Mondovino: The Complete Series
Epic in scope, this globe-trotting saga covers not only the entire gamut of wine making, but wine's place in a treacherously globalized world. From the billionaire power brokers of Napa Valley, to the aristocratic rivalries of competing Florentine dynasties, to the efforts of three generations of a Burgundian family fighting to preserve their few acres of land, MONDOVINO: THE SERIES brings to life the human drama (and comedy) of wine making. Shot over several years and in five different languages, the series features intimate encounters with the wine world's most iconic and controversial figures, including the critic Robert Parker, legendary wine mogul Robert Mondavi, zany art collector Jan Schrem, and the noble proprietor of the mythical RomanTe Conti vineyard.
Episodes
This first episode expands on globalization, the battle between the small town of Aniane and the Mondavis of California. The conflict circles around two issues: the saving of a forest and the resistance to a global corporation.
Jonathan Nossiter goes to Burgundy following a harvest and interviews the workers who are grumbling over labor and family issues. Then he travels to Sterling, where chaos tightens the noose around the globalization issue.
A revealing, weird and refreshing look into the wine industry, reflecting on art, the good life and the triumph of a kind of western aesthetic imperialism. Advocates of the western wine industry discuss their opinions of the Napa Valley.
This fourth episode begins with Yvonne Hegoburu. She offers powerful insights into what growing grapes really means. In Sardinia, Battista and Lina Colombu express confusion at the increasing homogenization of wine globally.
Nossiter addresses all the arguments made after "Mondovino" the film and sits through Michael Rolland and Robert Parker’s lectures on their own influence, on pricing, terroir and their indifference to history.
What does an older bottle of wine taste like? Neal Rosenthal regrets the way outstanding critics interfere with the wine tasting culture. This episode studies the new changes in wine making, especially the increasing use of new French oak.
Alain Châtelet of the Govt. Bureau on Wine Fraud leads us through the delicate question of consumer protection with respect to phony wines, a crime that is difficult to prosecute owning to the reluctance of victims to step forward.
Nossiter returns to Italy and investigates the locals who have been producing and drinking wine for decades, even centuries. They discuss the terroir issue that the locals have been making wine they like but wine the tourists and foreigners don't.
An ugly aspect of modern wine culture is its history. Episode nine follows a story of the Antinoris and the Frescobaldis, both aristocratic families of great antiquity. It is a tale of betrayal, false starts and of finding the courage to move on.
In the final episode, Jonathan Nossiter travels to Chile, Brazil and Argentina, meeting new faces and new winemakers. But we are also introduced to the constant racism and class struggle that have damaged so much of the southern continent’s history.
