And Now Starring----Wine!
For over a century, wine played a supporting role in movies, but recently, wine has become a "star." I have already written about the Chateau Montelena Chardonney which is the raison d'etre of "Bottle Shock," the newly released movie of how an upstart California wine could win in a Parisian blind tasting against some noble French vintages, and anyone who prefers Pinot Noir to Merlot or Cabernet (as I do) can only love 2004's "Sideways," which takes us on a wine tasting tour of Santa Barbara County vineyards, but here are a few other films to rent and open, let breathe a bit, and serve with pride to hospitable friends.
Champagne in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) where George Peppard uses Truman Capote's dialogue to tell Audrey Hepburn "I don't think I've ever drunk champagne before breakfast before. With breakfast on several occasions, but never before before."
Pink Champagne in "An Affair to Remember" (1960) where Deborah Kerr tells Cary Grant how much she loves pink champagne, and later he says this famous line "Don't you think life should be gay and bright and bubbly, like champagne?"
Vin Rouge in "French Kiss" where the man who inherited his family's winery (Kevin Kline) tells the American tourist (Meg Ryan): "First, you must take some wine. Can you describe it, the taste?" And when she answers: "It's a nice red wine," he insists, "I think you can do better."
Good French wine in "Gigi," (1958) where a teenage courtesan in training (Leslie Caron) is schooled about wine by her aunt (Isabel Jeans), "You have to fully enjoy the aroma. On your first sip, hold it on the roof of your mouth for a moment and breathe through your nose. Then you will feel the flavor. ... A bad year will be sharp. A good year, which this is of course, will waft." And later in the film, Gigi's future lover (Louis Jordan) secretly provides champagne to the youngster behind her grandmother's (Hermione Gingold) back. When the older women discovers her granddaughter is drunk, she doesn't scold, but instead belts out "The Night They Invented Champagne" as the three dance around the room and make the sound of corks popping with their mouths. "Pop!"
Various French wines in Ridley Scott's "A Good Year," (2006) where a British investment banker (Russell Crowe) not only inherits a winery in Provence, but discovers that the Napa-based oenophile who arrives at the winery's doorstep may be his illegitimate daughter (Abbie Cornish). It's a beautifully filmed soap opera with lots of wine consumed both in front and behind the camera.
Chateu Latour Cabernet in "Ratatouille" (2007) is what Chef Skinner pours to ply cooking secrets from the unsuspecting Linguini. The chef's plan fails as the young man gets tipsy and begins to wonder about such important things as why people would name a stew beginning with the word "R-A-T," and ending with something that sounds like "patootie."
Well aged, Transylvanian red in "Dracula" (1931) where the hospitable Count Dracula (Bella Lugosi) serves a dust-covered bottle of dark, red wine to his guest with the words: "This is very old wine. I hope you like it." When asked "Aren't you drinking?" the Count replies "I never drink "wine."
Italian Chianti in "Silence of the Lambs, " (1991) where Hannibal the Cannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins), shows that he knows the importance of pairing wine with food when he tells Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster): "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
Gallo Chianti in Neil Simon's "The Goodbye Girl" (1977) where Richard Dreyfus goes to buy wine for a spaghetti dinner and apparently hasn't heard about the Judgement of Paris held just a year earlier. For when he asks for " a bottle of your finest cheap
Chianti please," the clerk tells him, "I have a nice California red for $1.80." To which Dreyfus replies, "Nothing from Kansas?"
Sparkling wine in "The Muppet Movie" (1979) where Kermit the Frog shows how sophisticated he is when he asks the waiter (Steve Martin) for "The wine please," and Miss Piggy says, "It's Champagne," only to be corrected by the waiter who says: "Not exactly - Sparkling Muscatel - one of the finest wines of Idaho!"
Jug wine from various states (but often made from Sonoma County grapes) in "The Godfather," (1972) where Italian-style wines are homemade and served from jugs and decanters. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola likes wine so much, that he bought the former Inglenook vineyards in Napa County in 1995, and acquired a new winery to create all Sonoma County wines in 2006.
Napa and Sonoma reds and whites in "A Walk In the Clouds," (1995) are bold enough to stand up to Anthony Quinn's portrayal of the quintessential patriarch, and some stunningly created film sequences (especially the scenes of angels saving the vines from freezing) manage to be as light and complex as the splendid white wines which are served.
Wines of the Galaxy in "Star Trek "Nemesis," (2002) where the film opens with newlyweds Riker (Jonathan Frakes), and Troy (Marina Sirtis) celebrating with a champagne toast, and at the film's close, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) gives a solemn toast to absent friends as he serves a rare Chateau Picard 2267, lifts his glass, and intones in his Shakespearean voice: "To the future."