Fast Forward Theater: Bottle Shock
*gulp!* It's been a year since the last Fast Forward Theater - recaps of some of Chris and Karl's movies. If you haven't read them, click the tag and check them out.
I've been wanting to recap "Bottle Shock" for a while now, and thanks to the lovely mods and my patient fellow Word Warriors, here it is at last.
It's rather lengthy, and if you'd like to bypass the background ramblings, scroll down to the Sparkle Text for the recap.
Thanks for your attention and I hope you enjoy!
*****
Personal ramblings about Napa
Many years ago, my father was stationed at Travis Air Force Base near the town of Vacaville, California, a city that doesn’t have much to recommend it other than its proximity to the Napa Valley. My parents fell in love with The Valley, and after leaving the service - and the state for a few years - my parents returned to Northern California to start their family.
While I didn’t grow up in Napa, I’ve always lived within 100 miles of The Valley and feel like it’s my backyard.
Several times a year, my parents took my brother and me on a day trip west, stopping at Buttercream Bakery for breakfast and then driving up Hwy. 29 past pastures and farm houses, acres of fruit trees and, of course, vineyards. Our destination was usually the Christian Brothers winery, a beautiful and imposing gray stone building just north of St. Helena, imaginatively named Graystone.
Christian Brothers was the epitome of “The wine’s not good, but you get a lot of it.” Brandy, sherry, red, white… it was all available for the tasting and it was all free. My parents would make their way through several different offerings, giving us sips if we were curious about what they tasted like.
Yeah, we were little kids, but it was the 70’s!
Afterwards, we’d head back, my brother and I sleeping it off in the back seat while my parents enjoyed the two-hour drive home in peace and quiet.
Smart folks, my folks. ;)
I live a little closer to The Valley now and still visit regularly. Most of those pastures and fruit trees are gone, replaced by thousands of acres of grapes.
Graystone became the west coast campus of the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) over a decade ago, but I understand some of the Brothers still live in the houses behind the main building. The Christian Brothers label still lives on, making mediocre brandy and other fortified wines in the Central Valley.
And, of course, there’s no such thing as a free tasting anymore.
But Buttercream is still there on the corner of Lincoln and Jefferson in all its pink-and-white striped glory, serving up heart-stopping biscuits and gravy and hash browns fried in butter.
The foothills are still brown and sere in the summer and lushly green in the winter, the vineyards bright yellow with mustard in spring, and the grapevines laden with clusters in every shade from chartreuse to purple-black in fall.
It’s still one of the most beautiful places on earth.
*****
Ramblings about the California wine industry and Napa Valley
I think few industries have such clear “before and after” stories as the California wine industry. This one small tasting - a PR opportunity for an independent wine educator and vendor, really - became possibly the single most important event in the 300+ year history of winemaking in California, and served as a wakeup call for the French that their millennium of domination was ending.
By the early part of the 20th century, the Napa Valley had hundreds of wineries, many producing great wine. Sadly, Prohibition set back American winemaking in many ways, and by the time it ended, American taste in wine had devolved. Cheap and sweet were what sold, so that’s what California wineries made, though many of them often spent a portion of their profits on producing small amounts of high-quality wine.
By the 70’s, there was a lot of great wine being produced in the Napa Valley, but in most of the US and the world, when people thought of California wine - if they thought of it at all - they probably envisioned the late, great Orson Welles schilling erstwhile “Chablis” in green glass jugs for a buck a gallon with the tag line “We will sell no wine before its time.”
They were dark, dark, days. ;)
As a result, American wine aficionados tended to drink mainly French and other European wines. Even if they wanted to buy domestic, those high-quality wines weren’t always easy to find.
One tasting - more importantly, one article in the country’s most widely-read magazine - and the nation’s wine drinkers were not only willing to buy domestic wines, they were seeking them out.
35 years on, there are an estimated 800 wineries in the Napa Valley, over 3,000 in California, and wine is being produced all 50 states. Between wine production and tourism, it’s estimated The Valley’s economy alone is over $10 billion a year.
But for all that, Napa Valley is really just a small agricultural community, at the mercy of Mother Nature. (Just look up “phylloxera” if you want to see how one tiny bug has ruined the wine industry multiple times on multiple continents - and could do it again.)
Like the main street set of a classic western, the brightly-colored façade is held up by meaner materials. Just take a turn off Hwy. 29 or the Silverado Trail to see that, behind the massive chateaux, mansions and visitors centers, these are really just small towns full of single-family homes. Look past that and you’ll see the unheated/air conditioned trailers and encampments of the migrant laborers who, as in most of US agriculture, do the heavy lifting.
I love Napa and visit frequently, but I still find it fascinating that this world-famous region is really just a collection of small towns. And this one event put these small towns in the world’s focus.
*****
Ramblings about “Bottle Shock” and Chateau Montelena
As you’d expect, everybody in the California wine industry knows about the 1976 Paris Tasting (aka, “The Judgment of Paris”). So there was great excitement when the news broke that there would be a movie based on the tasting.
Then the details of the script began to emerge and that excitement was tempered somewhat.
Two men in particular were less than thrilled of this fictionalized account of this real-life event that changed their lives.
The first is Miljenko “Mike” Grgich.
If you’ve seen “Bottle Shock,” you’re probably wondering who that is.
Grgich was the winemaker at Chateau Montelena who was responsible for all of the winery’s product - including the Chardonnay that won the white division. He was also not in the film because he disliked the liberties the filmmakers took with the story and refused to give them permission to use his name.
Not long after the Paris Tasting, he left Montelena (taking Gustavo Brambilla with him) and later started Grgich Hills winery with one of the heirs of the Hills Bros coffee fortune. (They make an excellent Merlot at Grgich Hills. Yes, I said Merlot - bite me “Sideways” writers. ;))
While Jim Barrett did eventually become the head winemaker and sole owner of Chateau Montelena, in 1976, he co-owned the winery with a partner. Jim continued to work at the law firm he’d co-founded in Southern California and flew his private plane up to Napa a couple times a month to see how Mike was doing.
A Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap in Napa won the reds portion of the tasting, but for whatever reason, the filmmakers decided Chateau Montelena’s story had more potential and focused on that one. According to the opening credits, this film is “based on a true story,” though “very loosely based on a true story” might be more accurate. Hence Mike Grgich’s refusal to participate.
