Movie Review: Bottle Shock

Tonight I watched Bottle Shock, which tells the true (albeit dramatized) story of an underdog Californian Chardonnay that won the 1976 "Judgement of Paris" blind tasting.

Steven Spurrier, a British wine enthusiast living in Paris, decided to host a "blind tasting" of Californian and French wines. Traveling to California to select the American wines, he came across Chateau Montelena, a struggling vineyard in Napa Valley. 

A shot of the Chateau Montelena Vineyard from the movie

He chose their 1973 Chardonnay for the tasting, which was held in Paris with French tasters. Against all odds, Chateau Montelena's wine won the competition, beating some of the "best" French wines by the most well-known producers. 

While the movie apparently took many creative liberties with the characters and chain of events, the Judgment of Paris was considered the pivotal moment that put American (specifically Californian) wines on the international map. 

A bottle of the famous 1973 Chardonnay is now held in the Smithsonian Museum, as a testament to the American wine industry's ability to compete with one of the world's oldest wine producing countries.