Mondovino Or the Wine World, Between Terroir and Industry
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ideas, using the tropes of fiction within the Mondovino or documentary form (the goodies against the The Wine World, baddies, conquests and obstacles, alliances, mistrust and betrayal, opposition of charac- Between Terroir ters, convictions but also personal behaviour and Industry and scenarios). But the underlying dynamic of the film can not just be reduced to linking the Jean-Michel Bertrand investigation (documenting is a form of pres- enting the face of the Other, despite or beyond clichés) to the divergence of egos, “characters”, ambitions (fiction is about the “me”, small or big secrets, power struggles and money issues that blow up or hide behind the storytelling), by sketching that which gives rise to virtual fiction in the real. It eventually plants a nag- ging tune in our heads that shows the auteur’s ontological insistence on (what is the world about?) and obsession with great metaphy- sical and cinematographically meditations: thus, the questions that come up, “who are they?”, “what do they want?” are inevitably followed by those that reveal the whys as well “A wine’s first name is its cépage, as the hows (to live, to cultivate, to produce): its surname is its terroir”. “what motivates them?”, “what relationships Léonard Humbrecht to the world, to nature, to what is human and to life itself have those who devote themselves Mondovino is not “simply” (and that’s already to vine and wine?”. The living, incarnated something) a documentary on the world of answers infallibly outline the shared rela- wine, the players, the hidden depths, clear tionships between the film’s characters. images and well-kept secrets, it is a major film, In other words, the film constantly emphasises, aesthetically and economically, in the way it through the questions asked by the charac- manages to connect the form to the under- ters it depicts, that basis of cinema itself, by lying meaning of the story. It must also be which we mean the tension between “sce- said that in the wine world, as shown in the nario” films and “story” films. How does one film, plot twists are legion and that the story define these notions, even summarily? Let’s is not one that can be told simply. The story just say, to keep things brief, that the scenario is told through the patient gathering of infor- involves looping impulse, libido-dominandi, mation provided by real-life players about what struggles and conquests while story films are is revealed to be the daily struggle between more open, more complex and often propose a two intractable visions of the world and of life different relationship to time, to dramaturgy itself. Indeed, wine is not just a product; it is and the notion of event, because they depend the symptom and the result of a culture, a rela- on a non-linear and unpredictable causality tionship with the world, and, in fine, an ethic. where tension develops between stories and Jonathan Nossiter’s film gives a clear depiction characters. Thus, this formal tension between of the frontal or indirect clash of interests and story and scenario (that which marketing professors, however pseudo-critical, will never begin and in the way he edits their testimonies understand) finds an echo in the characters in to allow the truth to surface, crack and then Mondovino. On the one hand we have winema- break, weighed down by contradictory state- kers who focus on profit, reproducible quality, ments and the proclamations and imaginary expansion; they work in terms of short-term projections that all storytelling requires. market perspectives and long-term strategic Mirrors and images. Of oneself or more to the perspectives thus proving, by their omnipre- point, of an in-between place, because unlike sence, that their “me” or their will is imposed what we see later on in California, there is on nature and that nature must bow to their no room for narcissism and self-depiction in demands. On the other hand, we have arti- the introductory portraits : from the start of sans who do not exploit the land but work it this film Nossiter insists on the intimate rela- and respect it, knowing that theirs is the slow tionship between a winemaker, the “land” and time-frame of overlapping worlds: soil, lands- the climate, giving a platform successively to cape, climate, tradition, and culture that must Yvonne Heguburu and Batista Colombu, two be expressed in a constant dialogue that works extraordinary “characters” who produce wines when one adapts, not when one tries to control. that are both typical (Jurançon and Malvasia Mondovino is a complex film, a great film that di Bosa) and of great quality. Both expound explores and goes beyond its apparent subject on their reasons for making wine and the inti- matter (what applies to wine also applies to mate or humanist and social meaning it has a number of other products) and intertwines in their eyes. Yvonne Heguburu who planted three main themes. her vines after her husband died (a project they had together) tells us: “since then, the The first theme compares singular wines, over-flowing love I feel is in the vines. I talk grown in an “artisanal” fashion, that express to them…” The intimate reasons are often the terroir in which they are grown with par- based on principle. Battista Columbu, her tially “standardised” woody, vanilla-esque, faced bathed in the sublime Sardinian light flattering wines based on a taste norm that the declares she wants to continue a humanist wine critic Parker has contributed to building tradition on her two hectares. The tradition and that must be reproduced identically year of a community wine to be offered to friends after year. However, contrary to the criticism and strangers allowing everyone to make their it sometimes gets, the theme-based film does “own” wine (“the rich shouldn’t be the only not beat us over the head with its thesis; on the ones to do this”, she says: “behind the fact of contrary, it lets that thesis emerge patiently. In producing Malvasia, there is an ethical convic- other words, the filmmaker doesn’t develop his tion, a “savoir-vivre” as the French say”). point of view by exposing his own convictions Thus, before letting a “thesis” about wine in an abrupt manner. He lets the different itself emerge, Nossiter lets us see and hear players speak, thus leaving the spectator to what motivates a winemaker who is in love deduce what they want from what they glean with the land and its movements. He makes and then edits and organises the ensemble so space for reasons and for identities, because as to bring together points of view that com- these reasons are far from anecdotal and can plete, echo or totally oppose one another. be found in the characteristics of the “pro- Nossiter’s talent lies in the way he gains the duct”. Later on in the film, we understand trust of his interviewees, who inevitably end that making wine means revealing a terroir up admitting the opposite of the superficial one loves, its constancies and variations (soils, and controlled party line with which they exposure, varieties, and grapes). The desire to express what happens throughout a year consequences of micro-oxygenation, a tech- is rooted in this connection, which presup- nique that was originally used to soften the poses a dialogue and permanent tie to the tannins in Madiran and that has now spread land and its signs. to many other winemakers, in particular those A shot of a plane in the sky over Bordeaux, owned by the industrial side of the profes- a permanent self-satisfied laugh, celebrity sion, but it is important to know about some name-dropping, constant phone calls: the of its effects. contrast is striking between the two initial Micro-oxygenation or microbullage involves portraits juxtaposed in the introduction and the continuous injection of very small quanti- that of one of the essential players in the new ties of oxygen during fermentation in order to wine market, the wine consultant and star imitate and accelerate the natural oxygenation oenologist, Michel Rolland. This contrast is process that happens through the wood. The perfectly symbolised by the shot of the plane actual benefit of this method is very contro- landing in the Bordeaux region, shifting us versial1. It is used to accelerate the “ageing into another world, that of global business process”, to increase colour intensity thanks and huge markets. So who is organising this to the polymerisation of the anthocyanins and shift? A taste manufacturer who is partially tannins, to give a feeling of full-bodied-ness indifferent to the concept of the terroir and and fruit, to soften the tannins and decrease affirms, not without a sense of provocation that the vegetal character of certain wines. But one day men will make wine on the moon. it also reinforces the sugar levels in wines, Michel Rolland defines himself as a “flying affecting their freshness, erasing their parti- wine maker” as he works for over one hundred cularities and smoothing out their aromatic properties in twelve different countries. This profiles. In other words, it modifies what obviously means he only comes into contact makes a wine typical and what amounts to its with the vine every now and again and he expression – always different – of a terroir. generally delivers his recipes and prescrip- The film allows us to examine the issue of the tions remotely to owners, who at times know disappearance of the terroir and the finality nothing about the subject and are happy to of these interventions that, under the cover just apply the consultant’s methods.