Mondovino Documentary Sinopsis and Review

Mondovino documentary sinopsis and review

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MONDOVINO DOCUMENTARY

Brief explanation of the plot

Mondovino is a documentary made by the film director Jonathan Nossiter that explains the impact of globalization in the different wine regions of the world.

In order to do this documentay, Nossiter travels for three years across France, United States, Argentina and Italy filming the world of wine in order to reflect all the processes of production, distribution and consumption of this ancient product. As de name Mondovino says, this film addresses the current conflicts of the world of wine, appearing topics such as fascism and concentration of power and how it influenced as well in wine, the influence of the United States (in this case Napa Valley) and the struggle it causes to the “old Europe”, globalization and therefore the standardization of the wine industry.

According to Nossiter, Napa Valley is the main responsible for that standardization of the wine industry. As he says, the Californian vineyards produce wines with very little character. "It is something very dangerous going on, unfortunately, more and more European winemakers who adopt 'simple' approaches and betray their roots produce easy drinking wines, international style without character is a kind of 'McDonaldization'..."

The Mondovino documentary explain these main topics showing the rivalry between two aristocratic dynasties from Florencia and the battles of three generations of a family from Burgundy, who wants to keep their few hectares of vineyards. But these problems are secondary in comparison to the adventures of a rogue pirate from Burdeos who brings modernity to Italy, Argentina and New York. Therefore, as we can see in this documentary, wine is the symbol of western civilization since thousands of years.

Brief explanation of the film’s thesis

The documentary explains the thesis that the deep colored, oak-aged taste of Bordeaux wines has become the world standard, following the writing of critic Robert Parker, the magazine "Wine Spectator," the consulting work of Michel Rolland of Pomerol, and the money of Mondavi, a publicly-traded corporation based in Napa with a family history of wine making. Wine makers worldwide, many using Rolland as a consultant, got to copy this structure, color, and taste, and some argued that every wine should reflect the character of the land where the grape is grown. A few old wine makers, from Aniane, Sardinia, and Argentina offer this argument.