Wine For "Bell, Book and Candle"

An encore presentation.  From the "Blood of the Vines" series I did a while back with TrailersFromHell.com.

Wine For "From Russia With Love"

From the series of wine and movie pairings I did about five years back with Blood Of The Vines. This one's a bit more timely now.

Wine In Movies

Wine With Woodstock

From the archives...

Wine For "Play Misty For Me"

Blood Of The Vines: Withnail And I

Wine Goes to the Movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

In "Withnail and I," two English chums go "on holiday by mistake" and seek refuge from their horrid lives in a bottle of whatever is nearby.  The movie is loaded with writing that is memorized and used by the film’s fans in their daily lives as often as possible.

How can anyone resist lines like, "We want the finest wines available to humanity.  We want them here, and we want them now!"  And, of course, "There must and shall be aspirin!"

"Withnail and I" centers on two actors who can't get a role if the rent depends upon it - and it does - who take a bit of R & R at uncle Monty's English country shack for the weekend.  This film features plenty to drink: there's wine, there's sherry, there's more wine, there's a pint of something and there's lighter fluid.  Oh, there's also an enterprising drug supplier and an eel poacher at the pub.  Now you're hooked, right?

Richard E. Grant's performance in the role of Withnail is a masterpiece, particularly since he had to learn how to act drunk.  He Withnailed it.  Paul McGann as "I" plays the foil to Withnail's drunken bluster.

The opening sax version of "Whiter Shade of Pale" by King Curtis signals good things from this movie.  The inclusion of recordings by Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles indicate some deep pockets on the production side.  George Harrison had some fairly deep pockets and an inside track on getting a Beatles song licensed.  This is George's movie, and he made sure it sounded like it.

Hard times hit early on when the guys are caught without anything decent to drink, so a can of lighter fluid becomes a topic for quick debate.  And if you are drinking lighter fluid because even the bum wine has run out, don't chase it with anti-freeze.  "You bloody fool, you should never mix your drinks!"

When the pair run out of wine in the bucolic English countryside, uncle Monty comes to the rescue with a case of the good stuff.  As Withnail says about Monty, "He keeps a sensational cellar!"  A little Chateau Margaux gets the boys into the realm of real drinking.  That wine was also featured in "Intolerable Cruelty."  I don't, however, recall George Clooney knocking back a swig of lighter fluid.  Or anti-freeze.  And you shouldn't, either.

Chateau Margaux 1953 is the pick here - since the wine is used in the movie.  If you are uncorking a bottle for a viewing party, DM me on Twitter.  It's the only way I'll ever get any.  On second thought, skip it.  That last blast of lighter fluid ruined my palate.  Recent vintages of Chateau Margaux start at over a hundred dollars a bottle, and go up to the stratosphere for the more desirable years.  Expect to pay in the thousands for the best of this grand cru wine.

For derelicts on a budget:

Wild Irish Rose gets some serious attention from aficionados of cheap wine aimed at people who drink to get drunk.  Alcohol at 18% certainly gets you a headstart on the party, for less than a fiver.  The White Label is said to have a nose of rubbing alcohol, and a palate that's even meaner.  Better than lighter fluid, though.  Sort of.

Sure, Gallo brought us Night Train and Thunderbird at higher alcohol levels, but there's a warm spot in any drunk's heart for their Ripple brand.  Of course, that might be due to a peptic ulcer.  Hey, it was Fred Sanford's wine of choice.

It should be noted somewhere in here that Ronsonol Lighter Fluid, after all the jokes are done, is not intended for internal consumption.  It is intended for internal combustion.  Those great videos in which an idiot blows up his barbecue grill?  That's Ronsonol.

And after the '53 Margaux is done, "I have some extremely distressing news.  We've just run of wine."


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Wine For "The Third Man"

Blood Of The Vines: The Third Man

Wine Goes To The Movies with 

Trailers From Hell and Now And Zin

When we talk about wine, the talk always turns to Pinot Noir.  It’s considered by many wine snobs to be the grape that’s hardest to get into the bottle, but the most expressive of the conditions from which it comes.  If you’d like the full-length lecture, just ask the nearest wine snob.  Make sure you have an hour or so to spare.

When you talk about movies, the talk always turns to film noir.  Film buffs, like wine snobs, love to show off their knowledge a bit.  An evening with a film noir fan leads to many dissertations on how the dark shadows of film noir best express the suspicion and doubt that permeated world events from World War II into the McCarthy ‘50s.  And, if you ask me, the 1960s could have used a lot more film noir.

