James Maynard Keenan and Caduceus Wine Cellars

The story of Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola’s stewardship of the Inglenook Estate has as much intrigue as the plots of his movies. Forty-two years on, it looks like the trajectory of the estate is toward a warm-and-fuzzy sort of happy ending. It feels appropriate for an estate named after the Scottish expression for “cozy corner”. Coppola never expected this kind of saga turned fairytale. After all, Coppola and his wife, Eleanor, were only looking for a country cottage. It was 1972, and the couple wanted a get-away from San Francisco. If their home-away-from-home had a few vines, maybe they would make wine like Coppola’s grandfather did in his basement. Their realtor insisted they take a rare peek inside the historic Niebaum home, up for sale for two years, even if just out of curiosity. Luckily the Coppolas had plenty of funds from Francis’ first two The Godfather movies, because they fell smitten. Unfortunately, a housing and golf course developer outbid them. Enter, stage left, the newly formed Land Trust of Napa County. It struck down the plans for fear of the land becoming a commuter village. The developer offered the property to the Coppolas, and they at last snapped up the house and the “back property” of the original Niebaum estate in 1975. The Coppolas instinctively knew their mission: to return the Inglenook estate into the world-class wine producer it was under the reigns of founder Gustave Niebaum then John Daniel, Sr. Driving up to the château today, you’d never guess all of the toil, passion and expense that went into revitalizing this historic property. The obsession with quality had been a focal point at Inglenook from the start. As John Daniel, Jr. wrote to his sister in March of 1942,“A reputation for quality is very difficult to build up, and once lost sometimes takes generations in the wine business to reclaim.” The Coppolas would have to reclaim much more than just the house and the “back property” to fully restore Inglenook. This is because Daniel, Sr. sold the front portion of the property and the château to the cooperative United Vintners in 1964. The cooperative ran quality into the ground while associating the Inglenook name with jug wine. Fortunately, the company decided to sell the vineyards and the château in 1995. Coppola acquired them. The wines continued to be produced under the Niebaum-Coppola label, a nod to the Bordelais tradition of combining prior and current owners’ names. It wasn’t until 2011 that Coppola acquired the rights to the Inglenook name and its iconic château image. Thanks to many turns of fate and the on-going devotion of the Coppolas, the Inglenook Estate sits fully reunited (and even expanded) in Rutherford, California in the heart of Napa Valley. Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson wrote in The World Atlas of Wine, “Rutherford is the Pauillac of California.” And indeed, the wine quality has been raised to be fitting of such a distinguished comparison, thanks especially to the presence of Philippe Bascaules – winemaker of Château Margaux for 21 years – for the last six years. Coppola chose the name “Rubicon”, as the name of his first commercialized wine. It is a reference to Caesar’s famous crossing of the Rubicon, a point of no return. This is an incredibly apt name for Coppola’s Inglenook project. So is another Caesar attribution, “Veni, vidi, vici.” 荷里活導演法蘭西斯・福特・哥普拉及他的Inglenook Estate的故事，就像他的電影一樣峰迴路轉。 四十二年來，酒莊的軌跡看起來正邁向溫暖而快樂的結局。Inglenook Estate 這名字在蘇格蘭語中是「舒適的角落」的意思。 哥普拉從來沒有想過這種傳奇變成童話。 畢竟，他和他的妻子伊莉諾原本只想尋找一間鄉村小屋。1972年這對夫婦想要離開舊金山。即使他們的家園外有些葡萄藤，他們或許只會像其祖父一樣在地下室釀造一些葡萄酒。 但他們的房地產經紀人堅持讓他們看看已放售兩年Niebaum的家。 幸運的是哥普拉夫婦從兩部教父電影中獲得足夠的資金；不幸的是住房和高爾夫球場已超出了他們的預算。新成立的納帕縣土地信託，改變了土地原本發展成的命運。 開發商向哥普拉出售物業，最終他們在1975年購入了Niebaum莊園及物業。 哥普拉斯本能地清楚他們的使命：帶領Inglenook重回世界級葡萄酒生產商的行列，就像昔日創始人Gustave Niebaum及其繼承者John Daniel時的光輝歲月。今天如果你有幸參觀他們的城堡，你不會猜想到風光背後的辛勞、激情和付出。 Inglenook的焦點一直在於酒質。正如John Daniel 1942年3月寫給他妹妹的信中提到︰「聲譽的建立十分艱難，而一旦失去了，可能花幾代人的努力才能重回軌道。」哥普拉必須做更多，才能夠完全恢復Inglenook昔日的繁榮。 這是因為Daniel, Sr 於1964年將財產和酒莊賣給了United Vintners合作社。合作社並不重視品質，甚至將Inglenook的名字與平價葡萄酒連結起來。 幸運的是，1995年合作社決定出售葡萄園及酒莊。哥普拉收購了它們，其所生產的葡萄酒續以Niebaum-Coppola為標籤——將以往和現有業主名稱相結合的做法，是Bordelais的傳統。直到2011年，哥普拉才獲得了Inglenook的名稱及其標誌性酒莊形象的權利。 憑藉哥普拉持續的熱忱加上一連串的緣份，Inglenook莊園在納帕谷心臟地帶Rutherford 重新累積實力，甚至擴展起來。 Jancis Robinson 及 Hugh Johnson曾在《世界葡萄酒圖集》中寫道：「Rutherford是加州的Pauillac。」這一區葡萄酒質量名副其實，特別是Philippe Bascaules的6年來的積極參與——他 曾在Margaux莊園工作達21年之久。 哥普拉選擇了「Rubicon」這名稱作為他第一個商業葡萄酒的名稱。 這是取名於著名的凱撒渡過Rubicon河的戰役，取其「破釜沈舟」之意；與他另一款酒的名字 「Veni, vidi, vici」一樣，都充分表達了酒莊背後的故事。

