Movie News & Reviews	Movie Trailers	Movie Listings

E-mail story

comment

Printer-friendly version

'Bottle' a bit uneven, but still shows taste

"Wine is sunlight held together by water." — Galileo

One forgets that it wasn't until a pivotal, wholly unexpected moment in 1976 that California's wine — and winemakers — were taken seriously on the world stage. Much to the dismay of the French, whose myth of vinicultural invincibility was shattered in a day. By their own palates.

The backstory of what is now called "The Judgement of Paris," a justly famous blind tasting orchestrated by then-unknown wine expert Steven Spurrier, is at the core of the partly fictionalized "Bottle Shock," an uneven but engaging romp through the vineyards of Napa Valley and Parisian wine salons.

While Alexander Payne's "Sideways" (2004) brimmed with excellent performances and decanted an Oscar-winning script for our delectation, director Randall Miller's modest little offering is less an ode to the glories of experiencing wine than a sip of the vintner's passion for making it.

Despite the occasional bout of overripe dialog, together with some rather contrived, insipid plot elements, "Bottle Shock" nonetheless displays a good nose, plus gobs of fruit and charm.

The film is worth pouring if only for the exceptional acting of Alan Rickman (perfection) and Bill Pullman (ardent but measured), which carries the movie past its pretensions and longueurs.

While novice vintner Jim Barrett (Pullman), founder of Chateau Montelena in Calistoga, is risking everything to fulfill his idyll of creating a hand-crafted California Chardonnay of impeccable quality and depth, Spurrier, a British expatriate in Paris, is struggling to forge a reputation as a wine seller. A confirmed Francophile, Spurrier scoffs at first, but desperation and his American friend, Maurice (Dennis Farina), convince him that any shop called the Academy of Wine should "present its subject in a global context." So Spurrier cultivates the notion of a bicentennial tasting in the Gallic countryside to honor America's 200th anniversary and France's Revolutionary aid.

Which is to say, a promotional gambit.

Meanwhile, ex-attorney Barrett is in hock up to his ears, losing patience with his layabout son, Bo (Chris Pine), and dubious when Spurrier appears on a Napa roadside suggesting area vintners might want to submit bottles of their best to the competition. Spurrier has no doubt that American wines are grossly inferior — until he tours Napa and samples it wares. The scales fall from his eyes (and his palate), replaced by astonishment.

Bo soon experiences (an unlikely) sea change, encouraged by best friend Gustavo (Freddy Rodriguez) and a vibrant young female winery intern (Rachael Taylor), and then goes behind his father's back to enter a celestial Chateau Montelena Chardonnay in the contest.

When it wins against the stiffest of French competition with the cream of France's tasters doing the judging — a California Cabernet also took an equally astounding first place — it's a pop of the cork heard 'round the world. Barrett's business thrives (not without some dicey moments). And Spurrier's name is made, even though the French regard him as a pariah.

Shot on location in the sun-splashed Northern California wine country (which also stands in for France), "Bottle Shock" dwells too much on the antagonisms, complete with ongoing bouts in an outdoor boxing ring, between pere and fils, which causes the film to drag at times. It also goes a bit overboard with the "three cheers for the red, white and cru" bit. But it is a movie of undeniable pleasures, with enough bouquet and complexity for the discerning wine lover.