The Wine Knows

It is difficult to tell whether wine lovers will like Bottle Shock, the film released this summer loosely based on the 1976 "Judgment of Paris" tasting.

It's beautifully filmed and is loaded with big film stars. The soundtrack, a combination of jazz and the Doobie Brothers, is superb. The story flows with love, anger and the quest to succeed.

Those with little more than a mild interest in wine will enjoy Bottle Shock immensely.

However, what a lot of wine folks are getting hung up on is the historical accuracy. Here are the facts the film got right:

-- Napa Valley is in California.

-- Paris is in France.

Beyond that, let's just say the film is filled with a lot of good storytelling. And that's what I liked about Bottle Shock. It portrays an American wine industry just as it is emerging onto the global wine scene. It shows the difficulties related to making wine without boring non-wine geeks, and it also helps us better understand the romance of growing grapes and making wine.

The problem a lot of critics had with this film was they went in thinking it would be a documentary. Hollywood doesn't do documentaries. We'll have to wait a couple of years to see if the rival Judgment of Paris is more true to the story. It likely will be, but I don't know that it will be any more enjoyable than Bottle Shock.