香港浸会大学专业排名:与大导演科波拉饮酒 Chateau godfather

Earlier this month I was invited out to dinner for the first time by a world-famous Hollywood film director. It was not clever of me to be blasé about checking the time we agreed on. I had thought that by arriving at 7.20pm at The Square, central London’s smart restaurant for wine lovers and hedge fund managers, I would be comfortably early. I arrived to find Francis Ford Coppola and his bright young sales person Heather de Savoye sitting side by side in the bar area looking somewhat discomfited.

本月初，好莱坞某世界级电影导演邀我赴宴，这也算是本人平生第一遭。与对方敲定会谈时间时，我 还显得极不耐烦，事后想想真是不明智。我原以为7:20赶到The Square酒店（这家位于伦敦市中心的时尚酒店是葡萄酒爱好者与对冲基金经理们心仪的酒店），时间上应该还绰绰有余。待赶到那儿后，看到弗朗西斯?福特 ?科波拉(Francis Ford Coppola)与他那位精明能干的年轻销售总监希瑟?戴萨沃耶(Heather de Savoye)正并排坐在酒吧区，神情显得有点沮丧。

To make matters worse Coppola’s light blue tie, a gift from his wife, Eleanor, was scattered with the number 7. “My lucky number,” Coppola, born April 7 1939, told me, trying to ease my embarrassment. He really is a very normal, easy-going representative of “the industry”.

更糟糕的是，科波拉所系的淡蓝色领带上散布着数字7，领带是他妻子埃莉诺(Eleanor)所送的礼物。“7是我的幸运数字，”科波拉说，他在想方设法消除我的尴尬，他出生于1939年4月7日，他举止得体，待人随和，这方面在电影这行里算是佼佼者。

Perhaps having set down roots somewhere as agricultural as the Napa Valley 37 years ago, when he bought the old Gustave Niebaum wine estate, has helped keep him sane, despite the potential insanities associated with filming Apocalypse Now and the aggrandising achievement of directing The Godfather. “Is it true there’s a fish restaurant in London called The Cod Father?” was one of his opening sallies. Furthermore, of southern Italian stock (who infused his early diet with wine), he is very family. He always took his wife and children along when his work required him to travel, though when they set off to the Philippines for Apocalypse they ended up staying five times as long as the anticipated six months.

37年前，科波拉出资买下了古斯塔夫?尼伯姆(Gustave Niebaum)破旧的葡萄酒庄园，在纳帕河谷(Napa Valley)这个适宜耕作的地方扎下根来，也许正是这让他一直保持着清醒的头脑。虽说拍摄《现代启示录》(Apocalypse Now)与执导《教父》(The Godfather)大获成功反映出他潜在的疯狂劲。“伦敦是不是有家名为The Cod Father的鱼餐馆？”，这是他常用的开场调侃语。此外，意大利南部血统的科波拉家庭观念很浓，出于拍摄工作需要，他得满世界跑，身边总是带着妻儿老 小，尽管他们动身去菲律宾拍摄《现代启示录》时，原定呆半年，却没想到在那儿足足呆了三年。

But this early exposure to the business of filming, when “the wardrobe department would make dresses for Sofia’s dolls”, seems to have paid off. Coppola literally swelled with pride when pointing out that his daughter Sofia had won the Leone d’Oro for best film at the Venice Film Festival last year “before her 40th birthday!” He had lost weight since I last saw him in the mid-1990s when filming for a BBC series at Niebaum’s old Victorian homestead on the estate then called Niebaum-Coppola. Both beard and paunch were much neater, although he still has a slightly vulpine look when he laughs and shows his teeth.

但是，家人长期所受的电影制作的熏陶似乎得到了回报（当时“戏装部门老给他女儿索非亚 (Sofia)的洋娃娃做衣服”），科波拉说到女儿索非亚去年在“四十岁生日前” 摘得威尼斯电影节(Venice Film Festival)最佳影片金狮奖(Leone d'Oro)时，自豪之情溢于言表。我上次见他还是在上世纪90年代中叶，当时他正在尼伯姆酒庄（当时还叫尼伯姆-科波拉酒庄(Niebaum- Coppola)）的维多利亚时代的老屋上为BBC拍摄一部系列片。与上次相比，他的体重已大为减轻，络腮胡与大肚子都已大为改观，虽说他一笑露出牙齿 时，仍有一丝狡黠的神情。

Coppola regaled us with stories (which Heather loyally claimed not to have heard before) of how he learnt about fine wine as a junior screenwriter in Paris, how Chateau Lafite was the house red on one job, and how he was once paid in burgundies from the matchless Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. But because I am not Nigel Andrews, I have to confess that the particular lure of this evening for me was his promise to bring over (in a private plane, I was to discover) an old vintage or two made on his estate when it was in its prime and called Inglenook, a name that he has recently bought back at great expense (“more than I paid for the estate in the first place”) from the thoroughly mass market Wine Group.

