That was the pitch for a well-attended, last-minute event at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse BGC as guest speaker Simone Margheri, Asia regional manager of Delicato Family Wines, shared with us a quartet of wines from Francis Ford Coppola Winery’s Director’s Cut series, and stories about how the director of The Godfather movies came to sell that California winery to the fifth largest wine producer in the US.
“He decided to sell it to Delicato because he needed the money to self-fund the movie Megalopolis, which he is filming and will be released next year,” says Margheri to a family-style crowd at Wolfgang’s. Sale of this winery (Coppola still retains Inglenook, a 1,500-acre wine estate he acquired from a Finnish sea captain with profits from The Godfather) will allow the maverick director to complete his “dream movie,” a sci-fi epic with “a great cast” that includes Dustin Hoffman, Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel, we hear.
“Stay tuned, it’s going to be probably his last movie,” adds Margheri. “Though Coppola is 86 years old, he’s still very passionate about making movies, and this is really his pet project, he’s been wanting to do it for six or so years, but didn’t find any studio to back it. So now he finally has the money.”
That is so Coppola. Margheri, along with Anna Korobova, marketing events specialist for Philippine Wine Merchants, which brought in the wines, made the rounds of the tables as Wolfgang’s waiters served tuna tartar, crabmeat and salmon crostini with a Director’s Cut Russian River Chardonnay, a crisp white grown in a very busy southern region of Sonoma County with a cool climate.
As Margheri tells us, Coppola Winery is in Sonoma, a big region in the North Bay Area of San Francisco Bay, “much larger” than Napa Valley. The Coppola winery is, not surprisingly, “the most visited winery in Sonoma,” and the director’s wines have racked up dozens of awards since he went into production in the ‘70s.
We are poured a Director’s Cut Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel next, which pairs strongly with Wolfgang’s lamb chops. It’s a structured red with a touch of Petite Syrah and hints of sandalwood, wild forest berries and spices. While enjoying it, I hear about delicious suckling pig from Spain from Panama Embassy Chargé D’affaires Fabio Hidalgo Valdez, and about the joys of Zinfandel from oenologist Leyre Barco Escribano.
The Director’s Cut labels allude to the Zoetrope, an early “moving picture” device that also happens to be the name of Coppola’s original movie studio, one he built in the early ‘70s to help a generation of new directors — including Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and others — get funding for their dream projects. Coppola’s directing history may be hit or miss, but he did film the classic Apocalypse Now on these shores, and he does produce some very fine wines.
The pièce de résistance was the USDA dry-aged Porterhouse streak, served in family-style chunks with a full-bodied Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that had strong ripe blackberry and cherry notes and a touch of allspice and star anise. Succulent on both ends of the palate.
Margheri then uncorked yet another surprise: a bonus 2019 Coppola Diamond Collection claret, a somewhat drier red with hints of toffee, nuts and vanilla that highlighted the Porterhouse even more fully.
“I like to drink wine more than I used to,” mused Don Corleone in his garden while giving final instructions to his son Michael in The Godfather.
So do we all, I suppose. But only Brando and Coppola make it sound like wisdom.
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The Director’s Cut Wine Event at Wolfgang’s was sponsored by Philippine Wine Merchants. Visit www.pwm.ph for information on where to find Coppola Winery products. Also visit the 20th Grand Wine Experience, Southeast Asia’s biggest wine event, to be held at the Marriott Manila Grand Ballroom, Newport World Resorts on Friday, Nov. 17. Visit www.grandwineexperience.com for more information.