Santa Margherita Owners Buy Oregon Vineyard From Francis Ford Coppola

This article was originally published on Mar. 19th, 2026. It appears in the June 15-30, 2026, issue as “Santa Margherita Owners Buy Oregon Vineyard.”

Italy’s Marzotto family, which built Santa Margherita into a Pinot Grigio powerhouse, has purchased the 41-acre Domaine Lumineux vineyard in Oregon’s Dundee Hills from Francis Ford Coppola. The deal closed the week of March 16. Neither side disclosed financial terms.

The Marzotto family plans to add the vineyard to its holdings for Roco Winery. Herita USA, the U.S. arm of the Marzottos’ business, Herita Marzotto Wine Estates, purchased Roco in 2021, the family’s first winemaking venture outside Italy.

“We really think it’s a special place,” says Vittorio Marzotto, fourth-generation family member and vice president of strategic initiatives for Herita USA. “We have a genuine belief in the valley’s extraordinary potential, and we are honored to be part of shaping the future of Willamette Valley wines for generations to come.”

The Coppola family retains the Domaine Lumineux brand and tasting room in Newberg, Oregon, with the wines still being produced at a nearby custom-crush facility. Erin Herrmann, Lumineux’s director of operations, said the company plans to buy fruit from the vineyard, as well.

“Everything our guests know and love about Domaine Lumineux’s wines, the winemaking and hospitality team, and experiences at our tasting room in Newberg, remains the same,” Herrmann said in an email. “The heart of this decision is about choosing a path that gives Domaine Lumineux greater flexibility, sustainability, and creative freedom.”

The Marzotto brothers, left to right, Nicolo, Stefano, Gaetano and Luca, the third generation of the wine company, have expanded their wine company from northeastern Italy to Oregon. (Courtesy Herita Marzotto Family Wine Estates)

A Familiar Vineyard

Roco’s founding winemaker, Rollin Soles, who stayed on with the project after he sold it to the Marzottos, is excited to be working with the vineyard again. In 2013, when the vineyard was named Vista Hills, Soles thought it was an ideal source for his RMS bottlings because of its location in the Dundee Hills appellation and its high elevation of 670 to 870 feet. The Coppola family purchased Vista Hills in 2018, renaming it Lumineux.

“The vineyard faces east and south and has those deep Jory soils,” says Soles. “And then the neighborhood, I mean, good lord. There’s Domaine Serene and Domaine Drouhin Oregon right there.”

While Pinot Noir is the dominant grape in Lumineux, the new owners expect to plant additional Chardonnay vines. “The goal is to devote that vineyard site to the production of RMS,” says Marzotto, who believes sparkling wine has a bright future in Willamette Valley.

Oregon Ambitions

The purchase marks Herita’s fourth acquisition in Oregon. In addition to Roco and Lumineux, the company bought land and existing vineyards in the Chehalem Mountain appellation in 2023. Named Nocciola (Italian for hazelnut; a section of the property was once a hazelnut orchard), the 36-acre site’s production is earmarked for Roco’s Gravel Road wines, which account for a significant portion of the winery’s overall production.

In 2025 the family also purchased the Marsh Estate in the Yamhill-Carlton appellation, a site Roco had used for vineyard-designated Pinots and Chardonnays since 2010. The 22-acre vineyard includes an Italianate mansion the company is remodeling to use for hospitality. Dubbed Casa Roco, it is slated to open to the public in mid-July.

The Roco winery, located just outside Newberg, will then close its dedicated tasting room in favor of expanding the production facility to accommodate 30,000 cases annually, doubling output from the 15,000 cases made in 2021.

“They're multigenerational winemakers,” Soles says of the Marzotto family. “When they believe in something, they buy it and they hold it and improve it. They take their time. They’re patient.”

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