L’Academie du Vin

Steven Spurrier has been featured in the movies. In Bottle Shock, he was portrayed by the late Alan Rickman (Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films). He is also currently making wine in India (for Fratelli Vineyards), a country with a tropical climate regarded as almost impossible for winemaking. During his many visits to this country, he has observed the start of nascent wine culture, and as the chairman of the Wine Society of India, influenced many to drink and appreciate wine. No better person to comment on the many complexities that make India and its wine policies. Picking up from his memoirs, I asked him several questions which he answered frankly and directly as only he can.

Read on…..

When you have been part of history, you will be in the movies, and you have been depicted in several stories based on the Judgement of Paris. We know your reaction to the movie Bottle Shock – you were not pleased, not least because of the factual inaccuracies.

Are there any other films or books on the anvil? And hypothetically speaking, if you were to ‘pick ‘an actor and director for a new version, whom would you choose (a more appropriate casting than Alan Rickman)?  

My real antagonism to this movie was the story from the Paris point of view had been completely flipped:  their line was that my shop was doing so badly that I had to hold this event to gain publicity, whereas the opposite was the truth:  the shop was doing very well and the Academie du Vin was so respected that we were able to create this event at our own expense with the sole aim of getting recognition for the quality of California Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.  The background to Bottle Shock is that there was already a movie in the very early stages in Hollywood on the Judgement of Paris, using that as a title, and I was involved as a consultant.  The people behind it were rather flaky but it became plain to the Barretts at Chateau Montelena that this movie would only talk about Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and not about them, so they very quickly financed this script and it began to knock the other movie on the head.  The people behind this got hold of the script and sent it to me, hoping that I would take legal action against it, so they could go ahead. 

My son’s partner was at that time head of BBC Films and she put me in touch with the top intellectual property lawyers, who got in touch with the lawyers in Hollywood who replied to say that they didn’t know Mr Spurrier was still alive, and were prepared to advise some changes in the script, but not the main story.  There was nothing I could do about stopping it and the original one died a death.

As for being played by Alan Rickman – apart from the 29 year difference in our ages when he played the part and I held the tasting, he and I had already met a couple of times at Castello  di Argiano in Montalcino and spent time together over glasses of Rosso, and he knew that the Spurrier in the script was not me at all, and while he had to play the role as written, he played it in a more sympathetic way had we not known each other.  He said later that this had really helped.  

The movie itself is quite fun and people still talk about it and Bella reminds me that nobody else in the wine world had, at that time had a movie made about them and being played by Alan Rickman was a great honour, both of which I agreed with.  There is actually a documentary in the works on the Judgement of Paris and I know that Warren Winiarski has been interviewed for this. I think it important that the people who were involved are interviewed now, before they die, as it really was probably the most influential wine tasting the wine world has ever seen and it needs to be recorded for history.  I will obviously be a part of this and will play myself!

 Let’s talk about India. You have been described as a ‘friend of India’ when it comes to wine, a well-wisher of Indian wines. How you perceive the path the wine industry has taken since its inception, and do you believe we can reach the standards of other well-established New World winemaking countries?

The progress to success for Indian producers has two strong problems to overcome:  the climate and the Government.  The former needs investigation and research, so that vines are only planted on soils and in regions where they can produce healthy grapes.  Fratelli Vineyards is the standard bearer here.  The taxes imposed in Indian wines are supportable and much, much lower than those on imported wines, but the rules and regulations surrounding distribution makes selling wine very complicated and expensive.  This is as bad for the wine consumer as it is for the wine producer.

David Banford and yourself founded the Wine Society of India in 2006, I think. I was a member myself, and ex-members still fondly reminisce about it … it caught the imagination of Indian wine lovers but had to shut down for various reasons. In your book, you call it a project founded ‘with too much blue sky thinking”. Is there scope for a similar project in India in the future, should circumstances change? Even though you sound doubtful in the book…  what about other initiatives which you feel might help grow the culture of wine in India?

The ‘blue sky thinking’ you refer to was David Banford’s feeling that because it was a good idea to sell wine directly to members of the Wine Society of India, it would be possible despite the rules and regulations concerning the sale and distribution of wine in India, especially imported wine.  It wasn’t.  At the moment, the Government is simply not interested in the wine consumer and until it becomes easier to sell and distribute wine across the country there will be no new initiatives to help grow the wine culture.  

Fake or counterfeit wines, social media promotions, wooing consumers with automation…the business end of selling wine has changed dramatically in the last few years. Which, according to you, is the biggest challenge for the wine world today, as opposed to earlier years?