Copia Archives - Wine Country Getaways

Fork at the CIA

July 3, 2017 by Joe Becerra

Fork by Gordon Huether – made of recycled forks

Fork at CIA – Restaurant at CIA

Gordon Huether’s Fork is a striking sculpture that sits in front of the new branch of Culinary Institute of America. It is where Copia had operated until it closed in 2008. The building has been hardly used since the closure, but in 2016 the CIA decided it would be a good venue for wine and food classes, a kitchen store and a restaurant. The CIA at Copia is open to the public with events and activities scheduled daily. Next door to the CIA is the very popular Oxbow Public Market. Gordon Huether’s Fork is made from recycled forks and is definitely a conversation piece. Huether’s stunning works of art are scattered around the Napa Valley. Huether makes his home in Napa. Gordon Huether Website

CIA Moves into Copia

January 19, 2017 by Joe Becerra

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CIA moves into Copia building

The Culinary Institute of America is branching out in the Napa Valley. For many years the historic Greystone in St. Helena has been the West Coast branch of the CIA. The long-vacant Copia building now houses many CIA events and glasses. There is also an innovative restaurant on the premises, The Restaurant at CIA. Cooking classes, wine tasting events, and other wine and food related activities are in full swing at the Napa location. This branch of the CIA is next door to the popular Oxbow Public Market at 500 First Street. Make a half day or so to visit two fabulous food and wine venues. Check these links to the CIA and to the Oxbow Public Market.

Bits and Pieces of Napa Valley News

October 1, 2016 by Joe Becerra

On York Lane in St. Helena, harvesting Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2016 Harvest

The harvest of the king of grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon, is well underway in the Napa Valley, with most of the wineries expecting a fantastic harvest. In the Napa Valley Register we find this information. Andy Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards, who is one of the largest wine growers in the valley, said this season’s batch should have enhanced flavors and less alcohol content. “Harvest started at a normal time, but the cooler days at the beginning allowed for greater flavor development without much sugar accumulation,” he said. That is terrific news after a disappointing 2015 harvest where the yields were short of average.

Napa Film Festival

The complete lineup for the Napa Film Festival, November 9th to the 13th, is set. Time to plan now for one of Napa Valley’s great events. 120 films, 300 filmmakers, 150 wineries and 50 chefs will be entertaining visitors throughout the festival. For complete information on tickets and events, please see this link. http://napavalleyfilmfest.org.

Copia becomes CIA

This is very good news for the city of Napa. It should bring in more tourists to the city. Copia opened in 2001 as the Napa Valley’s Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. Copia never attracted enough visitors to make a go of it, and it closed in 2008. The Culinary Institute of America announced that the downtown Napa building will become a sister campus to its CIA at Greystone in St. Helena. It will include a vegetable garden, a restaurant, kitchens, cooking classes, and much more. The CIA plans to open the new campus in October of this year. Please see: https://www.ciachef.edu/cia-at-copia-release/ for additional information.

New photography exhibit at Mumm Napa

Mumm Gallery

News from Mumm Napa: The work of Wayne Levin, known for his otherworldly black-and-white photographs captured in the depths of the ocean, will be on display this Fall at Mumm Napa winery in Rutherford. An opening reception will take place on October 15 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the winery’s Fine Art Photography Gallery.

The exhibit, titled “Through a Liquid Mirror,” features a collection of 38 underwater photographs by Levin, who has been capturing images of land and ocean since the early 1970s. “When I descend beneath the surface, I feel like I am Alice passing through the looking glass into a totally different world,” says Levin. “I am in a world with different rules, different truths.” Many of Levin’s photographs capture the waters surrounding his adopted home of Hawaii. Beneath the surface he finds a world that is both astonishingly graceful and strangely disorienting—a “liminal zone” where human and aquatic life collide.

A reception, featuring a selection of Mumm Napa’s sparkling wines, will be held Saturday, October 15 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Wayne Levin will be in attendance. The event is open to the public and there is no charge to view “Through a Liquid Mirror,” though guests are required to RSVP. In order to confirm attendance please call 1-800-686-6272 or email [email protected]. Visitor center and fine art photography gallery hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily. Mumm Napa is located at 8445 Silverado Trail, Rutherford, CA 94573. All photography in the exhibit is represented by Smith Andersen North.

Copia is “Out of Business”

November 24, 2008 by Joe Becerra

Last Thursday, I posted some ideas for saving Copia. Apparently, I was way off the mark, not knowing the demise of Copia was only a day a way. The Napa Valley Register reported that Copia had abruptly closed its doors on Friday. Ticket holders for events were out in the cold. The sign on the door says “temporarily closed,” but we all know what that likely means. Gone, and lost forever?

I still believe my ideas for a California wine museum are feasible in some form or another. The property, including the building and surrounding acres, is reportedly up for sale. One of the big wine companies needs to “take the bull by the horn” and begin discussions for reinventing the idea of Copia. Make the focus on the California wine industry. Get rid of the name Copia, it’s meaningless to tourists, and call it the California Wine Museum.

The one comment I received on the blog post made reference to the fact that visitors find it difficult to find Copia, given its location from Highway 29 and Napa’s one-way streets. When we visited the famous wine museum, Museo de la Cultura Del Vino, in the ancient town of Briones, Spain, making our way to the wine museum was a nightmare. Driving to Copia from Highway 29 is a breeze compared to maneuvering the old and tiny roads leading to Briones and the wine museum. The point is that, if what is there is important and compelling, folks will come.

Ideas for Saving Copia

November 20, 2008 by Joe Becerra

The latest rumor on Copia is that it is in deep financial trouble and there are signs that they intend to sell or lease the building and property it occupies on First Street in Napa. I am not a businessperson, but I would like to suggest a few ideas that might make Copia a leading venue for wine tourists. Maybe these ideas have already been tossed around, or maybe it is just too late and Copia is set to go under. Anyway, here goes.

To begin with, Copia should seek out sponsors in the wine industry like Gallo, Constellation, Jackson Wines and other major wine companies. Copia started out this way with a huge Robert Mondavi donation. Arenas and stadiums all across the country have corporate sponsors and it is great PR for the companies. Remodel the Copia building into different rooms called centers, each with a different theme and corporate sponsor. For example, in the Robert Mondavi (Constellation) Center, the tourists would find exhibits on the history of winemaking in California. Bring in important memorabilia going back to the Franciscan Fathers and Gaston Haraszthy, who founded Buena Vista Winery. Depict California’s wine story from the beginning to its present day. Bring in old grape presses and wooden fermenting tanks. Display a timeline of wine pioneers and winemakers through photographs and essays.

Napa Unsettling Problems

October 23, 2008 by Joe Becerra

With redevelopment projects along the Napa River and the buzz created by the Oxbow Market, you would think that all is joy among Napa businesses, restaurants, and lodging establishments. Not so. The last few weeks have not brought good news to the city of Napa.

One of Copia's exhibits,
interesting or humdrum?

Copia continues to have its share of financial problems. Copia recently announced layoffs and surprisingly their winter hours leave Copia open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Copia store and Julie’s Kitchen restaurant remain open on a daily basis. We stated in a blog post a year ago that on our last visit to Copia we felt that the exhibits were sparse and not very compelling. The most interesting area to us was the vegetable garden and now we hear that the garden plot might be up for sale to shore up Copia’s financing. You would think that with the addition of the Oxbow Market next door, Copia would see an increase in visitors. Apparently, that has not happened.