| Uncorking Another Sideways | | | | the best red wine.) |
| Bottle Shock is a temporary condition of wine | | | | Both Bo and Jim Barrett, and plenty of other old |
| characterized by muted or disjointed fruit flavors | | | | hands in the valley, helped out with the story written |
| usually caused by wines that have been shaken in | | | | by Jody Savin, Ross Schwartz and Director Randy |
| travel. | | | | Miller. Hollywood writers can sometimes improve a |
| Bottle Shock the movie is an entertaining, albeit not | | | | story or ruin it depending on your taste and |
| completely factual look at the events leading up to | | | | proximity to the actual events. This movie is certainly |
| the famous 1976 "Judgment in Paris". In that | | | | entertaining and is worth seeing. For a more factual |
| competition, California wines beat out their French | | | | account check out George Taber's book, Judgment |
| counterparts in a blind tasting, putting California wines | | | | of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 |
| firmly on the wine map. It is a good romp in the | | | | Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine, or wait for |
| vineyard and shows us what the Napa of old was | | | | the new movie. |
| like and how things have changed since. | | | | In Bottle Shock, Bo (Chris Pine) the hippie son of the |
| At that time, I traveled through Napa as part of a | | | | winery owner only has ambitions for a good time. |
| college wine program. I found it hard to understand | | | | Gustavo Brambia (Freddy Rodriguez) the more |
| why this event would transform the California wine | | | | earnest and skilled "cellar rat" has visions of becoming |
| industry. The grand estates of Inglenook, Beringer, | | | | a great winemaker. Sam (Rachael Taylor), the love |
| Freemark Abbey, and Krug shared the stage with | | | | interest is fictional but opens a window into Bo's |
| newer names of Grgich, Stags Leap, Mondavi and | | | | development from loser party animal to winery |
| Sterling and were producing world class wines. Didn't | | | | promoter. The film follows Spurrier, alternately and a |
| the Europeans know that? Well, a trip to Europe a | | | | bit clumsily, as he makes his way through Napa Valley |
| few years later showed that the wines that made it | | | | tasting, swirling, spitting and recognizing the quality of |
| across the "pond" were not the names mentioned | | | | California wine and Jim and Bo Barrett sparring |
| above but were the jug wines from the vineyards of | | | | (literally) as the father and son with different work |
| Modesto, Bakersfield and Fresno. Good marketing had | | | | ethics and goals. |
| trumped good wine. | | | | The movie is shot with sweeping vistas of the wine |
| Back to the movie...The story alternates between | | | | country that remind us of how beautiful Napa Valley |
| Napa Valley and Paris as it follows Jim Barrett (played | | | | is. Many scenes are shot in the vineyard with the |
| a bit stiffly by Bill Pullman) a lawyer who followed his | | | | actors poking about the vines very gingerly. (The |
| dream by ditching the suits and purchasing a winery | | | | fruit hanging from the vines looks like it was close to |
| (Chateau Montelena). His goal was nothing more than | | | | harvest time and no doubt the vineyard manager had |
| to make the world's greatest Chardonnay. Like many | | | | instructed the crew not to touch anything!) Will the |
| a winemaker then, as now, his business is struggling | | | | film bring to Napa a new onslaught of Chardonnay |
| and is applying for his third bank loan. | | | | seeking tourists? I doubt it. Napa and Chardonnay |
| In Paris, Steven Spurrier (played wonderfully by Alan | | | | don't really need much more promotion and the |
| Rickman) is a priggish British wine merchant with a | | | | movie is good, not great. Now if a Alicante |
| struggling wine shop. It is Spurrier who comes up | | | | Bouché from Lodi had won the Paris |
| with the grand idea of staging a blind tasting | | | | tasting...that would be news! |
| between French and California wines. Rickman is | | | | The winery scenes are a bit staged, but the film |
| some 28 years older than Spurrier was at the time | | | | works and the story is true enough to be important |
| and plays the Brit as a classic wine snob. Once | | | | and pleasant enough to be entertaining. The story |
| Spurrier arrives in Napa the juxtaposition of him | | | | finishes as the wine finds its way to the Paris |
| against the backdrop of rural Napa is often hilarious. | | | | tasting-- and the rest, as they say, is history. The |
| (Spurrier has denounced the film for many mistruths | | | | film has a great 70's era sound track dominated with |
| and embellishments throughout and endorses a | | | | lots of Doobie Brothers. Also stars Dennis Farina and |
| different version written by George Taber who | | | | Elia Dishku. |
| witnessed the actual tasting. The new film "Judgment | | | | As a ironic footnote in late July of this year Bo and |
| in Paris" is due out later this year. Others in the | | | | Jim Barrett announced that Chateau Montelena will be |
| industry have questioned why Mike Grgich, who | | | | sold, pending government approval, to Michel Reybier, |
| actually made the winning wine for Chateau | | | | owner of Bordeaux Chateau Cos d'Estournel, a |
| Montelena, did not get a mention in the film. And why | | | | famed French winery next door to Chateau Lafite |
| wasn't Stag's Leap given more prominence for having | | | | Rothschild. |