Are you one of the 109.3 million Netflix subscribers on the planet? If yes, there are several entertaining wine movies at your finger tips right now. We’ve included our favorites here for you. They are a bit documentary-ish, but every bit as entertaining as they are educational.
Sour Grapes – An entertaining documentary from 2016 focused on the world’s big 
wine fraudster, Rudy Kurniawan. He took the wine world by storm, opening and sharing the world’s rarest bottles, spending ridiculous sums of money at auctions and eventually selling wine at even more ridiculous sums of money. Hollywood, auction houses, and the wine world elite were either in love with him and/or fell victim to his counterfeiting. It makes for a great story. Our personal favorite on Netflix right now. Click here for the trailer on You Tube.
SOMM – wait, I jumped the gun. This is my favorite wine movie. SOMM is short for Sommelier. SOMM follows four candidates pursing the Master Sommelier Diploma. 
There are only 236 Master Sommeliers in the world according to the FAQ section of http://www.mastersommeliers.org. This is considered by many people to be the world’s most difficult exam. As one of the candidates says in the trailer, “I basically have to know every wine in the world.” The exam process itself is a grind as the Master Exam can only be taken by invitation after candidates have had the pleasure of passing three other levels of sommelier certification. The Master Exam has three parts including Theory (basically know things about wine, really everything), a blind tasting where candidates must identity the grape varietal, geographic origin and year a wine was produced and finally a mock wine service where judges have been know to set the table cloths on fire to make candidates literally and figuratively sweat. Each candidate’s exam preparation process is mentally and physically grueling, life dictating and fascinating. This is a must see. Click here for the trailer on You Tube. 
Decanted – This documentary takes us into the shoes of a winemaker in Napa Valley. The story follows seven winemakers over the course of a year. The profile of a start-up effort is particularly interesting for those that dream of living the life. The work ethic, passion and commitment of the winemakers and their teams are on full display as is the beauty of the Napa Valley. It’s like the best winery tour ever. Click here for the trailer on You Tube.
SOMM Into the Bottle – This is a follow-up from the same group that made SOMM. It is however, not a sequel in any way. Rather, it sets out to “demystify” and educate the viewer with stories and clips from plenty of higher profile wine personalities (some that we saw in SOMM). The film includes ten chapters which work like subjects or topics.
1. The Winemaker
2. The Vintage
3. History
4. The Wars
5. The New World
6. The Cost
7. The Barrels
8. The Point Scores
9. The Sommelier
10. The Memory
There is definitely something to learn for wine fans at every level of appreciation. This has got to be the most entertaining way to learn about wine that doesn’t include drinking it. Click here for the trailer on You Tube.
It’s Friday, January 5th and most of the country is in a deep freeze. You already shelled out the $9.99 (or is it $10.99 now) for monthly entertainment via Netflix. Grab a bottle of red wine, blanket and the remote then navigate to one of these four great wine movies. If you don’t have Netflix, but you are one of the 70-80 million estimated Americans with Amazon Prime, hang in there. We will be out with the list of the best wine content on Prime shortly.
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