The Mostly Serious History of Wine (2023)

Living Wine

Merging sweeping wine country footage with insightful interviews, filmmaker Lori Miller showcases the dynamic natural wine movement that is transforming a growing number of Northern California vineyards.

Burgundy: People with a Passion for Wine

Through a colorful mosaic of stories, this documentary film aims to demystify the world-famous French winemaking region and offers a rare insider glimpse into the lives of the passionate people working in Burgundy's wine industry.

A Seat at the Table

France makes the most desired, revered and expensive wines in the world. They’ve had centuries to hone their craft. If you make fine wine, France is the benchmark. Or are they? One country famous for punching above its weight is taking on the aristocracy. This is a story featuring the World's most renowned winemakers, critics, writers and fine wine merchants. Travelling from the Old World to the New World we explore the history, culture and tension in the changing world of fine wine, answering that one question - has New Zealand earned a seat at the table?

Langhe Doc

Three characters, three stories of "heretics", three food producers who think in a different way to describe the transformation of our Country in what in “Langhe Doc” Giorgio Bocca calls the Italy of warehouses. We're in Langhe, a unique territory, universally recognized as one of the most beautiful places in Italy, fresh candidate for Unesco World Heritage but afflicted by uncontrolled economic development, urbanization, overbuilding, abandonment of the less profitable areas. Those of Maria Theresa, Silvio and Mauro are stories of people who have insight into a future they do not like and have chosen to refuse it. Their challenges are still open, they're not yet fully met and perhaps they never will: these heretics move in one direction, while the world moves in another, quite the opposite one.

Barolo Boys: The Story of a Revolution

The story of a group of friends, the "rebel boys" who made italian wine become so great, between generational conflicts, brilliant insights and never silenced controversies.

Somm: Cup of Salvation

At the crossroads of Armenia and Iran, a father and daughter must overcome war, religion, and geopolitics to establish their wines on the global stage and reclaim a 6,000-year-old tradition of winemaking.

Wine and War

WINE and WAR is a documentary about one of the the oldest winemaking regions on earth and the resilience of the Lebanese entrepreneurial spirit seen through the lens of war and instability.

Quarantine

A short film of the first weeks of strict national lockdown, filmed in Barcelona on a classic home video camera Hi8. Narrates the story of three women who share a flat and who create a microworld not only to survive the global pandemic but also to survive themselves.

Liquid Gold: In Quest of the Aszu of Tokaj

The Aszú of Tokaj, a sweet wine of Hungary, was once cherished by King Louis XIV, Queen Victoria, Peter the Great, Goethe and Beethoven. But the world has since forgotten the noble Aszú, two world wars, the enforced collectivisation of the Communist regime and the deadly filoxera epidemic had all wreaked havoc on the vines. Three dedicated heroes, one passion: to create The Great Wine that can return to the most refined tables of the world.

The Video Wine Guide with Dick Cavett

The Video Wine Guide is a critically-acclaimed 90-minute video reference to the fascinating world of wine. Presented in an information-packed, visually exciting format together with the characteristic style and humor of Dick Cavett, The Video Wine Guide both instructs and entertains.

The Best Sommelier in the World

The world's best sommeliers have three days to demonstrate the results of a whole life devoted to study and learning. The competition is very high, and the prestigious World Sommelier Competition is held to crown the best in the trade. A documentary from Argentina that introduces us to a refined world, where there can be no other way than absolute dedication to detail and perfection.

Du vin dans les voiles

Olivier Verdier is a French winemaker who makes his wine using original experimental techniques.

The Douro Boys: Winter Season

In the Douro, five winemakers get together with the aim of exporting Portuguese wine to the world.

Somm: Into the Bottle

The curtain is raised into the seldom seen world that surrounds the wine we drink. How many people understand how wine is produced? How it is grown? What goes on in the cellar? From those questions to how many hands touch a bottle, to why wine costs what it costs, to how certain wines end up on a wine list, this is a never before seen look into the world of wine.

The Most Expensive Wine in the World

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Somm III

Three legends in the world of wine—Fred Dame, Steven Spurrier and Jancis Robinson—sit down in Paris to taste the rarest bottles of their careers. Dustin Wilson gathers the greatest blind tasters of today in New York City for a secret tasting similar to the original Judgment of Paris, with the goal to see if any of the world’s Pinot Noirs can stand up to the greatest Burgundies of France. In the end, both tastings cross with results that could change the world of wine forever.

