Lethal Weapon writer signed up for Spurrier movie November 29, 2006
Adam Lechmere
Producers working on the film of the Paris tasting have signed up one of Hollywood's top screenwriters for the script.
Writer Robert Mark Kamen has signed a deal to adapt George M Taber's book The Judgment of Paris, the story of the 1976 Paris Tasting, in what Clear Pictures Entertainment call a 'very meaningful step.'
Clear Pictures' Elizabeth Fowler and Clark Peterson have optioned rights to the life of Steven Spurrier, who organised the Tasting.
They are also looking to net Keanu Reeves to play Napa winemaker Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills, and 'would like' Jude Law or Hugh Grant to play Steven Spurrier, as reported on decanter.com in June this year.
Kamen's credits include the Lethal Weapon trilogy, the Karate Kid movies, the Fifth Element, a new film called Bandidas with Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek, and A Walk In The Clouds with Keanu Reeves.
The latter was filmed in Kamen's Sonoma vineyard. The producers feel the fact that the writer is also a winemaker 'will substantially inform his work'.
Fowler told decanter.com, 'We feel that his passion for wine and his commercial body of work as a writer will be the perfect mix. He also makes an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon.'
Kamen bought his 100ha vineyard with earnings from his first script. 'I have an abiding passion for wines, vineyards and the history of wine, with California wine being part and parcel of it,' he has said.
In 1976 Steven Spurrier – now Decanter's consultant editor, then a young wine merchant in Paris – invited France's most eminent critics to blind-taste a selection of French and Californian wines.
Against all expectations the Californians came out top: the 1973 Stags' Leap Cabernet Sauvignon together with Ridge Montebello Cabernet Sauvignon 1971, were given higher marks than four Bordeaux, including Châteaux Haut-Brion and Mouton-Rothschild 1970.
In May this year Spurrier staged a celebratory re-run of the Tasting simultaneously in Napa and London. The Americans won again.
Fowler said the film will be financed 'entirely through private equity financing. This gives us much more creative control and ensures that the film will actually be made.'
She added, 'This is a film about fulfilling dreams. We'll have a bit in Paris featuring Steven struggling to sell his wine, and showing the Californian winemakers against the French who don't recognise their ability to produce good wine. So it's also a film about underdogs.'
Steven Spurrier - after suggesting that Law and Grant would be too old to play his younger self - said, 'My main feeling is tremendous (and quite surprised) excitement, and of course the underlying fantasy of who will play me and [my wife] Bella and how we will appear. I'm afraid this is uppermost in my mind at this moment, as well of course as how true it will be to what actually was going on in Paris in the early 70s.'
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Jude Law is not too old...he is 33. Dolores Craeg
Keanu Reeves as Mike Grgich?! What a terrible casting call. They'd have to cut Reeves off at the knees since Mike barely reaches 5 feet with lifts in his shoes... not to mention that Mike is a far better actor than 'pretty boy' will ever be! Bob Gorman, Florida, USA
How many years has it taken Mr. Spurrier and his guest tasters to be able to recognize a California wine amongst top Bordeaux First Growths? The mind boggles at the thought that they felt any difficulty doing so. Mr. Spurrier is a genius at public relations and proved it in setting up his tasting as 'blind' with the results trumpeted forth as a complete surprise. It simply nevertheless was the choice between French and US wines made by those who partook as even the least experienced among them had to know which wines were which. Never could there have been a less 'blind' tasting in the history of wine. Those present preferred the California wines to Haut-Brion and Mouton Rothschild and it simply is a reading of their personal sensibilities and talents. Who are these people? No doubt the following fuss in the press was exhilerating for them. Why this makes it worthwhile to give birth to a film is beyond me. I do admire the hype but not players of hype. Will the next stop be a 'blind' tasting where Australian wines will beat out Bordeaux First Growths? Would Mr. Spurrier like to organize that? Nothing like a series to keep up the public interest. Joan de Mouchy, Chateau Haut-Brion, Bordeaux, France
