Bottle Shock (2008)

The story of the early days of California wine making featuring the now infamous, blind Paris wine tasting of 1976 that has come to be known as "Judgment of Paris".

Director:

Randall Miller

Writers:

Jody Savin (screenplay), Randall Miller (screenplay)

Stars:

Chris Pine, Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chris Pine	...	Bo Barrett
Hal B. Klein	...	Shenky
Alan Rickman	...	Steven Spurrier
Jean-Michel Richaud	...	Maitre d'
Dennis Farina	...	Maurice Cantavale
Bill Pullman	...	Jim Barrett
Kirk Baily	...	Loan Officer
Freddy Rodríguez	...	Gustavo Brambila (as Freddy Rodriguez)
Philippe Bergeron	...	Pierre Tari
Rachael Taylor	...	Sam Fulton
Louis Giambalvo	...	George Taber
Greg Collins	...	Trucker
Luis Saguar	...	Man #1 (as Louis Saguar)
James Hiser	...	Man #2
Geoff Callan	...	Man #3

Storyline

In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a sommelier in Paris, comes to the Napa Valley to take the best he can find to Paris for a blind taste test against French wine. He meets Jim Barrett, whose Chateau Montelena is mortgaged to the hilt as Jim perfects his chardonnay. There's strain in Jim's relations with his hippie son Bo and his foreman Gustavo, a Mexican farmworker's son secretly making his own wine. Plus, there's Sam, a UC Davis graduate student and free spirit, mutually attracted to both Gustavo and Bo. As Spurrier organizes the "Judgment of Paris," Jim doesn't want to participate while Bo knows it's their only chance. Barrett's chardonnay has buttery notes and a Smithsonian finish.

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Plot Keywords:

wine | overalls | flat tire | airport | blowing out a tire | 

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Taglines:

Based on a true story of love, victory and fermentation.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexual content and a scene of drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English French German

Release Date:

5 September 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Borban az igazság

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$277,839, 10 August 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,040,588, 17 October 2008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shocking Bottle, Intellectual Properties Worldwide (I), Unclaimed Freight Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When they pick up Alan Rickman at his hotel, it is the Toscano Hotel which is in Sonoma, not Napa, CA. You can see part of General Vallejo's adobe barracks next to the hotel. You can also see part of the Sonoma Square behind them.

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Goofs

When Steven Surrier leaves a 5 US dollar tasting fee at the winery under the ashtray, the owner of the winery picks it up and holds a different bill.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Bo Barrett: [voice-over during a vineyard pan] It wasn't always like this. Before Paris, people didn't drink our wine. I mean, my friends did. But you could hardly consider their palates discerning...
Bo Barrett: Hell, we were farmers... sort of...
[pan to empty bottles of Montelena label and several early twenties/late teens smoking hookah]

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Connections

Referenced in Na plovárne: Na plovárne s Alanem Rickmanem (2015)

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Soundtracks

China Grove
Written by Tom Johnston
Performed by The Doobie Brothers (as Doobie Brothers)
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

An Inspiring, Delicious, Heart Warming Movie of Wine and Dreams

In 1976 the world of wine had mainly just one country on the map: France.

Quietly Californians had been making pretty good wine that no one, especially the French noticed. Until a British gentleman and oenophile, Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) made a competition that changed the world of wine forever.

Entertaining, inspiring, shot on location in the Napa Valley and France, this is a delightful movie, with solid acting, beautiful cinematography and all around sparkling goodness.

Although the script has one flaw, it is for the most part very solid and the acting and directing are top notch. Bill Pullman (wine maker), Alan Rickman, and Dennis Farina (delightful American in Paris) deliver solid performances. Relatively new actors Chris Pine (son of wine maker), Rachael Taylor (love interest) and especially Freddy Rodriguez (Mexican wine maker) round up this outstanding cast.

Randall Miller, the director. has to be commended not only for creating an endearing and lovingly original movie, but doing so in a small budget, and even more taking his creation himself to several cities, after no distributor stepped out, even though the movie had rave reviews in Sundance 2008.

The movie has opened in several theaters in North America, Toronto has been fortunate enough to get it, and I hope a major studio changes it's mind and takes this one world wide, but not to worry the director is finding eager movie theaters anyway.

Enjoyable from beginning to end, a true story that deserved a movie, got one! Go watch it.

Joseph Hurtado from Toronto