By Matthew DeBord
HQ 114 | SUMMER 2021
If you spend enough time around wine, you might eventually hear someone mention the “wine world.” The term refers to a far-flung network of international winemakers, importers and retailers; restaurateurs and sommeliers; and journalists and critics. It’s a recent development; 50 or 60 years ago, wine was very local, with people mainly drinking what was made close to home. The wine world of that period was made up of a few dozen big-name wineries, several big-city restaurants and a couple of big-name critics.
But as the globe has shrunk, the wine world has grown. I could plausibly say that I was a “member” when I worked for Wine Spectator magazine in the early 2000s and rubbed elbows with producers from France, Italy, California and even Spain, Germany and Australia.
If your love of wine stokes your interest in this ever-expanding group of fellow obsessives, you’re in luck. You don’t have to get hired by a wine importer or study to become a master sommelier. Instead, you can watch some movies! A good place to start is with this list of 10 documentaries, a group that covers a lot of ground and should give you an excellent sense of how the wine world works — both good and bad.
1. Somm
If you aspire to being a big-shot wine professional working at the finest restaurants, the Master Sommelier certification is your golden ticket. This 2012 documentary, which spawned two sequels, follows a group of candidates as they prep for the final exam. I’ve known several people who’ve obtained their “MS,” and the process is hard! Passing is far from a sure thing, and this compelling movie capitalizes on that dramatic tension.
2. Somm: Into the Bottle
Directed by the same person who made the original documentary, this film really pulls the cover off the entire global wine world. American filmmaker Jason Wise had, by 2015, moved past the reality-TV dynamic of Somm to tackle the history of wine and its evolution from a local product to a major business.
3. Somm 3
If Somm was all about the retail side of wine and the sequel a sort of tour of what wine has become in the 21st century, then Somm 3 is grad school for wine nuts. Here we meet the real heavy hitters in the world of wine criticism and learn about the famous 1973 Paris tasting that was organized by Steven Spurrier, who participated in the filming. Ultimately, the Paris tasting is recreated, but with less world-shaking results.
4. Sour Grapes
As the wine world grew in the late 20th century, so did the opportunity to engage in fraud, as investors and collectors chased big financial returns and competed for rare “trophy” wines. This remarkable documentary centers on Rudy Kurniawan, perhaps the greatest con man in the history of wine. He was busted for peddling over $30 million in fake bottlings, and this movie captures the mania that wine collecting has inspired as well as the character of the industry’s most infamous fraudster.
5. Mondovino
This 2014 film was directed by Jonathan Nossiter, and the former wine pro takes aim at the massively expanding wine world of the early 21st century. Probably the most important movie yet made about wine politics, it draws a line between the old ways of doing things, with their focus on unique regional styles and values, and the new realm of hyper-ambitious wine entrepreneurs and the globetrotting winemaking consultants who developed a controversial “global” wine type.
6. Decanted
The Napa Valley in California is pretty much the greatest wine region in the U.S., if not the world, and this documentary chronicles what it takes to be successful there. The best thing about the film is its ability to capture the romance of winemaking without ignoring the challenges that anyone who wants to follow their crazy dreams might face.
7. Barolo Boys
Ever heard of Barolo? If you haven’t, this 2014 Italian documentary should be on your watch list. Today Barolo is considered one of the greatest (and most expensive) red wines of Italy, but that wasn’t always the case. It was just an obscure preoccupation of hardcore wine geeks until several producers decided to take it to the big time in the 1980s. The film summarizes their distinctly Italian success story.
8. A Year in Burgundy
Burgundy is by far the most esoteric wine region in France, where just two grapes — Pinot Noir and Chardonnay — are cultivated by farming families whose heritage goes back centuries. Many wine lovers never quite get what’s so special and maddening about Burgundy, but this 2013 film is a fine place to start.
9. A Year in Champagne
While A Year in Burgundy strived to unpack the complexities of that region, this documentary zeros in on an often unheralded but still vitally important wine-world figure: the importer. Renowned wine importer Martine Saunier knows her champers, and the movie reveals that Champagne is about much more than the name brands that most Americans are familiar with.
10. Red Obsession
Actor Russell Crowe voices this documentary about the world’s obsession with the Bordeaux wines of France. No wine is more storied than Bordeaux, and no wine commands higher prices from the world’s richest enthusiasts. If you want to join their ranks, this film should be required viewing.
