By Jamie Drummond

When it comes to the medium of film, I have never been quite sure how wine accurately translates; how one makes that move from the sheer sensual experience of a glass of good juice to the inherent fetters of the proverbial silver/lcd screen.

Sideways, although quite cleverly conspired, has always irritated me, perhaps as I was going through a similar experience (painful divorce/using wine as a “medicinal” crutch/trip to San Luis Obispo with a lover/calamity) at the time.

Bottle Shock was so utterly contrived and made an utter dog’s dinner of what is a truly inspiring story… and anything with Alan Rickman immediately loses 4 apples  in my book.

And then we come to The Celebrity Guide To Wine…

I was exposed to this little gem of vinous entertainment by my old pal Tim (the splendid fellow behind our Podcast theme BTW.) An email arrived one morning with a dubious-looking link to the aforementioned film… actually, I’ll concede that this is more of a movie than a film. Knowing Tim to be a gentleman with the most discerning of tastes, I had a gander at what he had suggested and was immediately sucked into the world of The Celebrity Guide To Wine…

It’s quite a fascinating look at how the Californian wine scene was at this point in history, and is a period piece in every which way. For those of you wishing to view the whole thing I have to explain that The Celebrity Guide To Wine is a tough beast to track down, and the chances of it being reissued on DVD are rather slim, but if you are interweb savvy you may be able to find it somewhere or another. It comes with a healthy recommendation from all of us at Good Food Revolution.

Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… and he just loves Herbie Hancock in this film.