Somm: Into the Bottle

The documentary follows the road wine travels before it reaches the bottle. It starts in the vineyard with the soil, the weather and that year's harvest; then it goes into the cellar and takes on the barrel, the cork and the label. How many hands touch a bottle, what sets the price, and how a wine ends up on a restaurant list are each opened up in turn. Some of the best known producers in the world speak along the way. It is the second film in Jason Wise's Somm series; the first followed candidates sitting the sommelier examination, while this one looks at the other side of the glass, at production. Names like Aubert de Villaine and Jean-Louis Chave speak in their own vineyards. Ninety minutes. The documentary has a limit: it looks from the expensive, prestigious end of the world and barely enters the cheap, industrial side of wine.