For a movie review.
We watched Bottle Shock last night. It's a 2008 movie about a blind wine tasting competition in France in 1976 when two California wineries blew everyone away and won the thing in both the red and white categories.
The movie focuses on Chateau Montelena and it's quest to produce excellent wine, Chardonnay in particular. I'm always interested in how movies based on real events can build tension and uncertainty in the audience when the outcome is already known. (Apollo 13 did this brilliantly, by the way.)
In Bottle Shock, the writers did it by making Jim Barrett, the owner and wine maker, on the verge of bankruptcy and giving him and his son an uneasy relationship.
I have no idea how much of that is based on fact and how much is added for tension. There's a female intern who is attracted to both Bo Barrett and his friend, a winery employee.
The Napa Valley of 1976 is shown to be very rural and nearly poverty stricken. The trucks and cars are 1960s vintages and on their last legs. I got my driver's license in 1975 and I remember the trucks and cars I and my friends drove. We weren't from wealthy families and our cars were in much better shape than those in the movie.
Bottle Shock is a great story dressed up to impress. It did make me want to taste some Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. The current release is their 2007 vintage at $50 a bottle. They charge $20 for a tasting.
Maybe it's time for another Total Wine field trip...
I think it is just great that you and your husband are on this adventure together. You are supporting his dreams and and I'm sure that makes him fall more deeply in love with you every day!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Elizabeth! You have no idea what that means to me. I launched this blog with great fear and trembling. But so far, it's been fine.
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