SOMM

Jason Wise’s captivating new documentary is a study of sheer obsession. That, with more than a degree of insanity, are evidently two of the essential qualifications you need to become a Master Sommelier. Oh yes, an encyclopedic knowledge of wine helps too.  This nail-biting movie follows four such fool-hardy and intrepid young men as they prepare and sit the examination that less than 200 people have passed in the 40 years since it first was given in the U.S. to attain this rare and exalted status.

Ian Cauble is the most single-minded and overly serious of the four who study together into the wee hours of the morning and who have become fast friends.  The others have nicknamed this whizz kid as ‘Dad’.  Like him, the other three viz Brian, Dustin and Dlynn are already Sommeliers working in high-end restaurants, but life to these guys will not be complete unless they can gain this ultimate highest accolade.

There are three parts to the exam ….. which incidentally can only be sat once a year …. theory, service and the hardest of all, tasting. For the latter they are each presented with 6 different wines and within 25 minutes must not only describe every nuance and flavor but determine both the country and region of origin, and the year of vintage before then naming it.  They amount of knowledge they must consume is matched by all the countless gallons of wine they must sample.  As the film progresses and we witness the four studying/arguing/drinking in preparation they never hide the fact that the whole brutal process is sheer torture.  Their neglected wives/girlfriends just left with with the task of emptying their spittoons next morning for at least a year, are nothing more than wine widows.

By the time the big weekend in Dallas for the two days of reckoning comes around we are so emotional invested in the outcome for each of them that we share the scary intimidation they face from the current Masters who are about to test them.    No spoilers here at all as to the outcome, but I will just say that you are left dangling until the closing frames of this gripping documentary, and you will need more than one glass of wine when by the time it ends.  And trust me, it you wont spit it out afterwards.

If your nerves survived ‘Kings of Pastry’ the 2009 documentary by D A Pennebaker when top French chefs baked their way through fierce competition to be named a ‘Les Melleurs Ouvriers de France’, then you will so love this engaging movie too.

Currently in selected movie theaters and on VOD via Itunes.

★★★★★★★★