Wine for the Confused

In 2004, the Food Network aired John Cleese’s (of Monty Python fame) Wine for the Confused. It was a low budget film in which he went to wineries near his house to learn about the big six grapes and their wine.

He also had some novice wine drinkers do some blind taste tests. The first one was to identify out of six wines which one was a $200 bottle and which one was the $5 bottle. The results were all over the board. His point to this was that one should not let another person dictate what kind of wine they like or how much to spend because one person’s $200 bottle is another person’s $5 bottle. Go with what you feel comfortable with and with what you like.

However, he did recommend working with a sommelier. By this, he means finding a sommelier that you like and become their regular. You tell them what you like, and they can recommend other things that you might like. However, you have to be willing to try things. There was a spoof, which I can’t find now, about how a person asked about a wine, the sommelier told them about it, but then they asked if it was like a particular style of wine that they liked. Well, it was a different style, so of course it tastes different.

You can watch it for free on hulu.