Somm (film)

Last updated
Somm
SOMM film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJason Wise
Written byJason Wise
Produced byJackson Myers
Christina Tucker
Jason Wise
StarringIan Cauble
Brian McClintic
Dustin Wilson
DLynn Proctor
CinematographyJackson Myers
Edited byBryan Carr
Jackson Myers
Jason Wise
Music byBrian Carmody
Production
company
Forgotten Man Films
Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films (theatrical)
First Run Features (DVD)
Release dates
  • November 7, 2012 (2012-11-07)(Napa Valley Film Festival) [1]
  • June 21, 2013 (2013-06-21)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Italian
German
French
Box office$170,561

Somm is a 2012 American documentary following the attempts of four candidates to pass the extremely difficult Master Sommelier examination, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world. [2] Directed by Jason Wise, a sequel, Somm: Into the Bottle , was released in 2015 and a third film, Somm 3 , came out in October 2018. [3] A TV series based on the movie launched on the Esquire Network in November 2015. [4] In 2019, SOMM TV was launched by creator Jason Wise with original shows. [5]

Contents

Synopsis

The movie begins in the San Francisco Bay Area briefly touching on the history of wine and the existence of the prestigious Master Sommelier exam. The film’s main characters, Ian Cauble, Dustin Wilson, DLynn Proctor, and Brian McClintic are introduced along with their various family members, wives, and girlfriends who all vouch for just how invested they really are in preparing for their Master Sommelier diploma. Every one of them has a different motive for wanting to pass, whether it is for their wife’s sake, an obsession with the idea of passing, or simply wanting to be seen as the most dapper guy in a restaurant. The candidates repeatedly assert that they have to know everything about wine, while the film jumps back and forth between wine makers in the United States, Italy, France, and Germany to illustrate that knowing everything about wine is virtually impossible.

SOMM begins a countdown leading to the exam at the end of the film. With just three weeks left until the three-part exam (theory, service, and blind tasting), the audience begins to see the lifestyle this exam forces on its subjects. Common study techniques include tracing Internet maps for color-coding wine regions, making an absurd amount of flashcards, even Skyping with each other at 2:30AM for mock quizzes. They also begin practice tasting exams with current Master Sommeliers.

With 10 days left, tensions are high and everyone is on edge as each tries to cram the extensive history, geography, and culture of wine into their brain before exam day that takes place in Dallas, Texas. The candidates' emotions are mixed with hope and fear as their mentors give them one last impossibly hard round of situational testing in service and tasting, including an exercise in just how fast one can get a bottle of wine cold. During a practice tasting with a Master Sommelier, Ian Cauble becomes convinced that someone has switched his wines. Brian speculates on the worst-case scenario of two of the three close friends becoming a Master Sommelier, leaving one behind who must continue training alone.

When everyone finally arrives in Dallas for the test, Dustin Wilson decides to room with another candidate named Sabato Sagaria, leaving Brian McClintic to room with Ian. Ian Cauble comes prepared with a suitcase full of 16 pounds of wine for review. They all spend 6- to 10-hour days tasting, studying flashcards, and speculating on each other’s sanity. Ian Cauble stays up the entire night studying flash cards as his stress level builds. At the end of the movie Brian and Dustin end up passing and are welcomed into the organization, leaving DLynn and Ian on the outside and realizing Brian’s worst-case scenario.

In a coda to the film, one year later Ian reattempts the exam and becomes the 197th Master Sommelier, and DLynn is still busy studying.

Cast

The four candidates appearing as themselves are Ian Cauble, Brian McClintic, Dustin Wilson and DLynn Proctor. In addition to friends and family members, several notable sommeliers are interviewed, including Fred Dame, Peter Neptune, Michael Jordan and Geoff Kruth. [6]

Critical response

The film received mostly positive reviews. Esquire Magazine's Cal Fussman praised the film as "...a great film.." "..with a tense arc that pushes you to the edge of your seat...". [7] Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 79% based on reviews from 24 critics, with an average rating of 6.7/10. [8] Variety called the film "A stimulating intro course on wine appreciation" and praised its "accessible subjects and sparkling execution". [9] The LA Times' critic Kenneth Turan called the film "glib but ultimately engaging." [10] The NY Post praised the film for doing "..a fairly impressive job of making wine tasting somewhat cinematic despite its being essentially unfilmable." [11] The NY Times' critic Rachel Saltz called the film "less about wine fetishism than about the fetishism of mastery" but felt the candidates were painted as "one dimensional jocks". She did note that the film was "an entree into a little-known world." [12]

Awards

The film was named best documentary feature at the 2013 San Luis Obispo Film Festival. [13]

Sequels

In January 2015, distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films announced they had acquired exclusive rights to a sequel entitled Somm: Into the Bottle, with a theatrical release planned for later in the year. [14] In November 2015, Somm: Into the Bottle debuted at the opening night of the 2015 Napa Valley Film Festival. [15]

Somm 3 was released in the fall of 2018 by distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films. [16]

The fourth installment in the Somm series "Somm 4: Cup of Salvation" is scheduled for release in December 2022. The film studies the role of wine in human history and its relationship to the land. [17]

Uncorked: The TV series

In March 2015, Esquire Network announced that one of its series for the 2015 season would be a TV series with a working title Somm, following six aspiring master sommeliers from New York as they prepare for the Court of Master Sommeliers exam. [18] The show, renamed Uncorked, debuted on November 10, 2015. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Master of Wine (MW) is a qualification issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom. The MW qualification is generally regarded in the wine industry as one of the highest standards of professional knowledge.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jancis Robinson</span> British journalist

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Alpana Singh is an American Master Sommelier, restaurateur and local television personality in Chicago, Illinois.

