Vino

I had lunch today with Rae in Olympia along with her mother and another friend. We ordered a Gigondes Rhone, and Rae stated that I should come up with a list of wine movies. Alcohol and film--you know me well, Rae. Everyone loves a top ten list--what is it about the number ten? However, I don't know if I've even seen ten wine films, so my list just includes five entertaining movies to whet the palate.

We begin with the 1995 romantic comedy French Kiss with Meg Ryan doing what she did best. This film taught us about terroir with this classic exchange between Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline:
"A bold wine with a hint of sophistication and lacking in pretension. Actually, I was just talking about myself."
"You are not wrong. Wine is like people. The wine takes all the influences in life all around it, it absorbs them, and it gets its personality."
Kline goes on to show Ryan how the soil can affect the taste of wine. Also, the movie is lots of fun.

I just watched Bottle Shock tonight, available for instant viewing on Netflix. It tells the story of how in the '70s a bunch of hippies in Napa Valley changed the wine world, which makes it an excellent companion piece to The United States of Arugula. In 1976, America's bicentennial, Napa Valley wines went head to head with French ones in a blind taste test, and California came out on top. It stars Alan Rickman as a Francophile British wine snob (I'm sorry, was that redundant?), and Chris Pine's hard body in '70s shirts that are more revealing than Starfleet uniforms. Rickman states, "'Wine is sunlight, held together by water.' The poetic wisdom of the Italian physicist, philosopher, and stargazer Galileo. It all begins with the soil, the vine, the grape. The smell of the vineyard--like inhaling birth. It awakens some ancestral . . . some primordial . . . Anyway, some deeply imprinted, probably subconscious place in my soul." And one of the winemakers says, "You have to have it in your blood, you have to grow up with the soil underneath your nails, and the smell of the grapes in the air you breathe. The cultivation of the vine is an art form. The refinement of its juice is a religion that requires pain and desire and sacrifice." Anyway, it's a pretty good movie especially for anyone who enjoys California wine. It also features TV favorites Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under), Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse), and Bradley Whitford (The West Wing).

This brings us to the 800 pound gorilla of wine films: Sideways. Californian winemaking has grown up, but Miles and Jack--not so much. Alexander Payne's film is a road trip and journey of self-discovery set in California's wine country. It is also famous for Virginia Madsen and Thomas Haden Church in (short-lived) comeback roles, and notorious for its instant popularization of pinot noir while denigrating merlot. Paul Giamatti waxes poetic on pinot, but it's Madsen who delivers the film's emotional center:
"I like to think about the life of wine. How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your '61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline. And it tastes so fucking good."

A Good Year is a quaffable flick for anyone looking to spend a couple of hours in Provence. Russell Crowe plays Max, a hard-working London businessman who wakes up one day to inherit a vineyard left to him by his late uncle. He goes down to France planning to sell the place for a quick buck, but in the Hollywood turn-of-events, Crowe falls in love with the feisty Marion Cotillard, learns a life lesson, and, of course, chooses life over money as he sets about to restore his uncle's vineyard and home.

Our last film is considered to be one of the finest films of all time (along with Citizen Cane). It's Casablanca of course. Out of all the gin joints, the champagne flows freely in Rick's Cafe in elegant coupe glasses. Most of the action takes place in the seedy yet glamorous bar, and the next time you decide to play it again, why not enjoy it with the classic Champagne Cocktail, a French 75, or simply a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, "if you can afford that kind of thing and rent too."

So there you have it. Not a definitive list or even the top five films about wine, just five movies that feature wine in a central or secondary role. Cheers!