Wine Film Review: Corked

Wine Film Review: Corked

With the emergence of Napa Valley into the wine world came a new self-awareness and maybe even a sense of entitlement. The mockumentary Corked makes fun of the perceived snobbery of Napa Valley winemakers and wine owners. All humor aside, the film does a decent job of covering some of the nuances of the Napa Valley Wine industry. Corked displays the wine industry consisting of both snobby upper class yuppies while also displaying the "country" people of Napa Valley. Having been to Napa Valley I have experienced both sides of this spectrum. This film also inadvertently goes over the winemaking process from the picking of the grapes, to the smashing, fermenting, storage in oak barrels, to the bottling of the wine. It is nice to see all of this with a side of humor while learning a little bit about the wine industry.

Corked centers around a pretentious wine manager Donald of the Moreno Russo Winery, Gerry who might a little bit too crazy about having no one touch his wine during the winemaking process, Dane, the manager of Pena Cellars, Gary and Scott, two public relation managers who is promoting a wine contest between the winemakers listed above for Richard Parsons, a famous wine critic. A lot of the focus goes on the two PR guys and their real lack of any wine knowledge (Scott is a recovering alcoholic who no longer drinks and Gary is a vodka drinker). The whole plot of the film focuses on these very diverse people who encompass all the different people one might encounter in Napa Valley. It jumps from person to person and it ends up with the snob Donald of Moreno Russo Winery cheating in the wine competition and winning it. He however is found out and is stripped of his 1^st place award. He is publicly embarrassed the award and it is given to Gerry, deservedly so.

Overall, I think Corked is worth watching. It is not going to wow anyone, but you are not going to finish the movie and think “wow, that’s an hour and a half of my life I’m not getting back.” It’s worth turning on and definitely good to get a little more of an insight (despite it being a mockumentary) into the Napa Valley wine world. It is not a film I would normally watch but I definitely did like the film. Corked covered almost all the bases as far as the making of wine and also the devotion most winemakers have to their product, even if the film was mocking these kinds of winemakers. I also liked the actors and actresses in this film as well. I’ve seen Ben Tolpin (Gary) and Rob Reinis (Scott) in other films so it was nice seeing familiar faces in Corked. I recognized some of the other actors in the film but not as much as the ones I listed above. This made watching the film much easier.

To conclude, I would recommend this movie to someone who is generally interested in learning about the wine industry but also has a good sense of humor. If one is lacking either of those characteristics they will not like the film. The combination of actors and actresses I recognize along with the humor and vulgarity of the film made it relatively enjoyable to me. Corked is a solid mockumentary and I suggest checking it out, even if it is for a grade in a wine class…….

Reviewed by: A.J. Smith

4/27/13