Three Days of Glory

The world's greatest wine celebration in the most legendary of wine regions faces its most difficult season.

Rioja: The Land of a Thousand Wines

By telling the human stories behind the entire value chain that gives life to the Spanish wine with the greatest international projection, ‘Rioja, Land of the Thousand Wines’ portrays a currently blooming wine region underpinned by the talent and the work of the new generations of winemakers that operate side by side with the region’s historic wineries. The film puts the focus on the match between territory and product, wisdom and tradition, and lays a bridge between the origins and the future of Rioja. An immersion into a fascinating world that, through captivating cinematography and careful editing, attempts to find the keys to understanding what Rioja wine is and what makes it so special.

Vintage

A uniquely Kiwi story capturing the incredible highs and heartbreaking lows of making world-class wine in New Zealand. Stu, Nick, Ollie and Jess take you on a journey of the all-consuming harvest period known as vintage and the passion and hard-graft that goes into every bottle.

Joanna and Jennifer: Absolutely Champers

Ab Fab stars Jennifer Saunders & Joanna Lumley share 25 years of friendship. The two funny ladies head to the Champagne region of France to find out how their favourite glass of fizz is made.

Somm

Somm takes the viewer on a humorous, emotional and illuminating look into the mysterious world of the Court of Master Sommeliers and their massively intimidating Master Sommelier Exam.

Viridiana

Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.

Happy Family

Artur is an Armenian guy who dreams about a career in filmmaking, but his grandfather wants him to take over the family wine business. When a bad review from an Estonian critic threatens to ruin the family business, Artur has to go to Tallinn to set things straight. There he meets the feisty Ingrid and things take an unexpected turn.

Earth

Angel, an exterminator recently released from a mental hospital, comes to rid a small Spanish town of tiny grubs in the soil. The local wine-making industry has found these pests responsible for giving their product an "earthy" taste that has divided local opinion. While in town, Angel becomes involved with two beautiful and very different women, and impacts their lives on a grand scale. Can either of these women accept the fact that Angel travels with a "ghost" of himself, or that he routinely speaks with the deseased townspeople?

The Godfather Effect

Famous director Francis Ford Coppola is interviewed about The Godfather’s affect on the American frontier of filmmaking.

Cheese Burglar

While cats and dogs are natural enemies, such is not the case in the house where Herman the mouse lives. They are very good friends indeed, are work together to make Herman's life a hard life. Herman tries to break up their friendship, and divert their attention from guarding the cheese in the refrigerator, and almost succeeds but they make up in time to prevent Herman getting the cheese. They give chase and Herman takes refuge in a jug of wine.

Year of the Comet

Year of the Comet is a 1992 romantic comedy adventure film about the pursuit of the most valuable bottle of wine in history. The title refers to the year it was bottled, 1811, which was known for the Great Comet of 1811, and also as one of the best years in history for European wine.

Everlasting Moments

In a time of social change and unrest, war and poverty, a young working class woman, Maria, wins a camera in a lottery. The decision to keep it alters her whole life.

The Last Supper

A group of idealistic, but frustrated, liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering rightwing pundits for their political beliefs.

Tales of Terror

Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.

Eating Raoul

A relatively boring Los Angeles couple discover a bizarre, if not murderous way to get funding for opening a restaurant.

In Her Shoes

Irresponsible party girl, Maggie is kicked out of her father's and stepmother's home—where she lives for free—and is taken in by her hard-working sister, Philadelphia lawyer, Rose. After Maggie's disruptive ways ruin her sister's love life, Rose turns her out as well. But when their grandmother, who they never knew existed, comes into their lives, the sisters face some complicated truths about themselves and their family.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

A sprawling drama centered on five key days in a family's life.

Bottle Shock

Paris-based wine expert Steven Spurrier heads to California in search of cheap wine that he can use for a blind taste test in the French capital. Stumbling upon the Napa Valley, the stuck-up Englishman is shocked to discover a winery turning out top-notch chardonnay. Determined to make a name for himself, he sets about getting the booze back to Paris.

Zus & Zo

In this Oscar-nominated comedy, three wacky sisters try to save their inheritance from their supposedly gay brother, who suddenly appears with a fiancé in tow. If he gets married, their father's will stipulates that he gets the family hotel in Portugal. So the sisters put aside their personal differences and set out to stop the wedding at all costs.

Private Resort

Chasing women for the weekend at a luxurious Miami resort, teen buddies Ben and Jack get more than they bargained for after crossing paths with a crafty criminal.