Founded by Francis Ford Coppola in the late 1970s, Niebaum-Coppola revived the historic Inglenook estate first established by Gustave Niebaum in 1879. Coppola began restoring the Rutherford property in 1975, replanting vineyards and modernizing the cellar while keeping the focus on Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the alluvial fans of western Rutherford. The team emphasized low yields, careful canopy work, and parcel-by-parcel harvesting to rebuild quality. Fermentations took place in stainless steel with extended macerations to capture depth, followed by aging in French oak selected to frame the estate’s dark fruit profile. By the 1990s the wines had regained a reputation for structure and purity, setting the stage for the eventual return to the Inglenook name.