So last year we had “Sideways,” the comic tale of two not-quite-lovable schmucks facing down middle age and commitment fears while careening through California wine country. It was 2004’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” – another movie that really wasn’t nearly as good as everyone made it out to be but which still managed to drag out phenomenal success.
“Greek Wedding” spawned a short-lived cottage industry of
boisterous ethnic party supply businesses and an even shorter-lived TV show. It probably also lead to the brandy-fueled ignition of an unusually disproportionate number Kasseri cheese slices. “Sideways,” for its part, pumped thirsty tourists into the Sonoma and Napa valleys in search of Pinot Noir and the enrichment of their vocabulary with words like “oenophile,” “soupçon” and “sommelier.” (Note to non-oenophiles: “Sommelier” is not a nation in Africa.)
Ultimately, though, “Sideways” was no more about wine than Boone’s Farm is. Wine was incidental, the lubricating intoxicant (or the intoxicating lubricant, take your pick) that helped the plot ooze, lurch and shamble along.
Now, by contrast, we have “Mondovino,” and in this vivacious documentary, wine is everything.
Director Jonathan Nossiter traveled the world for three years
gathering the information and interviews he needed for
“Mondovino.” An accomplished filmmaker as well as a trained sommelier, Nossiter opens the doors of winemakers large (such as Robert Mondavi) and small (a family winery in Bordeaux) and explores the often tempestuous coexistence between them.
This makes for unscripted drama that plays out just as gripping as any fiction. Like so many other documentarians, Nossiter manipulates the audience by way of sound bites, edits and cleverly turned questions. He sets up a fairly clear-cut “David vs. Goliath” situation, pitting those in favor of globalizing the wine industry to ensure rigorous standards against small, often family-owned vineyards producing artisanal wines using traditional, if sometimes unreliable, methods. Both sides accuse the other of passing off low-quality wine. The corporate types have homogenized wine, rant the peasants; these crazy farmers are putting who-knows-what in a bottle, retort the giants.
It’s no mystery which faction Nossiter sides with. And it’s admittedly difficult to find a reason to embrace the big wine houses, outside of their ability to broaden the wine-lovers’ base worldwide. They claim that globalization is part of their quest to establish varietal benchmarks – wines of uniform (but superior!) quality – that can be enjoyed by everyone, everywhere. They point to critics like Robert Parker who have “taken the elitism out of wine drinking,” an implication that they’re trying to cater to the common man. But, rally the small winegrowers, by dictating what wines are “worthy,” the corporates are just creating a new type of elitism. Think about it: Do you really want a Big Mac as the global standard of hamburgers worldwide? Do you want to drink McWine?
I didn’t mean to go ponderous there for a bit. The film, while a bit long, is punctuated by personalities that make for a boisterous debate of the issue. You’ll certainly come away with an appreciation of what it takes to get that bottle from the vine-strewn hills to your table. The scenery is gorgeous, and the wine does flow. I can see yet another surge in wine tourism coming quick on the heels of “Mondovino.”
Even if you can’t get to the Tivoli Theatre before “Mondovino” leaves town, you can still learn quite a bit about the wine industry as featured in the documentary. Visit the film’s Web site (www.mondovinofilm.com) and click on “Wines of Mondovino” in the site’s menu. You can read about many of the wines featured in the film.
The fact that “Mondovino” is playing at the Tivoli now is a brilliant coincidence for wine lovers. Just across Delmar Boulevard is one of the best restaurants for wine in the area, Riddle’s Penultimate Café and Wine Bar, and it’s just kicked off its month-long 20th anniversary celebration. Stop in after the show and spend a few minutes perusing Riddle’s extensive wine list, then savor a glass or share a bottle over a sumptuous meal in its new courtyard. The best delights of Napa – or the Loire, or Alsace – are as close as The Loop.
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2005.