I get the feeling the producers were still bitter about this because, on the DVD commentary, they joke “There’s Mike Grgich!” in more than one scene. I’m sure it was meant to be amusing, but it just made them sound like assholes.
Mr. Grgich is pushing 90 and obviously could care less about some movie.
Steven Spurrier, on the other hand…
Spurrier was so upset about his portrayal in this film, he threatened to file a suit against the producers for character defamation. Nothing came of it, but I do wonder if, had the film been more successful, this would have ended up in court.
You can understand why he’d be less than thrilled with his film version.
Movie: Spurrier is a man who knows his wine but knows nothing about business. His store is always empty, he has virtually no contacts in the Paris wine world, and his only customer is a pushy, terribly-dressed American who runs the tour service next door.
Reality: Spurrier was a well-respected member of Parisian wine society and his shop was THE place for English-speaking expats to come and buy wine, since they could learn about it in their native language. He was so successful, he opened L’Acadamie du Vin (The School of Wine) to provide a place for regular wine classes - all conducted in English. These were so popular, that he began similar courses in French because there was no such thing offered anywhere in Paris.
Movie: Spurrier thought the idea of any other country than France (and maybe Italy and Germany) could produce good wine was absurd. It took the aforementioned American businessman to educate him about the wider world of wine.
Reality: By 1976, Spurrier was one of the only advocates for California wines in France, having learned about them from American and English colleagues over the previous several years.
Movie: Spurrier was so broke, he had to rent a Gremlin to get from San Francisco airport to Napa.
Reality: Spurrier’s family was part of the British aristocracy and he and his wife lived in a luxury barge on the banks of the Seine. He would not have been caught DEAD in a Gremlin.
I’d have sued for that alone! ;)
And while I’m sure any British man would be honored to have Alan Rickman play him in a movie, Spurrier was 35 in 1976 and Rickman was 60 when the movie was made. A very good-looking 60, but still… That had to sting.
A few other things:
Women didn’t start working in actual wine production in The Valley until the 80’s, sad to say.
I have no issue with adding a female character to a predominately male story, but there already was a woman in this story who was completely cut out: Spurrier’s business partner Patricia Gallagher, who suggested the tasting to Spurrier in the first place and who also happened to be American.
I visited Montelena for the first time last year but didn’t do a tasting as my friend and I were wined out by then. The parking lot is huge, with plenty of room for tour buses and limos. There’s a lovely large pond and garden at the foot of the hill on which the chateau is located. It’s got walkways going out into the water and is done in Chinese style.
Once we’d climbed the hill to the chateau, we passed a pickup parked in the driveway next to a “Parking for Irish Only” sign (complete with shamrock). An older man and his dog walked past us and asked if we were enjoying ourselves. We replied that we were and he wished us a good day as he and the dog climbed into the pickup and drove off.
“I think that was Jim Barrett,” my friend said. “I think you’re right,” was my reply.
Inside, the tasting room was bustling and there were pictures from the history of the winery as well as “Bottle Shock” on the walls.
There was also a copy of a 2006 proclamation from the US Congress commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Paris Tasting and the winemakers who beat the French.
There was only one name listed in association with Chateau Montelena: Miljenko “Mike” Grgich.
And, finally:
Fast Forward Theater presents: Bottle Shock
We begin with helicopter shots - because you can never go wrong with helicopter shots - cruising high over the hills and valleys of Northern California wine country intercut with close-ups of vines heavy with clusters of plump grapes.
After a minute of vineyard porn, there’s a shot of a sign reading “WELCOME to this world famous wine growing region.” [It has stood on alongside Hwy 29 for decades and used to actually indicate the limit of the Napa’s wine-growing region. Now the wineries start miles before you ever reach the sign.]
In a voiceover, Bo Barrett (portrayed here by Chris Pine) tells us that “It wasn’t always like this” and that, in reality, they were all just a bunch of farmers.
“Sort of.”
Cut to a shot of young Bo, bottle of Chateau Montelena in hand, drunkenly trying to dance and failing miserably, while around him his friends share bongs and drink wine straight out of the bottle.
With this scene, the filmmakers provide us with a myriad of details in a few short seconds:
1) Bo is a lazy hippy stoner
2) Bo’s friends are freeloading lazy hippy stoners
3) Bo has terrible taste in clothes (but it was the 70’s…)
4) Chris has chicken legs
5) Chris can’t dance
6) The producers coughed up enough dough to buy the rights to the Doobie Brothers’ “China Grove”
But most importantly, we learn that:
7) Chris has been saddled with The Worst Wig Ever
Much has been said about Chris’s wig in this film - none of it good - and I’m not about to mess with a perfect record.
With heartfelt apologies for Cyrano de Bergerac (and Steve Martin), a few other people have thoughts about The Wig.
The Historian: I didn’t know they still made wigs out of horse hair!
The Penny-Pincher: You won’t believe the deal we got on this at the 99 cent store!
The Ad Man: We replaced Chris’s usual shampoo with Borax. Let’s see if he notices.
The Custodian: Anybody seen my mop?
The Fashionista: Oh, honey, that look is so…never.
The Scarecrow: “I could wile away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers…”
The Passive-Aggressor: At least that wig is so distracting people won’t notice that it looks like you never bathe.
The Animal Rights Activist: How you must love the little birdies that you give them that to nest in.
OK, now that that’s out of the way…
[In reality, Bo had a blond afro, which Jim hated so much, he called him “Brillo.” So, as unbelievable as it is, we - and Chris - may have lucked out with this wig.]
Bo and Unknown Blond of the Moment drive up to the vineyards in a Jeep complete with surfboard and wetsuit in the back. ‘Cuz this is California, dude! He hops out, she drives off, and we get our first glimpse of Jim Barrett (portrayed here by Bill Pullman).
And he is Not Happy.
Without a word, he storms off and Bo (in a truly horrible Nehru-ish blue shirt/smock thing) finds it amusing, especially after he learns that his friend and Jim’s assistant winemaker Gustavo Brambilla (portrayed here by Freddie Rodriguez) had lied for him, saying Bo was ill.
Thus, the filmmakers reinforce Bo’s previously alluded to status as Lazy Hippy Stoner (LHS).
In the next scene, we see Jim begging for and getting yet another loan.
Thus, the filmmakers tell us that Jim is Very Much in Debt (VMiD).