科波拉如数家珍，侃侃而谈（希瑟还信誓旦旦地说自己之前从未听过）：自己当年在巴黎当名不见经 传的编剧时，如何学会品美酒；拉菲酒(Chateau Lafite)如何成为某次拍摄电影时的常备红酒；自己的报酬曾经是无与伦比的罗曼尼?康帝酒庄(Domaine de la Romanée-Conti)出产的勃艮第红酒。但本人并非奈杰尔?安德鲁斯（Nigel Andrews，现任英国《金融时报》的影评人），所以我对他实话实说：于我而言，今晚的特别诱惑就是想享用其酒庄自产的一、二款陈酿佳酒，他答应给我带 来（事后知道是用私人飞机运来的，）酒名为Inglenook，是他最近花巨资从市场最为畅销的美国葡萄酒集团(Wine Group)手中买来的，他说“比我先前买城堡的钱还多”。

With the old name restored, a new winemaker from Chateau Margaux is in place alongside French consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt who is weaning the vines off the irrigation that has become routine in the Napa Valley. Coppola, perhaps stung by some pretty lacklustre recent reviews from the American wine press, is trying to reposition his historic property as a Frenchified California first growth.

买回Inglenook商标后，总能看到从玛歌酒庄(Chateau Margaux)新聘请的酿酒师与法国顾问斯特凡娜?德勒农古(Stéphane Derenoncourt)在忙活，德勒农古正在止灌葡萄树，这已经成为纳帕谷常见的景象。美国葡萄酒杂志上最近所发表的平淡无奇的相关评论文章或许刺痛 了科波拉，他设法把自家历史悠久的酒庄重新定位成加州地区具有法国风味的原始葡萄林。

He certainly has form as a reinventor and rebrander. Today he has two very different wine operations: the upmarket Napa Valley estate and the thoroughly mainstream wine blender, bottler and “wine wonderland” tourist destination on the old Souverain site in Sonoma, home to all the memorabilia from his film career. Its wines are called things like Director’s Cut in a shameless attempt to sprinkle Hollywood magic on some pretty basic offerings. “I don’t want to drink great wine every night,” he told me defensively, explaining that the Sonoma operation will bankroll the serious investment he expects to make to the old Inglenook winery buildings.

科波拉无疑在重塑品牌方面颇具匠心，如今他拥有两个完全不同的葡萄酒经营场所：高端的纳帕谷 地，完全大众化的调制葡萄酒、瓶装酒以及在索诺玛Souverain旧址上开发的“葡萄酒梦幻之地”旅游项目。该旅游项目可以体验他从影生涯的诸多大事。 有的酒就取名为Director’s Cut，明目张胆地尝试把好莱坞的传奇手法赋到某些很普通的产品身上。“我并不想每晚都喝名酒，”他说，这是为自己辩护，并解释经营索诺玛项目的收入可以 投入Inglenook葡萄酒厂厂房的改造，那才是他真正上心的事。

I reminded him that when we had last met and he had yet to acquire these and the balance of the prime vineyards associated with them, he had asked me to write to the head of what was then IDV, now part of Diageo, who owned them but was doing nothing particularly worthy with them. (I did, and IDV eventually sold to Coppola, though I doubt the two facts are related.) Coppola could be accused of rather neglecting this prime asset in recent years, allowing the post of head winemaker to sit vacant for a vintage or two, so let us hope that the new team can co-operate at this potentially great estate.

我提醒科波拉：我们上次会谈时，他还未曾购置这些产业，还未搞掂这些优质葡萄园，他请我给当时 的IDV（后来成为帝亚吉欧(Diageo)旗下公司）老总写信，对方拥有这些葡萄园，但投入实在差强人意。（我之后真写了信，IDV最终卖给了科波拉， 虽然我觉得这两件事并不关联。）最近几年，科波拉对这份优质资产很不尽心，竟然让首席酿酒师的职位空置了一、二年，对此他难辞其咎，所以让我们冀希望于新 的团队能精诚合作，经营好这片潜力无穷的葡萄园。

Coppola himself admits he is no wine specialist. He loves to cook – and fell silent for a good five minutes while we studied the menus – but prefers to leave big wine decisions to others. I was given the daunting task, for instance, of choosing a white wine with which to begin our dinner. “We only brought reds,” explained Heather helpfully. “We want to see what you choose,” said Coppola, heavy with import. I feel uncomfortable being given carte blanche on someone else’s credit card, especially someone who, like Coppola, was muttering “Montrachet” under his breath. Surely he didn’t really want to spend a four-figure sum on this bottle?

