That SOMM movie

S

SFJoe

Joe Dougherty
Can't find Oswaldo's post about it.

Watched it tonight.

It reminds me of Eric Asimov's book, but it could be the sequel and be called, "How to Hate Wine."

What a grim death march.

But the goats were great.
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
What was so bad about it? Is it just a bunch of jaded ITB complaining about life?
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Not at all. It is bright young enthusiastic ITB wannabees who have been persuaded that knowing all the appellations of the Ukraine is important, and that being a stone cold blind identifier of anything from anywhere is the highest level of wine appreciation. And they are willing to ruin their lives to get there. It's very sad.

And it plays into much that is awful about wine.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
"candied lime peel"
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its absence in clos des briords does not invalidate it entirely, does it?

but I haven't seen the film, I am waiting for Da Sömme parody to come out first
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
The sommeliers rest in the town of Brie while waiting for Kabinett.
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Exactly, watching the movie felt as grim as my recollections of being in the Battle of the Somme.

originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
What was so bad about it? Is it just a bunch of jaded ITB complaining about life?
Click to expand...
Not at all. It is bright young enthusiastic ITB wannabees who have been persuaded that knowing all the appellations of the Ukraine is important, and that being a stone cold blind identifier of anything from anywhere is the highest level of wine appreciation. And they are willing to ruin their lives to get there. It's very sad.

And it plays into much that is awful about wine.
Click to expand...

And the bad form follows the bad content, the self-important talking head types seen at an angle spouting fluff while the mock suspense is built. I kept waiting for the moment when we'd realize it was all a con and it was actually a satire. Plus, they use varietal for variety at least twice, causing bile overload in those properly conditioned.
 
Awww, I think you guys are being too harsh about all of this. Just like you've always had to get a doctorate certificate to have credibility in bio or chem or medicine, nowadays it helps to have a certificate on the wall letting people you know that you know about wine.

Maybe if you're happy being a clerk behind a hipster wine shop counter then it'd be counter-intuitive in an okay way, but let's say maybe you were on a career track to be a lawyer or a steel magnate or a financial wiz but got seducted by wine so you abandoned Harvard or Fresno State partway through and found work in a cheesy boîte as a sommelier/night manager? And thence you'd worked your way up memorizing the hierarchy of the Three Bs (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo) but are compelled, whether by personal inner drive or family interference, to "make something of your life". How better than to become a Master Sommelier by learning the burgeoning wine regions of Uzbekistan and Guam? And how to cut cigars for left-handed smokers and which glass is appropriate for Primitivo and why that same glass is just not quite right for Zinfandel?

WTF, what business is it of mine if someone wants to do this? I like riding my mountain bike, but it's not as if I'm going to spend my next ten years mastering the thing so I can do youtube videos of loop de loops going backwards down the Matterhorn on an off road unicycle. Neither am I going to devote myself to trying to perform tricks on demand for Master Sommeliers who are apparently as unclear as the examiners at the Institute of Masters of Wine are as to what constitutes "Passing The Fucking Exam" that would entitle me to append a couple of letters onto my name and impress the trenchermen at Diagio. No, that ship has sailed for me, lo these many years ago, never to tie up at my pier again. I know what I know and that's all there is. I've suffered for my studies, as have all of the other MS and MW students, so now they're out there sharing their miseries and glories alike with all of us.

I've met all the geeks in that movie ("Somm", not "Todd Browning's Freaks") and they're well intended guys who might just as well have fallen in love with being an actuary or a car customizer instead of wine. At some point, when they've burned out from working the floor and doing inventories and dealing with management issues and just want to get the hell out of the restaurant biz, it'll be good to have that certificate letting people know that they once were more than just a contender, but that they'd summeted one of the hospitality industry's Mt. Everests. It's not about the paper itself, but about what it enables you to do once you decided to transcend the limitations of the honor. I admire anyone attempting it (they gotta learn something about wine from it, no?).

-Eden (I dislike the term "somm" as it seems kind of demeaning to people who are serious about it as a career. Sheesh, if you're going to talk about 'em, at least learn to say the entire job title)
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
Awww, I think you guys are being too harsh about all of this. Just like you've always had to get a doctorate certificate to have credibility in bio or chem or medicine, nowadays it helps to have a certificate on the wall letting people you know that you know about wine.

Maybe if you're happy being a clerk behind a hipster wine shop counter then it'd be counter-intuitive in an okay way, but let's say maybe you were on a career track to be a lawyer or a steel magnate or a financial wiz but got seducted by wine so you abandoned Harvard or Fresno State partway through and found work in a cheesy boîte as a sommelier/night manager? And thence you'd worked your way up memorizing the hierarchy of the Three Bs (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo) but are compelled, whether by personal inner drive or family interference, to "make something of your life". How better than to become a Master Sommelier by learning the burgeoning wine regions of Uzbekistan and Guam? And how to cut cigars for left-handed smokers and which glass is appropriate for Primitivo and why that same glass is just not quite right for Zinfandel?

WTF, what business is it of mine if someone wants to do this? I like riding my mountain bike, but it's not as if I'm going to spend my next ten years mastering the thing so I can do youtube videos of loop de loops going backwards down the Matterhorn on an off road unicycle. Neither am I going to devote myself to trying to perform tricks on demand for Master Sommeliers who are apparently as unclear as the examiners at the Institute of Masters of Wine are as to what constitutes "Passing The Fucking Exam" that would entitle me to append a couple of letters onto my name and impress the trenchermen at Diagio. No, that ship has sailed for me, lo these many years ago, never to tie up at my pier again. I know what I know and that's all there is. I've suffered for my studies, as have all of the other MS and MW students, so now they're out there sharing their miseries and glories alike with all of us.

I've met all the geeks in that movie ("Somm", not "Todd Browning's Freaks") and they're well intended guys who might just as well have fallen in love with being an actuary or a car customizer instead of wine. At some point, when they've burned out from working the floor and doing inventories and dealing with management issues and just want to get the hell out of the restaurant biz, it'll be good to have that certificate letting people know that they once were more than just a contender, but that they'd summeted one of the hospitality industry's Mt. Everests. It's not about the paper itself, but about what it enables you to do once you decided to transcend the limitations of the honor. I admire anyone attempting it (they gotta learn something about wine from it, no?).

-Eden (I dislike the term "somm" as it seems kind of demeaning to people who are serious about it as a career. Sheesh, if you're going to talk about 'em, at least learn to say the entire job title)
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This is sad.
 
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