Bottle Shock - Tickets $12.50 Includes 1st Glass of Wine & Snack
The year was 1976, and Napa Valley has yet to gain the reputation as one of the world's best-known wine regions. Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman) has sacrificed everything in life to realize his dream of crating the perfect Chateau Montelena. Yet, despite the fact that Jim's Napa Valley vineyard has great potential, his son, Bo (Chris Pine), doesn't seem to have much interest in the family business. Most days, Jim and Bo can be found trading blows in their backyard boxing ring -- their attempts to knock a bit of sense into one another usually amounting to naught.
Meanwhile, in Paris, British expatriate Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) finds necessity dictating that he educate Parisians on the latest wines to come out of California. Steven owns the Academie du Vine, and is eager to travel to the United States in order to ensure that he has conducted his research properly. Little did Steven and Jim realize that they were both on course for a chance meeting that would revolutionize the wine industry while opening up a whole new world of possibilities for wine lovers everywhere.
Review by movie critic, Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun
In 1976, the year of the American bicentennial, the tall ships sailed from Europe to America and back again. But a smaller event was, in it's way, no less impressive. In a blind taste-testing held in France, the wines of California's Napa Valley defeated the best the French had to offer - and all the judges were French! A bottle of the winning American vintage, it is said, now rests on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution.
"Bottle Shock," is a charming, fictionalized version of the victory, "based," as they love to say, "on a true story." Shot in California like "Sideways," but set much closer to the earth, it tells the story of a struggling vineyard named Chateau Montelena, deeply in debt with three bank loans. It's run by the hard-driving Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman), who despairs of his layabout, long-haired son Bo (Chris Pine).
Meanwhile, in Paris, we meet a British wine lover named Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman), whose tiny wine shop is grandly named "The Academy of Wine." We never see a single customer in the shop, only the constant visit of a neighboring travel agent, Maurice (Dennis Farina, in full Chicago accent). Maurice encourages Steven by praising his wines, which he samples freely while passing out business advice.
Spurrier, (yes, a real man) has been hearing about the wines of California and has an inspiration: His grand-sounding "academy" will sponsor a blind taste-test between the wines of the two countries. That he is able to gather a panel of expert judges says much for the confidence of the French, who should have realized it was a dangerous proposition.
In Napa, we meet two other major players: A pretty, summer intern named Sam (Rachael Taylor), and an employee o0f Jim's named Gustavo Brambilia - yes, another real character, played by Freddy Rodriguez. Gustavo has wine his bones, if such a thing is possible, and would go on to found a famous vineyard. The two boys raise cash by Gustavo's (partially true) ability to identify any wine and vintage by tasting it, and of course, they both fall in love with Sam, who lives for the summer in a shack out of The Grapes of Wrath.
The outcome is predictable; anyone who cares even casually knows the Yanks won, but director milks great entertainment, if not actual suspense, out of the competition. Much of it's effect is due to the precise, quietly comic performance by Alan Rickman's Spurrier. "Why do I hate you?" asks Jim Barrett, who resists the competition. "Because you think I'm an asshole," Spurrier replies calmly. "Actually, I'm not an asshole. It's just that I'm British, and, well ... you're not."
We see him navigating the back roads of Napa in a rented Gremlin, selecting wines for his competition and getting around U.S. Customs by convincing 26 fellow air travelers to each carry a bottle back for him. That the momentous competition actually took place, that it shook the wine world to it's foundations, that it was repeated 20 years later, is a story many people are vaguely familiar with. But"Bottle Shock" is more than the story. it is also about people who love their work, care about it with passion and talk about it with knowledge. Did you know that a thirsty, struggling vine produces the best wines? It can't just sit there sipping water. It has to struggle -- just like Chateau Montelena.