Meanwhile, in Paris (portrayed here by Sonoma)…
We venture inside the tiny shop housing the Caves de la Madeline wine shop and L’Acadamie du Vin where we meet Steven Spurrier (portrayed here by Alan Rickman) who is currently speaking to the fictional Maurice Cantavale (portrayed here by Dennis Farina). Apparently, Maurice is Steven’s only client is only there for the free wine.
Thus the filmmakers establish that Steven is a Very Bad Businessman (VBB).
At a gathering of a Parisian wine association, Steven is turned away because he is not on the list, even though he’d paid to attend. He’s finally seated after showing his receipt, but is stuck at a little table by the door to the kitchen.
Thus, the filmmakers establish that Steven is not only a VBB but a Fish out of Water (FooW).
Steven is such a VBB that he apparently can’t be bothered to turn on the lights, so as he sits inside moping, a potential customer walks on by, probably because he assumes the darkened store is closed. Despite the lack of light, Steven reads a headline in the local paper about the upcoming US bicentennial. (Maybe he cast a see-in-the-dark spell or something…)
The next day, Maurice is back for more free wine and Steven declares he needs to sell some wine for a change. Maurice suggests that California is making great wines.
It’s clear from Steven’s expression that the “Bah!” is understood.
For the first time we see ivy-covered stone façade of Chateau Montelena (portrayed here by Chateau Montelena). Inside, one wall is lined with giant steel fermentation tanks while the other is filled with smaller oak barrels. Jim has just pulled some wine from the barrel and is examining it in the beam of a flashlight.
From the sounds he’s making, he’s not happy with what he sees and tells the man next to him that they will be racking* the wine again.
*The process of taking wine out of a barrel or tank, leaving the lees (sediment) behind, and transferring the clear wine to another barrel or tank.
When Bo tells him he’s got to be kidding, Jim immediately says, “Outside” and we cut to a scene of father and son fighting in a makeshift boxing ring built near the vineyard.
They trade jabs as Bo argues that nobody in The Valley racks the wine as often as they do. Jim’s obviously the better fighter, but Bo gets in a few good shots before a beat-up VW Bug with only one headlight and three tires pulls up.
We can see that the driver is a young blond woman - and so can Bo, because he stops fighting in order to get a better look just as Jim takes advantage of the distraction to nail him with a right hook to the jaw.
The Marquis of Queensbury would NOT approve.
As Bo lies groaning on the floor of the ring, we meet another completely fictional character and The Love Interest (TLI): Sam Fulton (portrayed here by Rachel Taylor). Jim is obviously confused about why she’s there - as are Bo and Gustavo, who’d been watching the fight. Bo and Gustavo are also obviously appreciative of the loveliness that is Sam in her wide-legged corduroys and paisley halter top worn sans bra. (But it was the 70’s…)
However, Jim’s setting is stuck on “huh?”
Sam explains that she’s their “eager and willing” intern and it’s apparent that Jim has assumed she was a man as he mutters “Oh, God,” and walks away, presumably to go get some ice for his hand.
Anonymous Scruffy Guy, who’d also been watching the fight, manages to get a cold pak out of a nearby cooler while never taking his eyes off Sam, which is both an accomplishment and rather creepy. As Bo holds the pak to his jaw with his still-gloved hand, Sam asks if he’s OK and he manfully shrugs it off - but never removes the cold pak - philosophically explaining that world breaks us all and that many are “stronger in the broken places.”
Gustavo has obviously heard this line before and is less than impressed.
Sam appears a little bit impressed that Bo knows Hemmingway, and he admits that it’s one of his father’s favorite sayings.
We return to Paris - and we know it’s Paris because there’s one of those “DEE-do, DEE-do” police sirens going in the background - just like in the earlier scene, so I guess it must be a bad part of Paris. And there are Citroens parked on the curb…and a guy on a scooter.
Zeut allors! How can ziz be anyzing ozer zan Paree!
Except the guy on the scooter is wearing a helmet, the air is clear and not gray with cigarette smoke and the sidewalks are not full of dog crap.
So, anyway, back in Paris (Sonoma)…
Back at the shop, Steven explains his plan to have a California vs. France showdown. Winner gets custody of the Statue of Liberty. Or an informal blind tasting. Same diff.
They need some press coverage and as it turns out, Maurice knows a guy.
Enter George Taber (portrayed here by an “Oh, It’s That Guy” actor), the man who wrote the article about the tasting and the only journalist who attended. He’s introduced here so he can explain the film’s title thusly: when a wine is shaken up too much, it can experience “bottle shock” - chemical changes that alter the flavor of the wine.
[Actually, bottle shock can happen when the wine is first bottled - hence the name - but this is close enough for Hollywood.]
Fortunately, a few weeks’ rest will reverse the process. So, Steven doesn’t have much time to get to California, find some wines that don’t suck, and get back in time for the competition.
From the busy streets of Paris (Sonoma), we move to the street of Calistoga.
[And I do mean “street.” I think they still only have one stoplight for the whole town.]
Sam and Gustavo join Bo, who is pointing out the sights - it doesn’t take long since there’s one store, one bar, one restaurant, etc.
Some Redneck in an 18-wheeler yells out to Gustavo, calling him “Boy” and “Chico” while trying to get Gustavo’s help with something. He obviously is not familiar with the old adage re: flies and honey.
Understandably, Gustavo gets angry and does some - entirely justified - damage to the truck. Bo tries to intervene and gets clocked for his troubles. (Apparently, getting the shit kicked out of him as Bo helped Chris land the job of getting the shit kicked out of him as Kirk.) Sam points out that Redneck’s actual beef is with Gustavo and eventually Redneck gives up - in part because Bo’s good at the dodge-and-weave and in part because Bo and Sam just won’t shut up.
Cut to a shot of a man sitting at bar, smoking like a chimney (it was the 70’s), while trying to surreptitiously take a buck out of the nearby tip jar. Just as his hand clears the jar, a woman walks over, grabs him by the wrist and slams his thieving hand on the bar top.
When we pull back, we see the woman is…Faith from Buffy! OMG, dude, do NOT touch Faith’s tip jar or she’ll rip your arm off and strangle with your own dead hand!
Faith…or Joe as she’s called here (portrayed here by Eliza Dushku) is another fictional character and she also goes by only one name. She’s kind of like Cher, I guess.
Thus, the filmmakers establish that bartending is a good post-slaying occupation, and that JoeFaith has spunk.
