Movie Night
/Having a Friday night in? We recommend a movie, a bottle of wine, and some popcorn. What type of movie? One about wine of course! There are many movies about wine out there to choose from and on Fridays we will share one with you that we have seen and enjoyed. You get the popcorn and let Qorkz send you the wine!
Bottle Shock
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.
Available To Stream On Netflix
Film Critic
This movie strikes close to our heart because it follows the core message of Qorkz: Good wine is good wine no matter where it's grown. It also champions the cause of small producers and the care and craftsmanship they put into their wine. The winning Chateau Montelena wine only produced 500 cases. This movie highlights the blessing and the curse of small production wines. One minute they are near bankruptcy and struggling to sell this tremendous product and the next, the world discovers how great it is, and you will struggle to get your hands on another bottle. I love that last scene of everyone desperately trying to find a bottle of it. The takeaway? Don't wait until its too late.
Why We Love It
"Wine is sunlight held together by water" I mean, how do you not love that? Bottle Shock is a great film for all of us who love wine because it allows us to live the struggle of the winemaker. The highs and the lows. It's an emotional struggle from start to finish. It's also the classic underdog story. It's a multitiered challenge of youth v. the establishment and not just with Napa against France either. You have the free wheeling hippie son against his father, and natives to the Napa wine industry v. newcomers seeking to make wine, who challenge established ideas at every turn. Everyone can find their underdog to root for in this film, and it's why it's one of our favorites.
Wine Pairings For This Film
Looking for that wine that has yet to be discovered that you can still get your hands on? That wine that will be impossible to find once the public truly finds out how great it is? That small player doing everything the right way and cutting no corners? If so then we have two wines for you.
2010 Anthem Beckstoffer Cabernet Sauvignon
$95.00
This wine is phenomenal. It has all the makings of a cult wine and only 300 cases were produced with about 60 cases remaining. Will you be one of the lucky ones to have said, "oh yeah, I tried that!"
$0.01 cent shipping on orders of 3 or more.
Brooks Note Weir Pinot Noir
$44
You know that scene in the film where Jim Barrett wants to rack the wine again because he knows that extra effort will make all the difference? That's Garry Brooks in a nutshell. That level of care and driven perfectionism is present in every sip of his Weir Pinot Noir. You have to try this stuff, it's phenomenal.
$0.01 shipping on orders of 4 bottles or more shipped to California.
$0.01 shipping on orders of 6 bottles of more shipped outside of California.
Movie Trailer
