Plot

The story of the early days of California wine making featuring the now infamous, blind Paris wine tasting of 1976 that has come to be known as "Judgment of Paris".

In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a sommelier in Paris, comes to the Napa Valley to take the best he can find to Paris for a blind taste test against French wine. He meets Jim Barrett, whose Chateau Montelena is mortgaged to the hilt as Jim perfects his chardonnay. There's strain in Jim's relations with his hippie son Bo and his foreman Gustavo, a Mexican farmworker's son secretly making his own wine. Plus, there's Sam, a UC Davis graduate student and free spirit, mutually attracted to both Gustavo and Bo. As Spurrier organizes the "Judgment of Paris," Jim doesn't want to participate while Bo knows it's their only chance. Barrett's chardonnay has buttery notes and a Smithsonian finish.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

1976. Steven Spurrier is a British wine connoisseur who lives in Paris as he considers France to be the center of the wine universe. He owns his own exclusive wine shop and wine tasting school, the problem being that he has few customers because he is seen as not being one of the knowledgeable French. His friend and one and only regular customer, Midwestern American Maurice Cantavale, believes to increase business, Steven has to show the French that there are other good wines in the world besides that produced in France. Half way across the world in Napa Valley, California, divorced and strong willed Jim Barrett packed in his corporate job as a partner in a lucrative law firm - one of the other partners who is now his ex-wife's husband - to start up Chateau Montelena, a vineyard. Jim is going broke because of the business. He loves wine making and believes that he and his fellow California vintners produce as a good a wine as anyone in the world. He runs the vineyard with his slacker dude son, Bo Barrett - the two who have an unusual way to release their aggressions - and Bo's best friend Gustavo Brambila, an ethnic Mexican and second generation hand on the land. Gustavo would like one day to produce his own wines, but does not have the resources to buy land. He believes he deserves greater success than nouveau wine makers since wine is in his blood. Sam Fulton enters their lives as an intern, she who shakes up the goings-on as a beautiful female in the otherwise male dominated business. Their collective lives intersect when Steven, on Maurice's advice, decides to hold a blind taste testing wine competition of California wines of his choosing against their French counterparts. Jim, who doesn't trust Steven, believes this competition is Steven's way of ridiculing the California producers. Bo, who is struggling to find his place in life, believes this competition is the opportunity to put California on the quality wine producing map globally, and their wine specifically if Steven chooses their Chardonnay. Even if Bo is able to convince his father to participate, their Chardonnay will not have a smooth road ahead due to many factors, some which confound Jim's perfect sensibilities.—Huggo

In 1976, in the Napa Valley, the perfectionist vigneron Jim Barrett is the owner of the Château Montelena that is full of debts and near bankruptcy. Jim is unsuccessfully racking his wine trying to reach perfection. He has a problematic relationship with his hippie son Bo and his Mexican foreman and connoisseur Gustavo Brambila is secretly producing wine with his father Mr. Garcia. Jim hires the free spirit intern Sam Fulton from UC Davis to help him in the production of wine. Meanwhile in Paris, the wine expert Steven Spurrier that owns a specialized store has few clients. His friend Maurice Cantavale advises him to promote his store and he decides to organize a blind tasting competition between the French and the American wines. He travels to Napa Valley to find the best American wines to bring to the dispute. He has a troubled meeting with Jim that refuses to participate in the competition. However Bo foresees the chance of survival of his father's business and gives two bottles to Spurrier. But soon he finds that the color of all the 500 bottles of chardonnay have turned into brown. Is Jim Barrett's business doomed?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our victory in France can be called the Second Judgment of Paris (let us not forget Aphrodite and the golden apple which was the First Judgment of Paris.) This is the story of American wine coming of age and the men and women on both sides of the Atlantic who made it happen.—LA-Lawyer

In this fact-based story, Jim Barrett owns Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley. In 1976, Napa Valley wines have not yet earned respect. Jim's son Bo does not seem very ambitious, although the father and son do enjoy boxing.

In Paris, Maurice, who sounds American, tells Steven Spurrier his wine shop needs more variety. Too many of the wines are French. But of course they are, because Steven, despite being British, is a wine snob who thinks only French wines are worth selling. But after some persuasion, Steven decides to see if wines from California are really any good.

Back in Napa Valley, Sam arrives in a beat-up Volkswagen to start work as the vineyard's new intern. She is quite pretty and Bo is all too eager to show her around town. Gustavo comes with them and Bo gets in a fight with a racist trucker who thinks "Chico" should be his servant. They go to a bar run by Joe, a tough female bartender who took over from her father Joe. There, Bo challenges the people in the bar to bet that Gustavo can't identify wines in covered bottles by type and vintage. This is, of course, a scam.

Jim is not as successful as he appears. He can't get a loan from the bank and it is later revealed he is so broke he can't put gas in his truck.

Jim encounters Steven, whose AMC Gremlin has a flat tire. He helps Steven. Steven later arrives at Chateau Montelena and tries the wines. He is impressed enough that he wants to enter wines from this area in a contest back in Paris.

Bo continues to show rebellious behavior and his father insists he turn his life around, possibly by going to college--on a scholarship because Jim certainly can't afford to send him--or get out.

Jim also fires Gustavo because he knows Gustavo has been running his own wine operation, meaning he can't devote his entire attention to Jim's business. Gustavo, who is fulfilling the dream of his immigrant father who was only a field hand, is not ready to be on his own yet. However, he does visit Sam at her cabin, which leads to more of a romantic relationship, even though Bo is also interested. And when Bo shows up, Gustavo and Sam are together and Bo is mad.

When Steven returns to Paris, he has bottles of Jim's wine that Bo has sneaked into his luggage.

Back in California, Jim is upset because his wine has turned brown. 500 cases worth. He is finished. And he throws Bo out. But the wine tastes fine so Bo and Sam go to a wine expert to find out what happened. Professor Saunders of UC-Davis (based on the road sign) assures them that because Jim's process was so perfect, this was likely to happen. Because perfection with Jim's process is nearly impossible. The wines will return to their normal color.

Bo has to contact Jim, but there is another problem. Jim got someone to dispose of all the bottles. Meanwhile, Jim has returned to his old workplace. Bill assures him the partners want him back, but not as a partner. Still, Jim hands Marge, a co-worker, one of the bad bottles of wine so she can have something to show him if he ever gets the desire to do something crazy again.

When Bo runs out of gas in his truck and no one will stop to help, Sam shows her breasts to the first driver to show up. It's a cop.

Thinking there is no hope, Bo and Sam go to Joe's bar and discover one of Jim's wine bottles. Joe says she got a really good deal. Someone showed up with a ton of these bottles and she bought them just to recycle the bottles. Jim's vineyard is saved. Bo does succeed in contacting Bill, who in turn hands the phone to Jim, who goes crazy and pours a glass of wine for everyone. .

Back at the vineyard, Jim gets the news that his wine will be entered in the competition in Paris. After all Bo has done, he sends Bo to represent the business. People in the area contribute to the cost of sending Bo. And Gustavo gets his old job back too.

Outside Paris, Bo arrives at the competition and Steven announces that American wines are being included for the first time as a way of honoring the U.S. Bicentennial and France's contribution to their independence. The judges are only given a number, and a trusted journalist is given the name of the business represented by each number. One wine stands out among all the rest, and Steven asks the journalist whose it is. Bo is told he needs to dress better if he is going to stay, so Bo changes clothes. Then the announcement is made that Chateau Montelena has won the competition.

Time magazine wants to do a story. People want this new wine from Napa Valley but can't get it. California wines are now among the top wines in the world.