Starring: Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, Rachael Taylor
Director: Randall Miller
Category: IIA
The title of Randall Miller's film - a story about how Californian vintners triumphed over their French counterparts in the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris wine-tasting - refers to the condition in which a wine's fruit flavours become subdued as a result of the bottle being shaken, usually during travel. An apt name perhaps, but in more ways than Miller might have envisaged.
Bottle Shock is a one-note tale about prevailing underdogs that offers a cliched storyline - an unfettered celebration of the American way - that hardly travels well.
The change in taste of bottle-shocked wine is only temporary, but the same cannot be said of the film - a tale that barely achieves mediocrity, quickly turning into a drawn-out melodrama that would test the patience of the most discerning wine aficionado. The film revolves around the Chateau Montelena Winery in the then-unknown Napa Valley where Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman, above left) has spent years trying to reinvent himself by making the perfect chardonnay. As he toils, he clashes with his son Bo (Chris Pine, right), a loafer still entrenched in his hippie lifestyle even if 'Woodstock happened seven years ago', as his father likes to remind him.
Jim's trusted lieutenant is Gustavo Brambila (Freddy Rodriguez), a budding Mexican-born winemaker looking for his big break by secretly nurturing his own cabernet sauvignon.