Movie Rec: Bottle Shock

[Stinky The Clown]

http://www.bottleshockmovie.com/



The movie is about the 1976 blind tasting pitting the best of Napa against the best of France, and judged by France's wine elite.

The winning white was '73 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and the winning red was '73 Stag's Leap Cabernet..

The movie was actually quite good for some of the wine making story. There were the usual personal subplots, but they weren't at all heavy handed. This was first and foremost a movie about wine - more so than the very enjoyable Sideways. You'll see a reasonably realistic view of Napa when it was just more farm country, and the unpretentious people who grew grapes and made wine.

I guess it sorta sappy in one respect. Sparkly and I cheered when the American juice won the competition.

No big stars. Just a good story. And mostly true.

[Duer 157099]

1. I saw this a few months ago and just loved it

I had never heard of it and just stumbled on it on cable one evening.

No big stars? What about Alan Rickman?

[Stinky The Clown]

2. See ......

...... the thing is, I didn't recognize him as a big actor. Sparkly insisted that he was, but couldn't think of his name. It wasn't a big enough deal to us to look any further into it.

I just Googled him up. Yup. Big actor. :)

[japple]

3. Severus Snape (a/k/a Alan Rickman) certainly is a big player.

esp. to Harry Potter fans. Better known outside of the US, though, and perhaps better appreciated. I think he's brilliant.

[housewolf]

4. Alan Rickan was in a teriffic movie caled "Something the Lord Made"

which was about Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blalock, 2 men who are renowned at John Hopkins Medical Center, right there in your home town. Blalock was a surgeon who pioneered heart surgery with his work on "blue babies" whose hearts don't pump sufficiently to oxygenate their blood. Prior to Blalock's work, all "blue babies" died as very young children. No one had done surgery on the heart until he and his research assistant, Vivien Thomas, figured out how to do it through their experiments with dogs. The film is more about Vivien Thomas, a black man from the south in the south during the 1930's - 1960's, and the relationship between the two men.

It's a wonderful movie. It shows up on cable periodically. Catch it if you can, or rent it. It's worth a view. I've enjoyed some of his other movies, too.

[Duer 157099]

6. I've loved him since Galaxy Quest

One of the funniest movies ever made imho

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177789/

[housewolf]

5. Saw "Bottle Shock" on cable a month or two ago

I liked it, too. Wasn't that the first European wine tasting where American wine was included as a competitor? I was cheering for Napa Valley, too. I enjoyed the film, too.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Yes, it was the first head to head of California and French wines.

An actual bottle of each of the winning wines - the 73 Stag's Leap Cab and the 73 Chateau Montelena Chard - are in the Smithsonian.