W(h)ining is a good way to spend a Friday night.
Dave: This is the perfect pandemic documentary. It combines something we can do during a pandemic - drinking - with something we can’t do during a pandemic - traveling to gorgeous places. Even though we watched the second film in this series first (oops!), it starts to demystify wine snobbery in a way that is easy for the rest of us to digest. While I may never taste a $10,000 bottle of wine, I now think I can probably appropriately appreciate a good $30 bottle. Some of the sommeliers featured seem full of themselves, and others seem absolutely ridiculous, but seeing everyone else behind the wine - wine makers, grape pickers, etc. - really gives drinking wine an added dimension. I’m glad we had nice NPR Wine Club wine to drink while watching this documentary, instead of Aldi Winking Owl that’s one step above vinegar. If nothing else, though, this film is imminently watchable just to see winemakers uncork and drink old, rare bottles of wine, right on camera! Seeing them uncork and pour a bottle of wine while saying “Oh, yes - there are probably only 12 bottles of this anywhere in the world.” Wow. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2)
This was supposed to be a topping for chili, but it was absolutely delicious by itself. But, as usual, what popcorn wouldn’t be great with a few dollops of butter, yummy dried herbs, and smoky spice blends? I was surprised this worked, though - I wouldn’t have thought to combine parsley and cajun spice. Alas, we’d finished the bowl (and our bottle of wine) before the film told us that buttered popcorn supposedly pairs well with chardonnay. Who knew? Maybe we’ll have a series of popcorn and wine pairing posts in the future!! (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Joe: Dave and I recently joined the NPR Wine Club because #liberalelites, and after years of buying cheap wine from Aldi, it's been a bit of a wake-up. With the exception of one bottle of Chenin blanc, we've really enjoyed the wines. To be honest, writing that last sentence was enough to make me barf - it just sounds so... bougie. Anyways, we're now on this "wine journey" because what else can we do while the pandemic rages on, and this film kinda solidified both the intrigue and inanity of wine. A bunch of white male sommeliers (minus two people of color and two women) wax poetic about imaginary flavors (tar? cigar? granite? come. on.) they taste in haute vin while telling fascinating histories. It's all a bit silly, but goddamn it if I don't want to watch the two other installments now and also buy a $300 bottle of wine. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
The Popcorn Board mostly offers straight-up popcorn recipes, but there's also some weird shit buried in the website. Like, making a bowl out of popcorn or sprinkling popcorn on crème brûlée. This recipe was intended to top a bowl of chili. Yeah. Just sit with that image for a second. Popcorn on top of beans and meat. If you don't believe me, here's the proof for that pudding. The fact that this is supposed to go on top of a fairly spicy meal somewhat explains its blandness. This wasn't bad, but it also wasn't particularly flavorful - even after I amped up the Cajun spices because it tasted kinda cardboard-y to me. Lesson learned: leave this for topping chili, even if that very idea makes you shudder. (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Popcorn recipe from: Popcorn Board
SOMM: Into the Bottle on IMDB.
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