Bo calls out for ice (again) to put on his sore jaw (again) as soon as he, Sam and Gustavo enter. JoeFaith obliges with the ice and then points out that Bo never bothered to call her, implying this wasn’t the first time he’d failed to do so.
Bo sits there with a glass of ice against his jaw and tries to look penitent.
[OK, let’s talk about Chris’s face in this movie. I mean, we all love his face, don’t we? He’s a beautiful man, almost pretty, but imperfect, which just makes him that much more attractive, the bastard.
So I don’t know if it’s the horrible wig constantly shading his face or the permanent 5 o’clock shadow or bad makeup, but in almost every scene, his face looks dirty. I swear to God, I spend half this film wanting to run up to him and scrub his face with a handkerchief I’d just spit on.]
Anyway, JoeFaith was giving Bo a hard time for lacking the ability to use a phone, while Gustavo and Sam looked on uncomfortably.
Awkward!
Sam saves the day with a little light conversation, and then over a round of beers explains why she wanted to come to Chateau Montelena. She loves their history and their terroir (soil) - “She likes our dirt!” Bo exclaims to Gustavo as they clink bottles - but mostly she’s there because they were the only ones who offered her a job.
It’s obvious that she’s passionate about wine and winemaking and wants to learn everything there is to know. Gustavo agrees and Bo explains that Gustavo was born and raised among Napa’s vineyards and wine “runs in his blood.”
So much so, that he could tell not just the kind of wine in a glass, but what other grapes it was blended with, what percentage, what vintage and even what vineyard.
Sam’s reply is succinct: “Bullshit.” (Because it IS.)
To prove her wrong, Bo asks JoeFaith to pull three bottles and put them in paper bags. While she’s rounding them up, Gustavo and Bo argue about their shares of the cash and whether or not Sam is going to sleep with Bo.
Thus the filmmakers reinforce Sam’s role as TLI in this film.
Bo asks the people around the bar if they’d like to bet whether this “Mexican son of an immigrant field hand” can pull of this feat of tasting prowess. Once Bo agrees to include a slow dance with Sam for the winner, there’s a pile of bills on the bar and Gustavo proceeds to identify the varietal, vintage and winery of all three.
Bo counts up the winnings, which quickly disappear as JoeFaith snags $50 for the wine and Gustavo takes his cut, complaining that JoeFaith switched the order of the bottles. Sam realizes it was a con all along, and insists on her cut, leaving Bo empty-handed.
Gustavo rides to the home of Mr. Garcia (portrayed here by another “Oh, it’s That Guy” actor), grape grower and Puccini enthusiast. In the barn are several barrels of wine made from Mr. Garcia’s product, and after a sample, Gustavo declares they’re ready to bottle.
Thus the filmmakers show us that Gustavo’s been running a little guerrilla winemaking operation on the side.
The British are coming! The British are coming!
In a freakin’ GREMLIN.
A dirty, beat-up Gremlin.
[It’s amazing how you can suspend disbelief for the most impossible things, but then little details will totally pull you out of the story. And this ridiculous car is one of those things for me.
Apparently, way back in the mists of history…35 years ago…rental car companies just rented any old piece of crap car they could get their hands on, whether it even ran or not.
I understand they needed the car to break down to set up Steven and Jim’s meet-curt, but it’s a flat tire, which can happen to any kind of car. But the image of a stuffy Brit in a three-piece suit driving a Gremlin is a cheap laugh that reinforces his FooW-ness, and of course in this version of the story, Steven is a VBB, therefore he gets saddled with a rusty old Gremlin.]
So, clad in his suit and tie, Steven drives his dingy yellow Gremlin down the highway past acres of vineyards, when a tire blows.
He’s practically in a ditch by the side of the road, and when he gets out and gives the car a swift kick, he loses his balance and lands on his ass in the dirt.
On the commentary (which Mr. Rickman did not do), the producer happily tells us that this was an accident, and Mr. Rickman begged the filmmakers not to use that take. So, of course, they not only used it in the finished film, they put it in every trailer.
While he’s sitting in the dirt trying to change the tire, Jim pulls up in his rusty old truck that looks like it’s from the 40’s (because Jim’s VMiD, remember?).
Jim ends up changing the tire, and as he works, Steven explains his purpose in coming to Napa, despairs of finding any palatable wine, and dismisses the idea that someone without a winemaking pedigree can just decide to become a vintner and then conveniently do so.
Before they part, Jim tells him he “conveniently” owns Chateau Montelena.
Awkward!
Later, Steven conveniently drives by Montelena and decides to pay a visit. Jim doesn’t roll out the red carpet, but eventually does let Steven taste his Chardonnay and is clearly impressed. That’s still not enough to win Jim over, but he offers to make some calls to other vintners in case they’d be interested in participating. They believed that if one winery won, they all did.
Steven then asks how much he owes for the tasting, confusing the hell out of Jim. [It’s a good running gag, since the idea of paying for a tasting at that time was unheard of. “Those were the daaaaaays…”]
In a montage - complete with more Doobie Brothers in the background - Bo and Sam hop into Bo’s old-but-not-as-old-as-Jim’s truck, Steven looking uncomfortable sandwiched between them in his proper British suit and the kids in their hippy-dippy togs. (But it was the 70’s…)
They proceed to take him around to various wineries where Steven conscientiously leaves a couple of bills behind after each tasting, much to the amusement of the winemakers.
Word has obviously spread, because when they get back to Steven’s hotel, there are at least two dozen winemakers huddled around the entrance, all carrying bottles of their product for him to try - Gustavo among them.
Before they leave, Bo suggests to Sam that they could get a burger or just “get naked and screw.” Sam manages not to faint at his oh-so suave moves - she must have nerves of steel! - and replies that she’d rather clean the thresher. Bo takes the rejection in stride, so this was probably not the first time that line failed to get a woman out of her cut-offs. Quelle surprise.
And now, the Worst Scene in the Movie.
The first clue we’ve wandered into soft-core porn is the music that is thisclose to bow-chikka-bow-bow territory. The second clue is the slow pan across the faces of a group of male winery workers: all slack-jawed and wide-eyed. I swear one of them is even drooling.
Sam - clad cowboy boots, short shorts and thin blouse, without a bra, of course (but…70’s) - wields a hose as she tries to clean out a large wine press.
Bo, burger in hand, joins the free lunchtime peep show. Soon, all the men are staring at Sam like they’re waiting for her to start stripping or for the pizza guy to show up and the two of them start fucking.
