2021 Francis Ford Coppola Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley Director's Cut

The Zinfadel is produced with fruit located in the Dry Creek Valley appellation where the combination of the climate and the beautiful terroir produces excellent Zinfandel grapes with an intensely concentrated taste. Half of the grapes are pressed whole and the must is fermented in open-top fermenters for maximum color extraction and flavor. The wine is then allowed to stay in a combination of French and American oak, which, as Coppola describes, "gives the wine real shoulders."

In the glass, this Coppola Zinfandel from the Director's Cut series is deep ruby red, as a beautiful Zinfandel should be. On the nose, this zinfandel is a wonderfully powerful, full-bodied wine with ripe scents of fig, raisin, amarene cherries, chocolate and spices. The Director's Cut Zinfandel is lush full bodied and velvety on the palate. On the palate, this Coppola is intense and full of flavor with ripe black fruit of dried plum, blackberry, spices, vanilla and a hint of laurel licorice. A small amount of Petite Syrah has been added to this Zinfandel to give the wine a firmer structure and complexity.

Francis Ford Coppola (Detroit, April 7, 1939) is an American director, film producer and screenwriter known for, among others, The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now and is considered one of Hollywood's most important directors. In addition, Francis Ford Coppola has been active in wine growing and trading since the 1970s. In 1975, he and his wife purchased the estate of Finnish sea captain Gustave Niebaum in Rutherford, California (located in the famous Napa Valley wine region) and the surrounding vineyards. That winery is now called the Rubicon Estate Winery. Coppola also owns the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in the Sonoma Valley.

Winemaking is a long-standing tradition within the Coppola family. In fact, Francis Ford Coppola has been making wine for longer than he has been directing films. Grandfather Coppola used to make wine in the cellars of their New York apartment from grapes brought especially from California. The wines that Coppola makes today are no longer the same as those from the cellars in New York, but they are made with the same philosophy. Wines to drink with friends and family.

The parent company of the Francis Ford Coppola Winery was named USA Wine Producer of the Year by the International Wine & Spirit Competition on November 16, 2011.