I was initially excited to learn that this movie was based off of a book that I had previously read for this class (and reviewed on this blog). Unfortunately, that excitement turned to horror as I quickly realized that the movie was pretty much only based on the same topic, and barely related to the book. The exposition of the film was awful, as I kept having to explain to my friend who had not read the book who everyone was and what exactly was going on. This was difficult when I couldn’t figure out who people were, such as Gustavo, the winemaker, when the book focused a man named Mike Grgich as the head winemaker at Montelena.
The movie was largely set in Napa Valley in California, and was also filmed on-site in the county, so I believe that aspect of the film is true to form. I wasn’t alive in the mid-70s but I can also assume the free-spirited attitudes and clothing were correct for that part of the country at that time. I did think that the portrayal of the California winemakers as largely “hick” farmers was interesting, as I did not get that interpretation from the book. However, I can believe it, as why should the stereotype of a farmer vary from one coast to the next?
The most interesting wine factoid in the movie came from the mysterious brown coloration of the wine in Chateau Montelena’s bottles. Apparently, if you don’t allow any oxygen at all into the winemaking process, the wine will turn brown for a few days – looking like complete oxygenated swill, but still tasting amazing. The color will then dissipate on its own. I particularly liked that Sam and Bo went to the University of California at Davis to find out what happened to their wine, as UC-Davis played a large part in most of the wine experimentation at the time.
The wine discoloration was the source of much drama in the movie, with the affected bottles off to the dump and Jim Barrett forced to take back his old attorney job. Sam and Bo raced to get back to the winery to inform Jim that the wine was perfectly fine, and ended up getting a ride from a cop who Sam had initially flashed. Bo called Jim to tell him about the wine, and Jim proceeded to happily chop off the top of a bottle with a samurai sword. An interesting new party trick, but the absurdity of the scene was a little off-putting. While the movie was marketed as comedy (at least on Netflix), I couldn’t really accept the tone of the movie considering that I knew it was based on reality.
Another apparent wine truth is that one sip of an amazing wine is the best thing to get a girl’s pants off. Sam literally had one taste of Gustavo’s wine and then they immediately got into bed. I wish I was using hyperbole here. The character of Sam also seemed a little strange from a wine perspective – for an intern, she certainly seemed to have close to no knowledge about wine, having obvious details about vineyards explained to her. While I understand the wineries were not making the big bucks, I still would think they could find a slightly better candidate for the job.
Having a previous wine background helped to understand many of the wine terms that were thrown about in the movie – like the exposition, a lot of explanation was lacking. For example, I was able to completely understand what they meant by an “oaky-buttery” Chardonnay and why that is special. I also reveled at knowing that the tool they used to get wine out of the barrel for Steven Spurrier was known as a “wine thief”.
Beyond just the presence of the vineyards and the extremely small details of the movie, there didn’t seem to be a lot of focus on the wine itself. Upon tasting Chateau Montelena’s wine, all of the characters knew it was amazing, but did not reveal what it tasted like or what specifically went in to making it so great. Most of the focus seemed to be on the characters themselves, which was a shame as they came off as a bit one-dimensional.
I would probably recommend this movie to a wine audience that has a particular crush on Alan Rickman. He was by far my favorite part of the movie and almost worth suffering through the rest of the manufactured drama. If you are interested in wine facts and learning about wine, I would suggest skipping the movie and instead reading the book. If you want to watch something that’s funny, wine related, and you have nothing better to do for an hour and a half, then I would recommend this movie.
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