The Ottawa Wine and Food Show (Wine and Food Festival) will be opening this evening at the Ottawa Convention Centre and welcoming an estimated 28,000 people over the next 5 days. In the spirit of Ottawa’s growing wine and food culture, I should probably be offering up a Wine and Food Show Survival Guide. Instead? I’m taking the opportunity to share a wine documentary with fellow nuts.
Sommelier:
n. (se•mel•yay) A restaurant employee who orders and maintains the wines sold in the restaurant and usually has extensive knowledge about wine and food pairings.
SOMM is Jason Wise’s first ever film, documenting the journey of 4 men who seek to become Master Sommeliers by passing the incredibly difficult exam administered by the Court of Master Sommeliers.
The film premieres tonight at the Napa Valley Film Festival and, with this heavy onset of frost in Ottawa, there is really nowhere else I’d rather be than on the sunny slopes of Napa Valley, watching premiere after premiere and sipping on some Cali wine. Much to my chagrin, that is probably the furthest thing from a possibility so watching and re-watching the trailer of this documentary will have to suffice.
I decided to share this trailer with our nutshell readers because, in a nutshell, I think it’s really, really cool. The documentary illustrates how much time and effort must be dedicated to this incredibly difficult exam. Less than 5 percent of all candidates who have ever taken this test have passed and in over 40 years there have only been 170 to pass the exam, worldwide. From the subtle nuisances of tasting and detecting a grape variety to the countless regions and sub regions that must be tacked to memory- the documentary puts forth an incredibly human side of being a sommelier. Watching these four men become completely obsessed, stressed out and ridden with anxiety strips down the polished and poised wine steward.
I also thought it would be a good opportunity to tackle the word “sommelier” as it seems to hang in the abyss of ignorance. I’ve had so many people, including my own mother, mispronounce the word and, in turn, suggest that I reign from a sub-Saharan region.In the documentary below, you will quickly learn not only how to pronounce the word, but also how to appreciate something that can be paralleled to an art.
As far as wine goes, all you really need to know is what you like and what you don’t like. But, this film allows a slightly deeper appreciation for what exactly “wine professionals” holster in their vault of knowledge.
Be sure to check in this week for WINE AND FOOD SHOW GIVEAWAYS, sponsored by Mott’s Clamato!
SOMM Documentary Trailer 1 from Forgotten Man Films on Vimeo.
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