This movie star wine makes a great holiday gift

November 15, 9:40 PMDC Budget Wine ExaminerRob Garretson

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Most wine writers recommend pairings of wine with food. But with the holidays approaching, here’s a wine-DVD combo that would make a great gift for the wine lover in your life.

Only hard-core wine geeks saw the 2008 movie “Bottle Shock.” It only made $4 million at the domestic box office and just 10 percent more worldwide – probably $0 from France (for reasons that will be clear in a moment). It just finished a run on the Showtime cable network, where my wife and I caught it on the recommendation of a friend in the wine industry. It’s a charming film that my wife (definitely NOT a wine geek) loved in its own right, aside from its historic significance, dramatizing the event that arguably has had the greatest impact on wine consumption in the last century. (You can watch the theatrical trailer for the film below, and check out this review of the film.)

The movie centers on the historic 1976 blind wine tasting in Paris – judged by a panel of eminent French wine experts – in which wines from California's Napa Valley scored a stunning victory over France's fabled varietals. In the 1970s California winemaking was just coming into its own. And the shock waves of that humbling of the great French chateaux reverberated around the world. The event,  known as the Judgment in Paris, laid the foundation for today’s pricey Napa cabernets and astronomically expensive cult wines, and many would argue that it launched the global wine revolution, ultimately legitimizing winemaking across the New World, from North and South America to Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

Mike Grgich, NOT actor Bill Pullman

The independent film, which won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival but didn’t do much at the box office, stars Bill Pullman as “Jim Barrett,” a former attorney who blew off his firm to cultivate the legendary 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won the French competition. The Jim Barrett character was essentially a composite of Barrett and his winemaker Mike Grgich, a Croatian American born Miljenko Grgi? (can you blame the filmmakers for sticking with the name Jim Barrett?).

The year after the historic 1976 tasting, Grgich, a limited partner at Chateau Montelena, establish his own winery – with business partner Austin Hills of Hills Brothers Coffee – called Grgich Hills Cellar in Rutherford, California. The winery's very first vintage was the winner of the 221-entry Chardonnay Shootout in 1980 conducted by Chicago Tribune wine critic Craig Goldwyn. The winery has been earning accolades ever since and changed its name to Grgich Hills Estate in 2006, when it first began producing only "estate grown" wines made from grapes grown exclusively in vineyards owned by the winery.

Of course, Grgich Hills Chardonnay is no budget wine. It typically sells for about $50. [For about its first 15 years or so, the chardonnay was sold on allocation, with customers restricted to no more than three cases each per year.] But as previously mentioned, it’s time to start scouting for bargains on higher-end wine that make good holiday gifts.

The 2006 Grgich Hills Chardonnay – the first vintage since the Napa Valley vineyards were certified organic – is on sale at Schneider’s of Capital Hill for $29.99 per bottle, regularly $49.99. Paired with the $15 Bottle Shock DVD, it would make a great gift for a serious wine enthusiast.

“An exceptional Chardonnay that reveals just how great Chardonnay – from any region of the world – can be. Under the guiding hand of Mike Grgich, this wine represents that best of the best,” writes the Wine Spies when they featured the wine in June. “With beautiful aromatics, great flavors and an incredible feel, this is a supple and elegant wine that I absolutely love. At a recent covert tasting panel, this wine absolutely swept the panel to become the best white of the tasting that night.”

“In the nose there is citrus and toasty notes,” writes Ray Johnson on his TasteWine blog in January. “The mouth is quite crisp, as it traditionally is. In July the toasty character and nuttiness have increased, adding complexity. The mouth is rounding out; this wine is aging nicely.”

“This is a mouth watering wine from the start offering aromas of lemon on the nose,” according to the gremolata.com “good food” social network. “Taste-wise, expect some rhubarb, honey, and sorrel. This wine has a lot of acid up front then mellows off. It is extraordinary and certainly a food-friendly vintage. Great with a roast chicken.”

“If you’re looking for a special bottle of white wine for your holiday feast, Napa Valley’s Grgich Hills Estate has you covered,” says Robyn Tinsley on her Wine Skinny website. “Clean and focused, with crisp green pear and apple fruit layered with lemon zest, mineral notes, and cedar,” is her description of the 2006 chardonnay. “Long, evolving finish. Ready to drink now and over the next four or five years.”

If a $30 bottle of wine is out of your price range, Schneider’s has the Grgich Hills Estate 2007 Fume Blanc Napa Valley on sale for $19.99 a bottle, regularly $32.99, which also earns rave reviews.

“Complex and elegant, with layers of aromatic citrus, lime zest and tropical melon fruit that fold into a medium-bodied, lightly spicy finish,” writes Tinsley on Wine Skinny. “Appealing acidity throughout makes this food-friendly and versatile. Ready to drink now and over the next year or two."

“Another wine with an awesome nose from this producer,” a CellarTracker.com member writes tasting notes under the name sublet. “Limes, nectarines, and rich grassy scents leap out of the glass. Very enjoyable!

“The wine delivers in spades on the palate. Bracing acidity teams up with nectarine flavors that bloom in the mid palate while light fruits trail off on the back end. Evolution of flavor! Strong acid! Clarity! Biodynamic! Best American sauvignon blanc in my experience? Certainly in the running.”

Okay, $30 and even $20 bottles hardly qualify as budget wines, but it’s the holiday season. Isn’t the wine lover in your life worth a little extra?

[NOTE: We limit our bargain hunting to the greater Washington, DC, area including Maryland and northern Virginia. But you can find Grgich chardonnay here or Grgich fume blanc here.]

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