Mondovino the Series: The Human Drama (And Comedy) of Wine-Making
10 Episodes
Epic in scope, this multi-generation, globe-trotting saga covers not only the entire gamut of wine making, but wine's place in a treacherously globalized and hyper-marketed world. From the billionaire power brokers of Napa Valley, to the aristocratic rivalries of competing Florentine dynasties, to the efforts of three generations of a Burgundian family fighting to preserve their few acres of land, MONDOVINO: THE SERIES brings to life the human drama (and comedy) of wine making. Shot over several years and in five different languages, the series features numerous intimate encounters with the wine world's most iconic and controversial figures, including the critic Robert Parker, wine mogul Robert Mondavi, zany art collector Jan Schrem, and the noble proprietor of the mythical Romanee Conti vineyard.
From Florence to Burgundy, New York to Argentina, each hour-long episode stands alone as a passionate and hilarious piece of documentary filmmaking.
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52:11Episode 1
Mondovino: Where's Astérix?
Episode 1
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 53 minutes
The cast of characters in southern France: a Socialist mayor defending the American multinational company Mondavi; a Communist Mayor defending conservative French (wine) values; Aime Guibert, father of the Languedoc wine revolution;...
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57:57Episode 2
Mondovino: Magic Potion
Episode 2
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 59 minutes
Moving north to the hallowed region of Burgundy to explore the sacred French notion of terroir (sense of place), we meet the loving but profoundly fractured Montille family.
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57:56Episode 3
Mondovino: Rome Was Not Built in a Day
Episode 3
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 59 minutes
Napa rules the American wine industry, but who's behind the scenes? This black comedy shows that the Mexican workers have a greater voice than the chiefs in their Beverly Hills style mansions think.
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57:31Episode 4
Mondovino: Pax Panoramix
Episode 4
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 58 minutes
The battle to defend nature and local artisanal winemaking extends from the Pyrennes mountains (Yvonne Hegoburu fights to create organic wine in her late husband's memory) to the asphalt of Brooklyn (quintessential New Yorker Neal R...
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55:48Episode 5
Mondovino: The Appian Way
Episode 5
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 56 minutes
An intimate, revealing portrait of Robert Parker, whose reviews dictate the fate of much of the wine world, from California to London to Chile.
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53:19Episode 6
Mondovino: Quo Vademus
Episode 6
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 54 minutes
If wine is unique as a mirror of human complexity, and the only product capable of improving over seventy to eighty years, then how is enduring youth achieved? California and Paris compete over the fountain of youth.
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50:43Episode 7
Mondovino: All Roads Lead to Rome
Episode 7
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 52 minutes
How would a grape respond under psychoanalysis? Jean-Louis Laplanche, world-renowned psychiatrist and Freud translator, is the owner of the Chateau de Pommard in Burgundy. Yet his peculiarity does not compare with that of the husban...
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52:21Episode 8
Mondovino: Crossing the Rubicon
Episode 8
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 53 minutes
The Antinori and Frescobaldi families have dominated the political and economic life of Tuscany for a thousand years. For the past thirty, they've concentrated all their resources in wine. The tensions and conflicts underlying the t...
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55:44Episode 9
Mondovino: Et tu Brute…
Episode 9
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 57 minutes
The Tuscan saga continues: betrayal, redemption, and globalization: Italian-style. The two families fight it out for the hand of America's Mondavi family. But who's the real winner and who's the real loser? And what does it mean for...
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50:54Episode 10
Mondovino: Veni, Vidi, Vendidi
Episode 10
Directed by Jonathan Nossiter • Documentary • 2004 • 52 minutes
Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina: the New Wine World, but with age-old conflicts. What's at stake for indigenous people and foreign investors? How do the European-American conflicts play out in South America?