Pinot Noir means “black Pinot” in French, which helps differentiate it from Pinot Grigio, which means “six-dollar house wine at Italian restaurants.”  Accordingly, film noir means “black film,” a fitting name for movies that live in the shadows and usually embrace the pulp crime fiction style of writing that sprang up in the 1930s.

In “The Third Man,” Joseph Cotten admits, ”I’m just a hack writer who drinks too much and falls in love with girls.  You?”  With an opener like that, it’s no wonder he didn’t end up making the springs on the Murphy bed squeak for their lives.  What woman couldn’t resist that come on?  Even if she did live in the shadows and have a tilty camera angle most of the time.

“The Third Man” makes great use of music, too.  A score by Anton Karas playing the zither provides a creepily exotic backdrop.  “He’ll have you in a dither with his zither,” blazes the trailer.  It’s good that Karas didn’t play the ocarina.  That’s an even tougher rhyme.

Orson Welles' Harry Lime is a black market racketeer in wartime Vienna who cares nothing for the victims of his methods.  He waters down penicillin for sick people.  God knows what he does to stretch a bottle of wine to six servings instead of three.  Oh, and his markup is brutal, too.  This guy should open a restaurant.

Lime cites the war and bloodshed Italy felt under the House of Borgia, while producing Michaelangelo, DaVinci and the Rennaissance.  “Switzerland’s 500 years of brotherly love,” he says, “only produced the cuckoo clock.”  I want an exit line like that.

The Third Man Wine comes from New Zealand’s Waipara Valley, and a lot of wine snobs are hitting up the NZ for their Pinot Noir.  I don’t see a real connection here - other than the name - but the flavors in The Third Man Sauvignon Blanc include... lime.  Cut, print.

Fourth and fifth man wines:

Hoepler’s Third Man Zweigelt comes straight from Vienna - well, southeast of Vienna - I wonder what sector that is?  The label for this great Austrian grape carries an image from the film, and word is it will never remind you of a chase through a sewer.  Can I see your papers, please?

Washington’s Gramercy Cellars takes the Third Man out of Austria altogether and transplants him to the Southern Rhone with a GSM - Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre - blend that’s heavy on the Grenache.

Bonus:

I know I’ve linked to this before, but this is a great time to revisit the ol’ YouTube of  Orson Welles for Paul Masson.  It’s still hard to watch Welles try to struggle through a TV commercial for this juice.  Masson let Welles go soon after the great one announced on television that he never drank the stuff, just shilled it.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Wine Pairing For "Cat People"

Wine Goes to the Movies with Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

A man marries a woman who is afraid she will become a killer cat if she has sex with her husband.  That's right, she thinks if she lets herself become a panter, she'll turn into a panther.  Maybe a few glasses of wine would mellow her out, but this wasn't what the guy was thinking when he coined the "lady in the parlor, tiger in the bedroom" metaphor.

Okay, so, way back in the forties we have this very good reason to live together before marriage.  We also have "I've got a headache" taken to an extreme.  I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley - or any dark area, for that matter.

"Cat People" - the 1942 original, in glorious and shadowy black and white - was shrugged off as a cheap horror flick by critics of the day, but since then they have started calling it a "smart little drama," after a few glasses of wine, no doubt.

I’m not a cat person, and when I think of cat people, I think of that crazy lady down the street who has about 27 of them living in her one-room apartment.  Come to think of it, I wouldn’t want to meet HER in a dark alley, either.  Let’s pair some wine with “Cat People.”

Napa Valley's Black Cat Vineyard quotes Mark Twain: “If man would be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.”  Try their Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon.  Then you'll be one of the Cab People.  Meow!

Get your claws on these:

Panther Creek Cellars - This Oregon producer has more Pinot Noirs that a cat has lives.

Hazlitt 1852 Red Cat - It should be a black cat, but this one is not afraid of water, at least in a hot tub.

Hello Kitty Wine - You had to see this one coming.



Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Psycho

Wine Goes to the Movies with Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

Putting the blood in Blood Of The Vines, we’ll take a look at Alfred Hitchcock’s "Psycho."  That’s not red wine swirling down the shower drain.  This movie made so many people afraid to take a shower that stocks probably soared for underarm deodorant.

Brutal murders are nothing in movies these days, but the graphic nature of the one in Psycho was groundbreaking, even though we never actually see the violence.  Plus, killing off one of the stars 30 minutes into a film was simply not done.  I would imagine it’s still a no-no.  Both these elements made Psycho an unusual film for its time.

Janet Leigh is the unlucky victim, who probably should have had a glass of wine before stepping into the shower, since she’s not getting one now.  Just goes to show - life’s too short to not drink wine.  Anthony Perkins cut his creepy-teeth here.

