The 'Fahrenheit 9/11' for Oenophiles

Director Jonathan Nossiter, with camera, in Sardinia filming "Mondovino."

If you want to start a fight, mention the documentary "Mondovino" to people in the wine business and step back, the New York Times writes. The film, by Jonathan Nossiter, argues that the homogenizing force of global commerce is threatening the distinctiveness of local cultures. But like "Fahrenheit 9/11" it has been a huge hit (in France so far), but also polarized its audience. Nossiter focuses his camera on the international wine trade, traveling to France, California, Italy, and New York, speaking with winemakers both great and small. While old-timer Aime Guibert, of tiny Mas de Daumas-Gassac, pronounces that wine must be made by a poet, high-powered consultant Michel Rolland circles the globe ensuring that wineries make lots of money. Nossiter meets the Mondavi family, one of the wine world's largest conglomerates; the de Montille family of Burgundy, in which a daughter has chosen not to work with her father and brother but instead with a competitor; the Staglins, who financed their own high-priced vineyard in the Napa Valley; and critics James Suckling and Robert Parker, whose words can make or break a vintage. Nossiter also visits with New York wine importer Neal Rosenthal, Christie's wine director Michael Broadbent, and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild CEOs Patrick Leon and Xavier de Eizaguirre to get even further perspectives.
Although Nossiter set out merely to find the characters behind the wine industry, he ended up with a poignant look at some important issues, including deforestation, the corporation versus the independent company, and even communism. His bouncy handheld camera captured more than he had ever imagined. The result is an entertaining inside exmination of a world very few people see, a fascinating exploration of wine and the families who produce it. The Harward Crimson writes: Mondovino’s subjects are driven alternately by money, fame, winelust, and terroir, the film’s untranslatable but ubiquitous term meaning something between “soil” and “heartland.” The film itself is driven by its energetic camerawork, tantalizing leads, and a madcap soundtrack ranging from vintage French cabaret to the Kinks. Adventurous moviegoers should be driven by curiosity and the desire to stray from the well-beaten Hollywood track, and they will not be disappointed.
MSNBC: "Nossiter's “Mondovino” (ThinkFilm) is a love letter to maverick winemakers around the world, but it's also the wine equivalent of “Fahrenheit 9/11”: a screed against what he views as darker forces of globalization, which squeeze the individuality and the terroir — wine's sense of place — out of the bottle.""Mondovino" opens next Wednesday in New York and April 29 in Los Angeles.
Plus: More reviews, the website of the movie distributor and the french promo website