Photo courtesy of Forgotten Man Films / Samuel Goldwyn Films
UPDATE, July 16: A spokesperson for Samuel Goldwyn Films informed me that both the tasting and the screening have been canceled. All ticket holders will receive refunds. A copy of the film can be found on iTunes.
Wine geeks unite!
It’s a line from the movie “SOMM,” which follows four men as they prepare for the Master Sommelier Exam. You only need to have a passing familiarity with wine to enjoy the documentary, which will be screened at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. For the $50 admission (buy tickets online), you also get to participate in a wine tasting from 7-8:30 p.m. run by local sommelier Caitlin Suemnicht of Food Fight Restaurant Group.
I was invited to preview the 93-minute movie, which I thought was a fascinating look at a unique discipline–really, really knowing wines. Director/writer Jason Wise shows the extraordinary amount of time and effort these “MS” candidates spend to earn a designation that, in my opinion, is simply a nice title to put on your business card. That’s because the average restaurant patron only needs help from a sommelier in “betting” on a wine that will taste good, as the movie explains in one interview. That patron doesn’t care about wine theory or that Italy has thousands of varietals.
But I digress. Viewers should get a kick out of seeing how much you can actually learn about wine. I loved it when the main subjects could figure out the exact region and vintage of a wine in just a few minutes. In fact, that was the inspiration for the film.
“My inspiration for making ‘SOMM’ came from watching one of my subjects blind taste a flight of wines,” Wise said in an interview with EatDrinkMadison.com. “I had never seen anything like it before, and I needed to set it to music. As we filmed more, I realized this was a real chance to show a side of an industry never seen in a film, and, if we did it right, help give credit to a profession that deserves a lot of respect for what they do.”
At times, the movie does run a bit slowly, but it all works well in building up suspense for the end. I did agree with the synopsis of “SOMM” that was sent to me–humorous, emotional and illuminating–but I would add that you’ll also crave some wine. Hopefully they’ll let you sip your wine from the tasting as you watch the film, which also gives you a whole new appreciation of the beverage that has such a rich history.