One does have to wonder how anyone can make an exciting Hollwood blockbuster out of a simple story. Spurrier was certainly not a struggling underdog, and the hype about a wine tasting is largely ridiculous. It was, and is, a great PR move, but hardly of great significance, (and ironically Haut Brion has American connections anyway). I presume we'll have to include some blood and guts and love interest somewhere or viewers will be fast asleep by the time they get on to the cabernets... Adrian Latimer, Paris, France
I run a wine shop in the South West of France and am extremely passionate about French wines and will defend them totally. May I ask who was present at these tastings in 1976? I would also be extremely interested in how these wines were produced? What about the recent tasting? It would be interesting to compare the technical data and chemical analysis of the wines concerned. Production methods? Fermentation methods? Additives ? etc. etc. Anybody can produce an 'industrialised' wine, but a natural wine from the terroir? I may be old fashioned, I may be in the minority, but I, for one, will stick to the French wines!!! Mitch O'Sullivan, France
We all had a crush on Bella Spurrier, so she'd have to be played by someone immediately and thoroughly appealing. Eva Green (the newest Bond girl)? Brian St. Pierre, London, UK
Since 'Sideways', wine has apparently caught Hollywood's attention, but this is a classic non-event. Everyone knew Califorbnia made fine wine, France makes fine wine, both make plonk, and most people wouldn't know it from Two-Buck Chuck. Lewis C Taishoff
I am encouraged by the response to the Decanter story about the film of Judgement of Paris. I guess that even the detractors will see it, to have their suspicions on how bad it will be confirmed, but in the meantime I would like to reply to two of the correspondents.
To Dolores Craeg.
I have been misquoted: flattered though I was, I did say that Hugh Grant was too old, but not Jude Law, who I said was too beautiful.
To Joan de Mouchy.
Madame de Mouchy's mind boggles that the tasters present in 1976 could have had any difficulty not recognizing Bordeaux from California wines and asks “Who are these people?” They were:
Mme Odette Khan, publisher and editor of the Revue du Vin de France.
M. Pierre Brejoux, general secretary of the Institut National des Appellations Controlees.
M. Raymond Oliver, owner and chef of the *** Paris restaurant Le Grand Vefour and a native of Bordeaux.
M. Pierre Tari, owner of Chateau Giscours in Margaux.
M. Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
M. Claude Dubois-Millot, of Gault-Millau magazine.
M. Michel Dovaz, France's top wine writer at that time.
M. Claude Vrinat, owner of the *** restaurant Le Taillevent.
M. Christian Vanneque, chef-sommelier of the *** restaurant La Tour d'Argent.
(These names will be useful for another correspondent, Mitch O'Sullivan).
These tasters were amongst the very best in France, for without such a panel, what has become known as The Paris Tasting would have had no validity. My aim was very simply to show that top “boutique” white and red wines from California were worthy of their attention. Since it seemed unlikely that any of the tasters had ever tasted a wine from California before – with the exception of Aubert de Villaine, who had married a girl from San Francisco – I decided to put the best wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy into the tasting to serve as “benchmarks”. The tasters were not asked to tell the difference between the wines, but to judge them and to give rankings to them on the 20 point scale. The French Press, all of whom had been invited, declined to attend. Nothing would have been heard of The Paris Tasting, had it not been for the presence of George Taber of Time Magazine, later author of The Judgement of Paris.
Madame de Mouchy hails me as a genius at public relations, yet it is the Press and the international interest in wine that has kept the 1976 tasting alive, not me. Due to the statements issued from Bordeaux following the tasting to the effect that their wines were made to be drunk mature, not as young as five or six years old – which presumes that the tasters mentioned above could not tell the quality of a 1970 Chateau Haut-Brion – I held, again at my own personal expense, a re-match of the red wines in New York in 1986. Again there were 9 tasters, 7 top American palates, with the great Alexis Lichine and Georges Lepre, chef-sommelier of Le Grand Vefour and subsequently le Ritz Hotel, from France. To ensure provenance of the Bordeaux wines, I had requested that the four chateaux provide wines from their own cellars. Only Chateau Haut-Brion declined, so these bottles were purchased from a top store in New York where, sadly, they had been badly stored. The results in 1986 were remarkably similar to 1976, with Clos du Val 1972 moving to top position.
