Movie ‘Bottle Shock’ recounts the historic 1976 Paris wine-tasting contest
Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times
A film based on the historic event that put California wine on the map — starring Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman — opens in Southern California.
“Bottle Shock,” a new independent film based, very loosely, on the famous 1976 blind tasting in Paris in which two California wines came out on top, much to the chagrin of the expert — and very French — wine tasters, opens today at theaters across the Southland.
From the husband-wife filmmaking team of Randall Miller and Jody Savin (he’s directing; they’re co-writers and producers), the film stars Alan Rickman (Professor Severus Snape in the “Harry Potter” films) as British-born, Paris-based wine merchant Steven Spurrier, who organized the tasting; Bill Pullman (“Independence Day,” “Sleepless in Seattle”) as Jim Barrett, the beleaguered owner of Chateau Montelena(which won for its 1973 Alexander Valley Chardonnay); and Chris Pine (“Carriers,” “Just My Luck”) as Jim’s long-haired son Bo Barrett.
Filmed in the Napa and Sonoma valleys, “Bottle Shock” takes a romantic view of winemaking and the significance of that long-ago tasting, embellishing and heightening the drama for the screen.
Four writers took a stab at the screenplay, which in places reads like Wine 101 with the Spurrier character pompously opining that “great wine is great art. I am a shepherd . . . .” Hokey violin music playing in the background doesn’t help.