It’s surprisingly hard to quantify the effect that 2012’s “SOMM” had on wine professionals, a documentary that follows four wine stewards as they prepare to take the Court of Master Sommelier’s Master Sommelier Exam. For the first time since “Sideways,” a movie that was about wine captured the public imagination, and this one wasn’t about the kinds of people you dread having next to you in a tasting room. It certainly was interesting to note the sharp uptick in people who didn’t stare at me blankly when I told them what I did for a living, and I do appreciate that the movie went to great lengths to point out how challenging it is to reach the exalted status of Master Sommelier.
Yet it’s also hard to ignore the fact that the characters in the documentary bore only a passing resemblance to the actual sommeliers I know and work with. Indeed, I’d argue that “SOMM” was more a bromance that just happened to have some wine in it than a real look at sommelier culture. The goal of becoming a Master Sommelier was portrayed not as the culmination of a long love of wine and dedication to learning, but as nothing more than a challenge undertaken either for the sheer need to achieve or a coldly calculated career move.
That said, I was very pleasantly surprised upon viewing the follow-up “SOMM: Into the Bottle” to learn that filmmaker Jason Wise perhaps agreed with me. Instead of drunken sommeliers and a bunch of wine terminology that was almost comically opaque to most viewers, the new film capitalizes on the fact that few people are more passionate about anything that wine lovers are about great wine. Drawing not just from Master Sommeliers but great winemakers and other trade professionals (including Seattle’s own Madeline Puckette of WineFolly.com), it traces the world of wine through 10 legendary bottles, exploring how disparate factors like weather, history, cooperage and even seismology can alter the trajectory of a wine; or a winemaker.
Indeed, it’s worthwhile just for some of the fascinating footage, including great shots from inside some legendary European cellars. The way in which Old World wine is quite literally a link to the past is exemplified not just by thousand-year-old records in Germany, but the way in which current winemakers are carrying on a tradition that’s been passed down to them by fathers and grandfathers.
That tradition is cleverly juxtaposed against the more inventive and experimental winemaking of the New World, which in this case basically refers to America, and really just to California. In one of the film’s most touching moments, Napa Valley winemaker Steve Matthiasson is interviewed just days after the 2014 earthquake nearly devastated his cellar. Despite the tremendous loss, his love for making wine shines through.
Indeed, the film clearly conveys that the thing that ties all its subjects together is a deep and passionate love of wine. While “SOMM” occasionally forced me to explain that, yes, I was a sommelier but no, I wasn’t like THOSE guys, “Into the Bottle” (available February 2 on iTunes) portrays how deeply fascinating and emotionally moving wine can be, and that’s a far more delicious topic.