[Seriously, who is the audience for this scene? The guys who were dragged to the movie by their girlfriends? Because I’m pretty sure that number is about four. This is a movie about wine, not “Sex and the City” (thank God).
Why create an intelligent, competent female character only to completely objectify her? There are far better ways to show how hard it was for women to break into the industry than dousing her with water and turning this into something one stripper pole short of the Bada Bing.
Yes, this is a menial task, but there are hundreds of those in a winery that Sam can be seen doing that aren’t totally sexist and degrading. Some of them may even advance the plot or help flesh out the story. But, no, the writer and filmmakers decided this scene was a keeper.]
Thus the filmmakers convey several facts in one scene: Sam apparently thinks leather cowboy boots are appropriate footwear when washing industrial machinery, Bo is a pig, his co-workers are pigs, and the producers are idiots.
Moving on.
We are hit over the head with the fact of Jim’s VMiD-ness as he sits at his desk, surrounded by bills and ledgers.
We are also hit over the head with Bo’s LHS-ness as he comes in, obviously stoned and/or drunk.
Jim tries to have a heart-to-heart, which is hard with Bo giggling constantly (even with the horrible wig, Chris is a-freakin’-dorable), about what Bo’s plans are. Bo needs to get a scholarship and go college because Jim’s so broke he can’t even new French oak barrels. (Plot Point! Plot Point!)
Of course, being manly men in the full bloom of their manhood, they take it outside and beat the crap out of each other in the boxing ring. Jim is unhappy with Bo’s promiscuousness and Bo just thinks his old man is a total downer, dude.
After having his clock cleaned by his father - again - Bo lays on the floor of the boxing ring, doing some serious navel-gazing. Sam joins him reassures him that she doesn’t think he’s a failure…yet. He declares that he should probably start doing something to ensure he remains out of the failure category.
Whatever plan Bo’s devised involves driving his truck (complete with hula girl on the dashboard) to San Francisco.
Yeah, this is going to end well.
As Bo heads to The City, back in The Valley, Jim confronts Gustavo about his guerilla winemaking operation and then fires him for being disloyal. Or because Jim’s a jerk. Or both.
[Gustavo is the most interesting character in this film, and definitely my favorite. The son of an immigrant field hand, he grew up to help make the Chardonnay that beat the French (something that’s never even hinted at, much less explained in the film). He’s also one of the few main characters who isn’t an irredeemable asshole.]
I’m assuming we’re now in San Francisco since the filmmakers made a point of showing us the highway sign as Bo drove away. Whatever the actual city may be, it’s portrayed here by Sonoma. Bo enters the swanky country club in his usual t-shirt and jeans and the membership Does Not Approve.
In an ill-fitting loaner jacket, Bo joins his mother (portrayed here by some character actress) and her husband Bill (portrayed here by Frank from “Murphy Brown”) inside the club, where his mother’s friends are gushing about how well their son is doing at Yale, throwing Bo’s LHS-ness into even greater relief.
Then, as his companions at the table look on in horrified amazement, Bo inhales his lunch like he’s got the worst case of the munchies EVER.
Thus, the filmmakers make it abundantly, perfectly, crystal clear that Bo DOES NOT FIT IN HERE. Just in case you’d missed that earlier.
While his stepfather chain smokes (70’s…), his mother finally asks Bo how much he needs so she can just write the check and move on with the rest of their visit.
Oh, family…
Back in The Valley, Gustavo has just told Sam he was fired and while she’s indignant for him, mainly she just really wants to try his wine.
Turns out Sam lives in the Cutest Shack Ever, set on the hillside in the middle of the vineyard, it has only three full walls, gaping holes between the boards and dirty windows. Nowadays, it would probably run you $2,000 a night.
Sam finally tries Gustavo’s wine and is so impressed, she sleeps with him. At least I hope she’s impressed, because if this is her reaction if she just LIKES your wine…
[Actually, Sam and Gustavo make an adorable couple and I really like them together. But she’s the blond-haired, blue-eyed TLI, and he’s the Mexican-American best friend to the blond-haired, blue-eyed young leading man, so…yeah.]
Bo shows up the next morning to take Sam to the vineyard. Bo peeks in the window and sees Sam and Gustavo struggling to get dressed. He gets completely, unreasonably angry that the his best friend dared to sleep with a woman he’s shown no interest in other than offering her a no-strings fuck and then ogling her at work.
So, he takes his toys and goes home. Or, more accurately, he takes his truck and goes to work without Sam.
Montage time!
In a voiceover, Steven talks about his passion for wine and winemaking, while we see:
-Steven, despite the colossal stick up his ass, being open to trying everything from KFC (thumbs down) to guacamole (thumbs up), and sampling yet more wines
-Bo continuing to be a pissy bitch where Sam is concerned
-Jim, looking frustrated
-Gustavo, looking thinky
At the end of his soliloquy, we see Steven in JoeFaith’s bar, the table before him loaded with wine bottles. [One of which has an anachronistic bar code. Oops!] When JoeFaith checks on him, he’s surprised at how good these Californian wines are.
JoeFaith’s response: Duh!
Inside Chateau Montelena, Jim comes upon half a dozen brand new French oak barrels - the result of his ex-wife’s largesse - dealing a knockout blow to his perpetually wounded pride.
In his office, Jim grabs Bo by the collar and shoves him on the desk, insisting the barrels be sent back, even though that’s not possible.
Despite all the fighting in the boxing ring, it’s apparent Jim’s never laid hands on Bo like this before, and Bo is shaken by his father’s anger. Jim turns his rage on an innocent cabinet, punching it until the door breaks.
Tears in his eyes, Bo tries to calm Jim down and examine his hand, which is clearly injured. Bo can’t understand why Jim is so angry since they needed the barrels and now that problem is solved. But in the end, this whole winemaking venture seems to be about Jim’s pride, and he would rather owe banks hundreds of thousands of dollars (which he does) than owe his ex-wife a penny, even though she’d never ask to be repaid.
[This scene…this scene is really good. It’s well-written and extremely well-acted and, as a result, incredibly frustrating since it gives us a glimpse of what this film could have been if the script had been better. I just want to grab this scene, shake it and scream “Why can’t the rest of the movie be more like you?!”]
