It’s like: Cool Runnings (remember that movie!), except instead of Jamacian bobsledders, it’s underachieving wine makers, and instead of the Olympics, it’s a French wine competition. And it’s set in Napa Valley in 1976.
Star you’d know: Alan Rickman (Love Actually), Bill Pullman, Freddy Rodriguez (Ugly Betty’s Gio), Dennis Farina (Law and Order & Chicagoan!)
Synopsis: The story of the early days of California wine making featuring the now infamous, blind Paris wine tasting of 1976 that has come to be known as “Judgment of Paris”. It’s a charming take on the classic “underdog” story. A winemakers slacker son enters their family’s chardonnay into a French competition. The vineyard is near bankruptcy, and the chardonnay is brown (chardonnay, not supposed to be brown). Pullman is excellent as the overworked winemaker trying to get his slacker son (Chris Pine of Star Trek fame) to do something besides indulge in lots of wine and ladies. Alan Rickman is hilarious as the inventor of this “blind test”, whose real motivation was just to get out of his Parisian rut. And Freddy Rodriguez is perfect as the hardworking and often overlooked grape picker with a dream. And it’s a true story, which is always rather unexpected.
Verdict: If you liked Sideways and have never been to Napa Valley, screw open a bottle of two-buck Chuck and cozy up to Bottle Shock. (still streaming free on Netflix)
