Whose Zoomin' Who and Kissin' Major Boo-tay?
Written: Jan 14 '02 (Updated Jan 14 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fairly inexpensive. Interesting to try.
Cons: Pretty average. Not really a horrible wine, but super Hollywood hyped.
The Bottom Line: An everyday wine suitable for most any meal and most any occasion. Not particularly great. There are many better wines in this price class.
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| 4-1-1's Full Review: Niebaum Coppola Rosso California Red Table Wine 19... |
Coppola's California "Rosso" red and "Bianco" white wines are important new additions to the Niebaum-Coppola family of wines. They are important because Niebaum-Coppola needed to offer some wines in the under-$8 price class in order to promote their brand to a larger class of wine drinkers.
It is not enough that legendary Hollywood film producer Francis Ford Coppola lends his name, money, and business talent to the wine making operations at Niebaum-Coppola. In order for the winery to succeed, it must sell wine. And it faces incredibly intense competition from its more established neighbors in the Napa Valley -- wineries like Beaulieu Vineyard, Beringer, and Robert Mondavi -- who have long produced premium wines (over $15 price class) and have also branched out and developed more affordable wine brands (introducing under-$8/bottle "Coastal" lines) to shore up their product lines to appeal to a wider class of consumers.
According to Wine Trends (a wine marketing project that analyzes sales data from more than 200 wineries), there are eight different marketing price segments for wine, but for purposes of simplification, these segments can be reduced to three major price categories.
Under $8: accounts for 78% of sales volume, 48% of revenue
$8 - $15: accounts for 14% of sales volume, 22% of revenue
Over $15: accounts for 8% of sales volume, 30% of revenue
Until the release of the "Francis Coppola Presents" series of table wines, Niebaum-Coppola had nothing to offer to the largest class of wine drinkers: those who buy wine costing less than $8 per bottle.
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This is a review of the 2000 Vintage of Coppola Rosso, which is in current release.
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Coppola Rosso 2000
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Quoting Francis Ford Coppola: "These wines are simply meant to be delicious.... Don't spend too much time thinking about them. Good wine stands on its own."
The Coppola Rosso is a red table wine that is Zinfandel based but also contains a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, and Syrah wine varieties. It is not a wine cocktail or wine cooler, but a sincere attempt to produce a red table wine that is inexpensive to produce and, therefore, inexpensive for the consumer to buy. The 2000 vintage is a 13.5% alcohol by volume red wine, a full ˝% larger than the 1998 and 1999 vintages. (Epinions lists only the 1998 vintage in its database of wines.)
In terms of flavor, I found this wine to be thin, lacking in fruit flavor, but tasting clean and finishing fresh. Reporting on the introductory 1998 release of this wine, Wine Spectator magazine reported: "Top 25 Red Wine Values in the World! An up-front style featuring firm yet smooth tannins. Plum and raspberry flavors framed in smoky oak fan out nicely on the palate."
...And, to this, I say: pshaw. That's a kiss-ãss write-up if I ever seen one. There is no way that this $8 bottle of blended wine could be considered as one of the "Top 25 Red Wine Values in the World." There must be a thousand wine producers in Italy that consistently put out a better wine at a cheaper price, year-in and year-out. And I have tried quite a few California wines, some even costing less than $5 a bottle, that flat beat and outperform the Coppola Rosso.
Price and Availability
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I purchased two glasses of this wine with my dinner of Pasta Jambalaya at Mimi's Restaurant in Whittier, California. Price: $5.75 per glass. I then went across the street and bought a 750 ml bottle of the 2000 Coppola Rosso for $7.99 at Trader Joe's Market.
Recommendations
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The Coppola Rosso 2000 is an everyday wine suitable for pasta dishes, beef dishes, and most any meal or occasion. Admittedly, not a fancy wine. But not a bad wine at all. A decent wine for everyday enjoyment.
Verdict: 2˝-stars. Not particularly recommended. I will not, for example, pay over $5 for a glass of this wine in a restaurant again. (At $3.50, I'd consider it.) And, at the supermarket, I may buy this if I see it on sale for around $7. But, truth be told, I'll probably buy a red blend from Australia first (many good ones at under $7/bottle), or a simple but classic Egri Bikavér "Bull's Blood of Eger" from Hungary (usually under $4).
Recommended:
No
Winery Name: Niebaum-Coppola
Designation: BLEND
Country: USA
State or Region: California
Price: 8.00
Wine Rating Scale: Drinkable
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Epinions.com ID:
4-1-1
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 - Top 50 |
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Member: Tom Carr
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 1091
Trusted by: 695 members
About Me:
Go U.S.C.!!!
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