Which television show profiled the famous winemaker family, the Antinoris?
In an effort to stop all of this endless post-marketing about the movie Sideways and its effects on the wine business, I propose we all start immediately arguing about the next wine movie to hit the theaters: Mondovino. I had a chance to see this documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter a couple of weeks ago in an intimate setting with several of the subjects in the movie present, along with the filmmaker. I guess it was sort of the Bay Area premiere of the film, which I believe is getting a wider theatrical release in the coming months. I thought it was a great, thought provoking, very interesting, and a highly irresponsible piece of filmmaking. Now, you’ll have to bear with me a bit, it’s rare that my love of wine and my formal training as a documentary filmmaker and photographer get to intersect, so I may get a bit, well, detailed on you, but trust me. The issues with this film are subtle yet insidious, and it takes a little explaining, along with an understanding of how
Italian winemaker Piero Antinori is poised to make his own Napa Valley wine. This tale begins, as many do, with love at first sight. In 1985, Marchese Piero Antinori helped a British beer conglomerate examine potential vineyard sites throughout Napa Valley. None impressed the Marchese, an Italian nobleman whose family after 26 generations had become one of Italy’s most esteemed wine dynasties. On the last day of the hunt, he visited a site above Foss Valley, a wild corner of Napa that many said couldn’t be tamed for grapes. Just 30 acres of grapes were there at the time, planted by Bill Hill, a vineyard developer who frequently bought, developed and then sold often untested new parcels. Sources: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/05/WIKQSHVI2.
The Antinoris were profiled by CBS News. It first broadcast on October 12, 2008. The Antinoris family have had their winemaking business for six centuries now. The profile reports that only 15 percent of businesses make it past the second generation of ownership, so the Antinoris are very unique. Sources: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/10/60minutes/main4514254.
The Antinori family was registered in the Florentine Vintners’ Guild in 1385 and traces its tradition of winemaking to 1180. The CBS news show “60 Minutes” profiled the Antinori family this year. Sources: http://www2.tbo.
