale Camera are also displayed in this winery.

Another display we really liked was Coppola's Tucker - one of the very few that were built. Coppola actually owns two of them. A fascinating car, especially the cyclops eye headlight.

At the end of our stay we even saw Coppola and George Lucas (you know, "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones") - they just mingled with the crowd and I really liked that no one bothered them.

Here's a last view from the winery over Alexander Valley in beautiful Sonoma County.