I had no interest, despite requests, in doing another tasting in 1996, and it was only on the specific request of Copia in Napa Valley and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire that I help organise a 30-year anniversary in May 2006 that The Paris Tasting once more saw the light of day. This time, “these people” at the London tasting included MWs Michael Broadbent, Jancis Robinson and Jasper Morris, along with Hugh Johnson and from France, Michel Dovaz and Michel Bettane. The results were, once again, in favour of California. What can I say? You might as well shoot the messenger, which seems to be the base of Madame de Mouchy's letter.
One final point: Madame de Mouchy states about “these people” that “no doubt the following fuss in the Press was exhilarating for them”. Nothing could be further from the truth: Pierre Brejoux almost lost his position at the INAO, Aubert de Villaine and Pierre Tari received very serious hate mail and not a single taster was not overwhelmed by complaints that they had “let France down”. To their immense credit, not one of them complained to me, except Odette Khan, who told me bluntly that I had “rigged” the tasting. She was correct. It was not in my interest, living and working in France, that these Californian wines should “win”, simply that they should be recognised. By putting in First Growths and Second Growths from Bordeaux and Grands and Premiers Crus from Burgundy, I indeed thought I had rigged it…..in favour of France. Steven Spurrier
A final word, perhaps--the seriousness with which people are assessing this project is amazing, and misses the point. It was Paris, after all, and Paris in the '70s was still the Paris you went there to find, exhilarating and lovely and great fun. People were crowding into wine bars, discovering wine and each other and falling in love fairly often, and in springtime it was even better. Fauchon was selling Paul Masson 'vin blanc' in carafes and the French were buying it for the carafes rather than what they contained, just like the folks back home. The students had liberated the place in '68, and there was no going back. It was a Phillipe de Broca movie, a comedy with a few tears, about as ponderous as a souffle. Back then, best of all, wine was fun--where and when did it go wrong? Brian St. Pierre, London, UK
In 2001, I did a similar tasting which I wrote up for the Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine. Instead of being limited to the wines used in the 1976 tasting, I opened it up to the best wines of the decade. Among the seven Bordeaux wines selected, we included Petrus 1970, Latour 1970 and La Mission 1975, while on the California side we put in two vintages of Heitz Martha's Vineyard, the 1970 and 1974, BV Private Reserve 1970 and the 1973 Stag's Leap (which won the original tasting, but here was an off bottle). Our judges were pretty eminent as well; evenly divided between professionals (including a Bordelais negotiant and a winemaker and several wine writers) and knowledgeable amateurs. The results were similar to the ones in Paris. California wines won the top three places. The winner, a Gemello 1970, was a last minute addition after I dropped a bottle of Mondavi Reserve 1974. This remarkable wine garnered 15 out of 16 first place votes. Tied for second place were Heitz Martha's 1974 and BV reserve 1970. After that came Petrus 1970, Latour 1970 and the final spaces were pretty evenly split.
A couple of points; when the excuses were being as to why the French wines did not perform well in 1976, most people pointed to poor selection and the fact that the wines were not fully mature. In both areas, we did try to insure that the wines selected were mature and of high quality. To be honest, the decade was pretty dismal in Bordeaux; while California had plenty of vintages to choose from, we were limited to only three from Bordeaux, with most of the wines coming from 1970. I suspect if we did a similar tasting of wines of the 1980s, Bordeaux would fare much better.
Secondly, wines from California have changed, and although one could do a similar tasting with the decade of the 1980s, if we tried to do the same with the 1990s, the signature of the California wines is much more obvious, and I suspect that there would be little confusion. Mark Golodetz
This is a disgusting idea… I'm of the impression that this movie will further detract from the reputability of The Old World. Sure, an exciting tasting and memorable event…never to be forgotten. But how is “Average Joe” going to react? By buying even less Old World wine; most are not wine savvy enough to look at the event with a grain of salt – it will be an edict to most ignorant Americans. Another frustrating capitalization of the industry.
Scott Cameron, Austin, TX, USA
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Jude Law is not too old...he is 33. Dolores Craeg