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The SOMM Journal is a subscription-based magazine publication, founded in 2008 for sommeliers and others in the restaurant and wine business. The magazine summarized consumer, restaurant, and wine trends and news for wine professionals.

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The Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) is an educational organisation established in 1977 to encourage improved standards of beverage service by sommeliers, particularly in wine and food pairing. From the court's inception through 2018, a worldwide total of 274 people have earned its Master Sommelier diploma, the highest level.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian Sommelier Association</span>

Italian Sommelier Association, 'AIS' is an Italian non-profit organization founded in Milan on July 7, 1965, officially recognised and legally acknowledged by the Italian government on April 6, 1973, with formal President of the Republic decree #539 in 1973. Its founding members were Prof. Gianfranco Botti, Jean Valenti, Leonardo Guerra and Italian sommelier Ernesto Rossi. Italian Sommelier Association is part and founding member of the Worldwide Sommelier Association (WSA), which is officially recognized across the world, wherever it is present with an affiliate. AIS is one of the oldest and actually the largest sommelier association in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Neptune</span> American wine expert and educator (born 1956)

Peter Neptune is an American wine expert and educator as well as a former television and NY stage actor. He is one of only 147 Master Sommeliers in North America, as of June 2015, and is the founder of the Orange County, CA-based Neptune School of Wine. He appeared on and off Broadway in 1984 and 1985, appeared in numerous television movies and series from 1988 through 1990, and appeared as himself in the 2013 wine documentary SOMM.

Jason Wise is an American filmmaker known for his wine documentaries, Wait for Your Laugh featuring Rose Marie, The Delicacy about sea urchin divers, and the streaming service SOMM TV.

<i>Somm: Into the Bottle</i> 2015 American film

Somm: Into the Bottle is a 2015 wine documentary and a sequel to SOMM (2013). The film tells the story and history of wine through ten different bottles opened throughout the film in different chapters. Directed by Jason Wise, it premiered at the Napa Valley Film Festival and featured the main cast from the original SOMM film as well as additional notable people from the wine world.

<i>Somm 3</i> 2018 American film

Somm 3 is the third film in the SOMM documentary series, following 2013's SOMM and 2015's SOMM: Into the Bottle. Directed by Jason Wise and distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, SOMM 3 centers on two tastings reminiscent of the 1976 Judgment of Paris.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Master Sommelier exam cheating scandal</span> Allegations that some candidates were tipped off to wines tasted

The 2018 Master Sommelier exam cheating scandal was disclosed in early October when the board of the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas (CMSA) voted unanimously to suspend indefinitely the Master Sommelier credential awarded to all but one of an unprecedented 24 candidates who had passed its stringent annual membership exam a month previously at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis. The decision was taken after the CMSA's board learned that one of its own members, Reggie Narito, had passed advance information about two of the six wines candidates had to identify during the blind tasting section, considered the most challenging of the three portions of the exam. Two of the successful candidates, to whom the information was known to have been passed, unsolicited, were barred from retaking the exam for three years. All the others were allowed to make up the exam in December at no charge; six passed. Narito was expelled from the organization and lost his Master Sommelier title.

Fred Dame is an American wine professional.

Geoff Kruth is an American wine professional. He resigned his position as Master Sommelier from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2020 after being caught up in an organization-wide sexual harassment scandal during the Me Too movement; according to the New York Times, almost a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct over a period of many years. Some of the accusations involved coercive pressure to exchange sex for professional favors.

References

  1. ↑ "Napa Valley Film Festival 2012 Official Guide". Issuu. pp. 62–63. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  2. ↑ "World's Toughest Test? The Master Sommelier Diploma Exam". Forbes.com. 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  3. ↑ "Somm 3 – Samuel Goldwyn Films".
  4. 1 2 "A Kinder, Gentler 'Somm'". winespectator.com. 2015-11-10. Retrieved 2015-12-06.
  5. ↑ "The Team Behind the 'Somm' Films Launched a 'SommTV' Streaming Service". Food & Wine. October 7, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  6. ↑ "What It Takes to Be a Master Sommelier". newyorker.com. 2015-11-10. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  7. ↑ "What Wine Guys Can Teach You About Being Great". Esquire.com. 2013-06-21. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
  8. ↑ "SOMM (2013)" . Retrieved 20 May 2020– via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  9. ↑ Chang, Justin (2013-06-20). "Film Review: 'Somm'". Variety.com. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  10. ↑ Turan, Kenneth (2013-06-20). "Review: 'Somm': Wine, men and one brutal test". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  11. ↑ Smith, Kyle (2013-06-21). "Raise a glass for wine documentary, 'Somm'". NYPost.com. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  12. ↑ Saltz, Rachel (2013-06-20). "Sipping and Studying, When the Subject Is Bottled". The New York Times . Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  13. ↑ "2013 Film Competition Award Winners". slofilmfest.org. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  14. ↑ "Here's the 'Somm: Inside the Bottle' Exclusive Teaser Trailer". eater.com. 2015-01-21. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
  15. ↑ Mobley, Esther (November 12, 2015). "New Wine Film 'Somm: Into the Bottle' Is Ambitious, Dangerously Selective". Inside Scoop SF (blog). San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2015-12-06.
  16. ↑ "Somm 3 film review: How it compares to the first two". 24 September 2018.
  17. ↑ "Wine, Food and Travel Streaming Service Somm TV Sets 2022 Programming Slate, Including Covid Documentary 'Saving the Restaurant'". 30 December 2021.
  18. ↑ "Esquire Network Unveils 2015 Upfront Lineup Bolstering Original Programming with Five New Series". Esquire.com. 2015-03-30. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
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