group, and was renamed Rutherford Hill Winery. The same year a group of 179 grape growers bought the Alexander Valley Souverain facility. It has since become the property of Francis Ford Coppola. The Frank Schoonmaker Selections division was liquidated in 1975. Consulting work As a consultant to such Californian wineries as Wente and Almaden, Schoonmaker introduced the idea of labeling wines using varietal names (such as Pinot noir, Chardonnay, or Riesling) rather than semi-generic names borrowed from European regions ("Burgundy", "Chablis", "Rhine", etc.). Schoonmaker claimed that "the more specific the name, the better the wine". While Schoonmaker was promoting the practice in California already around 1940, it did not become truly widespread until the late 1960s and early 1970s. Robert Mondavi was one of the first to label the majority of his wines by varietal names and was tireless in promoting the practice. This has become the standard in New World wine and some European producers are adopting the practice because of consumer demand. See also List of wine personalities References 1905 births 1976 deaths Wine critics Princeton University alumni American people of Dutch descent 20th-century American writers 20th-century American male writers People from Spearfish, South Dakota