In lieu of a reply, this scene gives us Steven’s return to Chateau Montelena. Between Bo’s turning his back to surreptitiously wipe his eyes and Jim’s bloody knuckles, Steven has a sneaking suspicion that there may just be some tension between the Barretts.
Diplomatically ignoring the resident elephant, he asks to buy two bottles of the ’73 Chardonnay. Jim declines, then tells Steven he doesn’t like him and wonders why. With refreshing directness, Steven answers, “Because you think I’m an asshole, and I’m not, really, I’m just British and…well…you’re not.”
Score another point for this scene!
Jim goes off on a paranoid rant about how Steven’s just setting them up to make them look bad and ingratiate himself with his French buddies. Understanding he’s in a no-win situation, Steven leaves.
Bo tells his father he’s making a big mistake, but Jim is nothing if not convinced of his own rightness.
Back at Mr. Garcia’s House of Puccini, Callas is once again on the turntable and Bo is visiting, ostensibly to try Gustavo’s wine, but mainly to ask him about Sam.
After getting the answer to whether or not Gustavo and Sam had sex - and refusing to believe it - he finally tries the wine and is obviously impressed, but refuses to say it’s anything but “good.”
*sigh* Men.
Now our scene shifts to San Francisco International…
[BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Sorry…sorry…but this set is the WORST set I have ever seen in a film with a budget more than $1.98.
This is supposed to be the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport? One of the busiest airports in the country?
This section of the “terminal” looks more like one of those temporary outbuildings used when the main building is under construction. I think the last time SFO was this small was in 1936, and even then I’m doubtful.]
But, OK, fine, I’ll go with it and say were at San Francisco International Airport (snicker), and just in case you forgot the time period, everybody’s wearing ugly polyester and people standing in line are smoking cigarettes. (But it was the 70’s…)
Steven’s told that he can’t bring more than one bottle of wine with him onboard and will need to check the cases of wine as cargo. Since the wine can’t be “jostled about” in cargo due to the titular bottle shock, Steven has a problem..
[In reality, Steven just didn’t want to deal with the nightmare that was French customs officials, so he arranged for a tour group to each bring a bottle on the flight with them and then he collected the bottles from the tour guide after they got to Paris.]
However, even the revised version of events wasn’t dramatic enough for the filmmakers, so they added Bo into the mix by having him show up at the airport and give Steven two bottles of Chardonnay for possible inclusion in the competition.
When Steven realizes he’ll need the bottles hand-carried, he turns to his fellow passengers, asking for people to carry one bottle of wine each. Bo helps make his case, explaining that this is California winemakers’ chance to compete against the French.
[What I love about this part of the scene is that Bo has a bottle of wine in each hand - and keeps gesturing with them, shaking them up in the process.
Oy.]
Anyway, the wine - including two bottles of Chateau Montelena - is safely distributed and Steven heads back to Paris and Bo heads back to Calistoga.
An undetermined period of time later, Jim is working on the vines when a telegraph arrives, informing him that their Chardonnay has been chosen for inclusion in the tasting.
Bo reads the telegraph and is overjoyed, but Jim - sweetness and light that he is - tells Bo he’s not going to send any wine to participate because he still thinks it’s a setup.
Bo tells him about going to the airport and that the wine is already in Paris - so Jim fires him.
Firing seems to be Jim’s default response to anybody who doesn’t do his bidding.
What a guy!
The next day, Bo returns to try and make peace with his father, only to find Jim lying on the floor of the winery, surrounded by open bottles of wine and looking devastated.
He tells Bo to take a bottle and look at it in the sunlight, and to their dismay, every bottle of their delicious, layered, buttery, golden Chardonnay is now brown. It tastes fine, but there’s no way anybody would buy brown wine.
His dream dashed, Jim tells Bo to have every bottle taken away because he can’t stand to look at it anymore.
Bo takes a bottle to Sam, who tells him they need to see a man about a bottle of wine. They drive past a conveniently-located fictional sign indicating UC Davis (Go, Aggies!) is just two miles away, so I assume the man they’re doing to see is at what we used to call “Cow College.”
The man is Bradley Whitford, who in addition to being a fine actor is also apparently an oenologist. He suggests the wine has simply oxidized, but Bo insists his father doesn’t let air touch the wine.
Overlooking a beautiful vista (that is SO not Davis), Bradley tries the tea-brown wine and begins to laugh. Turns out, wine can be made “too perfectly” and this is one of those wines. The complete absence of oxygen meant a browning enzyme was activated, but the effect doesn’t last. Give it another day, and it should be back to normal.
Thus the filmmakers tell us that they felt their money was better spent bringing Bradley Whitford up to Napa for a day to film a one-minute scene rather than get Chris a decent wig or construct an airport set that didn’t look like something out of a community college stage production.
They also tell us they weren’t willing to pony up the cash to actually film on the UCD campus.
[The wine actually did turn slightly brown, but Jim didn’t have it thrown out because in reality he’s a very good businessman. He contacted a wine seller in Sacramento named David Corti offering the wine to him at a reduced price so at least he could get some money for it. A few months later, Jim was back up in Calistoga and saw the wine was no longer brown. He hurriedly sent a telegram (70’s, kids, 70’s) to Sacramento, telling Corti he had 24 hours to pay up or their agreement was null and void. Jim never heard back, so the deal was off and the wine was sold at full price. Corti says he never received any such telegram.]
Now Bo and Sam drive past the UC Davis traffic sign, but in the opposite direction from the earlier scene. Because they went TO Davis and now they’re coming FROM Davis. In case that wasn’t clear.
Of course, in his panic, Bo didn’t bother to fill up the tank (and let’s face it, that truck probably gets four gallons to the mile), so on their way to stop Jim from doing something irreversibly stupid, they run out of gas and are stuck in the middle of nowhere Napa Valley.
In what I hope is not an homage to “It Happened One Night” because that films deserves far better than this, Bo tries in vain to hitch a ride while Sam looks on, smirking. Tired of his repeated failures, she offers to show him how it’s done. So, she steps out into the road and lifts up her shirt.
[*sigh* I can’t completely condemn this scene, because it does show Sam as being resourceful and comfortable with her body, which are good things. But it seems that we only see Sam in the context of her gender, as if the filmmakers are screaming “Did you notice? Sam is a GIRL!”]
Anyway…
Because it’s That Kind of Scene, the car Sam is flashing turns out to be from the local Sheriff’s department. The officer starts writing Sam a ticket for indecent exposure, but all she cares about is getting to a phone. (Yes, there was a time when you couldn’t make a call from anywhere at any time - how did we survive?!)
