SIFF closer look: Bottle Shock
Bottle Shock, SIFF’s closing night gala film, tells the story of the events leading up to the 1976 Paris Tastings when Napa wines first beat French wines in a blind taste testing, putting California wines in the global spotlight and changing the wine industry forever. If you weren’t a serious wine drinker back in the 70s, you might not realize what a big deal this really was but if you’re drinking wines from California or Australia or even from here in Washington today, you are drinking the results of that tasting.
“Growing up, I remember a moment when my parents quit drinking French wine and started drinking Californian wine,” says Bottle Shock director Randy Miller, “but I never really knew why.” As an adult, he and his partner Jody Savin were presenting a film at the Sonoma film festival when they were presented with a script about that very subject. Miller and Savin, co-writers and co-producers of Bottle Shock were impressed by the ideas in the script but it didn’t really suit the type of movie they wanted to make. After doing some research, they met the Barretts, father and son winemakers whose Chardonnay made such an impact on the Parisian judges and found their film’s story in the lives of this contentious and yet loving family who managed an international impact with their dogged determination to prove that you don’t have to be French to make good wine.
You also don’t have to be an oenophile to enjoy Bottle Shock. Wine is the focus of the film but at its heart, it’s a movie about finding success after overcoming what look like overwhelming odds. “I like underdog stories, but I don’t like sports,” says Miller, who believes that a general audience can appreciate the Barretts’ achievment regardless of their knowledge of wine. “It’s not a ‘rah rah US’ movie, not a war or sports movie. It’s not us versus them.” The true story he says is more than California wines “beating” French wines, it’s that until this tasting people really did believe that truly great wine could only be made in France; the tastings showed that common wisdom isn’t always the same thing as truth.
Miller points out that one of the other lingering results of the tastings is that over the years wine has become more and more of a popular drink–it’s not just for connoisseurs. He reports that the Barretts say that wine is starting to pass beeer as the liquor of choice for young adults, even in such unlikely seeming venues as NASCAR. “It’s not just the ‘two-buck chuck’ but nicer wine,” he says.
Bottle Shock stars Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, Rachael Taylor, Freddy Rodriguez, Eliza Dushku, and Dennis Farina, all of whom were attracted to the film by its strong story. If you can’t make it to the gala tonight, be on the look out for Bottle Shock when it returns to Seattle in August.
August also marks the 21st annual “Auction of Washington Wines” at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Washington has an excellent wine industry of its own–for more information visit the Washington Wine Commission [site].
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I thought this was going to be a film about drunk middle age gamers playing last year’s video game darling Bioshock. But this topic is cool too! Wines are so much more fun to get buzzed on than nasty whiskeys and tequilas.