Very well executed

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I watched this documentary because it said that it is about the globalization of wine and how this is impacting different wine regions of the world. My interest in wine is rather new and I am still in the initial research phase, so I thought that this would be something educational for me. Instead, it brought me mostly frustration.Basically the movie is about this: in Nappa valley there is this guy named Bob Mondavi, a real power player in the wine world. He tried to buy in his way into a french wine producing village to extend his "domain". He failed. He goes to Italy instead where he has more success. Oh, and he has set up shop in other parts of the world as well, mainly south America.In detail, 3/4 of the documentary is about the french affair, where the locals are presented, the small players, the big players, Mondavi is being presented, some fancy wine consultant is presented and a guy named Parker who is a wine critic that can make or brake wine companies worldwide. The french bicker amongst themselves and lament about how Mondavi, Parker and the consultant has changed the way of doing business and these 3 in return say that there is nothing wrong with their way. In the last quarter of the documentary, the focus is shifted towards Italy, how they came in contact with Mondavi and have found that everything is OK. At the very end there is about 10 minutes of shots from south America, not that it matters anyway.This documentary bothers me. First, it doesn't knows what it wants to be. It is not about globalization, because it covers only one business deal and its consequences (barely). Its scope is not global, it doesn't even mentions the emerging Asian markets, hell, it doesn't even covers Europe, just some parts of France and Italy... Also, it tries to give an insight into the way of life of the wine makers, on a personal level, but does so in a manner that is totally distracts the focus about the main theme of the documentary. However, the main problem with this documentary is the low technical quality, that make its weak substance even worse. Whoever shot the movie had no idea what it is doing. The camera shakes, the angles are all wrong and the focus is all over the place. Some wine maker is being interviewed and the camera just zooms in on hie eye, or his mouth so I can see how bad his teeth are. Or it zooms in on the fat old guy in the background that is going down a latter. The dialog still goes on but all I can see is Santa coming down from the roof. The editing is also abysmal. Every dog that the crew encountered during the making of the documentary gets a good 5 seconds of close ups in the movie. I know now that the worlds most influential wine critics french bulldog farts... Why is this important? Why was this not cut out? I know that the wine consultant sends out his driver to buy him newspapers and cigars. The maid comes in, sees the camera, gets shy but eventually asks if anybody wants to have a drink or something. Some guy passes trough the room where a woman is being interviewed, than passes back a moment later, both times they have a brief chat that has no value to the documentary whatsoever, yet everything makes it into the documentary. Some kid is being washed in a sink, on a porch in south America, I can see clearly that its a boy. An ugly/old piano player woman puts up makeup at a dinner event.There are countless such distracting elements that have no relevance, no added value, no contribution for the subject whatsoever. They should have been cut out. High-school kids could achieve better production value with their cell phones. And even if this movie is from 2004, I expect better quality from somebody that has the budget to travel around and the access to talk to VIPs. Over all, this is a mediocre at best, shoddy, narrow view documentary that does not worth your time and effort.

A terroir consists of - Climate, Soil type, Topography, and Other plants growing in and around the vine plots Now seeing this film, we are convinced the human factors will play an even critical role than most of the above. Wine reviews guide you to read (not physically touch) the terroir of the wine you are tasting, while the production, distribution, advertising and the pre-determined taste buds determined by a few individuals, during the course, shaped what you think you are having.This is a film for wine lovers to re-think why you fall in love with wine. You can be not so subjective to reviews, just like not seeing a review before going to a theater, or like being open-minded to know someone, without first checking his or her resume.Like all the characters in the film, though more towards those who are pressed by the more financially dominant side.

An interesting movie, but what a load of hooey! The movie completely ignores the fact that in blind tastings, French critics who dismiss the pretensions of the Napa vintners and claim to prefer the pure, natural taste of terroir, choose the American wines. This movie is about hype all right, but it's not Mondavi; its about the pretentious claim of many a traditional winery that only centuries of winemaking culture and knowledge of terroir can lead to a good product. This is about as ridiculous as the claim that good bread can only be produced in certain traditional locales, i.e., that a Parisian baguette can only be good if it is from Paris. I'm glad to say that both good bread and good wine can be found in many, many places, and more every year. And speaking from experience, the Chilean and Argentinian wines of 30 years ago were dreadful! Nothing has been lost in adopting international standards for their wine industry.

Our reviewer from Toronto told you what you need to know about this film (except note that it needs editing-the hand held technique gets really old, really fast). I saw this film last night in Menerbes, France-we are in the Luberon Valley, which is covered with vineyards and of course wine makers. They were all there in the Salle de Polyvalente for the showing-crammed in. Polite, patient, genial. Although my French is testy, I got the gist of the film but noted that the audience loved the "old" terror growers interviewed-esp. the one from a communist village in Languedoc. He got a lot of laughs. This is unusual in France-laughing aloud. There is no question which side of the terror-globalization war they are on! SM