Korbel and Coppola

Sonoma County

These two wineries have a lot of history.  Although they may not be the typical wine tasting spots for seasoned wine tasters, I think it is good to visit some of the real winery destination stops from time to time.  Many of us think that we don’t need to go to these wineries because you see all their wine in the stores and when you go wine tasting you only want to go to the smaller or the secret  wineries.    We generally go by this rule also but sometimes you miss some pretty good stuff when you take on that attitude.   While Korbel  has lots and lots of history dating back to the 1880’s, Coppola and the site of the present day Francis Ford Coppola winery has  some pretty cool history also.

 

 

We first stopped at Korbel because champagne is always a good way to start.  At Korbel they are actually allowed to call it champagne.  I think the fact that they have been around so long must exempt them from the rule that what we think of as champagne but made in California has to be called sparkling wine.  Korbel really has some pretty interesting history.

 

 

 

Three Korbel brothers arrived in San Francisco in the mid 1800’s.  Eventually their interests moved beyond the city to the Russian River area of Sonoma County and they got into the lumber business and eventually became farmers.  In the late 1870’s the first vineyards were planted and in 1882 they began producing wine.  Their wine was so well received that they then planted all their orchards lands to grapes.  By the 1890’s they were producing their first champagne.  The winery flourished until prohibition.  Fortunately because of the diversity of the Korbel’s business ventures the family was able to still prosper.  The three founding brothers died during prohibition but when prohibition was appealed the winery was set to take on its second life.  The second and third generation grew the winery until in 1954 when they sold the winery to Adolph Heck.  The winery has been in the same family since and is now run by Gary Heck.

We arrived just after the tasting room had opened and the parking lot was full.  Since the facility is large there were numerous activities going on.  There was some kind of special event going on where you paid a fee ($25 I seem to remember) and were provided food samplings and different wines.  We headed instead straight to the tasting room.  There were lots of people in the room but probably 4 - 5 people pouring.  This is not the kind of place where they spend several minutes detailing each wine.  With probably 100’s of guests each day this would be impossible.  I think you are supposed to keep yourself to five tastes (there is no fee) but again with 4-5 people pouring you could exceed this number easily.  I counted 14 champagnes available along with 7 wines.  The champagnes are listed from driest (Le Premier at $24.99 and the most expensive) to sweetest (Sweet Rose at $14.99).  I think Korbel says they sell 1.2 million cases per year but this is concentrated in 4 or 5 types and most of the wines open are fairly small production wines.  We liked all of the drier champagnes up to the Brut Rose.  The Rouge was a special that day at $8.39 and was almost a sangiovese color.  This was not our favorite.  We also tried the Pinot Noir as after all the winery overlooks the Russian River and we like RR Pinot.  It was good and at a nice price of $16.99. 

What amazes me most about Korbel is that you can really get some great deal.  If you buy 3 cases you receive a 40% discount.  At this discount you can get a bottle of Korbel Brut for $6.59.  You cannot come close to beating that anywhere.  Like I mentioned in the Kenwood review, the Heck organization sure knows how to give you a good value.  Kenwood Winery is owned by the Heck family.

Our second stop was Francis Ford Coppola Winery (of movie fame) which is now located at the old Chateau Sourverain facility in Geyserville.   For those of you who have not heard about this place it is really a first of its kind.  Coppola moved his winery operations from Napa to here.  He left behind in Napa his highest end wines I think all carrying the Rubicon label.  This facility now is a wine resort.  In addition to a tasting room there are all kinds of things to be found on the property.  The most interesting is the Pool and Cabines.  For $125 a day four people get use of the pool and are provided a cabin (for dressing and includes a shower) along with some other goodies including wine tasting.  Of course there is a poolside bar and food available. It actually looks pretty cool.  There are also bocce courts, a very nice restaurant, a movie gallery and of course lots of Coppola themed retail items (with a heavy dose of Godfather stuff).

 

We had a free tasting coupon which provided us four or five tastes.  I believe there are several tasting levels available starting from a free single taste to a $10 tasting and up from there.  The tasting room included a full horseshoe bar surrounded by more movie themed exhibits.  There were several pourers.  Coppola is very marketing oriented and they have several  wine groupings or levels.  I think most of them you do not see in general distribution.   I think to taste some of the reserve wines you probably have to move up from the $10 tasting level.  Coppola sources grapes from all over northern California although the higher end/reserve wines are of Sonoma County grapes.  Coppola is successful because of their artful and creative marketing (there seem to be a story behind every wine) and because the wines are a pretty good overall value.  The reserve cabernet and reserve Pinot are priced at $38.  There are a couple of special blends above that but in general the wines are in the $15-$25 range.  And more than likely you can find real good bargains on these wines at your local grocery.

And what did we taste- We tasted several reds.  None of them stood out as ‘wow’ but they were all good.  We also tasted the Sofia- Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine as well as a Su Yuen Riesling (marketed to match with Asian foods).  Thumbs up on the sparkling wine but not too far up on the Riesling.   

I think Coppola is a great spot for the very occasional wine tasting taster and great possible spot to hang for a day.  There is a lot of wow factor and I think a great spot to take out of town guests.   You can though find some pretty good Coppola wine bargains out on the street.

 

What we liked- Great tourist destinations. Great scenery at both spots. 

What we bought- Nothing but if we had a special event coming up we would certainly drive to Korbel to pick up some cases of Brut.

Vitals:
Korbel Winery
13250 River Road
Guerneville, CA  95446
(707) 824-7000
www.korbel.com

 

Francis Ford Coppola Winery

300 Via Archimedes
Geyserville, CA  95441
(707) 857-1400
www.franciscopollawinery.com