科波拉本人也承认自己并非葡萄酒专家。他喜欢烹饪——就在我们仔细看菜单时，足足有5 分钟一声不吭——但喝什么酒这样的决定，他更喜欢主随客便。于是这艰巨的任务就落到了我头上——挑选一款白葡萄酒作为开宴酒。“我们只带了红酒，”科波拉 讨好地解释道。“看看你喜欢喝什么酒，”科波拉语重心长地说。我决定，别人买单，我感到真不自在，特别是象科波拉这样的人。他嘴里一个劲地在嘀咕蒙哈榭酒 (Montrachet)的名字，难道他真不情愿花4位数买一瓶这样的酒？

Serious study of The Square’s wine list could have distracted me for a good hour, but I remembered a stunning bottle, actually two, of Trimbach’s Clos Ste Hune Riesling 1990 that I’d enjoyed at The Square with my German editor once, so I stopped at the Alsace section and went for the same producer’s 375th anniversary (get that, Napa Valley) bottling of their Cuvée Frédéric Emile Riesling 2001. In the event, this had Heather swooning, and Coppola quite satisfied enough, faute de Montrachet.

本来仔细看完The Square酒店的酒水单至少得花上我一个小时，但我想到曾在The Square酒店与我的德国主编享用过的一款（实际上是两款）美不胜收的1990年份圣桅楼葡萄园雷司令酒，于是我翻到酒单上阿尔萨斯地区 (Alsace)出产的葡萄酒，直接点了由同一家生产商酿制的2001年份世家特酿雷司令瓶装白葡萄酒（Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile Riesling，已有375年历史）。结果呢，喝得希瑟心醉神迷，科波拉也大呼过瘾，只是蒙哈榭酒只能暂时靠边站了。

After our first course (stuffed courgette flowers for Coppola), we were poured two recent vintages of his prime Napa Valley Cabernet, called Rubicon by Coppola, who for a time also applied the name to the entire estate. (This top bottling will be called Inglenook Rubicon from the 2009 vintage.) The idea was that comparing the 2005 and 2008 would demonstrate the refinements that Derenoncourt is beginning to make. As it was, I took one sniff of the classic old rich, dusty 2005 and sighed “California” appreciatively. “Rutherford”, he corrected me, pronouncing the “th” in the name of Inglenook’s appellation lightly in the American fashion. The 2008 was indeed a more sophisticated wine: fresher, more mineral. More French.

第一道菜（科波拉点的小胡瓜花夹馅）端上来后，服务员给我们倒了两杯最新酿制的纳帕谷解百纳 (Cabernet)佳酿，科波拉称之为Rubicon，曾经有一段时间，他还用该名命名整个庄园。（用高档瓶装的2009年份酒将会取名为 Inglenook Rubicon。）如此想法就是把它与2005与2008年份酒相比较，以体现德勒农古在此方面精益求精。于是，我闻了一下2005年份的、经典款浊状醇 酒，满足地轻叹一声“加州风味”。“卢瑟福德风味(Rutherford)”，他纠正我，并把Inglenook系列酒中卢瑟福德词中的“th”音发成了 略带美音味。2008年份酒无疑是一款更为精致的酒：口感清新、矿物质味浓，更具法国风味。

It was the 1958 Inglenook Cabernet, opened just before serving and carefully decanted through muslin by The Square’s sommelier (perhaps the transatlantic flight, however luxurious, had shaken up the sediment a little), that was the real star of the evening for me.

这是1958年份的Inglenook解百纳酒，在正式进餐前才打开，并由The Square的调酒师经滤布小心地倒入酒杯（这酒飞越大西洋虽说奢侈了点，但或许已把酒中的深沉物摇起来了），这酒成了当晚我的最爱。

At just 12.5% alcohol it was the best 1958 I have ever tasted, a wonderfully complex, ethereal, still-appetising reminder of what encouraged incomers such as Robert Mondavi to plant Cabernet Sauvignon in this blessed valley in northern California in the late 1960s. It came in a beautiful old bordeaux bottle which Coppola plans to copy for future bottlings of his top Cabernets, as opposed to the heavy, embossed bottles that have recently housed Rubicon.

