Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, May 12: A YEAR IN CHAMPAGNE
David Kennard’s made its world premiere at Santa Barbara last year. Other fests included Palm Beach, Minneapolis-St Paul, Newport Beach, Hawaii, and Portland. The film was released theatrically and on VOD in March.
The second in a proposed trilogy on wines, Kennard’s film brings viewers to France’s Champagne region to present a cursory look at wine-making over the course of four seasons, beginning in Spring 2012. Of primary concern to the different families of vintners profiled here is the weather, which can wreak havoc with the grape harvest and potentially ruin an entire vintage. While the season starts off warm, rain and cold soon take hold, calling into question the grapevines ability to produce, and necessitating extreme measures like crop spraying to fend off mildew, insects, and rot. While a significant portion of the crop has been lost, the remaining grapes, while small, prove of excellent quality, allowing the workmanlike film to move on to demonstrate the next basic steps in the wine-making process, checking in with different Champagne producers to get a glimpse of the harvest, the pressing, the fermentation, and the careful consideration of how to blend the different grapes to produce the next vintage. Throughout, Kennard narrates in a cheeky, irritating manner which matches the superficiality of the film and makes it far better suited to small screens.
what (not) to doc 