Up at the chateau, a group of workers load the cases of (not really) ruined wine into a truck. Briefcase in hand, Jim - clad in a suit and tie - climbs into his ancient truck and we see him drive past the “San Francisco 37 mi” highway sign. Wonder where he’s headed?
Immediately afterward, the Sheriff’s car drives up to the Chateau and Bo and Sam exit. Bo runs into the winery to see Anonymous Scruffy Guy (whose name is apparently “Shenky”) hosing down the floor. Shenky explains that Jim went to get his old job back and the wine has been taken to the landfill.
Oh noes!
Down in San Francisco (probably portrayed here by Sonoma), Jim has returned to his old employer and does the Please Take Me Back Walk of Shame past offices and cubicles full of his former colleagues.
Before his meeting with his once-and-possibly-future-boss, Jim gives the secretary, Marge (portrayed here by an “Oh, It’s That Gal” actress) a suede bag with a bottle of wine in it. He tells her it’s not a gift, but a reminder. If he ever decides to do something as crazy as pursue his dreams again, she should give him that bottle.
She gives him her condolences on the death of his dream and leaves him to his shame and humiliation.
Two emotions that only increase when we see that the man Jim will be groveling to today is not only his former boss, but also his ex-wife’s husband.
Awkward!
While Jim is practicing his groveling skills, back in Calistoga, Bo and Sam are starting happy hour early in JoeFaith’s bar, where Gustavo joins them to commiserate.
JoeFaith brings over a bottle of wine wrapped in a paper bag and tells them they all need to try this new wine she just bought a ton of. She pours three servings, managing to get more on the bar mat than in the glasses, but whatevs.
They all demur, but eventually Gustavo tries a sip…and freezes. He nods to Sam, and she tries the wine, obviously recognizing it. Bo’s too busy moping to notice their exchange, and is finally convinced to try some. He knocks back a glass, and his eyes go wide. Grabbing the bottle from JoeFaith, he pulls off the bag to reveal a bottle of Chateau Montelena Chardonnay.
In the back of the bar are the 500 cases slated for the landfill. Turns out the workers who were supposed to dump the wine decided to make a little extra cash - bless their mercenary little hearts - and offered to sell the cases to JoeFaith so she could make some money recycling the bottles.
Thus the filmmakers remind us that The Valley is really a very small community and word travels fast, and that JoeFaith is a bartender with a heart of gold who will let Bo have his wine back in exchange for letting her keep a case.
Down in San Francisco, Bill appears to be thoroughly enjoying making Jim squirm, when Bo calls and tells Jim that he’s got 500 (well, 499) cases of perfectly clear, golden Chardonnay.
Jim races out of the office and retrieves the bottle he’d given Marge earlier. Holding it up to the light, we can see that the wine is back to normal and, for the first time and an hour and twenty-three minutes of film, Jim smiles.
Unable to find a corkscrew (“This is a LAW office, for Christ’s sake!”) Jim rushes back to Bill’s office, grabs the decorative katana mounted behind Bill’s desk and returns to Marge’s desk where he proceeds to open the bottle by chopping the neck off with the sword.
[Kids, do NOT try this at home - because it’s stupid as hell.
There is a method of opening a wine bottle with a sabre - surprisingly called “sabering” - and I’ve seen it done a few times. When you sabre a bottle of wine, there are two things you MUST NEVER DO:
1) DO NOT cut across the neck of the bottle - you’ll just shatter the whole thing. The blade should be parallel to the neck and moved towards the mouth of the bottle.
2) DO NOT do this with still wine. This is for sparkling wine only. There is so much pressure inside a bottle of sparkling wine, that any bits of glass (and there WILL be bits of glass) are shot out by the escaping carbon dioxide, meaning the wine inside the bottle will be safe to drink.]
So, after Jim cuts off the neck of the bottle by slashing directly across it, he pours some into a mug and takes a sip. Hallelujah, it’s still good! After giving Marge a kiss, he pours everybody a sample - complete with little tiny shards of glass that will wreak havoc with their digestive systems. I can understand Jim wanting to give Bill the whole bottle’s worth, but what did everybody else at the firm do to deserve intestinal bleeding?
Cheers!
Jubilant, Jim leaves the office in a hurry - probably to get away before anybody starts coughing up blood.
Later, Jim joins a group of fellow winemakers who are trying to decide who should to go Paris to represent them.
[In reality, there were no representatives from any of the wineries at the tasting, but Jim and his wife, along with several other winemakers and their wives, were actually in France doing a weeks-long tour of wineries at the time the tasting was held.]
One woman suggests Jim go, and that garners a lot of positive murmuring, but Jim’s had a change of heart, son-wise, and suggests Bo would be the best person to represent them, seeing how he pretty much saved Chateau Montelena.
Free flight to Paris? Hell yeah! Hope Bo has a passport.
Later that night, Bo is doing his duty as cellar rat and hosing down the floor, when Sam arrives to wish him luck. Which, in this case means sex. We don’t get to see the sex, just the kissing, but if you get the DVD, you get to see the sex, though not much of it.
[While shirtless Chris is all kinds of hot, and he appears to be a much better kisser than he is a dancer, all I could think of is how sex on top of wine barrels has to be damned uncomfortable. Just think of the splinters!]
The next morning, Bo exits the winery with a packed bag and an I-just-got-laid smile just as Gustavo rides up and slaps a wad of bills into Bo’s palm - the winnings from another con at JoeFaith’s bar.
While the two men exchange a manly handshake, Jim comes out and, after a few uncomfortable moments, he offers Gustavo his job back.
Wow, Jim’s become a regular Little Miss Sunshine, hasn’t he?
Meanwhile, “somewhere outside Paris” (portrayed here by the ruins of a ghost winery in Sonoma)…
There’s a Citroen parked in front of crumbling stone walls of an old building, and we cut to the shot of another Citroen - this one with stickers on it - pulling up to the fence. Bo gets out and walks up the dirt road, calling “Bonjour!” to a lone farmer tending a cow.
[In reality, the tasting was held in a meeting room at the Paris Intercontinental Hotel, but I’m thinking using this outdoor setting was cheaper and it certainly is more picturesque.]