该酒酒精度只有12.5%，是我品味过的最棒的1958年份酒——酒味杂陈，酒香飘逸，是极棒 的开胃酒，它吸引着诸如罗伯特?蒙达维(Robert Mondavi)这样的人在上世纪60年代前赴后继地来到加州北部这片神奇谷地种植赤霞珠(Cabernet Sauvignon)，最终酿出的酒装在古朴典雅的波尔多瓶中，科波拉打算就用这种瓶来装自酿的极品解百纳，而不是用现在装Rubicon酒的那种粗重的 浮雕瓶。

By this stage we had moved on to our main courses. Looking rather wistfully at what both Heather and I had chosen, he observed, “Someone told me pata negra pigs were all English. Can that be true?” before announcing that he had “a little surprise” for me. And what a surprise it was, a second bottle from the cellar of old Inglenook wines he acquired with the Niebaum property, a 1957 Pinot Noir. Today there is probably hardly a single Pinot Noir vine in the heart of the Napa Valley, as it is so much hotter than Pinot’s homeland Burgundy. But these vines were apparently planted in one of the cooler corners of the estate (along with the humble Charbono for which Inglenook was once famous) and the 54-year-old Pinot was still a real pleasure to drink. It didn’t have the purity of the Cabernet but was still sweet and hauntingly perfumed. It reminded me of an obviously chaptalised old-fashioned burgundy from the 1960s.

聊到此时此刻，我们开始享用主菜。垂涎欲滴地看着希瑟与我所点的菜，他说道，“有人对我说黑脚 猪(pata negra)是纯英国菜，真是如此吗？”话还没说出口，他就给了我一个“惊喜”。出乎意料的是，他拿出第二瓶好酒，这是当初他买下尼伯姆庄园时从储藏 Inglenook陈酒的酒窑中找到的——一瓶1957年的黑皮诺(Pinot Noir)。现如今，在整个纳帕谷地，几乎找不出一瓶黑皮诺了，原因是这儿要比皮诺的原产地法国勃艮第(Burgundy)炎热得多。但很明显，酿这些黑 皮诺酒的葡萄是种在庄园较阴凉的角落地（还有低矮的沙邦乐葡萄(Charbono)，Inglenook酒曾一度因其而出名），这瓶有54年历史的黑皮诺 酒喝起来仍美不胜收，它没有解百纳酒的清纯，但仍是那么甘洌，酒香回味无穷。它让我想起了产于上世纪60年代、以前的高纯度勃艮第酒。

Coppola waved aside any suggestion of dessert in order to plunder The Square’s cheese trolley and told us with pride of his love of Stilton (that Pinot was not a bad partner for it). This extends to ordering whole cheeses to be sent over to California from Paxton & Whitfield in London. Perhaps he should be in the food business rather than the wine business. Hearing that I was off to the far south of Italy the next morning, this son of the desolate Basilicata region was insistent that once there I should ask for lampascioni, which turned out to be a particularly bitter variation on pickled onions. He even followed this up with an e-mail telling me exactly how he cooked them: “first par boiled and then fried with paprika and garlic (crispy) in olive oil”.

科波拉置之不理任何点甜食的提议，为的就是美美地享用一顿The Square酒店的奶酪，并得意地对我俩说他喜欢斯第尔顿奶酪（Stilton，用黑皮诺配着吃还算够档次）。结果是他点了全部的奶酪，并要求伦敦的帕克 斯顿和惠特菲尔德奶酪店(Paxton & Whitfield)把它们邮送回加州。也许他应该干食品这行，而不是入酒业这行。当他听我说第二天一早就要去意大利最南部时，这位来自偏远巴西利卡塔地 区(Basilicata)的意大利人后裔一再要求我：一旦到那儿后，应该尝尝芜箐(lampascioni)，后来品尝之后，感觉味道就象特别苦的小腌 洋葱。他事后甚至还给我发了一封电邮，告诉我他自己是如何烹制的：“首先把芜箐煮半熟，然后再在橄榄油里与辣椒粉与蒜炸成脆状”。

Over dinner he had seemed bemused by my first name and repeated a question he had asked when we spoke on the phone about his new winemaker appointment, whether I felt a particular affinity with people called Francis. On reflection, I think I do.

用餐期间，他似乎一直对我的名字很着迷，事后我俩在电话中谈到他新聘的酿酒师时，他再次问了这个问题：我是否与取名费朗西斯的人有某种特别的亲近感。本人略作思考后，觉得他言之有理。