By the way, Hitchcock reportedly used chocolate sauce for the blood swirling down the drain.  It’s a black and white movie, and he felt in B&W, chocolate looks like blood.  It actually looks more like blood than blood does.  I’m sure Hitch would not have approved of using red wine in the scene.  He didn’t like to see wine go down the drain.

The famed director drank a whole bottle of wine at lunch every day, according to John Landis.  Personally, I’d like a lunch like that even if it’s only every now and then.

The wine for Psycho could easily be French - Hitchcock would approve - but let’s get a little more personal with it.  Heart O’ The Mountain Estates in the Santa Cruz mountains was once owned by Alfred Hitchcock.  The property started as a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in 1881.  Hitchcock planted Riesling there.  After his ownership, the property was used as a horse pasture.  The current owners have been growing Pinot Noir for about ten years.  They have eleven different Pinots, ranging in price from $48 to $85 per bottle.

You’d be psycho not to try these:

Simi Winery - This Healdsburg property is said to have been one of Hitch’s favorites.

Sangria - Sure, why not? A fruity melange of citrus peels and the remainder of last night’s wine sounds great for “Psycho.”  Besides, it means “bleeding” in Spanish.

Premeditated Murder Barleywine - It’s actually a strong beer, but it pours up “bloody, ruby crimson” in the glass.  Pair with chocolate?

Cellarmasters “Psycho” ad - A nice turn on the oft-imitated scene, this time performed in the kitchen sink.

Wine bottle shower scene - Well, now it really is wine going down the drain.

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: The Nutty Professor

Blood Of The Vines: The Nutty Professor

Wine goes to the movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

Good and evil are depicted to some degree in almost every movie.  I tend to view any character drinking wine as “good,” which leads to some confusion when screening “Rosemary’s Baby.”

In “The Nutty Professor,” Jerry Lewis portrays both good and evil in his dual role as the goofy chemistry prof and his suave, slick alter-ego.  Lewis has stated that the characters represent both sides of the good/evil coin, a coin I received in change at Whole Foods the other day.  President Lincoln is heads, while tails shows Honest Abe mooning us through the columns of the Lincoln Memorial.

Observers have speculated that Lewis patterned Buddy Love after his former partner Dean Martin, but the Clown Prince of France says that was not the case.  He has expressed regret for not making the Love character more overtly evil.  It seems most of the fan mail went to B. Love, not J. Kelp.

While perusing the notion of Jerry Lewis as Jekyll and Hyde, the question arises: What kinds of wine would Julius Kelp and Buddy Love drink?  At least it arises for me, a few more times a day than I’d like to admit.

Kelp - the hapless nerd - probably knows either too little or too much about wine, just like in real life.  Most folks who know just enough about wine seem boring to those at the low end of the spectrum and dimwitted to the other side.

Love - the cool hipster - would probably drink Champagne from a little-known artisan grower, if he drank wine at all.  In the film, Love orders a drink like this: “two shots of vodka, a little rum, some bitters, a smidgen of vinegar, a shot of vermouth, a shot of gin, a little brandy, a lemon peel, orange peel, cherry, some more scotch.”  Paraphrasing the bartender, you can either drink it or take it home and rub it on your chest.

Lewis has brought “The Nutty Professor” to the stage, off-Broadway.  How far off?  Try Tennessee.  It’s the last stage musical completed by Marvin Hamlisch before his death in August 2012 and there are hopes it will make it to The Big Apple.

A natural wine pairing for “The Nutty Professor” is Hugh Hamilton’s Jekyll and Hyde Shiraz Viognier.  The McLaren Vale producer says the wine is co-fermented, both disparate grapes picked and fermented together rather than being blended after separate fermentation.  This is how they prevent unwanted hair growth after consumption.  (You didn’t believe that last part, did you?)

More nutty choices:

Jekel Vineyards - This Monterey County producer has Riesling for the hipster in you, Merlot for that other side.

Hyde Vineyards - In Napa Valley’s Carneros section, this vineyard provides grapes to a number of stellar winemakers.  They don’t have cherries, orange peel, vermouth or scotch.

Jerry Lewis’ Pinot Noir - Sold by an animal shelter in Wisconsin, if this Chilean Pinot has any connection with Jerry Lewis beyond his name on the label, it’s well hidden.

Jekyll and Hyde Coffee and Wine Bar - So which is which?  Before the triple espresso, and after?



Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Innerspace

Wine goes to the movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

by Randy Fuller

It only takes about 20 minutes for a glass of wine to enter your bloodstream and head for the small intestine, pancreas and liver.  It's the liver's company in that sentence that keeps it off my dinner table.

