Bottle Shock

Suspend your inner cynic for a moment, the one that associates the Napa Valley with backed-up traffic, faux chateaux and moneyed landowners who know little about wine.

Remember instead how the Napa Valley has, as much as Hollywood, as much as Silicon Valley, attracted and nurtured the dreamers.

The new movie “Bottle Shock,” based on true events, as they say, is about those dreams coming true. Specifically, in this case, for Chateau Montelena, a historic cabernet and chardonnay producer in Calistoga owned fom 1972 until just this month by former Los Angeles attorney James Barrett, portrayed in the film by Bill Pullman.

“Napa didn’t just all of a sudden appear on the map,” said movie critic Jan Wahl after a recent preview screening of the film in San Francisco. “They had to fight for it. This shows you the struggle.”

The early 1970s were indeed a pioneering time to be setting down stakes in the still sleepy farming community that was Napa. But within four short years, thanks to events detailed in the film, Chateau Montelena and many others became household names in California wine.

Some 20 years on, son Bo (played by Chris Pine) is still making wines there and will continue to do so under the new owners.The winery has been sold to the French: Cos d’Estournel, a second-growth Bordeaux, paid an undisclosed sum rumored to be in excess of $100 million.

Set in 1976, “Bottle Shock”’s dramatic narrative is driven by the Judgment of Paris, a blind wine tasting organized by British expat Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman), who at the time owned a struggling wine shop and school in Paris.

Using the American Bicentennial as inspiration, Spurrier came to California to select a handful of competitive wines, the majority of them made in Napa, then pitted them against some of France’s most esteemed and established Burgundies and Bordeaux.

“At the time I felt I was a representative of the Napa Valley,” said James Barrett about the tasting. “And I was privileged and honored that Spurrier picked our wine. It gave us a jumpstart as a winery.”

Especially so when, against all odds and expectations, the winning wines turned out to be Chateau Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay (retailing at the time for a mighty $6.60 a bottle) and a Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, also from Napa. Upon hearing the news, Barrett uttered his now-famous line, “Not bad for kids from the sticks” to Time reporter George M. Taber, the only American journalist to witness the historic tasting.

“When it happened, France ruled the wine world,” added Barrett, “and then we had our revolution; it changed winemaking all over the world.”

The feel-good, visually inspired “Bottle Shock” goes far beyond the drama of the tasting itself.

It also shows the contentious relationship between the headstrong elder Barrett and his long-haired, free-spirited son; teases with a love triangle; touches on race relations via the story of budding vintner Gustavo Brambila (Freddy Rodriguez); provides winsome eye-candy via Sam (Rachael Taylor), the winery intern; explores the notion of whether making great wine is in your blood or about persistence; and delivers a kiss to the picture-postcard beauty that is Northern California Wine Country.

“Bottle Shock” is being released Aug. 6 in major cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and locally beginning Aug. 15. It was the talk of the region last summer when cast and crew set up camp at various locales around Napa and Sonoma, inviting locals to dress in ’70s-wear and mill around as extras.

The filmmakers, director Randall Miller and his screenwriting wife, Jody Savin, with the help of local producers Brenda and Marc Lhormer, shot the indie film fast and furious, on a modest budget without a clear sense of when and where it might be shown. It officially premiered only months after wrapping, at this year’s Sundance Festival in January.

Winery and vineyard locations included such local spots as Kunde Estate and Buena Vista Winery, in addition to downtown Calistoga and the real Chateau Montelena on Tubbs Lane. Side streets off the Sonoma Plaza were cleverly redesigned to look like Paris, where Spurrier has his wine shop.

“The majority of the film was shot in Sonoma,” said Brenda Lhormer, who with her husband has been involved in local film and the Sonoma Valley Film Festival for many years. "We filmed the American Airlines scene — people are smoking and we were there for 14 hours, Alan Rickman is dripping — that was our set location on Eighth Street East. We shot Jim Barrett’s office there, as well as the bank where Jim goes to sign papers to get a loan. Then East Napa Street from Della Santina to Maya, that side we dressed as Paris 1976.”

The interior of Spurrier’s wine shop was also shot on set, while the exterior was Enoteca, the wine bar next to Della Santina. Spending two days shooting around the square, other scenes were staged at the Ledson Hotel, Toscano Hotel and Swiss Hotel. A bar in the movie, called Joe’s, where the younger characters hang out, meant to exist on Calistoga’s main drag, was actually Glen Ellen’s Jack London Saloon, the windows blacked out, lots of smoking extras.

That aside, Lhormer says the actors left having had a great experience, whether or not they had previously known anything about wine — which, outside of Rickman, most reportedly did not. Their pleasure is bound to resonate with audiences looking for a playful, enological timeout from daily life.

“There are a lot of people hungry and thirsty for movies about something that matters,” observed Wahl. “This matters; it changed the way the world looked at California wine, it changed people’s perceptions of America. It’s good news about America.”

Virginie Boone is a freelance wine writer based in Sonoma County. She can be reached at virginieboone@yahoo.com or visitwineabout.pressdemocrat.com.