Film profiles Bay Area winemakers, vineyards
The producers behind the documentary series “Bay Area Revelations” continue to find fascinating topics to explore. Their latest installment, “America’s Wine Country,” is another must-see. It is a love letter to local winemakers and growers who have turned “bottled poetry” into a thriving industry.
The hourlong special laced with sumptuous cinematography, which premiered Dec. 8 on NBC Bay Area (KNTV), will have an encore presentation at 10 p.m. Dec. 23.
You don’t have to be a sommelier to know that the Bay Area, with its rich soils and favorable weather, has produced great wines for ages. As narrator Peter Coyote points out, local vineyards have become the “mother lode of wines.”
The documentary quickly covers key milestones, from grape-growing Spanish missionaries in the 1700s to the gamechanging contributions by Robert Mondavi and brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo, to the headlinemaking Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.
The latter event was a blind tasting competition in which judges stunningly deemed that wines from two Napa wineries — and three from the Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey County — were superior to their French rivals, a result that brought worldwide fame to Napa and triggered a wave of tourists that continues today.
“America’s Wine Country” introduces viewers to some of the growers, innovators and dreamers whose stories shape not only the wine they craft, but illustrate their substantial impact on the region as a whole. They include, among others, Warren Winiarski, the founder of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars; Carolyn Wente from Wente Vineyards; Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena; and Dick Grace of Grace Family Vineyards.
One of the most inspiring stories focuses on Rolando Herrera, a Mexican immigrant whose incredible Napa journey began as a member of a stone-cutting crew working on Winiarski’s property.
Passionate and determined, he moved his way up through the industry and, with his wife, Lorena, founded Mi Sueño Winery in 1997 (Mi Sueño means “My Dream”). Their wines quickly gained notice and have been served at several White House state dinners.
Throughout “America’s Wine Country,” attention is paid not only to the visionary thinking of Bay Area entrepreneurs, but their resilience. The film points out how, over the years, they’ve endured earthquakes, wildfires and even a brutal plague to keep on keeping on.