A Year In Burgundy (2013) — France

By Dan Clendenin

           Wine snobs might dismiss this 88-minute documentary as a puff piece, but for most of us who enjoy wine and want to learn more, this film was beautiful, fun, and at times funny. The writer-director David Kennard organizes the film around each of the four seasons of wine-making in 2011 with seven different vintners. He explores the artistry, science, history, customs, and the ever elusive terroirs of wine in one of its most famous regions of the world. Burgundy is famous for its two native grapes, the chardonnay and the pinot noir. We go behind the scenes to wine caves built 500 years ago by monks, and to super-high-tech processing facilities. The wine-makers explain the subtle differences in thousands of micro regions, and the international pressures to make all wine taste the same. I loved this film, and watched it on Netflix Streaming. It's a good companion to the other wine documentary called Somm.