Getting alcohol out of your system takes quite a bit longer.  It's been trying to get out of my system for years and it's losing the battle.

In his 1987 film, "Innerspace," director and TFH head guru Joe Dante does that "into-and-out-of-the-bloodstream" odyssey in 120 minutes.  Navy flyboy Dennis Quaid is shrunk and injected into dweeby Martin Short, embarking him on a voyage that's no less fantastic and quite a bit funnier than this movie's 1966 inspiration.

Quaid's character starts the movie at a party, sloppy drunk, then plays around with a robot that can't pour a drink.  Better the clumsy robot had been working the party instead of the bartender.  Short's wimp opens in a doctor's office, soon to find out that it's not hypochondria if there really is something inside you.

"Innerspace" is the only flick I have ever seen in which a chase scene is interrupted for the bad guy to reload his arm.  Speaking of which, our heroic test pilot has to reload on Southern Comfort while surfing the red corpuscles.  He could have been arrested for driving while inoculated.

It is a spy movie, but the drinking in "Innerspace" lacks the urbane class of James Bond's "shaken, not stirred."  When the characters drink, it's more like "shaking and slurred."

The Oscar-winning special effects were done pre-CGI, and are still so impressive that for much of the inside-the-body sequences I had the irresistible urge to cough up something.  Meg Ryan, as the love interest, is as fresh and perky as a Sauvignon Blanc, while tiny Kevin McCarthy is as cute as a bottle of airline wine.  Let’s pair a wine with "Innerspace" that's as blood-red as the scenery.

Treasure Hunter Black Submarine wine - 3Finger Wine produces this Knight's Valley Cabernet.  I can't help but wonder if they had versions one and two, in which they kept adding fingers.  It's hard to imagine giving one finger to a Napa Cab.  Unless you're from Sonoma.

A few other bytes on the microchip:

Test Pilot wine - Cooper-Garrod Vineyards of Saratoga, California, has a trio of red blends they call their Test Pilot line.  Winemaker George Cooper was a pilot in WWII.  The rest of the Coopers and the Garrods only fly in aircraft equipped with flight attendants.  Are the Test Pilot wines top-shelf or Top Gun?  It'll cost $39 each to find out.

Wine Miniatures - For a movie about a miniature guy in a miniature submarine, how a miniature bottle of wine?  TastingRoom.com offers sampler cases of little 50ml bottles, even tinier than those little wine bottles sold on airplanes.

Bilge Wine (Submarine Style) - This stuff sounds an awful lot like prison wine, and I won't be checking that box, either, on my wine club order form.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Rear Window

Wine Goes To The Movies with

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

My wife and I have endured neighbors with bagpipes, drums on the solstice, children that never stopped crying and sound systems that caused the windows to rattle like a magnitude five earthquake.  Every time we watch "Rear Window" we drop to our knees and thank the Power of the Universe that we have never had to say, "the neighbors bought a calliope."  Pop some Champagne for that blessing.

I’m not knocking Alfred Hitchcock’s choices.  The only thing I ever directed was a local television commercial that ended up looking like the cutting room scraps of “Plan 9 From Outer Space” - if, indeed, there were any scraps of that film left over.

I have dabbled in music programming during my patchwork career, though, and it has always struck me that Hitch probably never listened to the radio.  The music that serves as a constant companion to the action in “Rear Window” leaves me wondering why those people still lived in that neighborhood.  Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly sharing a snifter of brandy is certainly Hitchcockian, but the cacophony they endure during an open-window New York summer would have most people drinking right from the bottle.  If you run out, start downing mouthwash.

My current neighbor is a composer, and we are often treated to his lovely meanderings on the piano.  He never pulls a Ross Bagdasarian, though, by slamming his hands down on the keys and crying in artistic anguish.

We are keeping a close eye on his flower garden, though.

Although friends don’t make their friends listen to calliope music, they just may have an all-calliope all-the-time music channel in the tasting room at Calliope Wines.  They point out that “calliope” is Greek for “beautiful voice,” but that depends on what hour of the morning it is when the calliope music starts.  Calliope is also the Greek Muse of Eloquence and Poetry.  Think about that the next time you’re on a merry-go-round.

Can You Make Out Any Other Wines?

Put down the binoculars and pick up a bottle from Spyglass Ridge Winery.  They specialize in Pennsylvania Cabernet Franc and Chambourcin.

Michigan’s Good Neighbor Organic makes wine, cider and hard liquor in Leelanau County.  A good neighbor, indeed.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Bride of Frankenstein

Wine Goes to the Movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

In "Bride of Frankenstein," the monster speaks.  The monster also eats, drinks and has a smoke afterward.

