Bottle Shock: More fun than a barrel of ... funky wine?

"Bottle Shock" isn't purely accurate history. But it is pretty fun. If you're a wine lover, it's highly enjoyable.

I admit I nitpicked historical inaccuracies throughout the movie. For example, one of the main characters, Sam the intern who sleeps with both Bo Barrett and assistant winemaker Gustavo Brambila, is a complete concoction. (FYI, while we have nothing against man-love-triangles out here, Sam is a girl.) But it's not a documentary, nor does it pretend to be. And it's right on the essentials: Chateau Montelena did make the Chardonnay that beat the best wines from Burgundy at the famous Judgment of Paris tasting in 1976, forever destroying the near-universally held notion that only France could make great wines.

Though set in Napa Valley, the film was shot mostly in Sonoma because that city still looks rural, unlike the glitzy tourist strip Highway 29 has become. The film looks absolutely beautiful, and reminds me how lucky I am to be able to visit California Wine Country frequently.

The pacing is good: crisp editing means the film doesn't drag. I liked the tone as well: mostly comedic, but with occasional touches of social relevance. The rollicking '70s soundtrack propels the film.

The acting is world-class. Alan Rickman brings layers of nuance to Stephen Spurrier: he's stuffy, he's a wine snob, yet he's also open-minded and secretly wants to shake up the status quo.

Bill Pullman looks a little like a young Jim Barrett and has plenty of charisma. Funny story: the producers, who showed up at tonight's showing, said they hoped to land Dennis Quaid but he bailed two weeks before shooting. Pullman was directing a play in San Francisco and they asked him to do it, and he agreed. Starring role, cast at the last minute. That's the kind of kismet that goes into winemaking, and apparently filmmaking as well.

Perhaps what I liked best was that, like "Sideways," the film gets the whole idea of wine and winemaking right. We see the real equipment; we see the way professionals really taste and hear the way winemakers really talk. In fact, at the show I attended plenty of wine professionals were there and the largest complaint was that some of the vineyards had drip irrigation lines that weren't in use in 1976. The producer apologized for that: apparently she wanted to use different vineyards without the lines but the director liked the scenic shot. If that's the biggest technical error, you can tell the film's pretty accurate.

I don't know if "Bottle Shock" will be a hit or not: It's self-distributed. (Here's an irony: it cost $5 million to make and $15 million to promote and distribute, not unlike the ratio for a good bottle of wine.)

But it's fun, and heartwarming (Go USA!). I'm rooting for it.