A Year in Port

Port is one of my favorite drinks. So, when I saw that there was a documentary about it, I was excited. Sadly, however, the film manages to make an exciting and wonderful drink seem incredibly dull. The documentary is mostly set in Portugal...yet, oddly, the port makers are mostly British...coming from long, long family lines of Brits who have owned many of the great port houses. Instead of focusing only on the port, the film made the mistake of mostly following the day to day activities of these families. You see them yacht race, bike and supervise...but mostly party and hang out in old boys clubs....and this makes it very hard to relate to them or care about the doings of a lot of wealthy folks. Instead of being about port, it was more like an episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and does little to engender a love for the alcoholic drink. Skippable.

Come on, if you're going to make a whole movie about a specific wine region (e.g. Port), you really should, early on, explain WHAT IT IS. But noooo, the producers have decided you are not entitled to this information. Instead, we get a lot of fanfare, hoopla, cricket, bike riding, and the like. Nothing that even suggests that port is a world-famous after-dinner wine, sweet wine, etc etc etc. Why not? Does David Kennard think we are too stupid? The other gross insult is at the end, when the music to illustrate the Douro flowing down the hillsides is ... the Moldau by Smetana. Truly gross. I think Martine Saulnier deserves both credit and blame. Credit for having bankrolled these European vineyard extravaganzas, blame for using them so shamelessly to exploit her own import businesses. rating six but really should be three.

Port is one of my favorite drinks. So, when I saw that there was a documentary about it, I was excited. Sadly, however, the film manages to make an exciting and wonderful drink seem incredibly dull. The documentary is mostly set in Portugal...yet, oddly, the port makers are mostly British...coming from long, long family lines of Brits who have owned many of the great port houses. Instead of focusing only on the port, the film made the mistake of mostly following the day to day activities of these families. You see them yacht race, bike and supervise...but mostly party and hang out in old boys clubs....and this makes it very hard to relate to them or care about the doings of a lot of wealthy folks. Instead of being about port, it was more like an episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and does little to engender a love for the alcoholic drink. Skippable.

Come on, if you're going to make a whole movie about a specific wine region (e.g. Port), you really should, early on, explain WHAT IT IS. But noooo, the producers have decided you are not entitled to this information. Instead, we get a lot of fanfare, hoopla, cricket, bike riding, and the like. Nothing that even suggests that port is a world-famous after-dinner wine, sweet wine, etc etc etc. Why not? Does David Kennard think we are too stupid? The other gross insult is at the end, when the music to illustrate the Douro flowing down the hillsides is ... the Moldau by Smetana. Truly gross. I think Martine Saulnier deserves both credit and blame. Credit for having bankrolled these European vineyard extravaganzas, blame for using them so shamelessly to exploit her own import businesses. rating six but really should be three.