Linda Murphy: I felt ancient last week when I revisited Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery – er, make that Rubicon Estate, the new name for Francis Ford Coppola’s Rutherford vineyard and winery – because it underscored the fact that the film director/producer/screenwriter has been a Napa Valley vintner for more than 30 years.
It seems like just yesterday (1975, actually) that Coppola purchased the Inglenook estate, founded by Gustave Niebaum in 1880 and where John Daniel Jr made some of California’s finest Cabernet Sauvignons before he sold Inglenook to United Vintners in 1964. Soon after, Heublein Inc took over, and with...