Presumed consumed by flames in the original movie, the monster survived the windmill fire by getting into the water well underneath the mill.  When he finally comes out after that harrowing experience, he falls in with a blind guy who teaches him to talk.  The first things he wants to talk about are food and wine.  Get that monster a twitter account!

"Bread #good.  Drink #good.  The service in this drafty old castle - #baaaad."  Conversant for ten minutes, and he's already a Yelper.

The monster's conversion from good-natured Halloween trick into snarky micro-blogger is helped along by Dr. Pretorius, or as I like to call him, Dr. Enabler.  Herr Doktor fills him full of rich food and German wine.  For dessert, he satisfies his jones for a fine cigar.  It's a little tough getting him past the lighting of it - "Aaarrgh! #Fire #baaaaad" - but once he gets to puffing, he settles into his new hedonistic lifestyle quickly.

Dr. Enabler also creates some female companionship for him, although she doesn't take well to being pimped out as monster-escort.  "She pretty, but scream #toomuch."

But in the end, when catastrophe surrounds the monster again, not even the promise of alcohol, tobacco and chicks can make him feel that life is worth living.  "Go - you live'" he says to Dr. Frankenstein.  Dr. Enabler is told, "You, stay.  We belong dead."  The bad doctor shouldn't have tried to slip a flagon of Two-Buck Chuck past a monster who knows which end of the bottle has a cork in it.

I wish I could recommend Frankenstein Wine for this movie, since the company - based in Germansville, Pennsylvania - boasts of wine for both the monster and the bride.  However, the website still says it's "coming in 2011."  Hello, Dr. Webmaster.

I've leaned on this trick before, but it's worth a repeat.  Wine made near the site of the actual Frankenstein castle, in the Franken wine region of Pfalz.  The Hans Wirsching 2010 Iphofer Kronsberg Silvaner Trocken comes in a "Mateus"-shaped bottle known as a bocksbeutel.  It's the traditional bottling of the Franken region.  This product of Silvaner grapes is dry and bold, with a crisp minerality.  You may want to try pairing it with torch-toasted marshmallows.  It's only $16 - affordable enough for a little Dr. Frankenstein experimentation.

What's in that bottle, doctor?

Meeker Vineyards Barberian 2007 - This Geyserville product has "big aromas and huge flavors," and it's said to pair well with the monster's favorite dishes.

Frankenstein glass - Drink from it, or put a candle in it.  Maybe both.  There's an endless supply of this sort of thing on Etsy.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Double Indemnity

Wine Goes to the Movies

with Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

An encore presentation of the wine pairing for "Double Indemnity."

The heat’s killing me. Just the short walk down to that crummy wine bar in Hollywood has soaked my shirt through.  It's not a good look for a pool boy, much less a hard-boiled insurance man.  Sometimes it's hard to to tell us apart.

I remember when I could walk down the street and get liquor.  I could get liquored up, if I wanted.  Now, wine bars all over Hollywood.  Even in Los Feliz.  One good thing about wine bars: you'll always find plenty of slick dames hanging around in them.  None like her, though.  None like Phyllis Dietrichson.  Nobody can touch her, or that honey of an anklet she wore.  Well, almost nobody.

Something was hinky about that Los Feliz iced tea she gave me.  I asked if she had a bottle of beer that wasn't working, but I guess they were all busy.  At my place, I thought she should have had some of that pink wine.  The kind that bubbles.  All I had was bourbon.  Bourbon was enough for Phyllis.

The room started spinning and I dreamed I slipped out of character and headed up to MacMurray Ranch.  It's in the Russian River Valley, prettiest place you ever saw.  I bought it in '41, as a getaway from troubles just like this.  After I'm done here, they'll probably sell the cattle and plant grapes.  Maybe avocados.  No, grapes.  The better for making wine.  Wine, to sell in wine bars to an everyman like me, Walter Neff.  Wine, to be lifted as a toast to a slick dame like Phyllis.  A slick dame like Phyllis who can have her way with a guy like Walter Neff.

How could I have known what kind of poison she was?  How could I have known that anklet she wore was like a sign saying "Bad dog - keep away."  How could I have known wine bars would ever become so popular?  How could I have known something so sweet, rich and powerful could go so bad?
How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?

Blood Of The Vines suggests pairing "Double Indemnity" with the 2009 MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley.  It features earthy cherry flavors - rich, sweet and powerful.  It retails for $35.

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Arsenic and Old Lace

Wine Goes To The Movies 

with Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

An encore presentation of the wine pairing for "Arsenic and Old Lace."

