For my second wine film, I decided
to watch the movie Uncorked. This
movie takes place in California. It has the underlining theme of wine since one
of the main characters, Andrew Browning’s, family owns a winery. This film
started off by showing images of the wine making process including harvesting
the grapes, sorting them, and then showing the wine in barrels as well as the
vineyards. There are several main characters within the film. Johnny is a
career woman who is often too busy to spend much time building her relationship
with her just as equally busy boyfriend. Andrew Browning is a single father and
top chef. The main way these characters all come together is through going to a
conference for different telemarketing companies.
Johnny is interested in building the
company which she works for; so, she attends the conference in order to help
secure the financial investment from various business people who may be
attending the conference. Johnny runs into Debra Miller who is a very prominent
business woman in the industry. Debra Miller knows Andrew Browning; so, all of
the characters share some ties of connection. In my opinion, this movie is more
of a love-story than a film specifically about wine. However, wine serves as a
way to help bring the final couple together. I found it interesting that the
busy business woman, Debra Miller, was telling Johnny that she should take time
to enjoy life.
One amusing part of the film was
when Johnny was asked to come on stage and help Andrew during a cooking
demonstration at the resort. Johnny is not a good cook; so, once she got on
stage, a mini-disaster happened. Johnny managed to catch the melting sugar on
fire as well as have flour fly everywhere. This is the first spot where the
audience is able to see the budding relationship between Andrew and Johnny.
During the film, Johnny’s company
that she works for is bought out by Debra Miller’s company. Johnny’s boyfriend
breaks up with her when she does not accept his proposal for marriage. However,
it all comes together when Johnny is around Andrew. Andrew is able to convince
Johnny to take a day to come to his parent’s vineyard and enjoy the
countryside. While there, Johnny meets Andrew’s son Luke. Luke is very excited
about the whole wine making process and possibly taking it over for his
grandfather. Unfortunately, it is not certain whether Luke will have the
opportunity to take over the vineyard, since its financial future does not look
very promising. Luke is excited to show Johnny the whole wine making process.
This is the part of the film where I
felt that the audience could actually get a brief view of what the wine making process
actually entails. The grandparents talk about how the soil and climate are
important to which grapes can be grown in certain areas. The film shows the
fermentation tanks. These create heat and the alcohol is naturally created by
yeast. Once done within the fermentation tanks, the wine is moved to the aging
room. The precise temperature which this process should be done is between
55-58°F. Both extreme heat and extreme cold can be detrimental to the wine
making process. Also, the oak barrels used within the aging room allow for
oxidation to be controlled. Something which I was not very aware of is that
excessive oxidation causes wine to become bitter.
While the film did not talk much
more about the actual wine making process, I did find the brief overview of the
entire wine making process to be beneficial. This would allow for people to be
able to see just how complicated the process of making wine can actually be.
Johnny even stated that she did not think about all of the technicalities involved
in wine making before her trip on the vineyard. I personally feel that this is
probably the case with most people who are visiting a wine vineyard for the
first time.
A key theme which has often been
stressed throughout this course was prevalent in the film. This theme is that wine
drinking comes down to how it tastes. Everyone’s palate is going to be
different in regards to what they enjoy. Thus, for wine making, it truly comes
down to the individual’s palate.
Johnny is able to save the day by
overviewing the vineyard’s finances and finding out that the vineyard can
indeed stay within the family rather than being sold. Johnny agrees to stay
with the vineyard for a few months to help them in marketing of their wine.
However, this changes when Johnny is offered her dream job of working with
Debra Miller. Johnny leaves Andrew and his family in order to move to San
Francisco and pursue this job.
While in San Francisco, Johnny’s
happiness is waning. She is proposed by Debra to go to Tokyo and London in
order to help the offices there get their finances under control. Johnny
refuses and quits her job with Debra. She then drives down to the vineyard in
order to be reunited with Andrew. Andrew and Johnny decide to get married.
Overall, I felt that the theme of
wine was somewhat prevalent throughout the film. Wine served as a tie between
the characters and eventually brought all of the family together in order to
work on the vineyard as one unit. However, wine was not delved into much depth
besides Johnny’s tour of the vineyard. I probably would not recommend this film
to a wine audience. I felt that this was more of a “chick-flick”/”romantic”
style film. Most people who are interested in wine would not find this film
very helpful about the wine industry at all. It briefly mentioned parts about
wine, but overall, the main plot was about whether Johnny and Andrew would end
up together rather than being about wine.
