Word: winings
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...waiters are good, they're subtle. I know a waiter who was good at accidentally clipping people in the back of the head with his tray. Another technique is making people wait when they've ordered wine. You make them stew. Or you put in their steak order as medium instead of medium rare. I controlled the reservation system, so if you were a bad tipper or had mistreated me, I would seat you next to the men's room. My all-time favorite move was to tell people that their credit card was experiencing difficulties. A lot of people...
This much of the story is true: In 1976, an English wine merchant named Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman), operating out of a small shop in Paris, is consistently snubbed by the insular and snooty French oenophile establishment. So he sets out to prove that offerings from other countries, which he unsuccessfully stocks, can equal those of the previously unchallenged French vintages. This leads him to California's Napa Valley, where he seeks wines that might fare well in a blind tasting he plans to stage in France. There he finds, among other good wines, a Chardonnay bottled by cranky...
...Double check. Does he have a rival for his affections in Gustavo (Freddy Rodriquez), who also happens to be a promising (and very soulful) vintner himself? Triple check. You can bet that crisis comes to the Barretts, in the form of an apparent failure of their potentially prize-winning wine, which - we're running out of check marks here - brings out the best in everyone...
...That "Lafayette, we are here" spin was more than welcome in 1976, America's bicentennial year. It is also true that the internationalization and democratization of the wine business that almost immediately followed was probably a nice breath of fresh air in what had been a tightly sealed cellar. But still, the lack of authentic surprise and eccentricity in the story and its characters, the sense that everyone concerned with the picture (possibly excepting Rickman, who projects an unwelcoming sullenness that may not be funny but is at least weirdly human) is eagerly looking for the easy...
...restaurant off La Rambla, the city’s touristy yet iconic nucleus, which slices through the original part of the city. Brought to a long table on the roof deck of the short building, we met our professor and his family. The sun was setting, the wine flowed freely, and it felt like we could have been in the countryside rather than overlooking a bustling street...