Blood Into Wine

For those of you who like to keep up with all the wine movies, here is a semi-interesting one for you.

Blood Into Wine is a poorly-made documentary about Maynard James Keenan, a rocker from Tool and Puscifer (??), who left music in the 1990s to start a vineyard and winery in the Sedona, AZ area.

The flick is primarily a paen to one man's arrogance and ego (the star tries to show us how wise and humble he is), but the film has worthwhile moments, including:

1. A visit by his friend James Suckling, from Wine Spectator, who tastes through the wines and we get a nice insight into Suckling;

2. A fantastic post-credits performance (be sure to keep watching, past the end, for it) by a guy humorously acting French and saying some terribly funny things, including "Bottles of wine are basically cork delivery systems, to allow the corks to vacation worldwide." and so on. Hilarious.

They had four successive winter-kills at their vineyard. You get the impression that the site is pretty unforgiving, but it is beautiful. They can't get enough water for their vines, and javelina ravage their vines, too. And Keenan knows very little about grapes and winemaking. His sidekick winemaker is also pretty green; it was painful to watch him suck up to Suckling, as if to put himself on par with one of the world's best palates. But I am too critical. Most of the film is fun to watch, and the personalities are interesting. We get glimpses of several interesting folks in the grape growing business, and you do get a sense of all the work and heartbreak that is involved. And I definitely have a soft spot for anyone who strikes out into new grape territory . . .

Overall grade: C+