I watched this documentary because it said that it is about the globalization of wine and how this is impacting different wine regions of the world. My interest in wine is rather new and I am still in the initial research phase, so I thought that this would be something educational for me. Instead, it brought me mostly frustration.Basically the movie is about this: in Nappa valley there is this guy named Bob Mondavi, a real power player in the wine world. He tried to buy in his way into a french wine producing village to extend his "domain". He failed. He goes to Italy instead where he has more success. Oh, and he has set up shop in other parts of the world as well, mainly south America.In detail, 3/4 of the documentary is about the french affair, where the locals are presented, the small players, the big players, Mondavi is being presented, some fancy wine consultant is presented and a guy named Parker who is a wine critic that can make or brake wine companies worldwide. The french bicker amongst themselves and lament about how Mondavi, Parker and the consultant has changed the way of doing business and these 3 in return say that there is nothing wrong with their way. In the last quarter of the documentary, the focus is shifted towards Italy, how they came in contact with Mondavi and have found that everything is OK. At the very end there is about 10 minutes of shots from south America, not that it matters anyway.This documentary bothers me. First, it doesn't knows what it wants to be. It is not about globalization, because it covers only one business deal and its consequences (barely). Its scope is not global, it doesn't even mentions the emerging Asian markets, hell, it doesn't even covers Europe, just some parts of France and Italy... Also, it tries to give an insight into the way of life of the wine makers, on a personal level, but does so in a manner that is totally distracts the focus about the main theme of the documentary. However, the main problem with this documentary is the low technical quality, that make its weak substance even worse. Whoever shot the movie had no idea what it is doing. The camera shakes, the angles are all wrong and the focus is all over the place. Some wine maker is being interviewed and the camera just zooms in on hie eye, or his mouth so I can see how bad his teeth are. Or it zooms in on the fat old guy in the background that is going down a latter. The dialog still goes on but all I can see is Santa coming down from the roof. The editing is also abysmal. Every dog that the crew encountered during the making of the documentary gets a good 5 seconds of close ups in the movie. I know now that the worlds most influential wine critics french bulldog farts... Why is this important? Why was this not cut out? I know that the wine consultant sends out his driver to buy him newspapers and cigars. The maid comes in, sees the camera, gets shy but eventually asks if anybody wants to have a drink or something. Some guy passes trough the room where a woman is being interviewed, than passes back a moment later, both times they have a brief chat that has no value to the documentary whatsoever, yet everything makes it into the documentary. Some kid is being washed in a sink, on a porch in south America, I can see clearly that its a boy. An ugly/old piano player woman puts up makeup at a dinner event.There are countless such distracting elements that have no relevance, no added value, no contribution for the subject whatsoever. They should have been cut out. High-school kids could achieve better production value with their cell phones. And even if this movie is from 2004, I expect better quality from somebody that has the budget to travel around and the access to talk to VIPs. Over all, this is a mediocre at best, shoddy, narrow view documentary that does not worth your time and effort.

Brilliant film, shows how far greedy men go to create illusions and magazines and clowns that dictate "taste" as if it can be dictated, it shows so well how greed and abundance of the cheesy gets to destroy "craft" and "beauty of making" is the Wallmart of wines against small true wine makers, David vs Goliath A true inside story into the world of wine, loved the tone, the real style that reveals men's intentions and puts a face to greed. From Italy to France you see the real deal, you discover so much in this documentary, like the racist Argentine who talks about natives in the most disturbing way but excuses how he is part of the big global cheap crafted wine making

This film appears to be an exposé of the current trend towards globalization and homogenization in the wine industry. Wineries around the world are more and more either joining large conglomerates (the American producer, Mondavi, in the case of this film) or paying high-priced experts to help them make "the perfect wine"--and as a result, wines are becoming very standard and predictable. To some, this is a good thing (especially since few can afford to pay $50 or more for an everyday wine) and to others this is horrible as the uniqueness of smaller wineries is disappearing. I truly can understand the concerns of both sides and don't think there is a villain or hero in this business. Sure, good and cheaper wine is a nice thing, but like what's happened with beers (with giants like Unibrew and Anheiser-Busch), food (McDonalds), shopping (European shopping malls are almost indistinguishable from American ones) and mega-stores (like Walmart/Asda) are taking away much of the uniqueness of "the little guys". So I definitely was ready and willing to listen to these film makers. However, with a product that is almost two and a half hours long AND a general lack of focus, the film simply became too big a chore to watch and I lost interest. An 80-90 minute focused film would have been MUCH more effective--especially since the average viewer is NOT an oenophile (that's the high-brow word for a "wine aficionado").On the very positive side, the film makers are smart not to do much talking at all--and simply let those on both sides of the issue do the talking. Plus, the topic is so relevant and timely. However, despite choosing a good style of documentary making, the film simply goes on way, way, way too long and ended up making a very dull film.

It's not really about wine. No, Nossiter's real targets are those who would streamline and assimilate the peculiarities of local (wine) production for business purposes. To this end he has made an excellent, objective film. Spirited, bumptious, emotional and flawed independent wine producers are juxtaposed with media-finessed, anodynesprech Amercians and auld-Europeans: the art of wine-making against market-driven, laboratorised product manufacture. It's an open show that doesn't lead conclusion.Nossiter's film is occasionally infuriating to watch - cameras are neither concealed, nor steadicam, by any means. There are also plenty of captions as well as subtitles to wade through, often too short a time on screen.However it does outdo Michael Moore at the game Moore can't play anyway. The characters speak for - and therefore condemn - themselves. Well worth a viewing 7/10