Bottle Schlock: A Movie Review

Everyone, not just wine lovers, should see Bottle Shock for the same reason that everyone, not just Republicans, should have listened to John McCain’s acceptance speech last night. That’s because the film lit a similarly patriotic flame in my heart (me, a shameless liberal elite whose New Year’s resolution was to buy more French wine and who has never voted GOP). But after Bottle Shock, the new feature film based on the infamous 1976 blind tasting in Paris when a handful of upstart California reds and whites bested their French counterparts, I walked out of the theater with a big heart of love for the Napa vintners who believed, against all ideological odds, that they could make fine wine to rival the greats of Bordeaux and Burgundy. (I also left with a burning thirst for a decent glass of homegrown Amurican cabernet sauvignon.)

Similarly, McCain’s speech — especially the parts where he recounted his experience as a P.O.W. in Vietnam, and especially the story of how he declined to be released early because of the armed forces code of “first in, first out” — made me proud of my native country’s characteristic bravery, heroism, and mule-headed optimism.

Don’t worry. I’m not going over to the red side come November. And as for the rest of Bottle Shock, well, let’s just say Sideways has nothing to fear. For more on the movie, including the truly shocking historical inaccuracies, click here:

First a disclaimer: I was offended at the film’s additions and omissions not because I’m some kind of purist. I have no problem with Hollywood embellishments, of which Rachel (Transformers) Taylor, who plays love interest to Chateau Montelena’s Bo Barrett (Chris Pine of Smokin’ Aces), is the main one here. As long as they’re good. But Bottle Shock’s romantic subplot causes aesthetic indigestion, and I’m not talking just about the wet T-shirt sequence where Taylor has to wash out the oak barrels with a garden hose.

Worse are the omissions: gone from the narrative is Mike Grgich, who as Montelena’s winemaker concocted the 1973 chardonnay that won the whites category in Paris. In real life, the recent Yugoslav immigrant never got along with the Barretts and left his post to start his own winery. So I’m figuring that Montelena’s owners, who are the exclusive protagonists of Bottle Shock, sold their story to the filmmakers with the stipulation that poor Grgich be siphoned off. It was hard to hear all the film’s team-spirit rah-rah about how “if oe of our wines wins, we all do!” without reflecting on the irony.

And where is Patricia Gallagher? In 1976 she was right-hand to Steven Spurriur, the British wineseller in Paris who organized the blind tasting and the antagonist of Bottle Shock. She was the only non-Gaul among the judges and went on to have a glorious oenological career in France. It’s an insult to women in wine that she’s replaced by a male character in the movie — or perhaps we’re to be distracted by Taylor’s cinematic liebfraumilch.

Finally, speaking of Mr. Spurrier, he is horribly reduced to a caricature of European priggishness by the film and I was glad to find out that he’s suing the filmmakers over it. Truth is, Spurrier had faith in the colonials’ wine, and although he never guessed that they would perform so well against the French benchmarks — and in fact became a near-total persona non grata in his adopted country because they did — he did not put together the tasting as a publicity stunt to promote his failing wine store. Unlike the version of him in the movie, he was a young, successful retailer with a sincere love of good wine — and of a good fight.

In any case, for the sheer pro-American tale of heroism it is (”Not bad for a bunch of guys from the sticks!” says Jim Barrett, played by Bill Pullman, when he finds his chardonnay topped the field), I recommend this movie. Just don’t forget your spittoon for the nasty parts.