My Favorite "Wine" Movies

Hello Wine Lovers!
This wondrous morning after a run, breakfast, dog walking and a little gardening I decided to take a little time for myself and slip in a movie and light up a cigar and enjoy. The movie I put in the player was "Dr. No" the 1962 Jame Bond flick, which I feel is the best Bond film. But at any rate it made me think of my favorite movies with wine in them. Not movies where wine is the focal point, but movies where
it clicks: Wine plays a significant role, the filmmakers get the wine parts right, and the movie is a pleasure to watch. So using this criteria here is my list with a little antidote about each one. Grab your sweetie, make some popcorn (hint: a buttery Chardonnay from California goes really good with buttered popcorn) and watch one or all of these movies. Pay attention to the wine scenes!
#1 Casablanca:
Champagne is the wine of choice in this famous epic and Claude Rains, as the jolly French policeman Capt. Renault, specifically orders 1926 Veuve Clicquot, "an excellent French wine," for the Nazi Maj. Strasser. Rains and Henreid also enjoy Champagne cocktails. Champagne's finest moment comes during the flashback to Bogart and Bergman's romance in Paris, when they're drinking bubbly in a small cafe. As Bogart's faithful friend Sam plays "As Time Goes By" on the piano, Bogie says to the cafe owner "says to finish this bottle and then three more. He says he'll water his garden with Champagne before he'll let the Germans drink it."
#2 Notorious:
Only Alfred Hitchcock can make it nerve-racking to watch people drink Champagne!Bergman stars as the title character, a "notorious" woman whose father is convicted of treason for spying for the Nazis. Bergman also once loved current Nazi spy Rains, and is now a hard drinker accused of promiscuity.
Grant plays an American spy who manipulates Bergman into flying to Rio de Janeiro and back into Rains' arms in order to see what he's doing now. Grant suspects that the Nazis are hiding a substance used to make radioactive weapons in wine bottles. He and Bergman poke around in the wine cellar of a mansion, opening bottles, while the Nazis throw a big party. If someone finds them down there, they'll be killed.Meanwhile, the high-society guests are drinking huge amounts of Champagne. All the while, we know that if the Champagne upstairs runs out, someone will be sent to the cellar to fetch more, and Bergman and Grant will be shot. Once again, the suspense of Hitchcock will keep you on the edge of your seat!
#3 Dr No:
James Bond has always been a sophisticated drinker, with much more of a taste for Champagne than the vodka martinis he's now most famous for.However, the moment that establishes Bond to audiences as more than a well-trained assassin, but a well-polished gentleman as well, involves Champagne.Invited to dinner while held captive by Dr. No, Bond grabs a bottle of Dom to use as a weapon."That's a Dom Perignon '55," says the evil yet cultured Dr. No. "It would be a pity to break it."Bond shrugs, puts the bottle down, and says, "I prefer the '53 myself." Now, think of when this movie was released and American audiences had to think he was a complete wine geek to know what year was important! You can judge how good a Bond film is by the vintage of Dom he orders. In the entertaining film "Goldfinger", Bond enjoys a bottle of the '53 Dom with a beautiful woman. But in "Thunderball", he orders a bottle of the '55 he once scorned! I rest my case, Thunderball was not as good as Goldfinger!
#4 The Earth is Mine:
Filmed at what is now Rubicon Estate, in Napa Valley,with workers appearing as extras, this film is a portrayal of the issues that divided Napa Valley in the 1930s still seems prescient today, and some of the gender-preference innuendo in Hudson's dialogue is pretty interesting even now. In this steamy version of Napa life, marriages are arranged to bring desirable vineyard property into the family. Affairs of all types are never out of the question. Hudson's mother, played by Anna Lee, says at one point: "Andre is thinking of selling Stags Leap. Cutting it up into little parcels. Selling it off to all the riffraff that come flooding in here because the price of grapes is high." Rains plays a noble character, believing that wine grapes are a gift from God. "The grape is the only fruit that God gave the sense to know what it was made for," he says. The film gives simple-to-understand descriptions of both the winemaking process and how to taste and appreciate wine. If you pay close attention, it is like "wine 101"
#5 Sideways:
About a trip through California's wine country with one character getting married and the other a failed writer with a passion for Pinot Noir, and wine in general. It is fun to watch Miles teach his friend about wine. He hates Merlot and Cabernet Franc and there is a great scene outside a restaurant you won't want to miss. Even though he hates those 2 grapes, his favorite wine in the world is made up of them both, yet the director doesn't throw it in your face. If you know the wine, you will know what I am saying!
#6 Disclosure:
Demi Moore sexually harasses Michael Douglas and a key point to the film is her special ordering him a 1991 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay which later is a point of guilt on her side. There is not a lot of wine drinking but the movie did put the Chardonnay on the map!
This should keep you occupied for a few Sundays with your sweetie!
Enjoy!
J