Wine in Cinema

T

Todd Abrams

Todd Abrams
I just watched Tampopo, again. It is possibly the finest film about food in cinematic history. There are two sequences where wine, specifically Bordeaux and Burgundy, feature prominently. As both a wine and cinema enthusiast, I always enjoy a movie where great wine shows up. I was hoping you all might have some undiscovered gems that I might queue up for an evening in with a good bottle.

Some of my favorites are Tampopo, Babette's Feast, Withnail and I, and Sideways. I'll even admit to not fully despising A Good Year, despite its schmaltzy, tourist gastro-porn sensibilities.
 
I've said this before, but the best movie in which wine is involved is Erich Rohmer's An Autumn's Tale in which a friend tries to find someone for her widowed friend who is a woman winemaker. At various points, the winemaker wonders whether to identify herself as a viticulteuse or a vigneronne (this is Erich Rohmer after all) and a conversation turns on what the yield per hectare of her vineyards is, and you will find the interchange funny.
 
How about BBC Poirot "Death on the Nile" in which a bottle of Haut-Brion is demonstratively consumed? The events take place around 1937, but the bottle used bears the new post-1960 shape. Preposterous!
 
I forgot: You Will Be My Son, which is about the passing of a bordeaux domaine from one generation to the next, is also pretty good, if somewhat melodramatic. You can watch it on Netflix, where I bumped into it.
 
originally posted by Todd Abrams:
Wine in CinemaI just watched Tampopo, again. It is possibly the finest film about food in cinematic history. There are two sequences where wine, specifically Bordeaux and Burgundy, feature prominently.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Though I don't remember the scenes with wines -- just the egg.
 
originally posted by Bruce K:
originally posted by Todd Abrams:
Wine in CinemaI just watched Tampopo, again. It is possibly the finest film about food in cinematic history. There are two sequences where wine, specifically Bordeaux and Burgundy, feature prominently.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Though I don't remember the scenes with wines -- just the egg.
Click to expand...

I remember the scene with the noodles, too, but no memory of the wines. I'll have to rewatch it. Such a shame about the later attacks on Juzo Itami.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Bruce K:
originally posted by Todd Abrams:
Wine in CinemaI just watched Tampopo, again. It is possibly the finest film about food in cinematic history. There are two sequences where wine, specifically Bordeaux and Burgundy, feature prominently.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Though I don't remember the scenes with wines -- just the egg.
Click to expand...

Egg? It was the shrimp scene for me... Wine? I don't recall any wine scenes.
 
Was there nudity in Tampopo?

I just recommended this movie to a friend, coincidentally, who is starting a gourmet health food kitchen business, for fun. Don't remember the Burgundy scene, but was always partial to the one of the kid receiving a rice omelette with ketchup.

Great to have a list of wine nerd movies, especially from the crew here; something to curl up with of a weekend evening, with a decent bottle to hand.
 
"A Night in Casablanca" is about champagne, too:

Corbaccio: [the bottle of champagne they've just uncorked turns out to be empty] Hey, you cheap crook, that bottle's empty!

Ronald Kornblow: That's "dry" champagne!
 
I love the scene in "Ratatouille" where the angry little chef gets the rat's buddy Linguini drunk on a '61 Latour to get him to talk.
 
originally posted by Brian C:
I love the scene in "Ratatouille" where the angry little chef gets the rat's buddy Linguini drunk on a '61 Latour to get him to talk.
Click to expand...

Speaking of Latour, I believe they first break and then synthesize a bottle of the 1929 in "The Big Feast" episode of Northern Exposure. Amusing.
 
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