Maurice (in his worst suit to date - but…70’s…) comes running down the hill calling out to “Monsieur Barrett!” and gives Bo the traditional kiss-on-both-cheeks greeting. He escorts Bo up the hill, commenting about his brown wine, which just about gives Bo cardiac arrest.
Steven comes over to welcome him and Bo and Maurice take seats in the back.
Since this was a blind tasting, the wines were served in generic bottles with no labels and were identified by number. Maurice gives George the list of which wines were which numbers for safekeeping.
[George actually did have the list, so he noticed the judges’ confusion early on.]
Yet more Citroens pull up - apparently, there were NO other models of cars available in Paris in the 70’s. The judges have arrived.
After the judges are introduced, the tasting begins. As the sniffing and sipping and spitting proceeds, it becomes clear that the judges are having trouble telling the French Californian wines apart.
After all the white wines have been tasted, Steven collects the judges’ scorecards and tallies the results of the first round, asking George which numbers correspond to which wines. When George tells him that the winning wine is Chateau Montelena, Steven is shocked.
He stares at Bo, probably calculating the odds that the one person representing all the California wineries just happens to be from winery that took first place. Damn, he should’ve bought a lottery ticket today!
Before he announces the winners, Steven grabs Bo and takes him around the side of the ruins, asking if he brought something decent to wear “and perhaps a comb” since Bo is a LHS after all…
Ordering Bo to change, Steven rushes back to the judges and spectators. Bo returns wearing a brown coat over a floral shirt that, compared to Maurice’s checked monstrosity, looks positively demure. Apparently, he didn’t have a comb after all.
As the judges sip yet more wine, Steven announces the winner is Chateau... (smug nods from the judges - mais bein sur, c’est Francais!) …Montelena.
Much spitting and sputtering and coughing among the judges ensues. Bo opens his eyes in shock, not entirely sure what’s going on since he doesn’t speak French. Maurice gives him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and confirms that they won!
Bo’s incredible luck continues, because he just happens to find the only a phone booth in the middle of the dirt roads and abandoned buildings in the outskirts of Paris. He also finds an operator who speaks English - he should’ve bought a lottery ticket today, too! - and dictates a telegram telling Jim the good news.
Meanwhile, back at the winery…
Jim’s got the telegram in his hand while the workers shout and celebrate behind him. When Jim answers the phone, it’s someone from “Time” magazine asking for a quote about their historic win. He says “It’s not bad for kids from the sticks.” [The quote used in the published article.]
As mentioned a million words ago, “Time” was the most widely-read magazine in the US in 1976, and in a brief montage, we see different people discussing the article and then asking for the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay at restaurants and wine shops.
[In France, there was silence. It would be months before any French wine publication made mention of the tasting, and then it was to essentially say “what’s the big deal?”]
Back inside Steven’s shop, there’s also silence as he stands behind the bar - again in the dark - until Maurice enters and finally turns on the lights. Steven explains that he’s a pariah among the local wine experts and vintners.
[While the movie doesn’t explain it, there were many in the French wine industry who thought Spurrier had set them up by choosing sub-standard French wines to compete against the best California had to offer (not true). It would be some time before he could rebuild the relationships damaged by this event, and some of the judges still refuse to talk about the tasting.]
Steven tells Maurice that they’ve “shattered the myth of the invincible French vine.” He goes on to predict that people will be drinking wine from all over the world.
With a toast of “Welcome to the future,” he and Maurice clink glasses as we leave Paris and return to Calistoga. And more Doobie Brothers - did the producers just buy the rights their whole catalogue? Jim is working on the vines when Bo walks up, apparently just back from Paris.
Jim tells Bo since they’ve done it once, now they have to do it again, but despite his grumblings, he seems far less of a moody bastard than he had been earlier in the film. I guess making history and selling out your entire production run will do that to a guy.
Bo asks after Sam, and she’s down the row, tending the vines. She notices Bo approaching, and pretty blond-haired, blue-eyed TLI and pretty blond-haired, blue-eyed young leading man share a big hug and a kiss, while the Doobie Brothers urge us to listen to the music and the camera pulls back for another helicopter shot of The Valley.
The End!
Or is it?
Title cards inform us that the red wine portion of the competition was won by California’s Stag’s Leap Cellars. We also learn that Bo eventually did go to college and is now Chateau Montelena’s head winemaker and Jim is still the owner. Gustavo now co-owns his own winery: GustavoThrace.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Paris Tasting, in addition to the US House and Senate resolution recognizing the event, an (empty) bottle of each of the winning wines was entered into the Smithsonian Collection. We see a shot of a display, including the Chateau Montelena bottle, copies of articles, etc. [This is not from the Smithsonian but actually the display at the winery.]
We see an older, but still distinguished, Steven (sans mustache, thank God) tasting a variety of wines.
Finally, we are told that in 2006, Steven Spurrier organized another tasting between French and California wines (actually the red wines from the ’76 tasting since the whites were long past their prime), convinced this time the French wines would be victorious…
…but California won again.
The end for real!
If you’ve actually made it through this whole thing, congratulations!
As a gift, I give you Taverl’s Perfect Day in the Napa Valley
Buttercream Bakery: It’s always good to load up on fatty, carbohydrate-laden breakfast foods before drinking.
Domaine Carneros: Not the best sparkling in The Valley, but it’s very good, and their chateau is beautiful. Sit on the verandah if the weather permits.
O’Brien Estates: You’ll sit in Mr. & Mrs. O’Brien’s backyard while sampling half a dozen different wines - Mr. O’Brien may be your tour guide as well. I recommend their dry rose.
Oakville Grocery (a sandwich or some cheese and fruit and bread) or Ad Hoc (fried chicken) for a to-go lunch that you can eat at…
Frog’s Leap Vineyard: Up near Calistoga and not far from Chateau Montelena, they do an excellent Alsacian style wine called “Leapfrogmilch” which is a takeoff on the German “Leibfraumilch”
Schramsberg Vineyards: Best sparkling wine in the country, IMHO. Great tour, too, which includes caves full of hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine.
Auberge du Soleil: A luxury hotel tucked halfway up the hillside off the Silverado Trail. Get a table on the deck outside the bar and watch the sun set over The Valley while sipping a champagne cocktail and munching bar snacks.
If this hasn’t totally killed your interest in the subject, I highly recommend “Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine” by George Taber. Don’t let the seemingly endless title put you off, it’s a very fun read.
Now, go and buy some California wine.
Cheers!
Taverl