Bill Stoller spent his first weeks of life on the 373-acre family turkey farm in Dayton, Oregon that his father and uncle purchased in the 1940s. No one could have guessed he would eventually purchase that farm over forty years later to turn it into a thriving vineyard... especially as the modern Willamette Valley, Oregon wine industry was to be born about a decade later. Bill didn’t grow up drinking wine. He only took his first sips in a wine class in the late 1970s. But as the Willamette Valley began to develop – literally – its wine roots, Bill noticed. He realized the family turkey farm’s poor soils and southern exposition – ranging from 200 to 700 feet in altitude – were better for vines than birds. The transition from then to now was dynamic. Growing up, Bill remained in Oregon but then branched out around the globe. Bill is the Co-Founder and President of Express Employment Professionals, the world’s largest, privately held staffing company. It operates 770 franchise offices in four countries. Along the way, Bill founded Stoller Family Estate and then another Oregon-based company, Xenium, offering human resources and payroll and benefits services to small to mid- sized companies. Bill is not just a man of vision but of incredible energy! Upon founding Stoller Family Estate in 1995, Bill planted only 20 acres – 10 each of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Today, 210 acres of gently rolling hills are planted, predominantly with Pinot Noir. The Stoller Family Estate sells its approximately 40,000 9-liter cases of annual production to 35 USA states and four countries. Bill wrote, “I started the vineyard with the idea of just being a farmer, but after several years, it just became a desire to start our own label.” It seems the perfect inflection point that as Bill is not the winemaker, but rather an employment services expert, he hired an overachieving team to make his wines. Melissa Burr, Director of Winemaking, along with Ben Howe and Kate Payne Brown, are the guiding lights for the Stoller Family Estate’s world-class wines. The latest team addition is Jason Tosch, a vineyard management mastermind who thinks as much about the next generations of Stoller winemakers as he does about today’s. ​ That is remarkable. Vines - like people - must mature to become more interesting. A turkey farm was formative in Bill’s early days, so he created his estate winery to be passed on for two centuries or more. That’s remarkable thinking, and it’s especially exhilarating to see how quickly Bill’s hires have succeeded in what is still a relatively young wine region. From turkeys to wine tastings, Bill says, “No regrets!”  二十世紀四十年代，比爾・斯托勒(Bill Stoller)的父親和叔叔在俄勒岡州代頓購入了373英畝的家庭式火雞養殖場。比爾在此度過了人生最初的幾個星期。誰又會猜到在四十多年後，這個小男孩在會重新購入同一個農場，並將它變成一個讓人豔 羨的葡萄園？實際上當今俄勒岡威拉米特山谷的葡萄酒產業，是在比爾購入此農場後才開始萌芽。 ​ 比爾在成長的過程中並沒有怎麼喝酒。事實上他喝的第一口酒，是 70 年代末於波特蘭社區學院上的葡萄酒鑑賞課。當威拉米特山谷開始萌芽，比爾意識到家庭火雞場的貧瘠土壤、200 至 700 英尺向南的斜坡，其實適合葡萄藤的生長多於火雞。 ​ 故事並非直線發展。比爾小時候在俄勒岡州接受教育，但隨後他的生活圈逐漸擴展至全球。Bill 是全球最大的私營員工公司 Express Employment Professionals 的 創 始人之一兼總裁，其公司在四個國家設有 770 家特許經營分公司。Bill 創立 Stoller Family Estate 之後，還在俄勒岡州創辦了 另一家公司 Xenium，專為中小型企業提供 人力資源和薪酬福利服務。比爾不僅是一 個有願景的人，而且還有不可思議的精力! ​ 1995年成立Stoller家族莊園後，Bill 起初 只種植20英畝 – 霞多麗黑比諾各10英畝。 今天,Stoller丘陵起伏的領土所覆蓋 的葡萄園面積已達210英畝，當中大部分是黑皮諾。目前 Stoller 家族莊園每年售出約40,000箱葡萄酒(當然每年有所不同) 至美國 35個州和四個國家(加拿大 、瑞典、丹麥和澳洲)。 比爾回憶道，他最初只為了種植葡萄：「我本來只一心做個農民，但幾年之後，卻希望擁有屬於自己的酒標。」比爾雖然不是釀酒師，但他就是有一種能力，聘請到一支超級有能力的團隊，幫助他完成他的夢想。 擔任酒莊設計的釀酒師 Melissa Burr，連同 Ben Howe 和 Kate Payne Brown，是 Stolerer家族莊園世界級葡萄酒背後的功臣。該團隊的最新成員傑森・托奇是一位葡萄園管理策劃人。他希望以後幾代的 Stoller 釀酒師都能跟他一樣有著遠見。 ​ 這是非常重要的。種植葡萄需要無比的耐 性。葡萄藤必須成熟 ( 像人一樣 ) 才會變得更有趣。 比爾從農場生活中養成了一 套信念,他創造的葡萄園和酒莊將傳承兩 個世紀以上。這在任何時代都是非常出色的想法。特別令人興奮的是,比爾的團隊成功如何在一個年輕的產區成功釀製出頂級葡萄酒。從養火雞到品酒，比爾從來都沒有後悔!