Inglenook

The Estate is the legacy of a Finnish Sea Captain, entrepreneur and wine connoisseur, Gustave Niebaum, who founded Inglenook in 1879. His vision was to build an Estate, which would rival the great Estates of Europe, in particular the Grand Crus of Bordeaux. He purchased the Estate which is sited in Rutherford, on the finest vineyards in the Napa Valley. Niebaum’s grandnephew, John Daniel Jr, inherited the Estate in the 1930s, by which time it had already achieved international praise. However, it was in 1975 when Francis and Eleanor Coppola purchased the Inglenook property that its electric modern history began. In 1995 Coppola reunited the two original Inglenook parcels by purchasing the grand Inglenook Chateau, which neighbours other great vineyards such as Heitz Wine Cellars Matha’s Vineyard. It is a romantic notion that allegedly this acquisition was made from the proceeds of The Godfather Part II. He renamed the winery Rubicon Estate in 2006, which he then reverted to Inglenook in 2011. The bottle design has been through as many incarnations, the current design is a replica of the post prohibition era label, the fabled 1941 vintage which took Europe by storm.

Rubicon, as it is known now, has been the Estate’s flagship wine since 1978. It is constructed from the best fruit grown on the Estate, including Cabernet Sauvignon selections planted by Niebaum in the 1880s. All grapes are harvested from organically grown plots on the Estate. Rubicon spends 18 months in French oak, 75% new oak. The long serving winemaker, Scott McLeod left in 2009 when the winemaking guru Stephane Derenoncourt came on as a consultant. In 2011, Chateau Margaux’s Philippe Bascaules became the Estate manager and winemaker. Stylistically Rubicon continues to be an old-world style Napa, with much more balance, minerality and savoury tones than many Napa bombs.