Francis Ford Coppola tells Wine Future great wine making is like making a film

Published: 06 November, 2011

Film director Francis Ford Coppola likened wine making to film making in his address to the Wine Future conference in Hong Kong.

Ultimately, he said the best winemaking was the same as telling a story in a film, and it is what makes wine such a unique part of our history, our timeless culture. Through wine, he stressed, you are creating your own legend.

It gave him enormous pleasure to be able to drink a wine from a vineyard or producer mentioned in a great literary work from sayBalzac or Dumas. "You must follow the legendary story in the wine itself."

As for his own history in wine, he cited, eight pieces of luck and fortune that had allowed him to become owner of the iconic Inglehook US winery in Napa, California. But as with his films it gave him a great sense of pride that the wines and the winery would now remain in his family for generations to come.

He joined a line up speakers from the New World, including Wines of South Africa's Su Birch, former head of Wine Australia and now wine consultant, Paul Henry, and Wines of Argentina's Alberto Arizu and Concha y Toro's Cristian Lopez, who argued the terms Old and New World wines were becoming increasingly meaningless and that a great wine is a great wine regardless of where it is made.

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