Northern California Wineries: Rosso and Bianco

This is Francis Ford Coppola’s latest wine venture. 

I suppose if you really want to have a winery with all kinds of movie props and paraphernalia as an integral part of your winery, including the old Tucker made for the film of the same name, it would be much better to provide that kind of wine-tasting experience in a building just off a four lane highway (101) where there is not another winery immediately adjacent rather than along small two-lane Highway 29 through the Napa Valley.  I’ve been to the Rubicon Estate Winery in the Napa Valley (originally known as Niebaum-Coppola), where all of this paraphernalia is now displayed, on a weekend (my mistake) and the buses and crowds are way too much.  I’m sure it puts a lot of strain on other wineries in the area since wineries are cheek to jowl in Napa.   So it is probably a good thing that Coppola is going to move all of that to Rosso and Bianco (the old Chateau Souverain plant in Geyserville that he took over last year).  And, it’s somewhat fitting, since right across the valley is River Rock Casino, which is trying to expand into a destination casino.  The parents can leave the kids at the winery while they play the slots at River Rock.

Another  good thing about Rosso and Bianco is the As Yet Unnamed Café, especially if you like artisan pizza.  The cafe has a wonderful view east over the vineyards; the food is reasonable and quite good, including the desserts.  However, we visited during the week in winter and ti was quite comfortable and we could take our time.  I would expect that it will become a zoo in the summer.

Many of the wines at Rubicon are estate-bottled.  The wines at Rosso and Bianco are supposed to be based on Sonoma grapes.  Tasting is free for the low-end rosso and bianco wines (relatively generic reds and whites).  There is a tasting fee for the other wines – $10 for Diamond and Sofia wines and $15 for Signature, Director’s Cut and FC Reserve wines.  Even the higher-end wines, however, are priced very well.  We had a bottle of the FC Reserve Pinot Noir with our lunch and it was priced around $30.  It was a relatively light pinot noir, but was very smooth.  In keeping with my interest in champagnes, we tried the Sofia Blanc de Blancs, but I would not recommend it.  It was dry, but had very little character.

~ by bubblytrail on January 25, 2008.