It’s been a while since I posted anything on my WordPress site.  Honestly, I need to invest more effort in this.

Today, I re-watched a film that is near and dear to my heart, Bottle Shock.  It’s a little movie about a contest between the French and the Americans that placed Napa Valley smack into the crosshairs of the wine world.  It stars Alan Rickman, an actor I have great admiration for (you’ll know him as the Sheriff of Nottingham from one of the Robin Hood remakes, or perhaps as Professor Severus Snape, the darkly mysterious professor at Hogwarts who had us wondering which team he was playing for right up until the end.  OR, his big splash as Hans Gruber, the villain we all loved to watch chew up the scenery in Die Hard.).  It also stars Chris Pine (Princess Diaries and Star Trek reboots) and Bill Pullman (unforgettable as the President in Independence Day).

I love Bottle Shock because I love wine.  I moved to California in the year the events of the film took place (1976).  I was 16 at the time and didn’t have a real appreciation of/for wine yet, but it was coming.  My family moved to Redwood City which is a city on the peninsula that stretches south of San Francisco.  I graduated from HS there (Sequoia HS) and eventually moved to Fairfield, CA, a town mentioned in the film which is located very near to Napa.  Even then, I did not have an appreciation for wine or understand it at all.  Back then, it was just an alcoholic drink.

FFWD a few years and I eventually wound up living in the Sacramento area where I discovered the wonders of wine tasting. Sacramento is perfectly situated almost in the middle of four wine appalachians; Napa Valley, Lodi, Amador, and Fairplay.  My love of wine sprouted from going tasting at wineries in all of these areas.  I have many great memories of going tasting at beautiful wineries, enjoying lunch outdoors on their lovely grounds (and yes, I occasionally overdid it and wound up getting hammered.  I just can’t seem to use that spit bucket.).

As I mentioned at the top, I have seen this film more than once, many times, in fact.  It really speaks to me.  During today’s viewing, I found myself becoming emotional.  This may be because I relocated to Florida a few years ago to escape many of the negative aspects of life in CA (high taxes, over-regulation by nanny-state bureaucrats, and the generally high cost of living).  So, part of my emotional reaction may stem from me missing the physical place.  But I think a big part of it comes from really, and I mean REALLY appreciating watching people struggle to do something they truly love (wine making).  Something that, had my life gone differently, had I appreciated what wine really is sooner, might have taken me in an entirely different direction.

I met many small winery owners while going tasting in central CA.  One of them was literally living the life of the Bill Pullman character in the film.  She was an attorney-turned-winemaker and her winery was fabulous.  I remember the first time I visited there (called Karmere, located in Amador, so if you’re a wine lover and live in the area I highly recommend them).  On that first visit, I believe it was a Monday.  Mondays are somewhat slow for winetasting so we (my ex-wife and I) came upon the owner wearing sweats and doing some chores outside near her brand new tasting room.  She very kindly personally acted as our sommelier and poured the available lineup.  I recall them all being very tasty and “jammy.”  I think her winemaker was kind of into late harvest (which produces sweeter grapes, I think, and therefore all of her wines were slightly sweet despite not being dessert wines).  After pouring for us, she took us to her barrel tasting area and treated us to a number of tastings from barrels of wine that were not quite ready for “prime time.”  It was glorious!

One of the things I regret leaving behind in CA is the utter lack of opportunity to go wine tasting at actual wineries in Florida.  There are very few here.

Back to the film…Chris Pine portrays Bo, the son of the owner of Chateau Montelena winery.  Frankly, I don’t know how historically accurate the film is, or how closely the actors portray the persons they are representing, but I just love the film.  I love Rickman’s fish-out-of-water scene when his rental car (an AMC Gremlin) has a blowout (flat tire). Rickman’s character is a British wine snob living in Paris trying to figure out how to make his “wine academy” business successful.  He concocts the contest and, amazingly, makes it happen.  During this experience, he learns that California wines are actually very good (and he admits as much in the film).

As you (the reader) have probably surmised by now, this is not really a movie review, but rather a love letter from me to wine, and to my “home state” of CA.  I miss the place.  Most of all, I miss going wine-tasting at a limitless number of wineries all located within an hours’ drive of Sacramento.

If you live in Central CA, and haven’t already discovered it, I hope you will make the effort to learn about all of the wonderful wineries and wines available to you via local wineries.  It’s a culture unto itself and well worth experiencing.  Thanks for reading!