Bottle Shock!

We went to see Bottle Shock on Friday at the Big Picture in Redmond.

Bottle Shock is a dramatization of the events surrounding what is probably the one of the most significant events that ever happened for wines made outside of France, since it marks the point at which the world starting taking American, and eventually many other countries' wines, seriously.

The event, for those who aren't aware, was a blind side by side tasting of French and Californian wines staged by a British wine shop (and school) owner (played by Alan Rickman) in France. In an effort to expand his business outside of just French wines, he traveled Napa Valley, selecting and bringing back a selection of Californian wines to put up against the best that France had to offer.

To make a long story short, the French wine snob...err... experts chose the wines that they were certain were the French ones (since no non-French wine could, of course, be worthy of drinking). When all was said and done, though, the top wines in both the white and red categories were from California.

The world of wine has never been the same since. The movie, which got 3 1/2 stars from Roger Ebert, does a great job of connecting with the viewer -- go see it!

When we were there, the Big Picture was serving glasses of the current vintage of the winning wines, but we thought the $25/glass for the Stags Leap Artemis Cabernet was a bit too pricey - especially since it goes for about $55/bottle in wine shops.

One gripe -- it would've been nice if they had mentioned Washington at the end of the movie when they plugged New Zealand and other places. I mean, after all, Washington is #2 in premium wine production...