Wine Film - Uncorked

            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.