Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1941

Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1941 (Price: $24,675)

Sold in 2004, "Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1941” is regarded as the most expensive bottle of American wine ever sold. Inglenook is now known as Rubicon and owned by filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who is said to keep one of them (empty) on top of his fridge. “It was one of the best I’d ever had.” 

Gustave Niebaum founded 'Inglenook' in 1879. He was a Finnish fur-trader who had settled in Rutherford and planted vineyards. In 1975, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola bought it, spending the next 40 years reconstructing and restoring. Inglenook was one of the most renowned Californian wines until the 1970s. Since then the Inglenook name has passed through several owners and the Inglenook brand became synonymous with the lowest-level jug wines. Earlier this year Coppola acquired the Inglenook name and now intends to restore it to its former reputation.

Initially he called the estate 'Niebaum-Coppola', then chaned to 'Rubicon Estate', and he will now restore the original name to 'Inglenook.' Coppolar said “I now have the right wine and the right people behind it. If that doesn’t rehabilitate Inglenook, then no amount of public relations is going to do that for you.”

American critic James Laube described the 1941 as ‘one of the greatest red wines ever made, and Christie’s (the world's largest auction house) suggests it ‘can take its place’ alongside such wines as 1945 Mouton, 1982 Lafite and 1961 Latour.'

Also for sale are key vintages from the years 1946-2008, the later bottles under the Rubicon name. Describing the restoration of Inglenook as ‘a remarkable labour of love’ Christie’s wine specialist Charles Antin said, 

"All of the wines…were acquired by Coppola when he purchased the estate in the 1970s and have remained undisturbed… the true crown jewels of the Napa Valley."