This week due to the
extra free time I had, I decided to watch a wine film. The movie I decided on
was Bottle Shock. In the beginning of
this film, it tells the audience that this is based off of a true story. I
found this to be very intriguing; since, it made it seem a bit more real and
added more substance to the ordinary fictional film on wine. The movie takes
place in 1976 in Napa Valley, California.
During this time,
California wines were not getting much press. Banks would tell vineyard owners
to look for a new dream when they would go in to ask for another loan in order
to buy new machinery for their vineyards. The movie then pans over to Paris, France,
where Steven Spurrier is. He was from the Academy of wine. Steven Spurrier
hopes to introduce the French to wine from other places; so, he comes up with
the concept of the “Judgment of Paris”. During this taste test, he is going to
put French wines up against American wines and see which reigns supreme.
I found it interesting
that in 1976 even the owners of one of the vineyards called himself “hicks
making wine”. They felt that they were not going to be up to par in order to
take on the French wine. Steven Spurrier comes to California and goes around to
different vineyards in Napa Valley and chooses his top choices for the “Judgment
of Paris”.
One interesting part was
when all of the Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena was a brown color. The film
brought us to UC Davis where a professor was able to determine that the color
came from making the wine “too perfectly”. There is a natural browning agent in
the juice, and if no oxygen is introduced, the wine will turn brown. However,
this color will go away. I had never learned about this “browning agent”, and I
found it interesting that if you make wine “too perfect” these imperfections
can occur.
Bo Barrett, the son of
the owner of Chateau Montelena, tries to convince his dad to let their wine be
in the taste test in Paris. His dad is a bit old-fashioned, and he feels that
Steven Spurrier is not going to let their wine win. However, Bo Barrett rushes
to the airport in order to make sure that their vineyard’s wine makes it into
the tasting. Bo Barrett also is nominated by his father and the other vineyard
owners in Napa Valley in order to travel to Paris to represent the Californian
wine at the “Judgment of Paris”.
During the taste test,
the judges argue back and forth over whether or not certain wines are “French”.
To everyone’s surprise, the California wines win the top of the red and white
category. The Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena won first in the white wine.
This was a very eye-opening experience for all of the French. Due to the press
from the event, Americans were wanting to buy the top wines from California.
This increased the demand for these wines.
At the end of the film,
it mentioned how Steven Spurrier wanted to do the taste test again in 2006. At
this taste test, the California wines reigned supreme over the French once
more.
Overall, I really
enjoyed this film. I was not aware of how much trouble the Californian wines had
in being recognized as good quality wines. The “Judgment of Paris” was a
fantastic idea by Steven Spurrier in order to help increase the awareness of
wines outside of Europe. I found one of his comments to be very true. He stated
after the “Judgment of Paris” was over that people should not be surprised if
they see wines coming out of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. From
this class, I have learned briefly about wines from all of these areas. Thus,
it goes to show how much variety wine making can take and how wine can be made
throughout the world.
I felt that this film
had good wine knowledge. Even though it did not focus on specifying how wine is
made or even went into too much detail about any of the processes, I felt
anyone in a wine audience would find this film useful and interesting. I am not
sure if it’s a widely known theme, but the beginning of the popularity of
California wines, was a very interesting theme that I had not come across in my
own wine study. Thus, I feel like others would greatly appreciate gaining
insight to this point of view. It was a
very entertaining film.
