Coppola spirits inspired by wife, sister, and daughter

The famous Coppola family—of whom the filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola is the patriarch—is venturing further into the beverage industry with a line of liquors called “Great Women Spirits.” They already own a winery, aptly named Francis Ford Coppola Winery, through their lifestyle company The Family Coppola: Cinema, Wine, Food, Hideaways, and Adventure.

“My mother, sister, wife, daughter, and granddaughters have all inspired me, as have all of the incredible women we celebrate with Great Women Spirits,” the director explained in a statement. “We all know well the great men of history, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon and so on. I can think of as many women who distinguished themselves at that level in the fields of politics, science, mathematics, and philosophy, so my choices and reasons for this collection are very personal.”

“You know why we don’t hear about famous women in history? Because the history books were written by men,” his wife Eleanor, a documentary filmmaker, added.

The spirits collection will be “small-batch, house-crafted, classically styled spirits,” according to the statement, and will first produce gin, vodka, and brandy. The family also lays claim to an impressive process behind how the spirits are concocted explaining that they’re “proofed with the pristine spring water of Coppola’s historic Inglenook property in Napa Valley, water naturally filtered through lava rock at the base of an ancient, now inactive volcano.” The collection will officially launch on Ada Lovelace Day, October 10.

The family is clearly invested in supporting and highlighting the accomplishments of women. Coppola’s daughter Sofia is already an accomplished filmmaker in her own right, and a woman named Wendy Putman runs the wholesale operations of the family’s winery. In 2015, the family began a second vineyard called the Virginia Dare Winery, which partnered with the Sonoma Stompers baseball club to help recruit female players.

BY Elisabeth Sherman