Blood Of The Vines - Monsters And Wives

Pairing wine with movies!  See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, we pair wines with three films featuring monsters, and the spouses who love them.  

The Bride! puts an exclamation point on the title, possibly to indicate how much fun the critics have had coming up with fresh ways to pan the film. It has been called "a grunge version of The Munsters" and "an intellectual joyride without the joy," in addition to other snide and snarky remarks.  However, it has its fans. TFH Chief Guru, Joe Dante, is one, and he feels The Bride! will probably end up as a cult movie.

The bride in question is that of Frankenstein's monster, who we're calling "Frank" this time around. Christian Bale is Frank, while Jessie Buckley plays a dual role, although one of those roles goes by three different names. She's alive, she's dead, she's reanimated, she's dead again. Talk about mood swings. 

In Maggie Gyllenhaal's reimagining of the Frankenstein story, Frank just wants a mate, and he goes to a doctor in 1930s Chicago who reanimates dead people. That's quite a specialty to put on your shingle. What a couple they make. They walk, they talk, they dance, they go to the movies. Ah, yeah, they kill people, too. 

South Africa's Radford Dale Winery has a Pinotage called Frankenstein. The name was given due to the bad reputation the Pinotage grape has for being harsh and medicinal. They say if the grape is treated meanly it will show its angry side, much like The Monster. In defense of Pinotage, the winery says the grape, "is not a monster; it is a soul with a heart and one which will repay kindness with abundant generosity of its own." Keep your pitchforks in the barn.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space, from 1958, pretty much spills the tea in the title. A newlywed bride discovers that her husband is actually, well, a monster from outer space. The happy couple is shown toasting their marriage, presumably with a nice sparkling wine. Obviously, some things are beyond a Champagne fix.  

In Monster, they borrowed a page or two from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The bride in question wasn't the only woman in town whose husband suffered an alien takeover. Body snatching was a big thing in the 1950s. It's a shame they missed snatching Joe McCarthy. 

If you have been wondering when we would pair a movie with a wine from Beaujolais that is not red, although I don't know why you would wonder that, here it is. Alien, from Domaine Saint-Cyr is 100% Aligoté, which is more than we can say about the husband in Monster. It comes highly recommended, as it should at $50 a bottle.

1951's Bride of the Gorilla works the same turf as The Bride and the Beast, but with a different plow. 

Raymond Burr plays a guy who has a curse thrown onto him by, well, it doesn't matter. It's a curse. It turns him into a gorilla-like beast, which the wife does not dig. The husband/beast in this film takes a nightly spin on the karmic wheel. If you've ever seen it happen, you know how it ends. 

Gorilla comes from Jason Oliva Wine in South Africa's Stellenbosch region. It is a Bordeaux-style blend which is heavy on the Cabernet Franc. The price is listed at just under $100 a bottle. 

 

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A Wine Between The Rock And The Hard Place

The Birichino Winery is in Santa Cruz, presumably the place that gave us the grapes in the 2023 Birichino Scylla. The California red wine is made from 71% Carignane grapes, 17% Mourvèdre, and 12% Grenache. 

The name comes from mythology. On the label, the wine is said to be an "ode to the Siren songs of sailor-swallowing sea serpents." The person who wrote that must have loved English class in high school. Mythology and alliteration in the same sentence. The label also notes that the wine is "all Scylla, no fylla."

The grapes were taken from old vines, wildly fermented, aged in neutral barrels and bottled unfiltered. Alcohol sits comfortably at 13% abv and the wine costs around $25. 

This wine is medium-dark in the glass. The nose is full of cherry, plum, blackberry, and an herbal note. On the palate, earthy tones shroud the fruit, while a healthy set of tannins excite the tongue. The finish is medium length and the savory notes linger the longest. Pair this wine with beef, lamb, roasted chicken, or even your favorite smash burger. 

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Blood Of The Vines - Valerie Perrine Week

Pairing wine with movies!  See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. Please join us in lifting a glass to remember the wonderful actress, Valerie Perrine. She passed away in March after battling Parkinson's disease for eleven years. 

Perrine's date with death was delayed when she canceled her date with hair stylist Jay Sebring at the last minute. The date was August 9, 1969. It was an invitation to a gathering at Sharon Tate's home, the last gathering Tate would ever host. 

The gal from Galveston got her start in entertainment as a Las Vegas showgirl at the Stardust. She later said her introduction into the legitimate theater happened when an agent saw her at a dinner party and thought she'd be right for the role of Montana Wildhack in 1972's Slaughterhouse Five. Now she's gone. So it goes.

Slaughterhouse Five wins the slashcapades, being described as a comedy/drama/military/scifi. The author of the source material, Kurt Vonnegut, said director George Roy Hill made a "flawless translation" of his novel. 

Australia's Heathcote Winery must have drawn the short straw for the naming rights of their Slaughterhouse Paddock Shiraz. It's a single-vineyard (Slaughterhouse Paddock Vineyard) wine which has the boldness that only American oak can bring. It's a $60 wine.

Perrine was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for Lenny, from 1974. She played opposite Dustin Hoffman as Honey Bruce, the "Shiksa goddess" wife of troubled comedian Lenny Bruce. The part was intended for Lynda Day George, but she apparently didn't like the nudity in the script. Thankfully, that didn't bother Perrine. She was reportedly the first actress to bare her breasts on American network TV.

There is a Dom Perignon named Lenny, but that's for Lenny Kravitz, a rockstar of a different era. In Oregon's Willamette Valley, you can get a Pinot Noir from the Lenné Estate, which may be as close as we can get to Lenny, unless you know of a Riunite laced with morphine. I don't. 

In 1977, Mr. Billion brought Terence Hill to American movie-goers for the first time. It was also the last screen appearance of William Redfield. Hill was a huge star in Europe at the time and this was his stateside intro. 

Perrine was also featured, along with Jackie Gleason, Slim Pickens, and Chill Wills. How did Slim Pickens and Chill Wills end up in the same movie? Didn't SAG have some kind of rule against such an occurrence? Character Actor Overload? I guess not, because this was the second time for that particular Character Actor Lightning to strike. Trivia buffs know, the first was in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

The story smacks a bit of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Guy inherits a ton of money but has to meet a deadline in order to claim it. Gleason and Perrine stand in his way. Let the comedic action begin. 

Mr. Billion flopped like Gleason doing the cannonball. Director Jonathan Kaplan considered it his career low point. Can we enjoy it today, despite all the negativity? Sure we can. Along with some bubbly.

A Champagne from the François Billion winery almost seems like low-hanging fruit for this pairing. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes are the fruit in question for Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Brut. You may have to pay $200 for it, but at least you don't have to beat the clock.

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White Wine From Italy's Langhe Region

The 2022 Marchesi di Barolo Bric Amel Langhe Bianco comes from the northwestern part of Italy, the Langhe region. White wines from Italy's northern areas are generally loaded with minerality and as crisp as a new dollar bill. 

This wine was grown in hilltop vineyards, in limestone-rich soils which are great for growing white wine grapes. The Bric Amel is made from Arneis, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon grapes. The juice was fermented and aged in steel tanks. Alcohol hits 13.5% abv and the price tag was $25 when I bought it at the Beverly Hills Cheese Shop.

This wine has a vibrant yellow-gold color in the glass. Its nose offers lots of lime and lemon, along with stone fruit, mango, and wet-sidewalk minerality. The palate is fruity, yet with a ton of minerals. On the tongue, the acidity is quite fresh and zippy. Pair it with a creamy shrimp dish. 

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