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Francis Ford Coppola sues again
In the latest lawsuit instigated by the film maker and winery owner, Francis Ford Coppola is suing a contractor over stolen wine tanks. db asks whether The Godfather director is especially litigious, or just unlucky?
Francis Ford Coppola is world famous for directing some of the biggest movies of all time including The Godfather, The Godfather II and Apocalypse Now. In the last decade or so he has also won serious critical acclaim for his wines after purchasing Inglenook winery and vineyards in 1995.
Coppola joined La Place de Bordeaux in 2018, launching his Rubicon and Blancaneaux wines in the French platform’s September campaign of that year, and has continued to innovate, adding canned wines to his portfolio and extending his reach with the purchase of Vista Hills Vineyard in Willamette Valley, Oregon.
“What started as a dream to buy a family cottage in Napa Valley turned into a million+ case business producing iconic award-winning wines,” Coppola has said.
In recent years, however, he has also become known for firing off lawsuits with lightning speed.
Latest case
In July 2024 Coppola filed a case with Napa County Superior Court to sue contractor George Giles Beeker for US$2 million over allegedly stealing 26 wine tanks from Inglenook and selling them on to Calistoga Vintner Services (CVS).
The ongoing lawsuit also accuses Beeker of embezzling money and sending fraudulent invoices.
Beeker, who has been described as Coppola’s one-time friend and “right-hand man”, was running point on the construction of a new, 22,000 square foot production space for Inglenook when the alleged fraud occurred.
In legal documents, Coppola calls Beeker’s alleged actions “tortious, malicious, outrageous, oppressive, despicable and fraudulent.”
Tank mystery
Equipment in the new winery facility included 26 fermentation tanks, which, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Inglenook was ultimately unable to use. Subsequently, Beeker therefore entered into negotiations with other wine companies on Inglenook’s behalf to sell the tanks on and recoup the costs.
Beeker claims that the tanks were put into a storage facility while negotiations were underway. However, Coppola claims this never happened and that Beeker secretly inked a deal to sell the tanks to CVS for $1.2 million on 17 January 2022, transferring the goods without Coppola’s permission.
No one at Inglenook realised the tanks had vanished until two years later.
CVS is also suing Beeker for misrepresenting himself as a legitimate ‘broker’ during the sale of the tanks.
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Beeker has denied all allegations and blamed the dispute on a “miscommunication”. He also claims Coppola is only suing him in retaliation for another legal spat the pair were already embroiled in over a residential property in St Helena that Beeker says he and Coppola own jointly together. Beeker currently lives in the property and says that Coppola is trying to evict him. However, only Coppola’s name is on the property deeds.
A hearing has been scheduled for 9 April 2025.
Case closed
The Beeker case is not the first time that Coppola has taken out a lawsuit against someone in the wine world. In fact, his legal action has run the full gamut from theft and trademark infringement to allegedly faulty closures.
In 2009 Coppola sued US bottle manufacturer Vinocor for allegedly “ruining” 50,000 cases of his wine. Coppola says Vinocor supplied faulty bottles and screwcaps for his Encyclopedia wine range. The lawsuit claimed many of the bottles had bent necks, chipped glass and uneven bases, while the screw caps were badly made. Some bottles, the lawsuit further alleged, let in air, causing the wine to become oxidised.
“Virtually all of the wine produced and bottled in the 55,000 cases of the Encyclopedia collection was materially degraded or destroyed as a result of the defects in the bottles, screw caps and packaging products provided by Vinocor USA,” documents for the lawsuit said.
Trademark dispute
Seven years later in 2016 Coppola also sued Oregon-based vineyard Copa di Vino, claiming the producer’s ‘Winemaker’s Cut’ product was a copycat of Coppola’s own ‘Director’s Cut’ wine.
Similarities between the label designs of both wines was highlighted by the lawsuit filed in California federal court, in which Coppola sued for trademark and trade dress infringement and unfair competition.
According to the lawsuit, Copa di Vino owner James Martin was fully aware of Coppola’s ‘Director’s Cut’ wine before releasing his own similarly-named wine, as Martin had previously approached Coppola’s winery in 2011 with a proposed business venture.
Hollywood bowl
Coppola’s litigious actions are not restricted to the wine trade, with those in the film industry and media also in the firing line.
He is currently suing Variety magazine for libel over an article published in July 2024, in which the magazine called his behaviour during the filming of Megalopolis “unprofessional”. The film maker accuses Variety of making “false and defamatory statements” about him and his conduct towards women on set, and is seeking $15 million damages.
Coppola’s wine holdings are inextricably linked to Megalopolis, as in order to get the film made he self-financed the production against part of his Sonoma winery portfolio for US$120 million. Coppola told Rolling Stone magazine: “I have everything to lose here… And, in a way, I have nothing left to lose anymore.”
He sold the Francis Ford Coppola Winery and Virginia Dare Winery in Geyserville, including the Archimedes Vineyard, to Delicato in 2021.
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Francis Ford Coppola sold winery to fund Megalopolis