Pairing wine with certain movies requires a leap of faith. How would you really feel having fava beans and Chianti while watching "Silence Of The Lambs"?  "Arsenic And Old Lace" presents a similar difficulty.

Frank Capra's film rendition of "Arsenic And Old Lace" stars Cary Grant as a newlywed who discovers his two sweet, old aunts are inviting old men to their home and offering them elderberry wine dosed with poison.

They do this as a sort of public service.  They figure the old guys had nothing to live for, so they give them a little push toward everlasting peace.  So, two sweet, little old ladies are revealed to be murderers.  Sweet, little, old murderers, but murderers nonetheless.  It’s a dark comedy with plenty of laughs.

While noodling around on the internet - we call that "research" - I found an interesting wine factoid about Cary Grant.  Supposedly, Grant once beat Winston Churchill in a wine tasting contest!  The score was evened later when Churchill beat Grant at cigar tasting.  Is it true?  Who knows?  It was on the internet.  But I like to think it's true.

You can "pick your poison" for "Arsenic And Old Lace," but how could you resist pairing it with elderberry wine?  Manischewitz offers an elderberry wine that's easy to find and keeps the cost of date night down - it's less than $5 a bottle.  It's a very sweet wine, just like those little old ladies.

The trouble is, it's not really elderberry wine.  It's made from grapes with some flavoring added.  Not so bad, considering what's being added to the wine in the movie.

You can make your own elderberry wine, or have someone you really trust make it for you.  Just don't use the recipe given in the movie, which calls for "one teaspoon full of arsenic, half a teaspoon full of strychnine, and then just a pinch of cyanide."

Whatever wine you choose for Arsenic And Old Lace, we recommend opening the bottle and pouring in plain view of all present.  We want the only "funny stuff" to be that which is in the movie.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: The Godfather

Wine Goes To The Movies 

with Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

An encore presentation of the wine pairing for "The Godfather."

What kind of wine would Don Corleone drink? 

When that question came to mind, I turned to the one and only source for factual information - the internet.  I found that someone had already been curious about that topic, and had asked Yahoo Answers the very same question.  There was a scant response to the question - c'mon people, it's the internet!  Have an opinion! - and a few choices were tossed out there, including Valpolicella, Chianti and Amarone.  Good choices, but let's be sure before we view The Godfather. 

Brando's Corleone does say in the movie that in his advancing years he likes drinking wine more than he used to.  To which his son Michael replies "It's good for ya pop!"  

The Don might like a Moscato out in the garden when he's sticking an orange peel in his mouth, but it's hard to imagine The Godfather as a white wine kind of guy.  

The fact that Corleone is Sicilian might suggest we look to some of the wines that volcanic island is known for.  Dessert wine is a possibility.  Sweet wines often pair well with their opposites, and The Don certainly seems to be the opposite of sweet.  The Godfather might use Marsala to cook with, if he cooked, but he wouldn't drink it. 

Chianti?  He likes canellinni beans, not fava beans.  Anyway, that's a different movie.  Some have suggested to me that Corleone might enjoy a Barolo.  That’s not a bad suggestion, but the Nebbiolo grape is primarily from the northern part of Italy, not Sicily.  Also, Barolo is considered a strong and forceful wine.  The Godfather might tend to look at anything with a jaundiced eye if he felt it might threaten his power and standing - especially if it was from another neighborhood.  

Corleone would probably like a nice Nero d'Avola, a hearty red wine that's full-bodied - like the Don - and usually not blended, but allowed to stand on its own two feet, like a man.  Corleone would love that stance, even though he preferred to have others dependent upon him.  The grape actually comes from Avola, which is on the other side of Sicily from the Don's birthplace of Corleone.  Is there, however, a winemaker in Avola who would deny The Godfather a bottle of his finest?

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: The Raven

Wine Goes to the Movies 

with NowAndZin and TrailersFromHell.

This is a repeat of the first Blood Of The Vines column.

When the gurus at Trailers From Hell asked me to make wine pairing suggestions for some of the movies whose trailers are featured on the site, I lunged at the chance like a 3-D monster.

Some people find selecting a wine to be a scary proposition, like "Bucket Of Blood."  I, on the other hand, don’t feel it’s even as scary as "Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein."

The reality of it is, it's kind of hard to screw up a wine recommendation for a movie. I mean, how hard is this?  Get movie.  Get wine.  Proceed.  You're probably in the comfort and privacy of your own home, so you don't even have to get dressy.  You don't even have to get dressed.

In this initial offering, I'll suggest a pairing for the 1963 Roger Corman classic "The Raven," in which Edgar Allan Poe is played for laughs with Peter Lorre wearing a bird outfit and starring the great Vincent Price.

