Sommelier movies: the wine films and documentaries worth watching

The short answer: watch Somm (2012) to see what preparing for the Master Sommelier exam really looks like, Uncorked (2020) for a story about wanting to become a sommelier, Blind Ambition (2021) for the most moving, and Sideways (2004) for the wine film people still quote.

The watch list at a glance

Documentaries about sommeliers

• Somm (2012). Jason Wise follows four candidates, Ian Cauble, Brian McClintic, Dustin Wilson and DLynn Proctor, as they prepare for the Court of Master Sommeliers' Master Sommelier exam: flashcards, maps and blind tastings at all hours. If you are studying for any sommelier exam, start here.
• Somm: Into the Bottle (2015). The second film turns from the exam to the wine itself.
• Somm 3 (2018). Fred Dame, Jancis Robinson and Steven Spurrier open bottles from their careers, and a blind tasting in New York, inspired by the 1976 Judgment of Paris, puts Pinot Noirs from around the world against Burgundy.
• Somm 4: Cup of Salvation (2024). Wine's place in human history, and its bond with the land.
• Blind Ambition (2021). Robert Coe and Warwick Ross follow Joseph Dhafana, Tinashe Nyamudoka, Marlvin Gwese and Pardon Taguzu, Zimbabweans who built careers as sommeliers in South Africa, as Zimbabwe's first team at the World Wine Tasting Championships. A film about hospitality, grit and pride.

Feature films

• Uncorked (2020). Directed by Prentice Penny, for Netflix. Mamoudou Athie plays Elijah, a young man in Memphis who wants to become a Master Sommelier, while his father, played by Courtney B. Vance, wants him to take over the family barbecue restaurant. The closest a drama has come to the study grind.
• Sideways (2004). Alexander Payne's film about two friends on a week in California's Santa Barbara wine country. Miles loves Pinot Noir and refuses to drink Merlot. It won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it is often credited with making Pinot Noir fashionable.
• Bottle Shock (2008). The story of the 1976 Paris tasting, where French judges, tasting blind, placed Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay from Napa first among the whites. Alan Rickman plays the organiser, Steven Spurrier. It is a dramatised version: enjoy it as a film, and read the history separately.
• A Good Year (2006). Ridley Scott directs Russell Crowe as a London trader who inherits his uncle's vineyard in Provence, from Peter Mayle's novel. Light, sunny and more about life than wine.

A series to binge

Drops of God (Apple TV+, 2023) is based on the Japanese manga. A young French woman and a Japanese wine expert compete in a series of tasting trials for a famous wine collection. The tasting scenes are gripping, and closer to an exam than most films get.

What the films get right, and what they leave out

• Right: the study. Somm's flashcards and mock tastings are exactly how candidates prepare.
• Right: the passion, and the pressure of blind tasting.
• Left out: most of the job. A sommelier's night is mostly hospitality: carrying cases, polishing glasses, reading a table and finding the right bottle at the right price.
• Left out: the snob is a cliché. The best sommeliers make guests feel at ease, not tested.

If you're studying

Watch Somm before you book an exam, so you know what you're signing up for, then switch off the screen and taste. My guides for each step: the Level 1 practice test, how to become a Certified Sommelier and preparing for the Advanced. For words to live by, see sommelier quotes, and who really said them.

Questions people ask