The corner of Hollywood and Wine
Aspen has some unusual opportunities for a small mining town. This week HBO is here and they brought the Comedy Arts Festival, and hundreds of people from the entertainment industry (much less the throngs that are here just to laugh).
Like many of you I stare wistfully into the entertainment industry through a window. I am entranced by the personalities, the possibilities, and the occasional opportunity. So what does this have to do with wine, you may rightly ask? It turns out that those in the entertainment industry have been staring back through the same window, into the wine world.
With great regularity, the first line from someone after being introduced to me, is to say "I wish I had your job." I smile and point out the draw backs of being me. The early morning meetings in suit and tie (a very non Aspen thing on both accounts), trying to find something nice to say about a wine that just made me grimace, and finally, my complete inability to control the way the world perceives wine.
Through my book, website, newsletter, this blog, and the occasional article, I certainly have been doing my best to mold impressionable minds. I have been hard at work trying to help people realize that wine is something that is fun, and not something to be afraid of. I have endeavored to separate fact from fiction, and truth from opinion. But I have failed.
How do I know I have failed? Because I watch movies and television, and they still don't "get" wine.
Many of those in the entertainment industry have more than their noses pressed up against the window of the wine world. From well known game show hosts, to award winning film directors, entertainers have a hand in wine.
Success comes in many forms, but for wine lovers, success is often measured in the ability to collect, and enjoy the finest wines. The Hollywood elite has been known to enjoy wine, and this is not just idle speculation, as a wine steward in Aspen for over 20 years, this is based on first hand knowledge.
So why then does the entertainment industry so often get wine so horribly wrong?
I am not talking about the pale colored liquid that passes for wine most of the time. I understand why you may not want you actors really sipping wine, take after take, through a long hard day.
I am not even talking about making references to wine, when the bottle is visible, and is clearly not the wine they are talking about.
And while it is tempting, I am not even including the movie Sideways that managed to bring amazing attention to wine, even after getting so much of it wrong.
I am talking about really stupid things. As in a recent episode of Las Vegas (that I watched just because the info said it was about wine). In this episode there was a bottle of wine that sold for one million dollars.
It was a late vintage DRC Montrachet. That's right, a 20th century WHITE wine. A nice wine, in fact one of the wines I have the fondest memory of (tasted at the winery), but in the furthest stretch of the imagination, it is only worth about $1,000.
It gets worse. In the episode the bottle was a fraud (and those tasting the wine oohed and ahed before learning of it). How did they know the wine was a fraud? Because the label was the wrong kind of printing.
Sound familiar? That's right, the plot could have been lifted directly from this blog. I wrote about a just such a case when I was illustrating my experience with wine forensics.
I wouldn't mind if they did steal it from me, although credit would always be nice, but the problem is, that even the details of the printing they got exactly backwards.
So why does this stick in my craw? What is it about all this that gets me going enough to write about it?
Simply because researchers have been known to call me to get such details right. CSI New York placed a call, but missed me, and decided to do without, it will be fun to see how they do. There is no need to get it wrong, when you can get it right with a simple phone call.
I am a resource for the entertainment industry. Sure, I would love to see my name in the credits, who wouldn't? But I realize this is unlikely, and yet I continue to offer my services.
Why? Partly because I have my face up to the window and wish I could be part of the entertainment industry. Partly because getting it wrong just ticks me off. But mostly because it is my mission in life to show to the world that wine is fun and not scary.
Telling people they could spend a million dollars on a white wine that is not even authentic is not only inaccurate, it poorly serves the wine industry at large.
Oh, and the next time you need someone to taste your million dollar wine, and tell you if it is the real deal, think of me.
Like many of you I stare wistfully into the entertainment industry through a window. I am entranced by the personalities, the possibilities, and the occasional opportunity. So what does this have to do with wine, you may rightly ask? It turns out that those in the entertainment industry have been staring back through the same window, into the wine world.
With great regularity, the first line from someone after being introduced to me, is to say "I wish I had your job." I smile and point out the draw backs of being me. The early morning meetings in suit and tie (a very non Aspen thing on both accounts), trying to find something nice to say about a wine that just made me grimace, and finally, my complete inability to control the way the world perceives wine.
Through my book, website, newsletter, this blog, and the occasional article, I certainly have been doing my best to mold impressionable minds. I have been hard at work trying to help people realize that wine is something that is fun, and not something to be afraid of. I have endeavored to separate fact from fiction, and truth from opinion. But I have failed.
How do I know I have failed? Because I watch movies and television, and they still don't "get" wine.
Many of those in the entertainment industry have more than their noses pressed up against the window of the wine world. From well known game show hosts, to award winning film directors, entertainers have a hand in wine.
Success comes in many forms, but for wine lovers, success is often measured in the ability to collect, and enjoy the finest wines. The Hollywood elite has been known to enjoy wine, and this is not just idle speculation, as a wine steward in Aspen for over 20 years, this is based on first hand knowledge.
So why then does the entertainment industry so often get wine so horribly wrong?
I am not talking about the pale colored liquid that passes for wine most of the time. I understand why you may not want you actors really sipping wine, take after take, through a long hard day.
I am not even talking about making references to wine, when the bottle is visible, and is clearly not the wine they are talking about.
And while it is tempting, I am not even including the movie Sideways that managed to bring amazing attention to wine, even after getting so much of it wrong.
I am talking about really stupid things. As in a recent episode of Las Vegas (that I watched just because the info said it was about wine). In this episode there was a bottle of wine that sold for one million dollars.
It was a late vintage DRC Montrachet. That's right, a 20th century WHITE wine. A nice wine, in fact one of the wines I have the fondest memory of (tasted at the winery), but in the furthest stretch of the imagination, it is only worth about $1,000.
It gets worse. In the episode the bottle was a fraud (and those tasting the wine oohed and ahed before learning of it). How did they know the wine was a fraud? Because the label was the wrong kind of printing.
Sound familiar? That's right, the plot could have been lifted directly from this blog. I wrote about a just such a case when I was illustrating my experience with wine forensics.
I wouldn't mind if they did steal it from me, although credit would always be nice, but the problem is, that even the details of the printing they got exactly backwards.
So why does this stick in my craw? What is it about all this that gets me going enough to write about it?
Simply because researchers have been known to call me to get such details right. CSI New York placed a call, but missed me, and decided to do without, it will be fun to see how they do. There is no need to get it wrong, when you can get it right with a simple phone call.
I am a resource for the entertainment industry. Sure, I would love to see my name in the credits, who wouldn't? But I realize this is unlikely, and yet I continue to offer my services.
Why? Partly because I have my face up to the window and wish I could be part of the entertainment industry. Partly because getting it wrong just ticks me off. But mostly because it is my mission in life to show to the world that wine is fun and not scary.
Telling people they could spend a million dollars on a white wine that is not even authentic is not only inaccurate, it poorly serves the wine industry at large.
Oh, and the next time you need someone to taste your million dollar wine, and tell you if it is the real deal, think of me.
posted by Wineguy at 11:55 AM
2 Comments:
Steve:
Have you seen A Good Year? The Russell Crow movie that has a vineyard in it... I would love your take on that one.
Kim
I have not seen it, but it is now on my list, if it wasn't before.
Movies often portray the passion of wine making, and certainly the best of the best are very passionate. Wine is a business, but it is a hands on craft and at some level behind every wine, there is a winemaker.
I love the passion, I am passionate about wine myself. These are fine images of wine, if not a bit overly romantic. It is the "all boys club snotty wine tasting million dollar bottles" image that I rail against.
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