Vincent Price was quite the wine lover himself, which makes you wonder how Sun Country Wine Coolers managed to get him into a polar bear outfit for their 1985 TV ad.  Oh, yeah... it was the money!  Much truer to form is the wine tasting scene from "Tales Of Terror," which also happens to feature Mr. Price and Mr. Lorre.  There's also the spoken word record album Price did in 1977 for California's Wine Institute, in which he shills - ever so eloquently - for “California Burgundy.”

The NowAndZin.com wine recommendation for "The Raven" is... "The Raven!"  It’s a dense and dark Syrah from Ventura's Sine Qua Non winery.  They make “A-list” wine.  The Raven will set you back a couple of Benjamins for a bottle, if you can find it.  It'll sure add a lot to your movie night experience, though.

The blend of Syrah, Grenache and a little bit of Viognier is dark purple with a nose - should we say beak? - featuring graphite, charcoal, licorice and tar, with silky blackberry fruit on the palate.  Is that Raven enough for you?

I feel that Vincent Price would approve.
　

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Wine Goes to the Movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

Sitting around drinking squid ink was never even a consideration for me, but the dinner table scene in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" shows a few wine glasses.  Given Captain Nemo's love of harvesting only from the ocean, I would love to know where the sea grapes grow.  That would take oceanic influence to a whole new level.

Animation was Disney's only special effect until "20,000 Leagues..." came around.  Well, that and Thurl Ravenscroft’s voice.  The Magic Kingdom's first foray into live action spent its over-budget effects money wisely.  The giant squid is superb; but even though he has eight arms, he has no lines.  He’d look good cut into pieces and deep fried, with a side of marinara sauce and some Sangiovese, or Alto Adige Riesling.

Kirk Douglas looks like he might have been working out at Nautilus, not riding around the world in one.  His character, Ned Land, is one of those over-the-top rowdy guys of which Disney never tired.  Annoying sea shanties, poor table manners and an irrepressible urge to do the wrong thing at the wrong time are all qualities that keep the wheels turning in a Disney film.  It's no shock to find him getting drunk in one scene, and even less of one to see him fall asleep with the sort of look on his face that a drunk can have only in a Disney movie.

James Mason and Peter Lorre's voices always make me think of Ed Sullivan, who featured an impressionist each week on his show offering his turn on both.  And Lorre plays his faithful servant role for some pretty good laughs.  He looks like he expects to be pistol whipped by Humphrey Bogart at any moment.

I couldn’t find any underwater wine to pair with “20,000 Leagues...” - Nemo took the secret of that undersea vineyard to his grave - but the Nautilus does make a pass near New Zealand, where today Nautilus wine is found.  Their Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay are good choices to pair with calamari - giant or not.

Sea if these float your boat:

Holus Bolus Wine - This Lompoc winery has an octopus label adorning several Santa Barbara County Syrahs as well as a Roussanne, in case you can't decide whether to have red or white with your cephalopod.

Eight Arms Cellars - A one man operation in Berkeley - that man wishes he had 8 arms with which to get all his work done.  Nemo wished he were similarly equipped to keep Kirk Douglas under control.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: His Girl Friday

Wine Goes To The Movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

Cary Grant has tussled with wine on the silver screen in “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “Notorious,” to name a couple.  But whenever I see Cary Grant in a movie, it always seems to me that he should be holding a glass of something elegant.  Even as a fast-talking newspaperman in “His Girl Friday,” he looks incomplete without a drink.

If you’ve ever tried to hire back someone you had already fired, you get an idea of the job Grant has before him.  His ex-wife and former employee at the newspaper doesn’t want a Continuation of Benefits package.  In fact, she’s set to marry another man, a guy who looks like “that guy in the movies, what’s his name, Ralph Bellamy.”

Elegance has a hard time gaining a foothold in a newspaper office.  The newspapermen - and women - I’ve known have been elegant enough to hide a hip flask in their desks.  They also received shipments of their personal pornography at work and bills with nasty notes written on them indicating that payment may have been a tad slow in coming.  Only a newspaperman could devise an elaborate code for phrases spoken in the crudest language imaginable.

Cary Grant is the polar opposite, even while stopping at nothing to get his ex back on the team.  He uses the hallmark phrase, “Anytime, anyplace, anywhere” to describe how he still feels about his ex-wife, Hildy.  That’s a novel approach to divorce, even in 1940.  Isn’t it usually, “never, nowhere, no way?”

At lunch it’s Hildy, her ex-husband and her groom-to-be.  That’s a cozy table.  You’d think there would be some drink orders in that situation, but the waiter just pours three waters.  At least he has the decency to offer to put rum in the coffee, and they have the decency to accept.

Rosalind Russell, as Hildy, has her trademark patter running in high gear.  Her street-smart elegance is a word-for-word match with Grant’s.  She may not be a Pulitzer prize winner, but “she’ll do till one comes along.”

Bedford Winery Cabernet Sauvignon makes a nice match for “His Girl Friday.”  From the winery’s notes: “Rich... impeccably well-mannered, everything in its proper place.”  No wonder they call it the Cary Grant of Cabernets.

Fridays Creek Winery - It’s in Maryland, so good luck getting your hands on that Seyval Blanc if you're not an East Coaster.

How can you go wrong with a Rosalind Russell?  Bartender, it's a tasty little recipe involving Aquavit and sweet vermouth.  Cheers!

The Cary Grant Cocktail Lounge - A webpage that promises much and, unfortunately, delivers little.

Wine and Newspaper Gift Box - One of the more unusual gift ideas.  The wine, I get.  But a newspaper?  It doesn’t add much value to the package.  Hopefully it’s delivered by a wine delivery guy, not the paperboy.  That wine bottle won’t survive the toss from the street.



Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter

Blood Of The Vines: Caddyshack

Wine Goes To The Movies with 

Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell

Golfers love wine - after they are done golfing.  While they are golfing, it’s beer.  Those inconsiderate showoffs who can shoot in the 80s probably guzzle Gatorade, or Red Bull or something called “water.”  Who cares what those inconsiderate showoffs drink, though?

Golfers love "Caddyshack," too.  Even non-golfers love "Caddyshack," but let's stay on the course.  I was a golfer myself, once upon a time.  I found that the "good walk spoilt" sentiment from Samuel Clemens was too true for me to continue.  Reaching into the cooler on the golf cart was a lot more fun than reaching into my bag for a club.  I tried carrying my bag, but if I'm to enjoy a walk in the grass, I don't need a hundred pounds of clubs on my shoulder.  Especially when I only use three of them.

And, to me, a walk in the grass is seriously undermined by having to watch out that I'm not knocked unconscious by errant golf balls flying from other parts of the grass over to mine.  I do love the lingo - "your honors," "sliced," "hooked" and "in jail."  That last description - of being among too many trees to possibly hit the ball out safely - was one I used all too frequently.  It's one of the reasons I am no longer a golfer.

The first time I took my wife to a driving range - at her request, by the way - she was lining up what was to have been a mighty 75 yard drive.  Then, she looked up at the person in the next stall and turned to me with a look of astonishment.  It was O.J. Simpson.  "He really IS searching for the killer on golf courses!"  I don't think practice swings were the same for either of us after that.

As for me, my drives wouldn't drive, my chips wouldn't chip and my putts puttered out.  But enough about me.  Let's get to Bill Murray.

Murray's character - assistant greenskeeper Carl Spackler - is dim-witted and of the opinion he's a good golfer.  Those are two qualities that go together like a golf cart and a cooler of beer.  His efforts at eliminating the destructive gopher - with extreme prejudice and a lot of plastic explosives - leave the country club course looking like a nine-hole track in Palm Springs in the middle of August.

Murray's lines in the "Cinderella story" scene are said to be completely improvised.  Taking practice shots on the flowers were his idea, too.  Pairing a wine with “Caddyshack” is my job.

Canadian golfer Mike Weir owns a wine estate in the Niagara region.  A Masters champion would have ice wine running through his veins.  By the way, Weir also uses his line of wines to raise money for the Mike Weir Foundation, a charity that assists children in physical, emotional or financial need.

Other golfers with a drive for wine:

Greg Norman - The golfer known as The Shark makes a whale of good wine, be it California or Australia.

Ernie Els -  The South African golfer naturally chose the burgeoning wine region in his homeland as the base for his wines.

Nick Faldo - Australian wine from the Coonawarra region, for when you run out of Foster’s.

Luke Donald - Terlato does his Napa wines, the same outfit that fashions high end wine with Mike Ditka's name on it.

Jack Nicklaus - Terlato also handles the wine action for the Golden Bear.

Arnold Palmer - Napa Valley’s Luna Vineyards makes wine for the guy who has an iced tea drink named after him.

Annika Sorenstam - Lest we forget the LPGA, this golf wine comes from Wente Vineyards in California's Livermore Valley.  Annika shoots in the 70s; her Chardonnay shot a 92 in Wine Spectator.

Callaway Golf Balls - I’ve always thought Callaway’s golf balls were better than their wines.  At $39, they’re more expensive, too.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Follow Trailers From Hell on Twitter